Old Age Hiking

I knew that if I went all the way to Madagascar I wanted to see the famous land formation unique to the island. I learned that these areas are called 'Tsingy' which literally means 'walking on tiptoe'.  Tsingy is pronounced 'chingy'. Getting to one requires a long trip on a rutted, muddy, dirt road.  It took us 9 hours to go 250 km or 155 miles.  The glimpses of life in rural Madagascar that we passed along the way made the time zip by.

Now I had read that the hike to the top of the Bemaraha  Tsingy was 'strenuous' but I walk 4 miles every day so I wasn't a bit worried.

The harnesses that we each had to wear should have given me some clue that this was no ordinary hike.

This was a climb! 

 Up on narrow ledges 

 Clipping into steel supports for safety

 And then going down into deep labyrinths

Occasionally it was so narrow that we had to take our backpacks off to continue. 

I was tired!  At one point we came to a fork in the road.  One way took us directly to the top of the Tsingy while the other took us a longer way through a grotto.  Since I am one who doesn't like to miss anything, I said, "Oh let's go through the grotto."  I know our guides didn't think it was a good idea but they didn't argue with me.  More climbing up and down, more narrow passageways, then a fun crossing of a suspension bridge.  George would not have liked this at all!

And a bit more hiking

....and finally we got to the very top. 

We survived!

 And it was quite spectacular!  Now we just needed to hike out.  And remember it wasn't all downhill from here.  Again it was up and down and up and down!
Believe me when I say that I felt every one of my 64 years!  On the way out we passed a group of older (probably about my age) Italian women who were taking the easy hike to the bottom of the Tsingy.  With their limited English they pointed at me and asked, "You - Big Hike????".  When I told them that yes I had done the hike, I was applauded!  I didn't know how to explain that while technically yes I had done it, it wasn't pretty! Our local guide said that I was the oldest person he'd over taken on this hike!