After breakfast, we left for 4 - Ranohira. Rija, our guide, again entertained us with more interesting facts, this time about the tribes. There are 18 different tribes
in Madagascar. The Merina tribe is
centred on the capital, Antananarivo. To
the south, we had been in the territory of the Betsileo tribe. By now, we had left behind the Betsileo and we
were firmly in the territory of the Bara tribe. Here, the family tombs were
different, the villages had smaller houses and the people looked
different. Customs are different in each
tribe. It must be a nightmare learning about all the differences. Here is a map of the tribal areas and the map of our travels to remind you of where we went.
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| The areas of the 18 tribes of Madagascar |
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| Map of our travels. Part 3 covers from 3 to 4 and what we did at 4-Ranohira (Isalo NP) |
With 18 different
tribes there are also 18 different languages in Madagascar! The language of the Merina tribe has been
adopted as the national language of “Malagasy” but not everyone speaks it. Rija occasionally had difficulties
understanding completely some of the people in different tribal areas.
The long journey to Ranohira
was broken by a visit to the Anja reserve, a small park where several families
of ring-tailed lemurs could be seen in the wild. We stopped en route to buy a
packed lunch, which we enjoyed in the picnic area, before entering the park
itself with the local guide, Daniel.
As we finished our
lunch a pair of yellow-billed kites flew over, very low. Here is one of them.
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| Yellow-billed kite |
We then made our way
into the park and eventually arrived in the territory of one of the families of
ring-tailed lemurs. These are the
classic lemurs that everybody knows about, because of their distinctive
tail. They were very obliging, allowing us close views, but always keeping just at arm’s length. We spent some time
enjoying these photogenic animals and taking lots of photographs.
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| Ring-tailed lemur. This is the one most people know. |
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| Ring-tailed lemur with suckling baby - Aah! So cute! |
Whilst there, I heard
the sound of some birds in the distance. One of the assistant guides came with
me and we discovered a group of Madagascar bee-eaters, also known as olive bee-eaters.
After taking a few quick shots, I ran back to tell Nic about them.
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| Olive Bee-eaters (aka Madagascar Bee-eaters). |
We also found some
grey-headed lovebirds nearby.
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| Grey-headed Lovebird |
We continued to our
journey. At one point, we arrived at the approach to Ambalavao, which looked
something like the Great Rift Valley of Africa.
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| Approaching Ambalavao. Has something of the Great Rift Valley about it, no? |
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| Lynne and me near Ambalavao. |
Ambalavao is host to
the largest zebu market in the country. Zebu is the cattle they have there.
They are recognisable by the camel-like hump on their shoulders. All beef,
milk, etc is from zebu, which are more numerous than people. The population of
Madagascar is about 25 million. We passed Ambalavao on market day. Herders from
miles around were taking their purchases back along the road to their villages.
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| Herders driving their zebu purchases back home. Near Ambalavao. |
The terrain changed as
we crossed a vast plateau. The land was flatter and composed of rather sparse
grassland. We stopped at a Bara
village to have a look around.
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| In a Bara village. Novel cactus fencing! |
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Bara village. Houses are small,
but most will have a solar charger for mobiles! |
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| This cinder iron was actually in use as we visited! |
Further on the way, we
stopped at a petrol station. A circumcision parade passed us.
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| Circumcision parade. They dance as they march (see next video). |
The idea is to
tire out the boy, about 5-6 years old, until late into the night so that he is
exhausted the following morning when they take him to the doctor. Rija says "it's very quick". The poor lad here does not realise what is about to happen! If you think that’s strange, the
grandfather then eats the foreskin that has been snipped! Here's the video, (No. Of the parade, silly!):
As dusk approached, we stopped to take some photos of the sunset.
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| A photo of the sunset. L to R - Steph, Mike, Chris, Sian, Al, Lynne (foreground) and Nic. |
Meanwhile, I found a new bird nearby, a Madagascar Lark:
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| Madagascar Lark |
After another half hour
or so we finally arrived in Ranohira, at the Orchidee Hotel. Ranohira is very
close to the entrance to the Isalo National Park. We enjoyed dinner before
retiring to our relatively luxurious room. There was even a swimming pool, but
we did not use it.
The following morning, as we went to breakfast, I heard some birds of prey calling nearby. I
found a pair of kestrels in a tree just outside the hotel. The young kestrel
was begging to be fed and the adult obliged.
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Feed me, Mummy! Yes, that mouse will do nicely!
Kestrels outside our hotel in Ranohira |
After breakfast, we
were off to the park. Right at the entrance I heard the call of an unknown bird
and the guide took me to see it; a Madagascar Hoopoe. Our guides were Naina and
Andry.
Isalo National Park was
dramatic. The approach was through some
steep cliffs where Kestrels lived. The whole terrain is predominantly dry and hot, even in the rainy season.
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| Approach to Isalo National Park |
We climbed steeply onto the internal
plateau. Here's what it looks like:
The guide pointed out some wildlife to us, including some weird creatures that look like white fluff. Look carefully or you'll miss them.
. . .then, some stick insects . . .
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| Find the stick insect |
. . . a scorpion . . .
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| Scorpion. Our guide turned over stones until this little creature came with the stone! |
. . . .and some birds.
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| Common Newtonia |
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| Namaqua Dove - a nice male |
Isalo is regarded as sacred by the local tribe, the Bara, who like to be buried there. We came across some permanent tombs and also some abandoned temporary coffins with nobody in - at least we hope none.
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| This colourful metal coffin is empty. It originally contained the body of a small person. The bones have been re-buried permanently. The coffin is about 90cm long. |
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| This is a permanent burial place. |
We crossed the plateau to a high point above the canyon. While not as
impressive as a certain canyon in America, the view was certainly dramatic. We
took photographs on the highest point. This video of the main canyon is from my phone:
 |
| All of us above the main canyon. L to R - Mike, Sian, Lynne, Al, Steph, Norma, Chris, me, Nic (behind) and Rija, our guide |
We descended into the canyon and crossed over to a water-hole. This was
an oasis, allowing us to cool off, paddle in the water and recover our energy ready for
the next stage, which was quite a trek up the length of the canyon itself. A couple of our party even stripped off and
swam in the cooling water!
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| The oasis in Isalo - a place to cool off. |
In the waterhole, we
found the locally endemic Benson's Rock Thrush. They were very confiding and came very close.
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| Benson's Rock Thrush - male, looks friendly |
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| Benson's Rock Thrush - female, looks rather severe. |
After a rest, we
started our trek along the length of the canyon. The
guide soon led us to a nearby bush, which held a rainbow locust. This large
insect was impressive enough while it was perched in the bush. When he made it fly, it revealed a bright
crimson wing case, which amazed us all.
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| Rainbow Locust |
OK, OK! I know you want to see another hand, so here is one!
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| Rainbow locust with hand. |
By this time, it was
approaching mid-day and the sun was very hot. Well, we thought it was hot, although the
guide observed drily that it was “only about 32-33°C"! In this hot dry place, special plants grew, such as Elephant's foot and an Aloe something. Sorry, I'm not too good on plants!
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| Elephant's foot, or false baobab. |
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| Aloe species - not Aloe Vera |
It was a relief to reach the
end of the canyon and go down into the valley again to a campsite in a shady stand
of trees where we were to have lunch. This area was home to a number of birds, including
Madagascar turtle dove, Madagascar buttonquail, Fody, Madagascar Hoopoe and Benson's
Rock Thrush.
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| Madagascar Turtle Dove |
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| Madagascar Buttonquail |
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| Madagascar Hoopoe |
Some of the others went
on a further walk after lunch to some other pools. Lynne and I decided to relax
in camp while they did it! On their return,
we walked the final 1.5Km to the car park where our bus was waiting for us. We had
certainly earned our dinner that evening.
The following morning,
we left Ranohira and the Bara tribe on the last leg of our journey southwest to 5 -Tulear. Tulear is spelt "Toliara" on the map above. Rija explained that the road we were now travelling on was built a few
years ago by the Chinese for reasons which remain obscure.
The journey was full of
interest and activity. Firstly, we
passed through Ilakaka, a sapphire town, which had grown up in the last 15 or 20 years after the discovery of sapphires in the area. What had been a small village has now
become a medium sized town, with people from all over the country, who come
to mine sapphires. The mining conditions
are, apparently, far from safe. Some workers die when the shafts they are
working in collapse, through lack of support. We did not stop at Ilakaka, but
drove on, through some fairly bleak terrain of termite hills and desert. We did
notice a very impressive family tomb in this area though.
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| Not a country villa, but a large family tomb. |
Later, we reached the
National Park of Zombitse. Our guides were Tiavo, Gold and Feline.
This Park was home to a
couple of species of lemur, a very rare endemic bird, as well as some
impressive baobab trees.
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| Appert's Tetraka - a rare bird endemic to the Zombitse region |
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| A Long-billed Tetraka in Zombitse |
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| A large Baobab tree - Zombitse |
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| A large double Baobab tree - Zombitse |
I've kept the cuddly lemurs till last!
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| Verreaux's Sifaka |
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| Verreaux's Sifaka |
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| Hubbard's sportive lemur, aka Zombitse sportive lemur. This is actually a nocturnal species. |
This was quite a short visit, and we then pressed on
towards Tulear. We were running low on
cash at this point. Credit and debit cards are useless in most of Madagascar,
so we needed to go to the bank. The first bank we went to looked at my £20
notes and declared that they were not new enough, so they wouldn't change them! We went
to a different bank, where they did agree to change them. The clerk told us to
wait. We waited about 15 minutes before we were called to the counter, and then,
perhaps, another 10 - 15 minutes while they dealt with the formalities of
changing the money. I have a sneaking
suspicion that, even then, we had somehow jumped the queue of local people, which seemed to
remain the same all the while we were there.
While I was in the
bank, Lynne had gone to the local supermarket with Steph. They had bought a
bottle of local gin and some tonic for us to drink during our stay at the beach.
Back at our hotel, the
Victory, we decided to have a swim before dinner. This was quite refreshing. In
fact, the water was quite cool, but it was the first swim that we had had. Our
stay in Tulear was brief. The next day
we were going to Anakao, for a beach holiday. Now, Anakao is quite
a short distance along the coast as the crow flies, but almost impossible to
reach by road.
How would we get there? Don't
miss the final thrilling instalment!
Other parts:
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