Oscar Scafidi and Ben Ziehm Stephen’s quest to kayak the Mangoky, Madagascar’s longest river, is well underway. The start has been anything but easy.
In early May, Scafidi and Stephen set off from the small central city of Fianarantsoa with a combined 80kg of weight. Half of this was their meaty Klepper sea kayak. But before they could unburden themselves of the kayak and start paddling, they would need to find the source of the Matsiatra.
Sources
There had been some discussion about which Mangoky tributary represented the “true” source of the river: the Matsiatra or the Mananantanana. Ultimately, they decided on the Matsiatra, which feeds a greater volume of water into the Mangoky (though the source of the Mananantanana is slightly further from the river’s mouth).
From Fianarantsoa, they trekked into the forest towards the Matsiatra’s source but found it extremely slow going.
“This was very difficult. We got down to 600m per hour before we got to our starting point,” Scafidi explained when they happened across a spot of 3G reception last week.
Stephen (left) and Scafidi take a lunch break a few days north from the source. A curious crowd had gathered to check them out. Photo: Oscar Scafidi
Walking a sea kayak
From their start point, they mostly hiked, with a bit of paddling, back out to Fianarantsoa. Here, they began to portage toward the town of Ikalamavony, further up the Matsiatra River.
Scafidi and Stephen had to portage west past the middle of Matsiatra because the rapids looked impassable in their Klepper kayak. However, this trek was also slow, heavy going. Eventually, they decided to change their plans and hop over to the other major tributary, the Mananantanana. Here, they could at least paddle for a few days and make speedier progress west toward the Mangoky.
Scafidi and Stephen have jumped from one Magoky tributary to another, but rapids have made for slow progress on both.
Still, it will be far from smooth sailing the rest of the way. On May 17, Scafidi reported that they would soon need to diverge for another trek. Rapids were once again the issue. They must make a three-day portage through the mountains to reach the confluence of the Mananantanana and the Mangoky. From here, the journey should get easier, with more paddling and less schlepping overland.
