Today was a big travel day as we had to drive south to Ranomafana National Park. We left Antananarivo at 0830 and arrived at Ranomafana around 7pm. It was our first really cloudy day with several outbreaks of rain enroute and heavy rain at Ranomafana - but it is a rainforest!
The journey enabled us to glimpse more rural life and we stretched our legs when we stopped for lunch at the second largest city Antsirabe as we explored the market and took a rickshaw ride back to the restaurant......Antsirabe is the rickshaw capital with many men - young and old- pulling people around in rickshaws......many prefer them to taxis; we also saw a lot at Mahajanga on the west coast.
Enroute we saw lots more brick making - the houses in the central to southern areas do seem to be made out of brick and mud rather than the wood and palm we saw in the north and west. They look more substantial - but have few windows and no chimneys - the smoke goes out through the thatch......and the windows ( no glass- just wooden shutters) predominantly face west to help warm the house with the afternoon sunshine.
People were in rivers collecting the sand to sell, panning for gold, ploughing their rice paddies with zebu and ploughs, selling fresh vegetables, selling crafts - some really good raffia baskets, mats, hats and animal souvenirs - all very colourful - we stopped and bought 3 table mats - (todays picture shows the women at work); there were also wooden plates and bowls made from the eucalyptus and very colourful metal toys - lorries and trucks - these apparently make good gifts for boys undergoing circumcision which according to Njavi, our guide, is quite a painful experience.
They still practice several traditional rituals, the main ones being circumcision and exhumation.
Circumcision is deemed so important that if a man is not circumcised he cannot be buried in the family grave.
Exhumation involves removing and re wrapping the bones of deceased relatives......usually the lucky number 7 focusses in the rituals - 7 cloths to wrap the bones in and processing 7 times around the grave.
We sadly saw evidence of slash and burn everywhere and the subsequent erosion of the soil caused by the removal of the trees and the barren hills that remained. We saw a few meagre attempts at replanting but not enough. The pressure on the remaining forest is immense particularly to create more rice fields or to provide wood for charcoal. The government is currently in flux and has been since the removal of the President in 2009( he is now exiled to South Africa); the transitional government has no plans or wherewithal to create sustainable strategies - indeed the whole infrastructure is in freeze frame - people are hopeful of change and elections next year......but everything will take time and time is something Madagascar is running out of.
When we got to Setam Lodge our home for the next 3 nights we quickly took our things to our spacious bungalow with a large double bed; returned to the main lodge for dinner and returned to our room soon after for a much needed early night.........travelling and doing little is for some reason very tiring!