Grand Bassin

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GANGA TALAO. LAKE OF THE GANGES

Long before arrival at the lake the huge bronze coloured statue gives away its location.

Arriving here early in the morning before the predicted buses of tour groups definitely paid off. The calm and serenity at this extinct volcanic crater was mesmorising. It is a sacred site for Hindus who come to place offerings in the lake which some believe to be linked to the Ganges by an underground stream. Surprisingly, in the lake itself there was little evidence that people come here regularly to make offerings of fruits and flowers and pray. I say 'surprisingly' as in other places we have seen the messy aftermath of such rituals. (After Prayer Debris- i.e.wilted flowers, dead leaves being swept along in the wind and old fruit bobbing up and down in the water.) Maybe this is another advantage of coming along early in the day.

Small pink painted temples, filled with colourful statues of gods, tables of offerings and the heady smell of insense, surround the lake all joined by a bricked path which seems to be slightly inclined towards the lake allowing the water to lap onto the path slightly. My first thoughts are that this may be a design feature of such locations enabling offerings to be prepared at the edge of the water and float around in front of the pilgrim before gently being released onto the lake. (this question requires some research!)

MAHA SHIVARATREE PREPARATION

Driving east along the road from Le Pétrin (B89) towards Ganga Talao we found that most of it was being resurfaced in preparation for the coming (Feb/Mar) Maha Shivaratree festival in celebration of the god Shiva when hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims visit.

I have to admit that since my move to Madagascar seeing tarmaced roads, or even better, smelling tarmaced roads filled me with rapture!! As soon as we turned onto the B89, after driving through the Black River Gorges park I saw the brightly coloured roadside machines. I put my head out of the window and flopped my hair around in the wind to feel the cool early morning freshness of the air and to take full advantage of the smell sensation! After two or three seconds I decided it might be a good idea to close my eyes to avoid blinding myself completely!

A team of men was busy unloading scaffolding poles from the back of a pick-up parked dangerously close to our hire car considering the length of the poles. They were erecting a frame to install a welcome gazebo for the forthcoming pilgrims and providing shade/rain cover during their visit. The toilet buildings around the site were being inspected and it seemed like they were deblocking pipes with a 'Dyna-rod' type vehicle. Two men were slowly making the tour of the lake with a bucket of paint which they were using to retouch the concrete pillars spaced at 2 metre intervals around the edge of the lake. Both seemed surprised as I appeared from behind a temple to say 'Bonjour'. I don't think they were expecting people to be plodding around quite so early.

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