Madamax

Simon Osborne and Sylvain Lelong just arrived from their last paddling/driving trip which ended up in Majunga.

For Simon, it was in a way, completing its malagasy venture started in 2007 and finishing up where it started, was something he really wanted to complete.

Miles wide overflown river

He didn’t paddled round the country as originally planned but that was a serious attempt with close to 2/3 of the distance paddled over 2 seasons.

Incidentally he managed to rack the first Zomandao kayak descent and although he didn’t found Majunga changed in any way, he, himself felt totally different as traveling through all those remote places had given him an other vision of the surrounding world.

Check his blog for indepth feelings and details on seakayakingcornwall.com

Sylvain had a different goal in mind and also a strong motivation. He is now the very first visitor to have paddled a local river, from head to spill.

Near Maevatanana, narrower than elsewhere

After his expedition with Brad, Rush and friends on the upper betsiboka, he has, now, completed the descent. Congratulations.

Along Ankarafantsika National Park forests

Leaving Tana was hectic, caught a full day at the bus station, only to get out of bus at 2 am in Sleeping and rainy Maevatanana. That meant a night in the rain, again!!!

The shuttle cart to Betsiboka, …

The river was largely spread all around.

Most land was covered for miles around the villages and finding the actual river bed was one of the challenge of this 240 kms stretch.

Camp on an isolated family dryland!!!

Current was strong and they averaged over 100 kms on the first and second days, with relatively little effort.

Muddy take off at low tide. Just pray you don’t step on one of those huge crabs, …

They landed in Majunga on day three having paddled the whole length in a record time close to 20 hours on the river, …

The highlights of the descent was floating down along Ankarafantsika National Park and overall, the rescue of a chameleon swimming miles away from land, …

Flamingoes  flight over a cuckoo paddler

More original than a mermaid, a chameleon at prow, …

Although they do swim quite well, this one was really far away from anywhere.

Unusual water movements and waves maintained the necessary pressure to paddle in scorching 41°C

Quite a bit going on these days.

Reco on one of the numerous rapids encountered.

A strong team of US kayakists + film crew (including madagascar veterans Brad Luebben and Rush Sturges) have just completed the first kayak descent of the upper Betsiboka river.

Brad swings around holes

The river had been paddled by Sobek old timers back in 85 but that implied a whole lot of portages around major drops.

This time the boys have paddled most of the 275 kms section excepted three very short portages.

Garden of boulders, a typical channel navigation on the Betsiboka

Water was fairly low the first day, then rains on the plateaux kept feeding the river till the last day and levels rised considerably over the 12 day trip.

They dropped over 3.000 feet somehow concentrated azround short sections and crocs were gentle to them.

Josh, Rush and Brad contemplating a small specimen in a remote village

Accidentally we also had a raft who struggled to follow and took considerable risks to paddle most of the rapids.

The team on a flat section on day 2

Numerous strenuous portages were necessary to keep up with the boys, leaving plenty of time for the film crew to document the expedition and plenty of work for Sylvain (a french kayakist from Lyon/Hawaî sur Rhone).