Madagascar, Day Nine: This Wasn't The Plan

Deciding to make the most of our last day in Tana, Madagascar, and indeed our holiday, we decided to grab an early start to pack, grab breakfast and shop. That last one was a bit of a bust as we realised the local markets were for the locals.

Our flight back to Mauritius was in the early afternoon so we headed to the airport for late morning. On the way we realised that one of our bags had gone missing. We have no idea how such a thing could have happened in a moving car but my fully flowing paranoia was vindicated anyway. Even though I still had my bag, I was especially shaken seeing how I had stupidly left my passport in there. A close one then.

The terrible events of the day didn't end there as we found out that our 1:50pm flight to Mauritius had been delayed to 6:30pm. That wouldn't have been a big deal - I've spent longer in airports - except that we had a flight home to catch from Mauritius at 6:40pm. Even the later flight at 10pm seemed tight.

It was 8pm with us still at the departure gate that we finally accepted that we would have to spend another night in Mauritius. Although a major hassle (we would only be able to return to the UK on Monday morning) I was a little excited to once again see all the people I had met a week or so ago, but that excitement soon wore off as our flight got more and more delayed. At the point I had been in the airport for nine hours straight.

It was a short while later that the news we were all dreading arrived. The flight had been cancelled, we were to grab our bags and then wait for a bus to take us back to Tana where a hotel and food would be waiting for us.

Now if this was last year, when I had no office job to return to, this would have all been taken in relatively good spirits and may have even been a little bit of fun. But the fact was that we were to spend another night in Tana - a place we had gladly said goodbye to already. Add to that how I was looking forward to spending another night in Mauritius and the logistics of our connecting flight and the whole thing was a little distressing. Destiny wanted us to spend another night in Madagascar.

We've been told that the flight tomorrow is at 5:30pm, which will mean we miss all the Sunday flights out of Mauritius too. Even the renewed promise of a night in Mauritius doesn't console me of the fact I'll be arriving home on Tuesday.

I'm beginning to really hate Madagascar.