Ifaty & Spiny Forest - 4 Nov
Right after breakfast we enjoyed a lovely ride in a pirogue over the shallow waters. It was very pleasant with a warm breeze and great water colour with all shades of greens. We stopped at Ifaty, a fisherman’s village, for a few photos. There were no tourists there though but, again, it felt quite safe. Kids loved having their photos taken. Some had orange hair and I was told later that it’s due to lack of vitamins in their diet.
We sailed back to the main beach for lunch and then went to our hotel for a 2H rest to escape from the unbearable heat (38C or so). It was just too hot to do anything much. We wanted to ride a bicycle to a mangrove area, about 6kms away, but (a) we couldn’t find any decent bikes to hire (no brakes) and (b) we were told that we’d find cycling in the sand very difficult if not impossible and (c) far too hot.
As a result, we booked a drive in a zebu cart to explore the boabab & spiny forest. You could tell that though it was officially protected, a lot of trees had been chopped down already and it was a sad but probably fair estimate that if you came back in 5 years' time, there might be no more forest left at all. We didn’t see many birds but they had some parrots there.
The kid who owned the zebu cart had a little dog who followed us around and the dog was quite happy to follow until we would stop and turn round to take his picture. If we did, he would then go and hide behind a tree or under the cart. I was a bit puzzled by that as most animals respond quite favourably to my attempt at talking to them but the kid explained that he wasn’t used to white people so white skin was scaring him. It actually seemed quite plausible since British guide dogs, when they are puppies, need to be introduced to black people as soon as possible so that they don’t get “spooked” later if they see one on the street when they are working :)
There wasn’t much grass either around Manily. In fact, it had only rained 24 hours all in all over 3 years. However, zebus need grass to feed on and people need zebus to survive too. Without them, they cannot work the soil and so zebu thefts were quite common. People going to Tulear had to travel in convoy to avoid attacks. Their zebu was their wealth. Some people had to resort to chopping down boababs (though they are protected by law) as the zebus love eating the inside of it as it has lots of minerals. There are “gardes forestiers” to keep an eye on the forest ‘but as soon as they have their backs turned, we may need to chop them’... I saw with my own eyes a whole truck load of boababs pieces and one just wanted to weep. Nature is fighting a lost battle in Madagascar it seems.
Right after breakfast we enjoyed a lovely ride in a pirogue over the shallow waters. It was very pleasant with a warm breeze and great water colour with all shades of greens. We stopped at Ifaty, a fisherman’s village, for a few photos. There were no tourists there though but, again, it felt quite safe. Kids loved having their photos taken. Some had orange hair and I was told later that it’s due to lack of vitamins in their diet.
We sailed back to the main beach for lunch and then went to our hotel for a 2H rest to escape from the unbearable heat (38C or so). It was just too hot to do anything much. We wanted to ride a bicycle to a mangrove area, about 6kms away, but (a) we couldn’t find any decent bikes to hire (no brakes) and (b) we were told that we’d find cycling in the sand very difficult if not impossible and (c) far too hot.
As a result, we booked a drive in a zebu cart to explore the boabab & spiny forest. You could tell that though it was officially protected, a lot of trees had been chopped down already and it was a sad but probably fair estimate that if you came back in 5 years' time, there might be no more forest left at all. We didn’t see many birds but they had some parrots there.
The kid who owned the zebu cart had a little dog who followed us around and the dog was quite happy to follow until we would stop and turn round to take his picture. If we did, he would then go and hide behind a tree or under the cart. I was a bit puzzled by that as most animals respond quite favourably to my attempt at talking to them but the kid explained that he wasn’t used to white people so white skin was scaring him. It actually seemed quite plausible since British guide dogs, when they are puppies, need to be introduced to black people as soon as possible so that they don’t get “spooked” later if they see one on the street when they are working :)
There wasn’t much grass either around Manily. In fact, it had only rained 24 hours all in all over 3 years. However, zebus need grass to feed on and people need zebus to survive too. Without them, they cannot work the soil and so zebu thefts were quite common. People going to Tulear had to travel in convoy to avoid attacks. Their zebu was their wealth. Some people had to resort to chopping down boababs (though they are protected by law) as the zebus love eating the inside of it as it has lots of minerals. There are “gardes forestiers” to keep an eye on the forest ‘but as soon as they have their backs turned, we may need to chop them’... I saw with my own eyes a whole truck load of boababs pieces and one just wanted to weep. Nature is fighting a lost battle in Madagascar it seems.
posted by Sylvie at 9:59 PM
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