Zombitse NP and a Sapphire Mine

The rock formation that is on the back of their 1000 ariary note.

The laundromat for everything.

The tomb of a rich important person.

Verreaux's sifakas.

The nocturnal Zombitse Sportive lemur.

Digging out the sapphire mine.

A manually dug test hole, to see if anything is down there.

The man is forcing air into the test hole using the plastic bag, so that the man down there does not suffocate.

The shacks of the people who come from all over Madagascar hoping to find sapphires.

Friday, November 10^th.

Today we drove from our hotel to another another national park south of here. On the way we passed through an area of very interesting rock formations and Patrick stopped at one that is actually on the back of the 100 ariari note. Shortly after that we stopped at a river where we could see people washing clothes, washing cars, bathing and panning for sapphires. Then we passed an area where we could see dozens of people on the hill digging in the earth for gems and another river where they carried there findings to wash them to see what was there. It is easier to bring the stuff to the river than the water to the stuff. Then we saw a very elaborate tomb of someone who was famous in the area. And finally a really basic shanty town where all the migrant workers live when they come here to mine.

Zombitse National Park is in the transitional forest between the dry and barren plains north of the park and the humid rainforest to the south. Actually the defining line was quite clear. I knew we were going to a park with a forest but we were driving through the plains with no trees in sight when we saw the sign for the park. Right after that we crested a hill and on the other side was this large area of forest, very strange.

Patrick had hired us a couple of local guides here and as soon as we got out of the van we saw a family of Verreaux sifaka in the trees. We spent a long time getting photos and videos and watching them feed and interact. We got shots of them doing their famous 'walk or dance' as they hop on the ground when the distance between trees is too far to leap. We also saw a few more large chameleons, one called the helmet head or spiny back chameleon. One of the guides found us a Zombitze Sportive lemur sleeping in a tree. They are nocturnal and sleep with their eyes open.

The visit to this park was inspired by previous travellers on this trip who wanted to see baobab trees and there are some in this park. However, on the two kilometre loop we did we only saw trees and they weren't the majestic ones of the Baobab Alley. Plus they were standing in the forest which made them hard to photograph. However, everyone was happy to see them. After the walk we went to a little picnic area and ate the prepared zebu sandwiches we had brought from the hotel. While eating we saw the giant koua.

Then it was time to start our drive back to the hotel. En route we stopped in the town of Ilakaka. This town was put on the map when a Frenchman discovered a very large sapphire field here in the late 90's. The field is apparently huge, something like 10 km long and 25 km wide. This sparked a 'gold' rush of sorts and the town grew exponentially and for a period of time was very lawless, where might was right, and dangerous, as people tunnelled into the ground to find the gems and many people were suffocated when tunnels collapsed. The government stepped in and dictated that the mining had to be done by open pit. We stopped at a gem dealer and he took us to his open pit. We drove there, off the chaotic main road onto a horrifically impoverished side road where we got out and walked to the pit. We peered over the edge and watched as a group of labourers were digging the dirt and manually shovelling it out of the pit. They dig down as much as fifty metres through the earth and sand depending how far down the pebble bed is, (where the gems are), and stop at the sandstone bedrock. It was depressing to watch the work these men had to do. There are hundreds of these open pit mines all over the area and they are not refilled when the pit is exhausted. We also saw several test holes, where they dig a well straight down to see what they find. If they hit gems then they expand it to a pit. It costs about $30000 to dig a pit and anyone can do it. This town is full of people from all the regions of Madagascar and foreigners from Sri Lanka, Thailand and India who are experts in gems and control the whole trade. We watched as a man collected air in a large plastic bag and then squeezed it with his arms to force air into the wells for the workers down there to breathe.

As we were walking around we were followed as always by kids. They were filthy and aggressive. Apparently in the past some tourists had paid for pictures of them and now they expect money if you take a photo and constantly want you to take one. We were warned not to take any. It was sad because I am sure that these kids do not go to school and their future is probably in one of these pits.

After the mine visit we drove back to the gem shop and looked at the display of all the colours of sapphires they find. Florien bought a 550 euro star sapphire.

Then we drove back to the hotel and had a couple of hours to relax and for me to decompress. I found the lemurs amazing, the baobabs disappointing and the mining thoroughly depressing.

At 6:30 we all boarded the and headed into a local restaurant in town, with all the other tourists in the area. The food was good and I spent the evening talking to Patrick about the mine and the state of his country. He is a great guy and very thoughtful and he likes to talk about Madagascar. I will include some of our discussion the summary in a couple of weeks.