I now know why some drivers and bus passengers were wearing masks. It wasn’t for spreading viruses. Instead it was dust, lots of dust on the road.

Today looked easy on paper, 97km with not too much climbing. What I didn’t factor were some long stretches of unpaved road. The longest gap was 18km but there were several other gaps of 3-5km and a lot of smaller gaps. This made for slower riding and also a lot of dust.

We started in middle of Antsirabe and even in the morning was a moderate amount of traffic. Sometimes on the rough unpaved sections I am just as fast as a large truck, though mini-buses and motorcycles are faster. By end of the day the local cyclists were also faster.

One of the first gravel patches. There was a short section of construction here. For much of the next ~45 minutes the road was calm, presumably because vehicles were stopped at construction point while we cycled past.

Not sure what the occasion was but festive atmosphere complete with a band.

We’ve seen these large sacks collected here for a while.

The road was wide. Cars could drive pretty fast. This meant a lot of dust.

Carrots and other vegetables. Unlike further south we didn’t spend as much time greeting kids and people all day long. I attribute this to the road being busier and strangers more common.

They did however have toy trucks for sale along the road.

Also musical instruments. In some places the mini-buses or tourist vehicles will stop here. Locals come to the windows and try to sell things. They aren’t quite sure what to do with us, but here were more inclined to leave us alone.

One of the last rest stops today where I stopped to get a coke. They have both Coca-Cola and World Cola here. Not sure on the relationship but both use similar logo and design pattern.