The morning started with a subdued light entering the cottage, opening the door revealed the view enrobed with a heavy mist. The lake shore was visible along with the luxury wooden rooms on stilts with plants lining their walkways and decking.
We explored the formal gardens and topiary bushes whose structure was softened by the slowly dispersing mist. We discovered the railway line for the tea plantation with its buffer stops positioned precariously close to the lake shore.
After breakfast we packed, loaded the 4x4 and headed off to the Sahambavy Tea Plantation.
The Sahambavy tea plantation was only a short drive from Lac Hotel and the car park was deserted when we arrived and parked near a wall inset with enormous fans. After checking in the office Tahiry returned to inform us that we were off-season and the normal scheduled tours were not running but he had arranged a private tour.
We entered following the route the tea leaves follow through factory. The tea leaves arrive from the fields and are placed on to large aluminium slatted drying beds through which warm is blown from below and the moist air extracted using the enormous fans.
As the tea leaves whither they change colour and at the right time are moved by hand to the end of the bed where they are put into bags and then are on to an overhead conveyor belt that takes them onwards to the machinery.
The machines were many and varied with functions which included rolling, oxidation, fermentation drying and finally sorting before the tea is packed into enormous sacks or little packets. Walking next to the machines we experienced a variety of wonderful smells from the subtle at the withering stage to pungent during the oxidation and fermentation. The tea sorting or grading machinery showed how wonderfully simple processes provide the variety of styles from the same production.
We left the Sahambavy packing area and passed through to the quality control and tasting room where we sampled several varieties and purchased souvenirs. Several children selling homemade cards greeted us in the car park and we again bout some souvenirs.
Driving away from Sahambavy we passed through the village where the workers, their families and animals live. We started the long drive back towards the main road on the track where the daylight made the navigation easier, but not the ride.