Tag: Indian Ocean 2019 Trip

Baobabs and Lemurs

The prime tourist draw on the central west coast of Madagascar is “The Avenue of the Baobabs.” The baobab tree grows in Africa and Australia also, but Madagascar is the hotbed of baobab excitement, home to 6 of the 9 species. Baobabs have thick trunks filled with spongy fibrous wood that can store water through long dry seasons. The stored water is also useful for humans – we often saw holes cut in their trunks where people had tapped the water over the centuries for drinking water.

The Avenue of the Baobabs. Those trees are really tall but it is a bit hard to see with the perspective.

A large baobab is centuries old. They only grow a tiny amount each year in the harsh climate. We saw 10 year old “seedlings” that could have auditioned for the role of Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree. Most of the trees you see pictured below are several hundred years old, some over a thousand years. While it looks like the trees were planted along the Avenue, the trees were there long before and the road built between them.

(Note that we’ve changed a bit how the photo galleries work compared to the last posts. From now on, the picture captions won’t appear until you click the thumbnail. That way the text doesn’t obscure the photo).

The baobabs were pretty, otherworldly and impressive but it was so hot there (over 100 degrees) that we didn’t stay long. And we were itching to get through the Avenue to our next destination, Kirindy Forest Reserve, where we hoped to see wild lemurs. Lemurs have traditionally been referred to as “the most primitive primates” but I don’t know if modern evolutionary biologists would be so judgmental. More scientifically, we’d call them “the most cute primates.” They only live in Madagascar (and a few nearby islands) and come in several shapes and sizes – filling many of the ecological niches occupied by other mammals elsewhere.

It was a two hour drive to reach Kirindy, down one of the roughest roads we’ve been on — deeply pot-holed and partially flooded by recent rains. A jeep ahead of us got stuck in the mud but our driver somehow maneuvered his way through the muck and we got quite a workout bracing ourselves against the bumps and lurches. But in the end we were well rewarded, seeing many lemurs of different species, quite close up. Including the elusive tiny “mouse lemur” which is normally nocturnal but for some reason decided to put on a sleepy little show for us.

We’ve also taken video on the trip but haven’t figured out how to embed them in the blog like the photos. When you click on a video, it will take you away from our page and you’ll have to use your browser’s back-button to return here. For your additional time-wasting pleasure we have:

  • Driving down the street in Morondava, the main town in west-central Madagascar, showing all the activity along the way. You may notice a lot of orange t-shirts. We arrived just after a presidential election and many people were wearing the t-shirts given out free by the eventual winning candidate.
  • Here’s a video to give you a nauseating taste of the rough road to Kirindy.
  • You may feel like you’ve filled your lemur quota for the day, but you haven’t seen the definition of cute until you click on this video of our sleepy mouse lemur.
  • These rough-housing sifakas (that’s what the white lemurs are called) are pretty adorable too.

The Desert Southwest…of Madagascar

We spent three weeks in Madagascar in 2011 and it was one of our favorite trips ever. From our standpoint, it had it all: friendly people, beautiful scenery, temperate weather and approachable charismatic wildlife. We rarely return to a destination but Madagascar seemed like it deserved a sequel. If you’ve seen the sequel to the movie Madagascar, you know that a sequel is never as good as the original but can still bring a smile of recognition and few new surprises as well.

This time we came during the rainy season, so rather than visiting the interior highlands which have the lemur-rich rainforests and picturesque rice terraces, we spent our time along the east coast. Shielded from the rain by the highlands, it is very dry with unique spiny vegetation and people who make their living from the sea. We started in the south and worked our way up the coast (more about the more northerly parts in future posts).

The favorite place we visited in the in the southwest was the little fishing village of Andavadoaka. It rarely gets tourists so we enjoyed one of our favorite travel experiences, a mutual exchange of happiness and curiosity.

The main city of the southwest is known as Tulear or Toliara. Most cities in Madagascar have two names, one French-influenced and one more true to the Malagasy pronunciation. “Malagasy” is the word used to describe the language and people of Madagascar. According to the best genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence, the language and the people came to the uninhabited island 1500 years ago, then mixed with Europeans and Africans in more recent centuries to produce the unique culture that exists on the island today.

But we digress, Tulear/Toliara was not a sleepy village like Andavadoaka but a bustling city that sees it share of tourists, with the associated proliferation of pushy gift shops, touts and beggars. It still had some charm and a lot of visual interest but not a place we’d say was our dream of Madagascar. Outside of town were some little nature reserves that showed off the resilient desert plants and wildlife, including salty Lake Tsimanampetsotsa (a prize to anyone who can pronounce that!) which boasts a resident population of flamingos.

Bunny Chow in Durban

The first stop on our Indian Ocean trip was Durban, South Africa. We took it easy for our couple days in town, mostly just getting over jetlag. But we did have one big goal — to eat Bunny Chow, a local food specialty. To make it, you hollow out a quarter loaf of bread and fill the hole with spicy curry. Our quest was satisfied in a mall food court.

The chef was a little embarrased that we wanted to take his picture with his creation.
It was surprisingly spicy and delicious (those are carrot shreds on top)

The spicing of the curry was very strong and reminiscent not only of Indian curries but also had hints of Ethiopian flavors. Speaking of which, it is traditional to eat your Bunny Chow with your hands. Our fingers were orange through several washings.

Here are some more images of Durban… mostly from shopping malls. But not just any old mall, the Gateway mall is the second largest in Africa (after one in Casablanca which we somehow missed). And we also went to uShaka, a mall/beach park.

The parts of Durban we saw were really lush and pretty. We’re told there are much grittier areas but we took some long drives and saw only leafy suburbs and glistening highrises. Both the upscale mall and the more populist beach park were encouragingly racially integrated, though with a disproportionately high number of white people at the mall and low percentage at the beach. We would have been more optimistic about the progress in the country if we hadn’t read just an article in The New Republic magazine on the long flight to Durban that described the problems of extreme economic and racial disparities in the country. And the resulting rise of demagogues, corruption and cynicism. The article made the case that South Africa is a leading indicator for the future of America.