We were on mixed sand, dirt, clay and stone roads. The only reasonable speed we obtained was on the short dry clay pans. There was quite a lot of colour in the bush in places and on closer inspection it was this Geralton wax flower lookalike (well a little bit).
Once we reached the Mangoky all the cars assembled for negotiations with the "assisters".
The issue was we had to cross about 500m of very soft sand to get to the ferry, and similarly climb up a soft sand bank off the ferry and many cars got stuck in the sand. The assisters were there to push in such circumstances. The assisters run beside your car...in our case wearing nothing but his shorty undies. The men in Madagascar work hard ,eat little and in general have very muscular bodies a great sight for the girls in the car to have this young briefly clad Adonis , striding beside us.
...and when you get stuck, as we did, they push...
One push was needed before we got onto the ferry...
Plus another the other side. After that it was easier going, through mostly "spiney dessert"...
...until we finally arrived in Morombe, a now rather sad ex- colonial administration centre.
Our hotel was right on the beach...
...and we had a great sunset.
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