Zebus, Rice, and more Lemurs

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So what the hell is a zebu, you might well ask. Well, simplistically it is a cow with a large hump near the neck. But in Madagascar it is far more than just that. The zebu is not only an emblem of Malagasy culture, it is a symbol of wealth and also punctuates rituals and the daily lives of the Malagasy people. Zebus appear in the fields, in the bush, on your dinner plate, and even on all their banknotes. It is too complicated to describe here, but the zebu plays a major role in Madagascar in each of circumcision ceremonies, major projects, weddings and even funerals, with slight differences in approach between tribes. And in a more practical sense, in agricultural activities, particularly rice growing (and this is the staple food for near all Malagasys), zebus pull the ploughs and drag the harrows.

The first part of our fourth day in Madagascar was a four hour road trip from Andasibe to the East Coast. Who could ever have thought that a trip of this duration could hold your attention the whole way? Most of the drive was along windy roads through mountainous terrain, flanked on either side by some of the richest tropical forest I’ve seen, with many varieties of palms and ferns in abundance. But the real attractions for me were the villages and the people. Every 5 minutes or so we would pass through some manner of village, ranging from just a few primitive houses to a couple of hundred metres of housing, each with its own individual charm. And as always, there were people everywhere, carting goods in baskets on their heads or in makeshift trolleys, attending to their shop or stall, or more likely just ‘hanging around’. As if there weren’t enough people in the villages, it was amazing how often we would pass family groups just walking along the side of the road, often apparently a long way from any built up areas, and not looking as though they are in a hurry to go anywhere. It is interesting that while Sydney and many other places are on water restrictions, every kilometre or so here we encountered a public water supply that ran continually (no taps required!) and frequently noticed people stopping to use this to clean their cars.

As mentioned last blog, this East Coast ‘motorway’ carries a huge number of very large lorries as well as these random groups of pedestrians, and in many places the road was not wide enough for our vehicle to pass comfortably between the two, sometimes giving rise to a gap of less than 30cm from both, which is pretty scary when you are travelling at 90kph, but that doesn’t seem to faze any of the parties involved. Added to this were the perennial potholes, no doubt exacerbated every time the lorries rolled over them, all resulting in a trip to remember.

The last 7km of our road trip was a deviation off the main road to the jetty where we were then to move forward by boat. We were warned that this would be slow due to the condition of the track. We weren’t warned that it would take more than 45 minutes to traverse, including two stoppages while we waited for other vehicles that were bogged to be freed up by their multitude of passengers. The fact that it rains here virtually every day of course just added to the poor state of the track.

That completed our road trips for Madagascar. The next two destinations are only reachable by boat, with our travelling north up the East Coast through a series of lakes and connecting canals called the Channel of the Pangalanes, which stretches for a total of over 600 kilometres parallel with the coastline. Speaking of rain, just as we started off in our speedboat for the hour ride to our first resort, we got a typical tropical drenching. While our speedboat did have a roof, it had no front or side protection, so by the time we had traversed two lakes and the joining canal at high speed for over an hour, two very drenched and cold passengers alighted from the boat. And we paid money for this!

Our accommodation for the next two nights was the Palmarium Reserve Hotel at the very remote and fascinatingly named location Akanin’ny Nofy, which translates to ‘Nest of Dreams’. Unfortunately that was a slight misnomer for me because while I had anticipated there would be no wifi available, I hadn’t realised there would also be no electricity overnight, which is a distinct problem when you sleep with the aid of a CPAP machine. Fortunately, Dr Normisson gave me a prescription of sleeping tablets before I left home and I survived the two nights, albeit sadly without the dreams. I may need to get use to electricity-free nights, with Ethiopia still to come - time will tell.

On arrival, we were taken on another night venture, this time to Aye-Aye Island to check out the largest of the nocturnal lemurs of the same name. We were fortunate enough to locate two Aye-Ayes, both feeding off coconuts at ground level, which gave us a much better chance to check out their characteristics (including its elongated middle finger, which would be handy at times in Oz!) as well as getting some good pics.

The next morning did not start well. We found out we are currently on the same latitude as Cairns, and that this place has similar climate. Not to disappoint, we had a torrential downpour for 3 hours without any sign of letting up. It seemed for a while that we were going to spend our whole day in paradise just reading a book. But not so said our guide, and when it reduced to just a steady shower, we kitted up in our rain gear to go out and see what wildlife wasn’t sheltering from the rain. And we got lucky as we saw another new half dozen species of lemur (including the Macaca, Crowned and a couple of types of hybrid lemurs) and also had the chance to have a number of different species (including the Indri Indri) sit on our shoulders, heads and anywhere else we cared to house a piece of banana. So we certainly can’t come away from Madagascar and complain we didn’t get sufficient exposure, both visually and up close and personal, to the extensive lemur species.

The afternoon was spent visiting a local beachside village, squeezed along the spit between the lake and the Indian Ocean. We understand the village comprises around 500 people housed in an area not much bigger than a football field. Due to its isolation, we assume it was a pretty closed community, and while the houses, all pretty much made of local bush materials, were extremely basic, the people there appeared very contented and many were happy to chat to us via our guide. Like most of these types of villages in developing countries, it is interesting to learn where the funds come in to sustain a village like this, as there would appear to be very limited paid employment (although we did meet the primary school teacher). Being situated between a huge lake and the ocean, as well as close to a couple of major resorts, their collective income would likely come from selling fish to the resorts and further afield, as well as providing low level duties (housekeeping for the women and maintenance for the men) at the resorts. The poor sandy soil precludes growing rice and most vegetables, but they are able to grow bananas, avocados, mangoes and lychees.

To get back to the capital Antananarivo from Akanin’ny Nofy first required a further 3 hour trip on yet another speedboat north to Tamatave, the only seaport of Madagascar. Again, we traversed a series of lakes and interconnected canals, during which we were able to view many aspects of lakeside village life. Tamatave is a typical commercial centre and its trishaws and stalls were reminiscent of many similar cities in Asia. The final leg in our journey was a flight on a very old plane (remember those ones with propellers?) back to the capital, from where we then flew back to Jo’burg.

So that is Madagascar done and dusted. A lot of similarities to the countries in the IndoChina region and despite its low socioeconomic status, it is a country with its own unique culture, was very hospitable and at no stage did we have any concerns for our safety. So the caravan rolls on, with Victoria Falls next stop.

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