Today was a travel day - another 8 hours - but very different scenery particularly when we went passed the mountains that are called the gateway to the south - I was actually asleep as we went past them but I did photograph them from a far! We left the winding mountain roads for much straighter roads that cut through rolling savannah grasslands. There was evidence of burning to stimulate the growth of green grass on which the zebu graze. Indeed we passed several different herds of Zebu being driven, by cowboys ( no horses ) on foot, to the abattoirs at Antananarivo.....thats a long way as it is 8-12 hours by car! This stretch of the N7 is infamous for cattle rustlers and zebu stealing - it might be dangerous at night but by day it is safe .....everybody discusses it but few have seen it. Apparently for some of the Bara tribe stealing a Zebu is part of the ritual of a young male becoming a man....Then there are those who just steal. In fact the other most dangerous thing is to be in a bush taxi ( a minibus crammed full of people travelling from A to B) with a cowboy coming back from Antananarivo - some know his pockets are full of cash for the zebu owner consequently 'Wild West' style they hold up the taxi - often with guns!
Just like the Masai wealth in many tribes is counted in zebu - they are the most important things in their lives and their equivalent of a bank account.
An hour and half from Ranomafana we stopped in the third largest city for stamps and I posted our cards - we will see how long they take to get back to the UK!
An hour so later we stopped at a paper mill where they still make paper using traditional methods and using the bark of a specific sustainable tree - just as they have done for centuries. All the workers we watched doing the paper making process were women - impressive - so we bought some to support the business.
Next stop was a small community reserve at Anjaha - all the fees paid to enter go to the community. The wildlife they protect are ring tailed lemurs; they are replanting trees so the area under preservation grows - they see this as vital because the lemurs, since they started, have grown in numbers from a couple of hundred to 400+. Daniel our guide took us on a trail through the park and allowed us to see several families of ring tailed lemurs - even more fun to watch due to the antics of several youngsters still clinging to mums but venturing alone for short stints exploring the world. A great venture which I am glad we supported. ( today's photo is of a mum and baby we watched)
We sat at one of their picnic tables and ate our lunch, nice rolls brought from Setam Lodge.......a quick lunch enabled us to get to our next hotel in Isalo by mid afternoon and me to have a swim.
As there was wifi I caught up with a few emails and we had a relaxing evening before our 10k hike in the beautiful landscape of Isalo national park.
Our hotel albeit outside the park was set amongst equally stunning rock formations and siting on one of them outside our room singing his socks off was an endemic Bensons rock thrush - he came to us - no searching required.