INSIDER TRAVEL: MADAGASCAR

By Tim Robson

“Madagascar is a curious wonderland. It’s an unrepeatable experiment, a set of animals and plants evolving in isolation for over 60 million years. We’re still trying to unravel its mysteries…”

David Attenborough

To most people, Madagascar was a series of very successful animated films starring the instantly recognisable ring-tailed lemur. To me, it was the place my father, as a British Intelligence officer attached to the Free French, saw out the Second World War. A place I had always wanted to visit. Situated around 250 miles from Mozambique on the African continent, it is the fourth largest island on the planet, a place of mystery and unique wildlife; 90% is unique, and 80% of the plant life is only found on this one island. That is about as far as my knowledge went.

There are two distinct seasons: a hot wet one between November and April, when most of the island becomes inaccessible to tourists, and the dry season or high season between May and October. Because it is in the Southern Hemisphere and close to Africa you imagine it is hot and dry; but it is neither generally. The capital (which is unpronounceable, like most of the place names and surnames), let’s call it Tana rather than Antananarivo, is high as is most of the central part of the country, ranging from 2,500 to 5,500 feet above sea level. Some of the peaks are over 8,500 feet high, so the sun has high uv and the nights are cold. Never mind the rainforests, which as I was to discover live up to their name – they are very wet, with rain nine days out of ten. You get a clue when you arrive and there are hot water bottles in your hotel room.

Whilst I hate tours and prefer to travel independently, the number of tourists who visit the island is a paltry 300,000 a year (about the same as Margate), so infrastructure and transport is limited – therefore a tour it had to be. On the map the distances between the major places to visit looked manageable, but that reckoned without the appalling roads, which doubled the journey times – but the upside was that you get a great picture of the ever-changing landscapes from the window. Sometimes that view is not so appealing, as you cling to the sides of the road with steep drops to the rivers that cut through deep ravines and notice that there are articulated lorries on their sides that have slid into the river below. The roads generally are not maintained and frankly dangerous; however, I don’t want to put you off! Our trip went from Tana in the northern part to the beaches in the south, through mountains, rainforests, weird rock formations and a location manager’s dream of scenery. Every available piece of land was terraced for rice cultivation and looked like a miniature Bali. It was planting season one of two rice crops annually, so the women were out in the paddy fields popping the plants into the wet terraces.

Taboos are prevalent in Madagascar, as are some specific other practices; ancestor worship and circumcision for example. The former, Famadihana, where after five years in the ground the family dig up the bones of relatives and rebury them, wrapped with their name written on the wrapping to great celebration. Circumcision is widespread, for some 95% of male population. Fomorana is performed at the age of five during a rising moon; the child rests on his grandfather’s lap as a piece of sharp bamboo is used, and the piece of foreskin is then swallowed by the grandfather – slightly pleased I am not a grandfather. Shaking hands is widespread, but pointing with your finger will get you into serious trouble. A Madagascar proverb states, “Even the dead in their family vaults enjoy being in large company”.

Before we concentrate on the wildlife, which is why many people do or want to go to Madagascar, a word about the history and economy. The European countries largely left the island alone for centuries as it was disease-ridden and did not appear to have any spices or gold, nor ivory or large quantities of slaves. Some 12 tribes carved out kingdoms across the island until one rather small king (at a height of around four feet), through marrying into each of the tribes solidified power, placing each respective wife on a hill around what is now the capital. During the scramble for Africa and empire in the last years of the nineteenth century the French occupied the island. They remained until thrown out in the late 1950s in common with many of their overseas colonies. During World War II the Vichy French ran the island, at one point designated by Himmler as a home for all European Jews and began victualling both Japanese and German submarines. Fearing Japanese occupation, resulting in a serious threat to Empire Sea lanes, the British mounted “Operation Ironclad” a full-scale amphibious invasion through Diego Suarez in the north. Within six months the island was in allied hands and given to the Free French to administer. Now 9/10ths of the island is Malagasy split into 20 ethnic groups, and French is still widely spoken together with numerous local dialects; half the island’s population are Christian. Until the early 1970s French influence was strong, but after a period of instability and disturbances their legacy was ended and the economy promptly collapsed. Since then, there have been various quasi-democratic parties in power; the current President is an ex-DJ. Sadly, corruption is rife, and the richness of the island is pilfered by the elite, rice, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, coffee, tobacco, peanuts and vanilla of course. There is oil, minerals, precious and semiprecious stones; sapphires (50% of the world’s sapphires come from the island) and rubies in particular.

‘Taboos are prevalent in Madagascar as are some specific other practices; ancestor worship and circumcision for example.’

Our trip drove through the mining area in the south, specifically three towns and two rivers. There were hordes of women panning in the rivers and men with spades digging in the sandy soil, filling sandbags to then be washed to find stones. The towns have lots of women with the stones in their pans touting for business among the mainly Chinese, Sri Lankan and Indian buyers who control this area. Guns were very visible and there was an atmosphere of the wild west about the three towns; it is a dangerous and somewhat lawless place. We were told that for the lucky/unlucky person that finds a major stone, their survival into the evening is doubtful.

The flora and fauna are why most visitors head for the National Parks, last havens for the wildlife as much has been destroyed for crops. Madagascar was part of Gondwana, the massive supercontinent, until during the Jurassic period it split away, 180 million and 90 million years respectively from both the African and Indian sub-continents. From then the unique animals and plants have evolved as nowhere else on earth; perhaps most famously the lemur species and the array of chameleons and lizards. The snakes are all non- poisonous to humans which is a relief, as we saw quite a few. Our trip took in the Ranomafana, Isalo and Andasibe Forest reserves; the first and last rain forests. I have been in rainforests before in Central America but have never been in one where it rains continually, which it did in Ranomafana, much to the amusement of the guides when we all complained about the weather – it is basically a cloud forest as it is several thousand metres up in the mountains. Frankly, without a guide we would have seen little, but heard the somewhat haunting cries of the various species of lemurs. The first issue in the wet is the prevalence of leeches, which are everywhere. All our party had them on our hands, faces and any other exposed parts of our bodies. They are clever little things, as when they attach, they bite in an anaesthetising fluid so you don’t feel it; one poor man had them in his beard and in his mouth. As the paths are quite steep and muddy you often need to use tree trunks to hang onto, until told not to by the guides; inside many tree trunks lives a rather horrid orange tarantula-type spider that feels the vibrations and dashes out to bite you. Apart from all this it is a fascinating place to walk through, and after a while we did see many lemurs which are fun to watch in the trees.

Perhaps the most interesting thing of all was the number of chameleons and lizards that populate the trees near the road, as they absorb the heat from the tarmac at night. It was our first view of these fascinating creatures, although in the dark. Their camouflage is extremely varied and clever, their colours bright and exotic. The tree snakes, including the large tree Boa constrictors, were all very slow in the relative cold at this time of year and you could get very close indeed without fear of them lurching out at you.

Our next Park was Isalo, where we stayed at a Lodge that was set in front of a series of quite dramatic mountains, described as the Colorado of Madagascar. This Park is set amid deep ravines and canyons and dry savannah, so very different from the cloud forest. Our Park Walk initially took us along a path along a ravine with the river below, and in the distance green paddy fields. At every other tree or bush our guide would point out stick insects and lizards, which we would certainly have never seen. We had a picnic lunch and were surrounded by ring-tailed lemurs and several other species, which were fascinating to watch and quite relaxed with humans. The odd snake made an appearance on the paths, before we set off for a walk alongside the river to two deep caves and lakes with frogs and birds aplenty en route.

The tour started and finished in Antananarivo, the capital and major city of Madagascar. The French influence is still obvious here from the buildings and the layout of the French quarter and elsewhere (a little like Hanoi in Vietnam) as well as the great coffee and passable croissants (of course not as good as Paris). The city is huge, and very spread out, so walking except for the Palaces is not wise due to a high crime rate. A pity, as it is a great place to wander around and not the same from a car.

To conclude, Madagascar makes for a fascinating trip, but it is quite tiring as there is a lot to see in a short space of time. If you want a tourist destination you can fly direct to then head for Nosy Be Island on the Northern tip, which is where most tourists go. Or the Comoros Islands, which are not that far away from the Northern tip of the island. I flew Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa and changed there for Tana, a long haul but there are no direct flights from London. The lodges were generally good some with stunning locations, but not luxurious.

By Tim Robson