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Johan Kruseman
Sometimes you end up in a country where nothing is what you expected. Madagascar is definitely winning that league. Armed with expectations of dancing lemures, talking giraffes and lions & zebras being best mates, there was not much needed to fall short of this expectation. But also, from an ecological viewpoint, my three weeks weren’t living up to its expectations: no endless forests with unique flora and fauna but a dried out semi-desert landscape, dotted with small islands of trees directly bombed with the label “national park”. And still the trip was fantastic and memorable, due to one of the happiest people on earth.
- how I was invited to drink coffee with the queen of Ambalavero
- why somebody walks bare-footed through rocky and leech-packed rainforest while wearing his shoes the next day on an easy walk to the neighbouring village
- how local villages barricade the road for some self-invented road-tax
- why a boy wore a T-shirt AND sweater with 36°C
- how children ran a hostel and happily washed our clothes, not aware that having them dried before putting them together in a large closed bag would be appreciated
- how we got soap-taste noodles while sitting on the roof of a shop
- how a complete village rescued us when our car broke down in the desert
- how we had to drive in a convoy to stay safe from banditry but none of the convoy could keep up with the police who was meant to safeguard us
- how we survived our last taxi-drive with a nearsighted driver who didn’t turn on his lights in a pitch dark night to save the light bulbs.
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Traveled route: Antanarivo, Antsirabe, Ranomafana, Fianarantsoa, Andrambovato, Parc d'Anja, Parc National d'Andringitra, Isalo National Park, Toilara, Anakao, Ifaty, Mangily, Salary Avaratra, Ambohitsabo, Andavadoaka, Morombe, Manja, Belo sur Mer, Morondava, Allée des Baobabs, Relais du Kirindy, Belo-Tsiribihina, Tsingy de Bemaraha
