It was as smooth as a baton-change in the Olympics. As we came out of the tunnel the train slowed right down, an arm held up a bag of baguettes from the trackside and the co-driver hooked it in. The arm belonged to a woman in a floppy hat who waved and wished us, “Bon voyage!” And on we trundled, on rubber tyres, through the Malagasy rainforest.
Rail journeys don’t get more charming than this. La Micheline is a vintage railcar that runs from the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, to either Andasibe in the east or Antsirabe in the south. I took it to Andasibe, on a 90 mile, five-hour journey through mountainous jungle that dropped me on the doorstep of Andasibe National Park, the