Anjajavy, Madagascar 10 - 13 April 08

A rich man's dream come true

It was a rich French businessman, Dominique Prat, who bought the concession of Anjajavy from Jacky Cauvin. His dream was to create a luxury retreat for himself and his friends. And after his dream became a reality, he turned it into a hotel. It seems, though, that Dominique is not all that bothered about making money out of it as it is generally half empty. Dominique Prat is a major donor to the local charity Amis d'Anjajavy, which provides loans to nearby villages to allow people to buy fishing nets, beehives or fertilisers.

As for us, we knew the atmosphere at this luxury resort would not be as cosy as that of Terres Blanches. We were therefore delighted that Jean Yves and Kathleen de Vaubernier and Patrick Gay had waited to have lunch with us at Anjajavy. We sat at a round table on a shaded terrace and tucked into delicious fresh crab claws, washed down with caipirinhas and beer. Jean Yves and Kathleen are old friends of Jacky and it was through them that Patrick Gay met Jacky and subsequently bought the concession from him where he built his house. Patrick is the retired PDG of a large company in France called Lapeyre, that makes and sells building materials made of wood in particular. He and his wife Françoise have created a humanitarian organisation called Enfants de Majunga. With financing also from Patrick’s contacts in the French business world, this organisation has supplied the building materials for the construction of 34 schools in Madagascar.

Anjajavy time is one hour later than Madagascar time to get the best of the day. We had 5'oclock tea in the garden with Coquerel's sifakas in the surrounding trees and a kingfisher on the water lily pond. Everything about Anjajavy is beautiful, from our room to the terrace where we eat gourmet meals, to the palm trees (planted by Jacky Cauvin and his father 40 years ago) to the large swimming pool and beachside setting. Still, we miss Jacky and his friends.

11 April. After a delicious breakfast with fresh papaya we went for a hot 3-hour walk to Tsimanindroa cave with French hostess Anne Cécile and our guide Nasi, passing more tsingy. On our way we almost stumbled on a large snake basking in the sun on the path. Nasi told us it was only a young boa and therefore hadn’t reached its full size.

The Anjajavy concession is now a 450 hectare nature reserve, but outside the reserve it was shocking to see the amount of land that had been cleared of trees in order to grow rice. It was sad to see Coquerel's sifakas having to jump from one burnt tree stump to another, and having to resort to jumping about on the ground in places where there weren’t even tree stumps.