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Gulliver's Travels 02/26/2024

2/26/2024

Madagascar - Part 2

Here are some more (I hope fascinating) photos of strange and interesting Madagascar.

Being terrified of heights, I (wrongly) assumed I'd never be able to do what the photos show--one of the greatest thrills I ever had in my life.

The guide behind me did not actually help me--but he did have a (hidden) cattle prod that he threatened me with.

This precarious swinging bridge was 80 feet long(approximately as long as eternity)

Olivia took this photo when she was 30 feet above the bottom, so the bridge is actually about 80 feet above the bottom (it looked about 800 feet from my vantage point).

No, I did NOT walk on these rocks.

There are seven species of baobabs, each of a different shape and height.

Baobab Alley, filled trees as old as a thousand years

Two seedlings decided to grow together, how lovely.

A crocodile farm where crocs are sold to zoos and for consumption

Too many to join in a group "discussion"

Plowing a rice paddy with a hand-made plow

Turning over rice stubble with shovels, rather than a plow

Planting rice

Ox carts are common in Madagascar.

Planting some kind of seeds

Planting rice seedlings

Fierce capitalistic competition in action

Colorful garb on a woman living in the bushlands

Ubiquitous potholes lead to enterprising kids earning tips for "repairing" them

Community brick-making is common in Madagascar.

Epilogue

Madagascar certainly was one of the more interesting countries I have visited. Being a farm kid, I was highly interested in their agricultural methods, harking back to our country's colonial farm practices. The tsingys intrigued me for a very long time, so that itch has been scratched. So, too, for the lemurs and baobab trees. None of this stuff is in Wisconsin or any other state, so at times it is necessary to spend a few bucks to see something really interesting. Madagascar is such a place.

Gulliver's Travels 02/19/2024

2/19/2024

Madagascar - Pt 1
October-November 2023

Lemurs, tsingys, and baobab trees...I just had to go see them in Madagascar. So, I went to see all three with my granddaughter, Olivia. We were not disappointed.

Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is the fourth largest island in the world. It was formed 180 million years ago when it split off from supercontinent Gonwana, leaving Africa a bit smaller. It is 226,658 square miles, much bigger than Wisconsin at 45,496 square miles. It has 29 million residents to Wisconsin's 5.9 million, giving both the same population density of 128 people per square mile. However, Madagascar is growing at almost two percent per year, which lead to 70 percent of its forest cover being replaced by farmland---and the decimation of its legendary lemur population and other animals.

Black lemur, one of 110 species in Madagascar

Unknown lemur species

Ringed tail lemur

With granddaughter and the boat we were on for four days

Temporary villages are built on flooded sandbars, then abandoned with a flood.

Countless dugout canoes ply the rivers of Madagascar.

Washing clothes...and bodies...at a village riverbank

Olivia made fast friends in a river village.

A typical village hut....with no AC.and only solar power for rare lights

Charcoal is made (by cutting down Madagascar's forests) and sold to riverbank traders.

An iguana climbing a river shrub.

This man cut tall grass for sale as roof thatch at a local market.

Our vehicle boarded this barge to cross the river (scaring Olivia).

The man is building his house.

A tsingy forest, filled with karst formations of limestone that are extremely sharp

In the indigenous Malagasy language, tsingy means "that which one cannot walk on," as the rocks are extremely sharp.

And so ends part 1. Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!
Dale