The way to what our group called the Cowani site was a long travel day. Travel by road is slow in Madagascar. Our group had a great bus and bus driver. I was able to do a lot of photo editing while on the road but sometimes I had to look up and enjoy the view or get involved in lively conversation.
To get to the lodge where we stayed required a smaller vehicle. The road was narrow, the bridges looked like they were made out of sticks that definitely would not have supported our larger bus and the path usually was traveled only by foot, bicycle, or Zebu cart. So we squeezed into a tiny old transport van and made our way up to the Sous le Soleil Lodge, expecting to be packed like sardines for about an hour. The fully loaded vehicle started to bottom out every time we hit a small dip. Our driver was starting to look a little worried and eventually we came to a stop. The left rear tire was nearly flat. We all got out and the driver quickly went to work changing the tire in the mud.
Some of us took the chance to meet local people walking down the road. Mike, our tour operator, had a better idea and not wanting to waste time, he unpacked his drone. It was not the first time he flew it–I had heard it before. It sounds a lot like an angry swarm of bees on the move. It was, however, the first time I had seen the local people’s reaction to a really cool technology they probably had never seen. Mike worked on aircraft while he was in the U. S. Air Force and he is a skilled technician. He is mild mannered and kind. The joy you could see on Mike’s face when people were surrounding him to see what the drone was seeing was the highlight of the journey to the lodge. I hope to collaborate with Mike at the end of my adventure to edit together some of his video with some of mine to tell a visual story. Mike was making the most of his time, as we all should.