This was 130 kilometres of straight track/road/potholes that took 4 hours to drive. Made as comfortable as possible by Nassir the driver of the 4 x 4 Nissan and the chatter of the guide, Frank.

Either side of the track, more dirt than asphalt, was village after village of stilted wooden huts. As usual shirtless young children playing happily in the dirt, women cleaning, washing and preparing food using an assortment of plastic bowls. Clothes drying over roof tops, people sitting on the front step or in a central covered bench area. Long legged chickens scurrying around. The emaciated village dog and even the odd duck, goose and pig. As usual, lots of people walking along the edge of the road.

Generally there is a cleanliness to the environment. No dumps of plastic waste or disused metal.

Here, on the mainland, more bicycles and cycle rickshaws than motorised tut tuts or small cc motorbikes as seen in Nosy Be.

The big surprise the loss of trees all along the way. Replaced by swathes of scrubland, rice paddies and the very occasional sugar plantation. I had thought that this area remained forested, but alas no.

This already feels like another Madagascar, with forestry lost to make charcoal for cooking. This is slowly being replaced by the use of solar panels, but more as a necessity, as the charcoal gets more scarce, rather than a drive to conservation.

The days real point of interest the Millot Cocoa Plantation near Ambanja. I normally shirk the tourist trips, but thankfully agreed to this. It was a large commercial operation ran by a very strong Cameroonian woman. All her top quality organic cocoa exporting to chocolatiers in France and Europe. It reminded me of modern day businesses where your customer, on visits, wants to see the creche, school and strong employment rights. All of this was in place.

The plantation was really interesting. Learning about cocoa growing and fermentation, but also her side business in vanilla and essential oils.

Topping everything was the number of plants, trees and chameleons seen.