vickygoestravelling

my journey to health and well being via exotic destinations


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Volcanoes and vegetables in Beristagi, Sumatra

Down the 200 steps for the last time! We are reunited with Mr Gali, the driver, and set off with Gerry our guide for the next five days, for the four-hour drive to Beristagi. Initially we retrace our steps to Medan before turning off. We drive through miles and miles of palm oil with villages lining the road. It is Friday and there are men begging, using butterfly-style nets to catch the donations. People here are generous to the poor – these men are are unemployed, although with all these plantations around the rates ought to be low.

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Tracking and trekking in Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra May 2025

 

Wati, my attacker

After fond farewells with our Dewi Nusantara shipmates at Jakarta airport, we depart bang on time to Medan, an overnight stop in order to reach Bukit Lawang, where we will spend three nights in our search for the elusive orangutang. We have only seen them in rehab mode in Borneo, and it is about the only place to see them in the wild. The National Park has between 6-7000 apes, spread across about 8000 acres, so we are hopeful. However, incursions into it for expansion of oil palm continue despite legal battles.

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Beating the January blues in the Alps

The mountain blues of peace – ‘from whence cometh my help’

If it sounds like an indulgence – it is. Every year we de-camp to our apartment in Champery to take advantage of emptier pistes (more about that later).

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Mana moments with Stretch & the besties

View from our tent showing the very low level of the Zambezi, normally flowing freely here

After months of planning, we gather in York Lodge. Taking inspiration from a bus we drove past in Harare, I have named the new service, Vicky’s Logistics – as it really has been quite an operation! The dream team consisting of John and Hil, Fi and Richard and our beloved Rick set off from Charles Prince, with a hitch-hiker on board, none other than Nick Murray, owner of Vundu Camp and advisor on Attenborough’s episode on the wild dogs.

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Gonarezhou – Zimbabwe’s hidden gem

I have always wanted to go to Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe’s largest National Park and one of the least visited. It’s in the south-eastern corner of Zimbabwe, borders Mozambique, and has suffered over the years from the bush war, poaching and general neglect. It is part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier National Park and forms one of the largest conservation areas in Africa, now managed in partnership with the Frankfurt Zoological Society – and what a difference that makes to the upkeep and efficiency: clean loos at picnic sites, protected baobabs, and strictly no off-roading! Every move we make has to be reported in by our guide.

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Madagascar 5: more schools again – this time by ox-cart and pirogue

How to get to Lamboara school…

On day two we have two schools to visit.  To reach Ankotapiky we drive though spiny forest (euphorbia), mangrove swamps, and arid plains. In the rainy season there’s lots of flooding on this road rendering it impassable so people are cut off.

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Madagascar 4: visiting UWS schools in the remote south west

So here we are on our way to visit eight schools, the training centre and a local hub in three days!  For the first 130 kms we whizz along on the best road we’ve seen, built by the Chinese. We pass a repair gang with its Chinese supervisor in his blue Mao suit. Once we leave this anomaly, we enter the world of truly awful roads – nothing we have experienced so far compares to this. A mixture of sand, rocks, ruts, 4WD-compulsory for the next three days. Progress is agonisingly slow. There is no other traffic apart from ox-carts and a mini bus once or twice a day. It’s too difficult for bicycles, and motorbikes are challenging – a dim European employed by UWS bought one and got horribly lost and had to be rescued. Of course there are no road signs!

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Madagascar 3: Ranomafana  to Toliara – and more lemurs

We leave early, driving through the flood plain again. The paddy is interrupted by what can only be described as brick kilns in factory proportions. We have seen these earlier on the roads, huge stacks of bricks, with room for wood to fire them. The practice is to sacrifice some of the clay in the paddy field to make bricks, either for personal use or for sale. It’s a big decision – eat or diversify. Here we see all family members working together on both activities!

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Madagascar 2: from Antsirabe to Ranomafana National Park

Blue-leg chameleon and small bamboo lemur

Another long journey today, ten hours to Ranomafana.  But we are never bored as the countryside is stunning, consisting of  fertile terraces and valleys, interspersed with huge granite boulders. There is a stretch of indigenous forest, the last remaining in this area; Madagascar has lost 80% of its forest thanks to mankind. It has been replaced with fast-growing eucalyptus and pines for building and firewood. Colourful lantana line the way. Everyone is working in the fields, preparing for planting,  watering potatoes by hand in their geometric raised-bed rows.  Ducks and geese waddle round all villages – apparently they return every night, a natural homing instinct.

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