Oct 5 – Fort Dauphin, Going to Market, Agave Fields and Baobabs

We were up extremely early for a departure at 6:00am for the three-hour drive to our next camp.  The drive was described to us as an hour of rough roads, and hour of good roads and then a final hour of rough roads.  In actuality, it was an hour of the typical rough Madagascar roads, about an hour of paved road that was in rather bad need of maintenance in spots, and an hour of dirt roads. 

The views of Fort Dauphin were lovely.  It is a pretty place.  Too bad we didn’t get to spend any time here. 

And the countryside was also very pretty...

with green mountains and lush countryside...

and lots of rice paddies. 

We saw a group of boys with zebus, working a rice paddy.  Part of the process of preparing a rice field for planting is to have the zebus walk around the flooded field to work up the soil.  These zebus looked a bit harassed but the boys looked like they were having a pretty good time.  Some of them had large quantities of branches with leaves strapped to their bodies to help minimize the amount of mud they would be covered with. 

Further on, we entered a broad, long valley that was almost completely full of agave plantations.  The plantations are owned by French, Polish and English families and the agave is grown for fibers. 

The drive also took us through a section of Spiny Forest…most of the plants have pretty significant spiny thorns.

We drive took us through some very small villages.   

There were a lot of people walking long distances on the roads to get to the village market.

The market was pretty packed.

And, of course, there were the usual buses filled with travels and piled high with their belongings.

We also saw a lot of men on bicycles peddling large loads that they were taken to the towns to sell.

That evening everyone in the camp headed out to the area’s own “Avenue of the Baobabs”.  It was much smaller than the one we saw previously.

We all then headed out to another area where we could see the sunset behind the baobabs.  The camp had set up a bar and snacks. 

At one point most of the guest went over to a nearby baobab and encircled it, holding hands.  Took about 15 or so to encircle the giant trunk.   

The sunset wasn’t spectacular but the atmosphere was great.

Venus and the moon were quite visible tonight.

As the sun went down, they lit a bonfire and we had a group of locals give us a performance of some of their dances. 

Some of the guest from the camp joined in.

Great way to end the day. 

That evening, as we were settling in for bed we saw this lizard (or maybe its a gecko) in our room.  Seem to have a lot of them as we work our way through Madagascar.