We made it to Antananarivo. My bike is boxed, so the total for the trip will be 619km. While it was sometimes busy, we made it to the middle of a city of one million plus without seeing a single traffic light.

The day started in Ambatolampy at a nice guest house. They have a good menu here, even if I haven’t been particularly adventurous with my cuisine.

There was a mix of roads today. Some brand new smooth asphalt and a little gravel. Several sections of road construction. This meant vehicles had to stop but on bicycles we could sneak by. This also meant cars and trucks would bunch up and pass in longer streams.

A small church right next to a larger one, perhaps the old and new?

I initially thought they must be very religious until I realized there were too many Mary and Jesus combinations. This was just business of this particular village.

The RN7 is the major road/economic lifeline through the area we’ve traveled – bringing visitors and commerce. Today, I realized outside of the towns we’ve seen three patterns:

• Today is the best illustration of places that set up handicrafts, Jesus/Mary, toy trucks, etc. Visitors can stop, but there are too many of them so you are pretty much left alone on a bike
• At the start, travelers were further between.  Kids would run after us yelling all day long. While there were gaps between villages, these looked like dry, difficult places to live. Most people didn’t wear shoes.
• In between was a little more prosperous, there was terrace agriculture tended by people with some zebu cows. More people including many walking along the road. We would greet and say hello.

So I’m glad we saw this slice and were going slow enough to experience it on a bike.

There were still a few one-lane bridges. Most were wider. While there was construction also fewer potholes and rough roads.

We stopped here for an early lunch.

Not sure what this was but intrigued to see some tents.

Another store area.

At 12km to go we came around a traffic circle and from this point on it was all built up. I didn’t get photos as I was concentrating on riding with oncoming vehicles and checking my mirror behind.

I did notice you could learn English, French, Spanish and Piano.

Traffic was heavier leaving the middle of the city than entering. Without too much difficulty we found our hotel, met with our driver. We already packed the bikes. Our flight isn’t until tomorrow night so we’ll get some time as tourists to see a small bit of Antananarivo – but the main cycling event is complete.