madagascar
Madagascar
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Isolated for 165 million years, Madagascar is the world’s oldest island, and the fourth largest. Cast adrift from Africa, its cargo of strange plants and animals has been evolving ever since and most are found no where else on earth. Most famous are the lemurs and bizarre chameleons, but the islands extraordinary plants include forests of spiny trees and baobabs.
The Malagasy people are descended from Indo-Malayan seafarers who arrived along Indian Ocean trade routes. Their staple crop is rice grown on terraced hillsides that would be reminiscent of Indonesia if it weren’t for the villages of European-looking multistory brick houses with shuttered windows and carved balconies.
Madagascar is a country striving to shake off a French colonial legacy, but since independence, has struggled under one incompetent and corrupt government after another, as was evidenced by the coup in January 2009. It is still one of the poorest countries in the world.
ANTANANARIVO
Population 1.2 million
Antananarivo is the nation’s capital. It is a city bustling with activity on every corner, where people flood the streets, walking down the middle of lanes between traffic, knocking on taxi windows, selling everything you can imagine.
At first glance, “Tana” resembles a Mediterranean hill town. It is easy to see on foot provided you are willing to climb hundreds of ancient stone steps and hillsides, no easy task after a 10 hour overnight flight from Paris.
Morondava
Population 31,500
Morondava is a laid-back seaside town on the Mozambique Channel, with sandy streets and decaying clapboard houses. Most people come to Morondava to visit the most photographed place in Madagascar, the magnificent Grandidier’s baobabs, best seen at the Avenue de Baobabs. After one short day in Tana, we flew to Morondava, a one hour flight. To drive this distance with the current road conditions would have taken two days.
Route du Sud
Route Nationale 7
One of the better roads in Madagascar and one of the most popular tourist routes is the RN7. After three days we flew back to Tana from Morondava and hired a car and driver. One cannot hire a self-drive car in Madagascar, all rentals come with a driver as the roads can be a bit tricky.
The road starts in Tana and heads south through the towns of Antsirabe, with it’s wide colonial streets and hordes of colorful rickshaws (and extremely persistent rickshaw drivers), and Ambositra, with an abundance of handicraft shops. But along the way, the scenery is spectacular and a drive of only a couple hundred kilometers can take all day when allowing for multiple photo opportunities.
Continuing south, the next major town is Fianarantsoa, Madagascar’s second-largest city. In and of itself, this city is not very exciting, but makes for a good base from which to explore nearby attractions. Ambalavao has been described as one of the most beautiful towns in the hauts plateaux. The brightly painted buildings of the main street look a bit like gingerbread houses with their steeply tiled roofs and carved, weathered wooden balconies. Every Wednesday, the town plays host to the largest zebu (cattle) market in the country, with the herdsmen walking hundreds of kilometers from the far southern town of Toliara to Tana, this trip can take about a month.
Anja Reserve
About 7km south of Ambalavao is Anja Reserve, a total community initiative. A local guide started the park about a decade ago to promote regional tourism, create jobs and teach villagers the importance of conservation. The most popular attraction of the reserve are the ring-tailed lemurs. The region is sacred to the Betsileo people; their ancestors are buried there and it has always been taboo to hunt lemurs. The ring-tail lemurs here feel so comfortable in their protected environment that it is not unusual for them to be within a few feet of rapidly clicking photographers.
Parc National De Ranomafana
After the spectacular day in Anja, it was time to head north again, but the highlight of the adventure was yet to come. After being in sweltering heat and sun in the dry highlands for many days, we headed toward the cloud forest. As we rounded the turn towards Ranomafana and entered the landscape of rolling hills, thick with dark green vegetation and numerous small streams that turn into waterfalls as they plummet off slate-gray rocks and into the Namorona River below, things suddenly turned from scorching, cloudless skies to misty, green hillsides of virgin forest. Several species of lemur can be found within the park including the rare golden bamboo lemur and the greater bamboo lemur. Night walks also reveal an amazing array of wildlife including chameleons, frogs and mouse lemurs. My travel companion and best friend, Mark, was quite the wildlife photographer, sometimes trekking off of the “trails” through swamps and mud, and for his efforts he has some amazing photos of the various lemurs which you can view at www.markreeve.com and click on the link: In Search of Lemurs. I still have lots to learn in regards to wildlife photography, but that’s what future adventures are for. I’m still not quite sure why he got the great shots and i’m the one who ended up with a leach on my neck.
FACES OF MADAGASCAR
The Malagasy people were for the most part, delightful. We found them to be friendly and very willing to interact with us. Even if they spoke not a word of English and we not a word of Malagasy, we had many wonderful encounters with the locals, including being invited into their homes.
