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Madagascan
Eclipse by Ken Gambier Madagascar had for many years been on our long list of countries we would like to visit “some day”. When we heard that the 2001 total eclipse of the sun would be visible from Madagascar, it quickly came to the top of the list. We had so much enjoyed seeing the total eclipse in Iran in 1999. It is estimated that 15,000 people from around the world had the same thought and went to Madagascar to see the eclipse. This gave a welcome boost to the country’s economy but put pressure on its somewhat limited resources. It has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person of US$260 p.a. (Encyclopaedia Britannica Yearbook 2001) When seen against the UK GDP per person of US$21,410 p.a. this makes Madagascar one of the poorest countries in the world. It was ruled by France from 1896 to 1960, when it achieved independence. The French influence is still very strong, all children learning French as a second language at school, and the Malagasy franc being the unit of currency. This has been devalued so much that at the time of our visit there were Fmg10,000 to £1 or Fmg7,000 to US$1 and the highest banknote was Fmg25,000, worth £2.50. When I changed US$200 at Antananarivo airport I was given Fmg1,400,000 in 56 of the largest notes. The cost of living to the native population is low (it has to be on their level of income), but they are canny enough to know that tourists will pay more for goods and so they adjust prices accordingly. We never tried to haggle over prices in the markets as they still represented good value to us and provided much-needed income to the Malagasy people. There is a serious overpopulation problem as women have an average of six children each. The only natural fuel is wood, and trees have been cut down to the extent that fertile soil is being eroded and washed into rivers. There is a high range of mountains running north/south down the middle of the country and this causes two different climates to the east and the west. The prevailing winds are from the Indian Ocean to the east, and so the eastern part of the country has high rainfall supporting tropical rainforest. To the west the winds have lost their moisture and the climate is much drier; here there is spiny forest. We were in a party of 12 people, all from UK, who flew to Paris then by Air Madagascar to Antananarivo, the capital. We required visas to enter Madagascar, but were able to buy them at the airport at a fraction of the cost of buying them in advance in London. We were met by two representatives from a Madagascan travel company, and experienced the first sign of stretched resources due to the eclipse. Neither of the guides could speak good English and it was often difficult - sometimes impossible - to understand what they were trying to say. They both spoke good French but none of our party was proficient in that language. We piled into a minibus and drove east to the wildlife park at Andasibe. We had been warned to bring our waterproof gear; good advice. The tropical rainforest was extremely wet and we got our clothes and shoes very muddy. The wildlife made it worthwhile and we saw our first lemurs in their natural habitat, including the indri - described in the Bradt Guide as “more like a gone-wrong panda than a lemur”. We also went for a night walk and flashed our torches in the trees to light up the eyes of the lemurs and birds. After two nights and a day at Andasibe we flew south to Fort Dauphin, then drove out to the wildlife reserve at Berenty, which has been privately owned and maintained for over 40 years. It is an excellent reserve and not to be missed by visitors to Madagascar. There are hundreds of ring-tailed lemurs, perhaps the best known variety, and they are so tame that they will sit a few feet away to be photographed. One has to walk into the forest to see brown lemurs and sifakas. The latter are white and, when travelling on the ground, hop like kangaroos. This was a rare sight and only a few of the party managed to take an action photograph of this. The other creature frequently seen is the chameleon, in various colours and sizes. Local children catch them and hold them up to be photographed by tourists, for a small fee. At Berenty, there is a large sisal plantation with a simple but effective processing plant which we were able to visit to see how the fibre is stripped from the large leaves. At Fort Dauphin, we saw sisal bales being loaded onto a ship for export. One day, while we were at Fort Dauphin we went by boat to Lokaro, a few miles up the coast, where there are some glorious, nearly deserted beaches on the warm Indian Ocean. We were fortunate to have a fine day, as being on the east coast Fort Dauphin is liable to have its share of rainfall. The boat trip to the beaches was exciting, travelling through narrow channels on an inland waterway past villages on the banks. Although it was the dead of winter in the southern hemisphere, the daytime temperature was about 25C and so very comfortable. The 13-hour nights were chilly but never less than about 10C. From Fort Dauphin, we flew to Tulear on the west coast, and drove about 17 miles over the worst stretch of road I can remember in many years of travel in various parts of the world. The road had probably been paved during the period of French government, but it was laid on sand and had not been maintained since. The journey to Ifaty Beach took nearly two hours as the road was deeply rutted and at times the minibus, with its load of luggage on the roof, was in danger of toppling over. At Ifaty Beach, some of the party went out to the coral reef to snorkel. Others walked in the spiny forest which is prevalent on the dry side of the country. After a couple
of nights at Ifaty, it was time to travel inland to Isalo National Park,
through which the centre line of the eclipse would pass. In preparation
for the invasion of tourists, the authorities had set up a series of camps
in the park. The facilities were primitive; loos were a hole in the ground,
and showers were a barrel of cold water and a scoop. Marquees had been
erected as dining rooms and the quality of the food served was impressively
good for such improvised On the day of the eclipse, the clouds gathered in the afternoon. The big event was scheduled for about 4.30pm and the moon began to move over the face of the sun at about 3.15pm. By 4pm there was a large cloud covering the sun. We were all quite certain we would not see the eclipse. A few minutes before totality, the cloud moved away and we had a perfect view which lasted a full two minutes. Everyone cheered and cameras flashed. The sky did not seem as dark as in the last eclipse. It was striking how quickly the sky lit up again when the moon moved away, even though it was still covering over 90% of the sun’s surface. We were impressed at the effort made by the Malagasy authorities to inform the population of the eclipse. There were posters in every town and village explaining what would be happening - some uneducated people might be frightened by the event - and warning them not to look at the sun without protective glasses. There were explicit illustrations as the literacy rate is quite low. We would have liked to take home a sample of the posters but this was not possible and we had to be content with taking a photograph. Maybe this could have been another source of foreign income, if the authorities had had the foresight. Many tee shirt makers took advantage of the occasion and printed shirts in time for the event. Even without an eclipse, Isalo National Park is well worth a visit, with its massive sandstone rocks cut by deep canyons and eroded to strange shapes. There are many interesting walks, provided one has the transport to get to the starting point. We scrambled in a spectacular canyon and went on a walk to a natural swimming pool. We were unable to visit the Fenetre, a natural rock formation providing a window on the setting sun - because that part of the park was closed off by armed soldiers to prevent unauthorised camping for the eclipse. The park also has some rare endemic plants, including the pachypodium rosulatum (elephant’s foot). Madagascar is famous for its baobab trees (of the eight species on earth, six are found nowhere else) and for its traveller’s tree, which stores water in the base of its leaves. It is shaped like a vertical fan and is the symbol used by Air Madagascar. The day after the eclipse it was time to set off on the long journey to Antsirabe, near to Antananarivo. We drove for 14 hours, with appropriate stops, through spectacular granite mountains. The usual tour takes two days to cover this distance but due to the timing of the eclipse this was not possible for us, which was a pity. We would have loved to spend more time seeing the wild countryside. The journey
home was long and tiring. The flight to Paris had two stops, at Nairobi
and Rome, and we had a long wait for our connecting flight to London.
We were over 24 hours from Antananarivo airport to our front door. This,
of course, is the downside of foreign travel and we are always glad to
be home again. We counted our blessings, which included an exciting and
eventful trip, and (for the two of us anyway if not all the group) no
tummy upsets and no mosquito bites. Madagascar is a country we would highly
recommend to the experienced traveller who wishes to enjoy its unique
wildlife and landscape. First published in VISA issue 43 (November 2001) |