Baobab Alley

Slash and burn land clearing.

My home for three nights.

Baobab Alley.

Local peddlars.

Verreaux sifaka lemurs.

Local dugout canoes.

The car ferry to cross the Tsiribihina River.

Chameleon crossing the road... slowly.

Saturday, October 28^th

We had the included breakfast and then loaded up in our 4x4 with Morgan and our driver Patrick, and headed off through the village. The first stop was the ATM and the second a shop to buy lots of bottled water. Each of us was encouraged to buy six two litre bottles for the next four days as we will be doing some hiking and it is very hot and humid here.

Then we turned off the paved road that takes you back to Antananarivo (13 hours away!) and headed north on the dirt road which is called National Road 8. It is mostly dirt and dust and thankfully not too much gravel. About forty-five minutes later we came to Baobab Alley. This is one of the places I came to Madagascar to see. I love baobab trees and here there are a number of them lining the road. Once the government of Madagascar realized that tourists were interested in these trees they moved to protect them. Previously the local population pealed the bark off them for roofing material and to build fences. There are a number of native huts in and around the trees and as Morgan said they were here before the area became popular with tourists. There were a number of young children here wandering around with chameleons on sticks and letting people take photos for money.

The views here are stunning, but we were on the wrong side for lighting. So I asked Morgan if we could walk the alley, which is just a portion of the dirt road, to the other end and have the car pick us up there,he agreed and we did. Really amazing place. There are lot of baobab trees in the area and three different species. The ones we saw here at the Adansonia Grandidieri variety and have all their branches in an umbrella shape. They are really unique and very beautiful.

We got back in the vehicle and continued on until we came to Kirindi National Forest. Stuart had told us about this place and it is not on the itinerary but Morgan asked us if we wanted to go there to see the fosa. This is a large member of the mongoose family that preys on lemurs. We paid an extra 50000 ariaries for this. 35000 for entrance, 10000 for the guide and 5000 for extra petrol! (Morgan became our guide – what is that about? Perhaps a little extra entrepeneurship?) We went for an hour long walk through the dry forest. We did not see a fosa but we did see white, Verreaux sifaka lemurs, very cool. There was a group of five sleeping or hiding from the heat in a tree. Amazing to see them. There are 111 types of lemurs with some being diurnal and others being nocturnal. I also saw several birds, but had no luck photographing them in the forest.

After that we continued along the dirt road NR8, for 110 kilometres in three hours until we came to the little village of Bekopaka, on the south side of the Tsiribihina River. We had to take a ferry across the river. The ferry was made of two boats connected by wooden beams. We climbed out of our vehicle and watched as Patrick drove down the sandy bank and positioned the car to go up two narrow ramps onto the ferry from the side. Then we pedestrians boarded. The ferry was motorized and we sailed for an hour downstream and across the river. When we got to the town of Belo we drove our truck across three of these ferries, which were all tied to the dock, to get ashore. We continued on into the town to a restaurant where we had lunch. We had zebu fillet (cattle), fries and Coke.

After lunch we had another 100 kilometres three hour drive to our camp. This is an even rougher section of dirt road NR8 that is very rutted and corrugated. We bumped and jarred around the whole time. En route we saw kilometres of slash and burn. The local people in the villages set fire to the underbrush to burn it off. This allows new green grass to appear and they set their zebu cattle out to feed on it. However they are destroying the habit for other animals and apparently, according to Morgan, the practise is disturbing the normal rainy season which is now occurring almost two months later. More evidence of human created climate change.

At one point we followed a truck/bus full of local people, until we were able to pass it. It was amazing how many people they crammed inside. At one point Morgan saw a chameleon crossing the road, so we all got out and took photos.

After bouncing along on the red dirt road we finally arrived at Camp Croco on the Manambolo River. We were assigned our cabin for the next three nights and we put our stuff inside. I went for a short down to the river and watched the local people going about their lives and two young girls practising balancing water buckets on their heads as the sun set.

We all met again in the camp restaurant for dinner and a couple of beer. Ryan and I talked at length about our experiences climbing Kilimanjaro. Then it was bed time when the power went out at ten. No wi-fi for the week and only four hours of electricity from 6 to 10 and created by a noisy generator. I found a frog in the toilet when I was getting ready for bed.