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Published: November 1st 2023
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Crushing sugar cane and tamarind
This is the first step in making the rum. The juice is diluted with water and fermented in drums sealed with Zebu dung. Well in fact we had one more day at the beach. The key difference was that we got to Ifaty, from where there is a 'good' road to Tuliara, the main city in the South. Our 4x4 adventure had come to an end. The tarmac road made Ifaty a tourist town with numerous hotels. Ironically the beach was not nearly as nice as those further North from where we had come.
At some point they will presumably create a tarmac road north to Morombe. This will transform the area and turn it into a holiday strip. Hotels will be built by outside investors. I can see that the coastal Vezo people and their pirogues would not survive. In fact I can't see the locals gaining any benefit from a 'good' road.
We had stopped north of Ifaty to visit a local community-run forest area, Reniala Forest Reserve. The guide was very good at pointing out the local medicinal uses for different plants. There was one with a bitter sap that a mother puts on her breasts when she wanted to wean her child.
Next door was a sanctuary for radiated tortoises. These have become endangered because the Chinese
Distilling the rum
Chemistry in action. The fermented sugar cane juice is heated with a charcoal fire and the condenser is a hollowed tree trunk filled with water. The liquor is collected at the far end. like to eat them and others keep them as pets. The locals like to keep a female in the house as it is believed the odour of their urine can help asthmatics, they occasionally still eat them. The centre receives tortoises from the police and in particular customs at Paris airport. There were thousands under their care. They keep them for a while and then, if it's possible, release them to the wild.
We had a long drive the following day to Ranohina. On the roadside we passed an illegal rum distillery. JeanBe said they exist in the North but keep it hidden but nobody down South seemed to mind. They crush local sugarcane and tamarind in a 55 gallon drum. They fill it with water and when it starts to ferment they seal the drum with Zebu dung. After one week they heat the drum over a charcoal fire. The condensing tube is passed through a hollowed out tree trunk which is kept full of water. The raw spirit is collected into a plastic container at the other end of the trunk. I tasted it (and bought a small bottle) and reckoned it was about 60%. It didn't
Planning for sapphires South of Isola
The is the 'wild west'. The mining is deadly when the tunnels collapse. taste bad and at the very least can be used to make brandy butter at Christmas. We were impressed with the distiller's ingenuity.
Our official stop for the day was at Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park. This was similar to Kirindy further North in being a 'fortress' forest. One could clearly see the edge of the National Park because that is where the forest started. The surrounding area was as barren as we have seen. It used to be a cotton growing area which has now been abandoned because of Chinese imports.
Late October, the end of the dry season, is nesting time for many birds. The guide pointed out the nests occupied by hooked billed and rufus vangas. We could also observed closely a family of white sifaka, a species of lemur. The newborns were still riding around on their mother's backs. It was impressive to just stand and watch for a while to see the interactions between members and follow their behaviours. All animals in Madagascar seem less shy of humans than in Europe.
Next, we had an informal stop at the sapphire mines just South of Ranohina. JeanBe says it is the largest in the world,
Lemurs and other animals are not shy
One for JeanBe's website (jeanbetours.com) I think in terms of area. The source was discovered by chance in 1997 and has created a significant town as a result. The work is unregulated, hot and dangerous. People dig the earth and put it in sacks. They take it to the river and pan it for gemstones. South East Asians are on hand in grand offices to buy any finds. JeanBe says if they do get a payout they then drink rum from dusk until dawn. He said he did it once only.
Ranohina where we are staying is the gateway to Isola, the oldest and most popular National Park in Madagascar. I took an evening stroll down the main street after arrival. I was pleased to come across a local soccer game. I thought the standard was pretty good given the dirt pitch was so uneven.
My presence as the only foreigner created some interest, everyone was friendly and I was not harassed for anything at any point. In the crowd of about 100 I ended up sitting next to teenagers. The girl next to me pulled out her smartphone and I saw that she went straight on to Facebook and FB messenger. I
A Rufus Vangas on her nest
October is nesting season. am guessing that Tiktok and Snapchat use too many GBs because they are video based.
On our second evening I had another walk to explore Ranohira and succeeded in my hunt for banana fritters. I passed two (what I call) laptop shops. They were young guys on laptops who seemed to be selling streamed music or videos and providing them on stick drives.
We were now entering the hiking phase of our trip and moving through different tribal areas in Central Madagascar.
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