Alreadywhen I planned my trip, back in Denmark,I decided that I’d travel the northeast coast of Madagascar. Called the Vanilla Coast(lots of vanilla plantations) or the Pirate Coast because of a lot offormer pirate settlements.

It’s tailormade for travelers with a well developed sense of adventure. Much of the 900 kilometer iswithout proper road, so you’ll have to fly or walk some sections.

I startedout in a village called Soanierra-Ivongo, from there I used 17 hours on makingmy way 127 north to the town of Mananara.How? I on the back of a pickup truck, under a piece of plastic to cover fromthe rain and sun. My Lonely Planet guide writes the following about the trip:“The road dignified with the name Route National 5 (RN5). However, for much ofits length it’s no more than a collection of deep potholes joint togetherfilled with mud. In all of Madagascar’srough, rough journeys, this one particularly stands out – so it’s only to beattempted by the seriously masochistic or truly desperate”. I’ll let you decidewitch category I belong in. Afterwards, this trip easily makes my top threeover the roughest trips I’ve ever done – only soundly beaten by a few in Sudan.

After this,there were no cars, forcing me to walk the last of the way to my seconddestination on the coast, the town of Maroantsetra(starting point for the Maosala National Park).

This partof the trip surely is one for my history book. Walking 60 km in three days I passedtough a number of small villages, were the locals was truly surprised to see aforeigner next to their houses. This making most of the villagers to flockaround me, asking me all kinds of strange questions. I both had to perform asdoctor, treating burn- and knife wounds, in one village and teaching English ina another village’s school.

Only halfway to Maroantsetra I was beginning to think I was in over my head. Most of mybody was hurting and I was running out of supplies (unable to re-supply enoughfood in the villages). Luckily, towards the end of the third day, I was pickedup by a motocross bike, and the last 60 K’s was done in just about six hours.

Bonus info:None I’ve meet knows anything about a lion called Alex, a zebra called Marty, a hippos called Gloria or a giraffe called Melman.

No. of bath Ask had have since the 16/7: 5