Tour of Madagascar                                 As told by Roddy Macintyre
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                                                                   Posing with one of the locals the Hawick group are from  left to right

                                                                 Ian Dalgliesh, Catherine Steele, Verity Hislop and Piper Roddy MacIntyre

  Once again members of the Hawick Pipe Band were on the move, this time it was Madagascar, that large Island   off the east coast of Africa. Myself (Piper) Ian (Titch) Dalgiesh (Drummer) who accompanies the afore mentioned piper and two highland dancers, Catherine Steele and Verity Hislop. We were set to perform at various functions in the capital city Antananarivo known locally as Tana. The idea of the trip began with an off the cuff remark from the British ambassador Charles Mochan to my cousin Alistair when both were out for a night on the tiles in down town Tana. The ambassador suggested that, as he is Scottish, it would be a nice touch to add a Scottish flavour to the forthcoming garden party to celebrate the queens birthday. He thought a piper would make a pleasant change from the military band which usually performed at these functions. So there it was, the seeds of an idea which would see a group of performers from Hawick fly half way round the world to the exotic Island of Madagascar. This was obviously going to take a lot of organizing but Alistair accepted the challenge. 

Firstly, who would fund the trip? Alistair contacted Air France and along with the powers that be at the consulate, some arm twisting was carried out, with them eventually agreeing to sponsor the flights, phase one organized. Now their thoughts were turned to accommodation, and once again Alistair was on the 'mooch', his friend Mr George  who is also the manager of the local Hilton Hotel was asked for some help, Mr George wasn't his real name, it was actually one those unpronounceable Greek names that would get most people into bother, however George is the only name he uses in Tana. Once again Alistair came up trumps securing not only rooms in the Hilton for everybody, but also spending money for the troops. The trip started with me picking titch up at his house, then we were off to Edinburgh airport where we met the dancers Catherine and Verity with their two enormous suitcases before flying to Madagascar via Paris.   Arriving in Tana was something else especially after previously flying into such superb airports such as Charles de Gaulle, but this gave us our first flavour of Tana, a city that during the early 1900s was a thriving city with strong French influences, but is  now run down in parts as was the airport.  Thank goodness that Alistair was there to meet us and take us to our hotel, but we had to endure the arduous half hour journey there first. The roads looked like they might have been tarred at some point in time, but now they're just a series of potholes and rubble, but it was worth the effort, the hotel was a cracker, set in a prime location near the city center overlooking a large lake. Part of the deal with the Hilton was that we had to sing for our supper, so for about half an hour each evening we had to perform in the hotel restaurant , a few tunes followed by a display of highland dancing. Once again Titch scored as he had a break while the dancers performed, but no such luck for the piper. As was previously mentioned, the main function of the trip was to perform at the ambassadors garden party, so off we went with instructions on how to find our way to the official residence. We arrived at a building with large gates and assumed that this was the place only to be met by a couple of armed guards, how wrong can you be, this wasn't the place but we found it soon after. When we finally arrived at the party we were met by the ambassador and we were given our brief on what was required of us, which turned out to be a cushy number as there was an abundance of food and drink with only a short performance on the pipes and drums required. Once again the pipers assistant had a rest while I played for the dancers. The party was filling up with the usual types of dignitaries, government officials, high ranking military types surrounded by a ridiculous amount of armed guards, it was like being on the set of a Hollywood movie. The next trip was to a local orphanage run by an ex-pat and his wife where we performed for the kids and in return they entertained us with some local songs and dance. This was one of the highlights of the tour as the kids really appreciated our efforts to entertain them. The next day we were on the go again, this time to perform at Alistair's knitwear factory where the girls stole the show with their dancing, I'm not sure if the employees knew what to make of the pipes, and yes yet again Titch gets another easy time of it (sometimes you have to wish you were a drummer) Although it sounds like it was all work and no play this wasn't the case, we had some great nights out, one in particular springs to mind which was in a local restaurant that would not have looked out of place in Paris, in fact the owner was a Parisian called Madam Fifi, now you cant get more French than that. on the menu was a dish consisting of "Zebu" which is a type of Ox so I thought I'd give it a try "when in Rome and all that" well this stuff was the business almost as good as a piece of Aberdeen Angus. One evening we headed off to a bar named after this beast of burden "the Zebu bar" which was run by a Frenchman who in a previous life was a P.E. teacher and who in his spare time coaches the local rugby team, he came down to the bar to listen to the pipes and drums but unfortunately for him he didn't get a chance to hear the drums because Titch was bedridden at the time with a right old dose of the runs, which left me to get on and do all the hard work and the drinking myself. The final part of our trip was a weekend spent living in log cabins within a game reserve called Vakona. To get there we loaded up two Land Rovers and set off on a four hour journey on the worst roads I had ever driven on, and to make matters worse I had to drive on the wrong side of the road, well the wrong side for me that is. After negotiating the Land Rover past the numerous potholes we stopped for some scran, this restaurant was about halfway between Tana and our destination. Here once again my grasp of the French Language let me down as I ended up eating a fish dish rather than the chicken dish I thought I had ordered, nice as it was.  Upon arrival at the game reserve we checked into our rooms which were basically posh log cabins. After that I decided to do a reconnoiter of the area and this place was the real McCoy, Lemurs Crocodiles, Snakes and the usual creepy crawlies , this place had the lot. The next day we went on trip around the reserve where titch nearly provided lunch for one of the Crocodiles ( well a mere snack at any rate) we stopped to take some photographs and we didn't notice the croc emerge from the lagoon only about three meters away from where Titch was posing for his snap. With lunch in mind after that excitement we set off to a restaurant which was a largewooden structure with glazed sides enabling people to look out into the jungle while having their meal. LOcated in the center of the dining room was an enormous fireplace which caused the whole place to smell of wood smoke, this however did not spoil our enjoyment as the food was fabulous "Zebu" on the menu again tremendous! it was in this restaurant that we celebrated Veritys birthday, Alistair had secretly organized a cake after having a word with the chef and this was piped from the kitchen to our table to the tune of happy birthday, well what other tune would you play and anyway who said the pipes aren't versatile. This was a great way to end our trip and so we headed back to Tana, negotiating the potholes and having to put up with some back seat driving from the girls.

The next day it was time to leave Tana and so we said our goodbyes, and I couldn't help but notice that we were not only laden with suitcases, pipe boxes drum boxes but also all the presents that the girls had purchased at the local market, and so homeward bound.

Hopefully this narrative gives an insight into what our trip was like, it wasn't a typical pipe band trip but an enjoyable one non the less.

By Roddy McIntyre