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Madagascar (Tsaranoro) (Read 9841 times)

Paul B

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Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 11:12:13 am
If the credit card company hadn't said "No" (3 times) on Monday night we'd have booked flights to Madagascar for June/July (around 2wks of climbing time), specifically to end up in Tsaranoro (flying to Antananarivo via CDG).

I think we're fairly set on going having enjoyed my big-route holidays last year far more than my sport climbing ones. However, UKBers seem to have been everywhere so I'd thought I'd sollicit advice before getting my card unblocked. Who's been? Out of Africa is the obvious target although I'll have to have a backup plan should we be moving slowly as a team (i.e. 2 headtorches!).

Does anyone have advice/experience with Antimalarials? I've heard some horror stories and don't want to spend $$$ to spend a few weeks vomiting wildly or any other side effects that'd make climbing more of a challenge.

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#1 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 11:47:46 am
Can't comment on the area, but regards antimalarial drugs I avoided taking Larium when in Kenya due to friends having bad experiences on it - anxiety, sleeplessness, depression etc. The nhs site recommends trialing Larium for up to 3 weeks prior to leaving to see how it reacts with you.

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#2 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 11:57:51 am
Does anyone have advice/experience with Antimalarials? I've heard some horror stories and don't want to spend $$$ to spend a few weeks vomiting wildly or any other side effects that'd make climbing more of a challenge.

I recently took atovaquone/proguanil - cost about £35 to cover a ten day trip - side effects seem to be pretty uncommon, and only needs to be taken two days before the trip and for a few days after.

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#3 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 11:59:30 am
Loads of G&T/Irn Bru?

Paul B

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#4 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 12:03:41 pm
Can't comment on the area, but regards antimalarial drugs I avoided taking Larium when in Kenya due to friends having bad experiences on it - anxiety, sleeplessness, depression etc. The nhs site recommends trialing Larium for up to 3 weeks prior to leaving to see how it reacts with you.

I recently took atovaquone/proguanil - cost about £35 to cover a ten day trip - side effects seem to be pretty uncommon, and only needs to be taken two days before the trip and for a few days after.

Thanks both.

A friend said he opted not to bother given the altitude (1000m) but I won't be taking that approach (even if having Natalie present is the best insect repellent in the world; she suffers a touch).

SA Chris

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#5 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 12:52:46 pm
Isn't getting around a bit of a faff, terrible roads etc?

You can get all Attenbrough with the lemurs.

Paul B

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#6 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 12:55:42 pm
Isn't getting around a bit of a faff, terrible roads etc?

You can get all Attenbrough with the lemurs.

It's arranged transport from the capital to the accommodation. It doesn't sound like it'll be a fun ride, that's for sure.

SA Chris

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#7 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 03:45:23 pm
one less stress then!

FWIW I've taken assorted malaria prophylactics over the years for trips to Namibia and Botswana, and not had any side effects with any.

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#8 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 03:53:01 pm
POD went fairly recently, he was raving about it.

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#9 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 06, 2019, 04:30:44 pm
Hopefully not an after effect of the malarial drugs.

Paul B

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#10 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 07, 2019, 10:15:35 am
POD went fairly recently, he was raving about it.

It hardly looks shit does it!

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#11 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 07, 2019, 07:30:24 pm
Virtue signalling at its finest.

andy popp

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#12 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 07, 2019, 07:30:56 pm
ps. hope you have a fantastic time Paul.

Paul B

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#13 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 10:08:28 am
From Tripadvisor (of all places):

 :lol:

Quote from: OliverD
It’s a bone-crunching 75 minute 20 kilometre drive by 4WD to reach here from the main road. The location is beautiful and there are plenty of ring-tailed lemurs leaping around the trees surrounding the bar area as dusk falls. And that’s about where the good news ends. The rooms are bungalows, and most (including ours) was extremely small – why, with all the land available, they built the smallest possible size, I have no idea. They are however tall, with a mezzanine with a single bed. Walls are plain brick. It’s like sleeping in a cell. There are even smaller “tents with roofs” (cheaper, but must be bitterly cold at night). We found later that they do have better and larger bungalows with real windows. The main bed is quite hard (but OK), but they don’t have real pillows – just a couple of small throw cushions. There is only light from 17:30 to 22:30, a single ceiling pendant makes it impossible to read in bed. Phones and cameras have to be charged back at the bar. The bathrooms are modern, but the water is barely warm. There is no wifi, and the only cellphone coverage is on the Telma 2G network, so no data (warning to anyone buying a SIM at the airport – don’t go with either of the other two operators, as out of the cities their coverage is much poorer). The food is pretty poor, and they even expect one to order breakfast (don’t get excited, just what time and how one wants eggs cooked) the evening before.

It's booked.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2022, 01:02:25 pm by shark »

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#14 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 10:33:51 am
Quote from: OliverD
It’s a bone-crunching 75 minute 20 kilometre drive by 4WD to reach here from the main road. The location is beautiful and there are plenty of ring-tailed lemurs leaping around the trees surrounding the bar area as dusk falls. And that’s about where the good news ends. The rooms are bungalows, and most (including ours) was extremely small – why, with all the land available, they built the smallest possible size, I have no idea. They are however tall, with a mezzanine with a single bed. Walls are plain brick. It’s like sleeping in a cell. There are even smaller “tents with roofs” (cheaper, but must be bitterly cold at night). We found later that they do have better and larger bungalows with real windows. The main bed is quite hard (but OK), but they don’t have real pillows – just a couple of small throw cushions. There is only light from 17:30 to 22:30, a single ceiling pendant makes it impossible to read in bed. Phones and cameras have to be charged back at the bar. The bathrooms are modern, but the water is barely warm. There is no wifi, and the only cellphone coverage is on the Telma 2G network, so no data (warning to anyone buying a SIM at the airport – don’t go with either of the other two operators, as out of the cities their coverage is much poorer). The food is pretty poor, and they even expect one to order breakfast (don’t get excited, just what time and how one wants eggs cooked) the evening before.

Butlins Pwllheli, circa 1980?

cheque

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#15 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 10:35:10 am
Robbie Phillips was updating the world live from his portaledge in Madagascar last year so that bit about data networks must be out of date.

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#16 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 02:05:11 pm
I wouldn't put it past Patagucci to have organised a satellite connection for him.

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#17 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 09:19:39 pm
Makes you sick that stuff doesn't it. A few years ago my (now) wife and I went trekking in Nepal round the annapurna circuit. The first week follows a valley up to a town who's name I have forgotten, and a very basic road (dirt track really) is inching its way up towards the town, meaning what was once a week on foot is now a few hours in a jeep. Every German and Dutch (for some reason theybwere the predominant nationalities) trekker we met was bemoaning how the road was ruining the whole place, and how much of a tragedy it was. Every Nepali person we met thought it was pretty great that they were now connected with the rest of the world, and didn't have to hump loads on their backs for a week. Seems like sometimes us rich westies want other countries to delay their development so we can enjoy it as some sort of weird theme park.

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#18 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 08, 2019, 10:02:03 pm
I see where you're coming from, but you're a bit harsh maybe? I'm quite happy that Moskonesøya is only accessible by boat and that there are no roads. I like that there's a pocket of Lofoten where the climbing is a little bit more inconvenient to access, not so well described, and where some small sense of adventure can still be sustained. I do not particularly view the Norwegian countryside as a weird theme park. (Quite the contrary, it's the most economical and cultural successful rural part of Europe)

I have no idea of cell coverage in Madagascar but since it is 2019 I'd say that at least one provider has coverage


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#19 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 09, 2019, 01:57:34 pm
It's quite different when economic development is involved though.  And I don't think, no matter how remote, that Norwegians need to worry about that. 

Plus, with the greatest respect, my point was exactly that it's not really about what you think/like, it's about the people that live there.  A European trekker may much prefer a big valley into the mountains with no road.  A Nepali teenager raised in said valley will almost certainly relish, and have greater opportunities available to them, with said road.

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#20 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 11, 2019, 09:28:18 am
In a similar way, I think climbers weren't happy when the Skye bridge was built, as it took away the feel of going to Skye being an adventure, but I'm sure the residents were delighted.

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#21 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 02:40:10 am
Went about a year and a half ago. When we went the topo compiled by Tobias Wolf (in the link below) was the best thing we had. Hopefully there is something better nowadays, but if you haven't seen it already it's definitely worth a look.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.steinfibel.de/madagascar/Tsaranoro_Valley_Collected_Tops_08_2016.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiAzJ-Twv3gAhUfQxUIHXW8DQUQFjAOegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw20RCslFH-qxgVFD7pmTPCa

There are quite a few additional routes that aren't in this topo. There was more info in bar at camp Tsarasoa.

Regarding Out of Africa - Great route. Long but you can move fairly quickly due to the bolts and the nature of the climbing. It is slightly involved walking off the top if you've not been up there before.  In the dark it would even more so, but it is doable as some in our group did it in the dark, though it did sound mildly epic. Reportedly some people sleep at the top in a cave and get the local climbing guide to meet them at the top with sleeping bags, food and water etc. 

There are loads of other routes to go at and not all the routes have the long run outs between bolts the place is famous for. 

One thing to consider is the sun. We probably went too later in the year (September) and got a little baked. It was too hot most of the time to climb directly in the sun and that left us chasing the shade which wouldn't come onto the walls till 12.30 to 2pm depending on the wall (obviously this will change with the time of year). This didnt give us much time to get up the massive walls there before sunset (6pm on the dot). Consequently we mainly did the shorter routes (which are still long) or abbed off before we got to the top. Additionally the heat mixed with the super rough rock meant skin would wear through fast. We had to take rest days not because we were tired but because we had no skin left. Hopefully at the time of year you're going you can climb all day long in both the shade and sun.

The drive from the airport is possibly the most dangerous part of the trip and not particularly comfortable. If I went again I think I'd pay a bit more for a decent car / 4wd rather than the transit type van we had with holes in the floor. But I guess that part of the mini-adventure.

Regarding antimalarials some of us took them some didn't. I looked up the elevation of the camp before we left and I think it was just below 1000m so is borderline regarding altitude protecting against malaria. I took malarone with no problems and it didnt cost too much in the grand sceme of things considereing the other costs. Cheapest place at the time was Asda but you had to book in for a pharmacist appointment so just ended up buying it online.


Paul B

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#22 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 09:43:17 am
Thanks Seebo, that's awesome. Were there any stand out routes that you did?
« Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 09:54:36 am by Paul B »

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#23 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 10:15:37 am
Thanks for the link to Tobias Wolf! I read somewhere some sort of 'guidebook' was supposed to be published by mid 2019.
 
Want to go for 2 months in juli/aug 2020, with plenty time to repeat routes and maybe put one up ourselves.


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#24 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 11:18:13 am
Thanks for the link! It is one of a handful of remote (for me) climbing destinations I would like to visit before I die.

Tobias Wolf's blog is also a very good source for high-quality information on (very) difficult multipitch routes worldwide. I post the link here http://kayakandclimb.blogspot.com/ mostly for my self as it is surprisingly hard to find using google.

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#25 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 11:26:44 am
Thanks! Been looking for that one as well. Great trip-reports! :-) Must visit Corse this year.

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#26 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 13, 2019, 03:07:00 pm
This all looks great and is obviously totally up my street. Assuming my shoulder stays in its socket and off-piste adventures come back on the agenda, how expensive is it to visit?

Paul B

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#27 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 15, 2019, 01:49:22 pm
This all looks great and is obviously totally up my street. Assuming my shoulder stays in its socket and off-piste adventures come back on the agenda, how expensive is it to visit?

It's not looking cheap. Send me a message on FB and I'll happily give you the run down of likely costs.

Out of interest, people who've been, how did you pay?

My bank doesn't deal in Ariary which is giving me the option of:
A) paying in Euros (at an increase of ~15%)
B) paying via Western Union (poorer exchange rate and fees).

sdm

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#28 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 15, 2019, 06:22:40 pm
Use Revolut?

It amazes me that anyone still uses high street banks, Western Union etc to transfer money or make purchases in foreign currencies.

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#29 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
March 15, 2019, 07:13:10 pm
I thought it was a relatively expensive climbing destination, but well worth it.

For 3 weeks I think I spent around £500 excluding flights and insurance. (But we did do a bit of touristy stuff for a half a week at the end).

Regarding money I took mainly euros but also a mixture of dollars and pounds in cash.  We paid for everything when we got there in cash. I got some Ariary out of the cash point in the airport but all big spends were in euros or dollars (and some pounds).

I'll have a look at the pdf guide tonight/over the weekend and post which routes I thought were the best.



Paul B

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#30 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
April 17, 2019, 11:03:50 am
Ssebo did you bother with Rabies vaccs? I'm asking for a friend (one who recently got chased off a ledge by a hissing vulture  :worms:)

Supposedly Doxycycline makes people hypersensitive to sunlight or as the nurse put it "like a pale ginger person on a summer's day"  :o Malarone was her reccomendation.

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#31 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
April 17, 2019, 01:24:19 pm
Use Revolut?

It amazes me that anyone still uses high street banks, Western Union etc to transfer money or make purchases in foreign currencies.

My go-to for all foreign travel these days. So easy to use.

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#32 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
May 18, 2019, 05:22:21 pm
Sorry wrote this a while ago but didn't get around to posting it till now...

I didn't get the rabies vaccine. I guess it's a personal decision on risk.  Super low risk of getting infected but big consequences if you do. I guess you could get to Antananarivo within 24 hours and get yourself some rabies immunoglobulin if you thought you had been exposed.

So I managed to have a look thought the guide and remember a bit about which routes we did.  I thought the best 3 area we went to were;

The left side of Lemur wall - Pectorine and the route next it called Tsarandonga (7a), brilliant rock quality and climbing despite the short section of A0 that is required to get onto the routes.

The Mitsinjorivo buttress. Many great routes and also went into the shade early which was important for the time of year we went. Probably the best route we did here is not actually in the Tobias Wolf compilation and had a name with the word "world" in the title, but I cant remember the actual name. I think it was around 7a or 7a+ with 2 great pitch near the top. Also did Un alto giro di giostra there as well. It was the hardest grade we did on the trip but was well bolted throughout and had an amazing pitch at the top where you had climb from one clump of grass stuck to the vertical wall to another, made you feel a bit like we were playing donkey Kong. 

Tsaronoro Atsimo - although we didn't get to the top of these routes because they were so long we did some great pitches. The route Tokagasy had possibly the best pitch of the whole trip. The 7b pitch 2 was awesome, amazing water warn edges with great sustained technical climbing for the grade, after the first difficult move the rest of the pitch felt about 7a+ with some moderate runouts but never desperate. I would definitely recommend it even if you just abbed off after this pitch.
We also did a route just to the left of 'life in a fairy tale'. This had some superb 6c / 7a slab climbing lower down with a good steep sport climbing style 7b pitch at mid height. There is one 5m section of A0 climbing just after this which looks like it would go at 7c+ if you had enough enwrgy / skin left. We almost made it to the top of this one but bad weather and the darkness again forced us down. Again this route was well bolted especially the steeper sections.

All in all an awesome trip with some of the best rock I've climbed on mixed with an adventurous style.

Paul B

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#33 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
May 18, 2019, 08:22:26 pm
Thanks.

Paul B

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#34 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
June 04, 2019, 01:54:31 pm
All in all an awesome trip with some of the best rock I've climbed on mixed with an adventurous style.

Another quick question: did you take / want for any gear? There are a few throwaway comments in the TW topo but I can't see anything beyond a couple of slings (impromptu aiders) being necessary?

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#35 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
June 04, 2019, 10:33:19 pm
Took a full trad rack out woth us but didn't use any of it on the routes we did. There are one or 2 routes that use trad but we didn't do them.

Think I might have said this before, but I wished we'd taken a portalegde for the longer / harder routes.

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#36 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
June 05, 2019, 04:31:02 pm
Now that's interesting as I'm getting glared at for suggesting it!

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#37 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
July 17, 2019, 09:53:24 am
I thought I’d gather the information I learnt from the trip in one place (perhaps for next time, perhaps because I was sent home from work yesterday with food poisoning!).

Travel
The obvious flights from the UK are with Air France:
UK to CDG
CDG to Antananarivo
There are other options (Ethiopian Airlines).

Connections for us were arranged by the camp (300E return, regardless of how many people were in the bus). On the way there it took 17H which meant a significant portion of travel south of Fianarantsoa was undertaken in the dark. My travel guide would suggest this isn't overly safe. The return took 15H.

If you need to stop for food, Hotel Violette is about midway and is decent (not cheap by Madagascar standards but still cheap!):
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g659311-d1063146-Reviews-Bungalow_Motel_Violette-Ambositra_Fianarantsoa_Province.html
We also ate at hotely arilanto further south which was 'interesting’.

Owing to a need to return to Tana we also secured transport from Fianarantsoa in a taxi-brousse (all hail the mighty Mercedes Sprinter) and a return journey via 4x4. The 4x4 was by far the best transport but essentially cost 300E one way (you pay there and back for the driver). Our 4x4 driver refused to drive after nightfall citing concerns for his/our safety.

We used ‘contact at 4wdmada.com’ for 4x4 hire.

And stayed in Hotel Vannie in Fianarantsoa:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g298271-d12617828-Reviews-Vannie_Hotel-Fianarantsoa_Fianarantsoa_Province.html
which was fine.

In Antananarivo we stayed in Sakamanga which I thought was great (the restaurant and their fast food restaurant further down the street also):
http://sakamanga.com/

If you've been to Marrakech or similar, I’d skip the city in all honesty as it’s absolutely choked by traffic and pollution. I also fell down a manhole whilst bump starting our taxi!

Accommodation near Tsaranoro
We stayed in Tsarasoa in the end which I feel is by far the best option. Camp Catta is closer to Lemur Wall but everything else is fairly equidistant. I think CC is having issues.

You'll pay 4000Ar for each vehicle entering the park and 5000Ar per head. This is peanuts.
https://www.google.com/search?q=convert+4000+ar+to+%C2%A3&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB828GB828&oq=convert+4000+ar+to+%C2%A3&aqs=chrome..69i57j35i39l2j0l3.3262j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Tsarasoa offer breakfast, sportsman's breakfast (normal + fried egg +fruit juice; well worth getting), picnic (large pasta salad; impractical for taking up routes), cooked lunch (in camp) and dinner. I thought the food was good considering where you are but I'd recommend bringing crag snacks as you just can't buy them easily (Fianarantsoa would be a day trip in itself).

They have a bar. Three Horse Brewery is the standard beer (5.4% ABV), Gold was preferred by the French/Algerian team and tasted more like Euro lager. It’s all cheap (our bar bill for approximately 9 days in camp was ~20E).

When we arrived, we were the only climbers in the valley and throughout the fortnight there was one additional team plus a single climber from Squamish. To me that was quite frankly insane and at times sobering (pulling ropes through a heavily vegetated terrace at a belay offline from the route itself).

Climbing
The climbing was fantastic with each formation offering slightly different rock. Mostly it’s fairly runout (with the odd exception) but given it was bolted ground-up by hand in a lot of cases you can understand why. Also, as it was bolted in this fashion you tend to get bolts where they’re needed. I didn’t find many additional gear placements barring a few slings on snappy flakes. I think there’s some effort being put in to develop easier routes with more bolts.

I found that the map within Rock Around the World could do with some further explanation to save wasted time (especially as at the end of the wet season the grass was very high.

Sector Initiation and Lemur Wall (Alien and Pectorine)
From Tsarasoa, the quickest and most guaranteed route is to walk the roads back to Camp Catta. Skirt Camp Catta to its left (looking towards the routes) and take a track leading uphill from the left-hand side of the camp. On the right a large angular boulder with smaller boulders on top can be seen. A feint sandy path leads off to the left towards Sector Initiation at about 2/3rd height. Alien starts just to the left of a small palm tree.
For Pectorine continue further up the path, passing the tombs (a large boulder with supporting brickwork) and then thrash by eye to the base.

Vatovarindry (Croix du Sud)
From Tsarasoa take the obvious path up the valley, keeping the large rock terrace on your right. Keep walking until the path naturally intersects with the river (being careful not to take the left-hand fork to the summit of the Chameleon) at a small dam (for Mtsinjoarivo head right after crossing the river).
When across the river, take the left-hand ridge line directly up to the base of the route. Warning, tall grass can make progress slow.

Tsaranoro Kely (Out of Africa, No Woman No Cry, Bravos les Filles)
Take the path out of Tsarasoa, ignoring the path that cuts backwards after approximately five minutes. A more feint path leads over a few small rock bridges and down to the river via terraces. Cross the river directly.
At a vague fork take the left-hand track and turn left at the next t-junction.
When the path splits take the right-hand fork, crossing a stream and then following cairns placed atop boulders throughout the grass. The path leads almost to the base of Kalombony before cutting leftward into trees (continue to a small pool for Col de Nullard), arriving at a slabby apron at the base of the routes. Out of Africa starts further round to the left of the apron (a cairn is nearby). The bolts can clearly be seen arching rightwards across the low angled slab.
Take care not to confuse the start with the nearby No Woman No Cry (bolt just to the left of a small overlap?) and Bravo Les Filles (low bolt within trees?).
The route can be rappelled with care (the need for re-direction on the traversing middle pitches).

Tsaranoro Atisimo (Life in a Fairy Tale, Varavaran Tontolo, La Via de las Rubias)
Follow directions as per OoA but take the left-hand fork signed towards Tsaranoro. The obvious track leads (used by many walkers) to the large plateau then the base of the cliff (comfortable bivi spot?). Life… starts with a short pitch to a large rounded diagonal feature. Torontolo starts 15m or so to the left of the large pillar. The majority of the first pitch bolts can be seen.

Chameloeon (Chameleon Air Society)
From Tsarasoa walk towards the Chameleon, past the eating area. Continue uphill beyond the flagpole. The path intersects an obvious orange path at a crossroads, turn right. When the orange trail ends, continue up to the base of the cliff by eye. The route starts 5m to the left of an old dry-stone wall. Note, additional bolts (+2 Petzl) have been added to the first pitch. Rock Around the World sells this as a good indication of a team’s ability to climb OoA, I’d disagree with this quite strongly (it’s much easier IMO). Nevertheless, it's a good route and a good introduction to the bolting and rock.
The East face has a newly bolted line called Les Vazahameteurs (FFME Rap). It has significantly more bolts than most other routes:

Topos
Rumour has it that both Arnaud Petit and a team from La Reunion are each working on a guidebook. For now the Camp Catta topos:
https://www.campcatta.com/topo2.php
Tobias Wolf Topos (a few years out of date now?):
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.steinfibel.de/madagascar/Tsaranoro_Valley_Collected_Tops_08_2016.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiAzJ-Twv3gAhUfQxUIHXW8DQUQFjAOegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw20RCslFH-qxgVFD7pmTPCa
Rock Around the World (select):
http://thierrysouchard.com/en/rock-around-the-world-2/
will need to suffice.

For me RATW has unrealistic approach times (although it does suggest people double the timings for when the grass is long). Plus 50% seemed accurate for us.

Medical
Gov advice:
https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations/africa/madagascar
Rabies:
I opted for the pre exposure vaccination in the end as I wasn’t convinced that realistically you'd make Fianarantsoa in the time window for Ammoglobulin. After receiving several dog bites to my upper arm (a bit of bad luck) I can confirm that assumption was correct. Furthermore, I couldn't obtain Rabies treatment anywhere other than in Antananarivo (Institut Pasteur). Also, don't get injured on a Sunday as medical treatment isn't forthcoming!

Clinics:
Espace Medical; Dr Henrietta (very friendly and speaks good English):
http://www.espacemedical.mg/
Institut Pasteur:
http://www.pasteur.mg/

General Advice
The Bradt travel guide was worth every penny:
https://wordery.com/madagascar-daniel-austin-9781784770488?currency=GBP&gtrck=b09iTEt3WFNteVdnV1FoeFNXWTlFc3N1TnJTbkdrOTBCNWRiQlR1RThIb1E0ZklMU3FoRDQvZWVTUHdHYVUzMGVEdFNrOFg4U2twQi9uN2YzdDc3b1E9PQ&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjrvpBRC0ARIsAFrFuV_n480Pz_vWTgljg3xRvwzfvT2oleVP9yXyVjuUoxqzhKdyrc9ty6IaAgpyEALw_wcB
I’d recommend anyone thinking of visiting buys a copy and reads it before booking anything.

We found a knife recently on a route and it made its way onto the back of my harness; I ended up replacing a large number of belays (cord) as many were badly worn or completely sun bleached.

Gilles, Michel and all the staff at Tsarasoa are lovely and so enthusiastic about the place (and rightly so). Tourism is on the decline in Madagascar and this year climbing numbers are really low.
I’d urge anyone who's keen on this kind of climbing to get right to it as it features highly on my list of top designations!


HaeMeS

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#38 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
July 17, 2019, 05:03:46 pm
Thanks for the info! :great:
Might give it a go next year in juli/august.

Paul B

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#39 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
July 17, 2019, 05:14:53 pm
Cool. If you need any specifics when the time comes let me know.

I think Jul/Aug is the most sensible time to visit for temperatures:
https://www.yr.no/place/Madagascar/Haute_Matsiatra/Fianarantsoa/statistics.html

At first it seems unrealistically hot, but once off the valley floor you get the benefit of thermal winds. On Varavaran Tontolo (in the shade) I was climbing in a t-shirt, jumper and gilet and wasn't particularly warm! One of the comments on a nearby "Life in a Fairytale" (rumour has it the first few pitches aren't very well bolted) suggests that it isn't a particularly great place to be when it's windy!

I'm hoping to get an article out at some point with some photos.

HaeMeS

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#40 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
July 17, 2019, 09:18:00 pm
 :kiss2: thanks again! Will decide shortly after summer. So far this year my slab/crimp climbing skills, once my strongest point, seem to have disappeared. Traded them in for compression climbing skills it seems - utter useless in Madagascar though  :-\

Paul B

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#41 Re: Madagascar (Tsaranoro)
August 06, 2019, 07:46:18 pm
Article now up on the Project Magazine:
https://www.theprojectmagazine.com/features/2019/8/6/out-of-africa

Also, for the added benefit of UKB members (owing to an extended bout of food poisoning  :sick: :shit:) I put together a mini-guide pulling together all of the information we learnt. It's not a replacement for buying the books listed though!


 

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