Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ies that they sometimes dropped their unfortunate
vazaha
in a river. The average distance
travelled per day was 45km - not much slower than a
taxi-brousse
today! The
filanzana
was used for high officials as recently as the 1940s. To get around town the locals depen-
ded on an earlier version of the
pousse-pousse
. The
mono-pousse
was a chair slung over a
bicyclewheel.Onemanpulledandanotherpushed.ThemoreaffluentMalagasypossessed
a
bœuf-cheval:
azebutrainedtoberidden.(I'veseenaphoto;theanimallooksrathersmug
in its saddle and bridle.)
BY ROAD
'If I make roads, the white man will only come and take my country. I
have two allies:
hazo
[forest] and
tazo
[fever],' declared King Radama I.
Coping with the 'roads' used to be one of the great travel challenges in Madagascar. It's
not that the royal decree has lasted 200 years but there's a third ally that the king didn't
mention - the weather. Torrential rain and cyclones destroy roads as fast as they are con-
structed.
Taxi-brousse
is the generic name for public transport in Madagascar.
Car-brousse,
camion-brousse, taxi-be
and
kat-kat
are also used, but they all refer to the 'bush-taxis'
which run along every road in the country. These have improved a lot in recent years, es-
pecially along tourist routes.
Red-and-white 'milestones' mark out one-kilometre intervals along main roads. These
markers,knownasPointsKilométriques,arenumberedstartingfromamajortown(usually
Tana). PK numbers are given throughout this topic to specify points on major routes.
Taxi-brousse Taxi-brousses
aregenerallyminibuses,orsometimesRenaultvanswithseats
facing each other (also known as
kat-kat
). A
baché
is a small van with a canvas top. More
comfortable are the Peugeot 404s or 504s designed to take nine people, but often packed
with 14 or more. A
car-brousse
is usually a Tata sturdy enough to cope with bad roads.
Kat-kat
is also used in the northeast for the 4x4 vehicles which are needed to cope with the
atrociousroads.Thebackiscoveredwithatarpaulinandtherearenoseats:yousitonyour
luggage. For even worse conditions, you may find a
tracteur-brousse!
Vehicles leave from the
gare routière
(bus station) on the side of town closest to their
destination. You should try to go there a day or two ahead of your planned departure to
checktimesandprices,andforlongjourneysyoushouldbuyaticketinadvance.Buyfrom
the kiosk, not a middleman, and make sure you get a receipt. You should only have to pay
about half the fare as a deposit.
Arriving at a big
taxi-brousse
station can be a scary experience. You are likely to get
mobbed by touts demanding to know where you are going. Some may even jump into your
moving taxi with you before you reach the station. Keep an eye on your luggage; it's not
likely to be stolen, but touts often take bags hostage by loading them onto their preferred
