Horombe plateau between Ihosy and Isalo mountains in southwestern Madagascar is set on an altitude of approximately 800 m above sea level. It is the land of the Bara, an ethnicity of herdsmen crossing the vast plains of the plateau with their zebu cattle. Cattle theft is also an issue not to be underestimated in […]
Kategorie: people
The Andringitra massif – Das Andringitra-Massiv
Andringitra Mountains in south-eastern Madagascar, south of Finarantsoa at the drop to the east coast, are a granite massif. It is home to 2.657 m high Pic Boby, the second highest summit on the island. The climate is the same as in central highland with temperatures that are sometimes likely to drop below zero at […]
The Manakara Suicide Bridge – Die Geschichte von der Manakara-Selbstmord-Brücke
Manakara is a drowsy postcolonial town on the south-eastern coast of Madagascar, sleeping a ruinous sleep after once having been an important port and trading centre since it had been connected to the central highland city of Fianarantsoa by railway tracks in 1936. Nowadays Manakara is suffering from Toamasina (Tamatave) being the major port on […]
“The Times They Are A-Changin´”
“…The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast The slow one now will later be fast As the present now will later be past The order is rapidly fadin‘ And the first one now will later be last For the times they are a-changin‘” (Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are A-Changin´”, 1964) One […]
Brickmaking – Die Ziegelherstellung
As one travels the island of Madagascar, it gets quite clear that wood is somehow out of reach as construction material, because it is needed as combustible and there is not much left of it – in general. Where people at the south tend to live in huts made of palm leaves, bamboo, and some […]
Transport Malagasy
Transport facilities in Madagascar are quite quixotic, because there ain´t that many roads worthy of that name. Travelling Madagascar is a fascinating thing to do, but it´s also tough and time-consuming. Infrastructure would be too strong a word for the possibilities on the island. It´s mainly three so-called National Roads linking Antsiranana (Diego-Suarez) in the […]
Ambositra
Even if Ambositra (pronounced ambooshtre) might be no more than a halt in between for most Madagascar travellers, it´s definitely worth giving it a second glance. Ambositra is a small town halfway between Antsirabe and Fianarantsoa on the RN7 from Tana down south, and it got charms set in the middle of central Madagascan highland […]
Antsirabe
It happens quite often that one has to stopover at Antsirabe – the town “with a lot of salt” – if travelling southern, south-eastern or western Madagascar. Just 150 kilometres south of Antananarivo in the central highland, Antsirabe is not only statistically the coldest place on the island, but also an industrial and agricultural centre […]
Les Chutes de la Lily
In Ampefy, it is Sakay river that drains Lake Itasy before taking a turn to the south 50 kilometres west of the town. Then, it converges with another river and flows into the Mahajil coming from the highland, where it was named Kitsamby. On its way west to the Channel of Mozambique, Mahajil river passes […]
The stars above Lac Itasy – Die Sterne über dem Itasy-See
If you are heading west from Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, the landscape becomes even more barren than it is around Tana. The Route National 1 is going up as far as 1.700m in altitude, and about 130km west of Tana, you are reaching the rough but beautiful volcanic area around Lake Itasy at approximately 1.300m. The […]
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