The Rafting Diaries: Onilahy Descent, Madagascar. March - April 2007

We drove along through the lovely Malagasy countryside, past green rice paddies, red brick homes with thatched roofs, muddy red rivers and a plethora of zebu pulling carts. We stopped in Antsirabe in the early afternoon for lunch and then pressed on.

In the evening we pulled in to the Lac Hotel, on the outskirts of Fianarantsoa. We had a lovely meal and I sampled the zebu steak with all the trimmings. It was then off to the bungalows to retire for the day.

Then we continued on to the remote camp to spend the night. Once there we climbed a hill, called the Chameleon for its obvious shape, which was just behind camp. From the top we had great views of the surrounding hills and valleys.

The camp staff prepared zebu steaks and chips for us and played a little traditional Malagasy music before we retired.

Day 3 Sunday
Breakfast was served up at 6.30am and after packing up we were on the road by 8.00am. As we drove we left the green hills and entered the plains where Isalo National Park is. It was flat and dry and as we neared Ranohira, the craggy, worn sandstone outcroppings of the famous park began to appear.

We drove to Ilakaka, a boomtown due to the recent influx of sapphire miners. We had lunch in a local restaurant by the roadside then headed off the main highway and down a dirt track to the put in for the Benahy River. As we unloaded the gear out of the vehicle, we were surrounded by villagers. I am sure they had never seen such a sight before.

We hiked to the river where we met our local guides, who had been rigging the three rafts. Our trip would comprise two small three-person catarafts, a larger cataraft for a gear boat and two safety kayaks.

After loading the boats we set off downriver. The river was very low so we were dragging our boats along the sandy bottom. We were in a narrow canyon and the water flowed a muddy red. It was hard work dragging the boats, but we did so for about an hour and a half when we stopped to make camp. The heavy gear boat arrived just as the sun set, being dragged by six people.

There was thunder and lightning nearby. The tents were immediately set up, as well as a tarp for the kitchen and one for the “dining room”. Once dinner was served and eaten we all fell asleep. It had been a long day, and the next few days promised more of the same.

The canyon narrowed in a couple of places, making it quite tricky to get even our small rafts though. The two small rafts were able to keep reasonably well together, but the big gear boat was quite far behind.

We stopped on a small beach for a break, and had an audience of kids as we ate. The gear raft arrived after us. There were now 10 people dragging it, our trip having employed a few locals to help with the dragging. The guides set to making our lunch, a pasta salad. On the other side of the river the locals helping us set to boiling water for their rice. That is all they eat, morning, noon and night.

The water started to get a bit deeper now, so one or two people could float for short sections of the river.

Camp was set up about 4.30pm and the gear boat came in an hour later with 10 cheering, tired people. Appetizers were quickly served up to us and the guides prepared our dinner. We had soup followed by a dish of rice, lentils, corn and bacon. It tasted absolutely delicious. How come food always tastes better in the wilderness after a hard day of travelling?

The full moon lit up the campsite and the walls of the canyon before some clouds rolled in and signalled the time to retreat to the tents.

Day 5 Tuesday
The water was getting deeper, so gradually a couple of people could float longer stretches. We were still in a deep canyon.

We came to a couple of tight spots in the river where the rafts had to be lifted up and over rocks or tilted on one tube to get through. Not so bad with the small cats, but a lot of work with the big boat, even with 10 people attending to it.

Day 6 Wednesday
Up for breakfast at 6.00am. After packing up and rigging for the river we set off. The small cats could be mostly floated now with two people on them. I was still hiking behind down the river. I stuck to the beaches where possible, as that made the going a lot easier. The canyon walls were getting lower, so we must be nearing the junction.

By mid-morning we had enough water that I was able to get on a cat and float short sections of the river. We would ground out in the shallows and have to get off and drag again. We stuck close to outside of bends, as that is where the deeper water usually was. The two safety kayakers were now able to float most of the river.

Shortly after noon, we arrived at a river junction. There was a rapid just below us, strewn with rocks. Our first real challenge. I walked downstream to scout it, and there was a route through. The guides set to making our lunch immediately and then we elected to camp there for the night, on a small beach.

It was another clear night, with great views of the start above the canyon walls. Most people were in their tents shortly after dinner.

Day 7 Thursday
The gear boat went through the rapid first, getting stuck once, but nothing that wasn’t easily fixed with a bit of pulling. The small catarafts followed though and we then continued downstream. The kayakers were sent ahead to go to the village of Benahy and see if they could supplement our food stores.

We still had some walking to do in the river, but a lot less now. We didn’t come across any sapphire miners this day, so we were alone on the river.

Mid-morning we came out of the canyon. It was a very sudden change, abruptly opening up into grasslands. The river also widened, which meant more area for the little bit of water to cover. So, we were back to lots more hiking and dragging of boats. We pushed on past noon, and entered another region of hills. The current picked up again and we continued until we found the two kayaks on a sand bar. We stopped there and waited.

The kayakers soon appeared with some rice and bananas and word that a piglet could be bought for about £8 ($15). Three of us returned to the village to purchase the poor piglet. Needless to say, two westerners in this tiny village of twenty or so huts were quite a distraction, and all the children gathered around to watch our every move. The village was very hot and dry. I was glad we were on the river, as it really cooled the temperature. One of the guys invited us to sit in his hut, in the shade. That was appreciated, as it took some time for the piglet we were buying to appear.

As we returned to the river with our dinner, the gear boat was just arriving.

We had lunch and then the catarafts set off downstream. We had little more canyon to go through and continued until we found a water source to make camp for the night. We immediately set to filtering water, as it had been a long hot day, and most people were out of water completely.

At 5.30pm the gear boat arrived, with only the guide on it. All the others had decided to hike from Benahy, rather than wade in the river. So we pitched our tents and waited for them to arrive.

Day 8 Friday
We got back on the river and arrived at the junction in an hour’s time. Here the muddy waters of the Benahy met the clear waters of the Imaloto. The muddy waters won out though. We were now in crocodile country, although we didn’t see any. They had likely moved out because of the muddy water. I was now able to row the cataraft as opposed to paddling, as we had more water.

There were several small rapids and boulder gardens now. The kayakers went ahead in the rapids to tell us which way to go, as there were plenty of routes. We had to line a short section of one rapid as we’d got ourselves stuck in the middle and couldn’t get safely across to where the best passage was.

One of the rapids was one of the most interesting I have ever seen. It wasn’t difficult at all, but it was a long zigzag in the upstream – downstream direction. It was like putting your raft on a conveyor belt, arriving at the end, and getting dropped off onto another conveyor belt heading in the direction your had just come from. Great fun.

We arrived in camp at 4.00pm. The local guides set to preparing our poor piglet for dinner. It was delicious though, served with potato and carrot soup and rice. We were entertained by a distant lightning show.

On the way to my tent I saw a large scorpion. Better make sure to shake out my gear in the morning.

Day 9 Saturday
It was another muggy day. We passed through a few small Class II – III rapids which were usually quite far apart. There were no miners on this section of the river, so we were passing pristine forest that extended right to the river’s edge. Lots of bird life flew around us including bee-eaters, grey parrots, a heron and a kingfisher.

At one bend in the river we saw a small camp occupied by a two women and a baby. They had smoked eel drying on racks and we purchased some.

The kayakers continued to lead the way, helping us plan which route to take through the multi-channel rapids.

After lunch we started to see some large baobab trees. They towered above the rest of the forest. Late in the afternoon the sky started to get black so we searched for a camp with some shelter. None was found so we wound up on a large flat beach, with not much elevation to it.

The lightning started just after we arrived in camp. I delayed in putting up my tent, and as soon as I started, the rain began. So, I hid out under the tarp as we had our snack and dinner. The guides did a phenomenal job getting the fire going and getting our dinner prepared.

The rain stopped after our main course so I hurriedly put my tent up. I returned in time for a delicious dessert of bananas and chocolate heated over the fire. We had a few nocturnal lemurs behind camp, which we were able to spot by shining a torch into the trees. The rain started up again after we had retired for the night.

Day 10 Sunday
It was a very humid morning and we got on the river a little late, because we needed to dry our tents out before setting off.

We had some bigger rapids this morning, which resulted in a swimmer from one boat and a flip in another boat. No damage was done though.

The river levelled out and we wound our way towards a large mountain. I could hear a lot of yelling coming from the shore and as we rounded a bend we came across a large sapphire mine. There must have been over a hundred people there; working or selling drinks and food, and almost all stopped whatever they were doing to stare at us.

They were digging out the bottom of the river, with picks, shovels, rebar, whatever was at hand. A couple of pumps pumped water out of the depressions. I was shown a sapphire, a distinct translucent blue. If I had seen one on the beach, I would have noticed it.

After touring around the mine and having a coffee we loaded up the rafts and continued down the river.

We soon arrived at the junction with the Onilahy River. The junction was just below a very impressive rapid. There was a huge increase in the volume of water here.

We had a quick lunch on the shore. The first rapid we came to had three routes through it. Each of our three guides preferred a separate channel. The next big rapid had two channels and again we had guides choose either side. It was pretty straight-forward on both sides.

We came to a long rapid with a myriad of passages and a lot of elevation loss. The kayakers immediately signalled for us to go to the right. They managed to get down the river left side, as well as the big gear boat, leaving the two catarafts to fend for themselves in the middle of the rapid. As we wound our way through the rapid I took a wrong turn and boxed myself in. The second cataraft followed. The kayakers were furiously signalling not to go left, but it was the only way the water flowed. So, we had to improvise and do some hard rowing, dragging and lining of boats upstream to get back to where the water flowed to the right. Even then we couldn’t tell which passage we should take to the bottom. It was getting towards sunset and we were stuck in the middle of a rapid we had never seen before.

We managed to tuck in behind a large rock and try and discern which of three routes out of the rapid we should take. One of the kayakers paddled to the bottom of the rapid and showed us which one to run. It was a direct run past some rocks and through a couple of holes. I felt greatly relieved to reach the bottom.

We pulled over to the beach and two people carried kayaks back upstream to run the river left side again. There was a huge hole in the middle at the bottom, something you would definitely want to avoid in the small catarafts. The kayakers came though fine, with people taking photos from the shore.

We had our snack and dinner and peaches in chocolate sauce for dessert. I was quite tired and went to my tent after diner. It started to rain a few drops just as I entered.

Day 11 Monday
Word at breakfast was that we had one big rapid to go and then we were into the flats for the next three days. After a small rapid we came to a rapid with a large rock in the middle of the river. With some back ferrying we avoided the rock and came to a last drop. I looked up to see the other cataraft go upside down! We also had one of our kayakers swim there. Everyone was okay and I was told that it was flat from here on in. That was the big rapid? Obviously the water had been higher the last time it was run, as at this level it was very manageable.

We unloaded some of the unnecessary gear into the truck to lighten the rafts and continued down to a lunch spot. It was a lovely little side canyon with a series of waterfalls.

We got back on the river mid-afternoon and it started to rain a little. We were floating past forest and at one point the trees were filled with kites. The sky was an eerie blue, so I wondered if the birds were taking shelter from an impending storm. We pulled into camp at 5.00pm and immediately got the boats de-rigged and tents up. Just as we got the kitchen tarps up the rain began in earnest. It rained all evening long.

Day 12 Tuesday
The rain continued overnight and the river had risen a few inches when we got up. One of the group had lost his sandals which had been left on the beach near the boats. We had an early breakfast and were on the river by 7.00am. The current was moving a lot quicker now. We were trying to reach Belamity to meet the truck and figured we could be there in a couple of hours.

We arrived in Belamity at 10.30am. A huge crowd of people gathered around us. There was no sign of the truck. The locals asked us lots of questions about what everything was. They got a real joy out of bouncing on the raft and poking the soft tubes. One of the girls pointed to my torn shirt and offered to sew it up. Very kind!

The gear boat arrived at 11.30am followed by the truck. It had taken seven hours to get to Tulear last night by car because of the rains.

We unloaded most of the gear into the truck and left the three Malagasy guides to row the boats downstream. We took off in the truck for the long drive to Betioky. We made camp there at the Ministry of the Environment. Dinner discussion centred over the fact that we had three days of flat water paddling still remaining. None of us really wanted to do this and figured a better option was to head straight to the beach.

After dinner we retired to our tents. The local disco blared all night long.

We took off after breakfast and drove three hours of dirt tracks to Reserve de Beza-Mahafaly. Here we did a guided walk of the reserve to look for lemurs. We were lucky to see several sifakas, some ring-tailed lemurs and a few sportive lemurs.

After lunch we got back into the truck for the long drive back to the bridge at Tongobory. We arrived there at 3.30pm and met the rafts there. It had taken them sixteen hours of rowing to arrive at the bridge.

We were unanimous in our decision to leave the river here and get to the beach. The local guides were happy to hear that, as they didn’t look forward to three more days of flat water rowing.

We made camp just below the bridge and had a lovely dinner of zebu steak and rice.

We drove to Tulear where we had a great lunch of lobster at a fancy restaurant. We were back in civilization now, cars and pousse-pousses everywhere. Here one of guides left us to supervise the return of the kayaks to Antananarivo. The rest of us drove off to the coast and we camped near the small village of Sarodrano, built on a sand spit sticking out into the Mozambique Channel. How does this place survive the cyclones?

Day 15 Friday
We did a tour around the village, looking at all of the small fishing boats and collecting seashells. It was then over to the base of the cliffs and up and over the ridge to St. Augustine. From the top we could see the reddish waters of the Onilahy emptying into the sea.

We walked through the village and out to the beach where we made camp, again surrounded by all of the village kids. A swim in the ocean provided the only solitude.

Day 16 Saturday
We packed up camp and sped off down the coast on our shuttle boat to Anakao. A mix-up landed us at the wrong resort. As we waited for the Anakao Beach Resort boat to fetch us we had a delicious lunch of fish and lobster.

The staff was waiting for us at the resort with a welcome drink. We checked into our lovely thatched roof bungalows. A hot shower was a complete luxury after two weeks on the river.

Dinner was a salad starter followed by lobster again. Dessert was pears and bananas smothered in a caramel sauce. Incredible. The chef came out to see if everything was okay. It was some of the best food I have ever tasted, anywhere. It turns out he was trained in Reunion.

Day 17 Sunday
Two of the group went snorkelling at 8.00am to a small island just off the coast. The other group member and I went for a hike to the village of Anakao. It is made up of small homes all along the beach, interspersed with guest houses and a couple of small shops. There were plenty of colourful pirogues lined along the beach.

The rest of the day was spent strolling along the beach and relaxing in the sun or on the porch of the bungalow thinking about the trip that we had just completed.

Day 18 Monday
We took another walk into Anakao and continued out the far end of the village, past the other big hotels. It is a very tranquil place, with miles of beach. A delicious lunch was followed by an afternoon relaxing in the bungalow and strolling along the beach in the opposite direction.

Day 19 Tuesday
Our boat picked us up at 9.00am to ferry us to Tulear for our flight back to Antananarivo.

All too soon our amazing adventure down the Onilahy river has come to an end, but not without some incredible memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.