Friday's Feature

"~ Madagascar ~

... It's good for the morale

By Himali Singh Soin

The high notes of "C'est bon pour le morale - It's good for the morale - reverberated in the rugged landscape of Madagascar. Despite its start poverty, the capital of Antananarivo, where we fly into, is a happy place. A zest for life, generosity of heart, and a deep belief in nature and its gods render everything "c'est bon bon". It's all good.

I am in Madagascar because my family has a penchant for searching out raw, undone landscapes. Filled with curiosity and a sense of adventure, we explore the country on foot, by cart and by boat, discovering the land with the greatest endemic biodiversity on the planet, testing our physical limits. We trek through deep jungles in search of all species of lemur and chameleon, flycatcher and orchid. We cross the red laterite earth on ox-carts, a thousand white phosphorising Comb Ducks, Helmeted Guineafowl, Black-Banded Plovers flying above us.

We climb the tsingy - giant tentacular rock formations, worshipped by the Northern Antakarana tribe (the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park, the biggest protected area in Madagascar, is a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site). The tsingy are fearsome, jagged karsts, and ascending them through dark cracks and vertical rock faces is a test of nerves.

We spend three days on the river Tsiribihina in dugouts, floating through valleys and crouching in grassland. We explore the bat-ridden stalactites and stalagmites, the ethnic villages, and the rough purple gorge of Bemaraha. Cockroaches and crocodiles co-habit the land: a natural claim to harmony.

During our last three days, we sail in a traditional dhow, along the Mozambique Channel. warm belly, eager ears and the sentiment of "C'est bon pour le morale" fills me up, and I sing with the crew. The king of an island tribe accompanies us on the boat on the last day, and as we catch crabs for lunch, he blows his conch. sanguine sky, glassy sea: we are alone, we and the king and all the water.

The tumoral neuron heads of the famous Baobab punctuate the sunset. Lemurs sit molded to one another, white, fluffy, sunlit. Barefooted, unbathed children play with makeshift toys, blowing up heart-shaped balloons in my eyes. A savage landscape, a song is whispered, now a gentle one.

 Himali flew from Delhi via Mauritius on Air Mauritius and Air Madagascar.
Her trip was organized by Ibex Expeditions (www.ibexexpeditions.com)"

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