MADAGASCAR - THE RED ISLAND

One of the most special travel destinations in the world. That is Madagascar. It often is mentioned in the same league as the Amazone Amazone, Galapagos, Himalaya. But maybe this is the most special destination of them all. Why? Because everything in Madagascar is unique. There is nothing similar. You will be amazed by it. The island seems to ignore all laws of nature and culture.

Madagascar is the biggest island of the world after Greenland, New-Guinea and Borneo. Officially the island belongs to the African continent but that doe not mean a thing. Nothing on Madagascar resembles mainland Africa. The people, the animals, the plants, even the food is different. And for the real traveller this means Madagascar is very worth to visit.

First the people. The are very different from the negroid inhabitants of mainland Africa, the look more like Malay or Indonesian. The first inhabitants of Madagascar appear to have come from Asia (Indonesia) and not from Africa. Culturally things are also very different. Ancestors are very important to Malagassy; the hills of Madagascar are filled with temporary or permanent, square tombes, colorfully painted on the outside. And since Madagascar has many different tribes, traditions do vary. Besides ancestors there are many beliefs in sacred places and animals. Especially the latter has resulted in the saving of the unique fauna of Madagascar.

Than what is so unique about Madagascars animals? Long time ago Madagascar was part of mainland Africa but did breakaway millions of years ago. Evolution on the mainland continued, but since hardly any predator remained on Madagascar and competition was minimal, Madagascar never really changed much since the split. As a result Madagascar is the home of the lemurs, which are in principle the ancestors of our nowadays monkeys and apes. Lemurs are friendly and happy creatures, as small as a mouse (mouse maki) or as big as a chimpansee (indri). They are either diurnal or nocturnal and especially in the latter category you can find some bizar species (aye-aye).

Also reptiles are very different. First of all there are many many species of chameleon, in fact an old species. Also beautiful colored geckos: all of them diurnal while most other geckos we know are nocturnal. But also Madagascar has nocturnal geckos, but these are vene more bizar: Uroplatus is their name and they are masters in camouflage. Some even resemble tree fungus!

Looking at the plants firstly the baobabs are special. Madagascar has 6 endemic species. The other 2 species (one in Africa and one in Australia) do originate from Madagascar. If these centuries old trees could only speak...! Furthermore you can find the Spiny Forests in the southwest, almost inaccessible area with cactus in all different shapes and sizes. Even more bizar are the Tsingy, heavily eroded rocks for kilometers long which is home to some unique Euphorbia specis. Plants in the shape f rocks, wooden shoes, dead tree trunks snakes: you name it!

The landscape is also very divers and everything but snow peaks are present. Mangrove, rain forest, desert, mountains, Tsingy: you can find it all. The most beautiful landscapes we found the Tsingy (Ankarana in the north) and the mountains south of Ambavalao.

Yes, Madagascar is very much worth the visit. But because the island is also facing numerous problems you better go sooner than later. Logging is one of them, because of which a lot of erosion is taking place. As a result it is clearly visible from the plane why Madagascar is also called the red island! Also a lot of minerals are presently being found on the island (from saffire to oil) that are being exploited, and nature is far from benefitting from that...