Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Torn Part Six by Sky Corgan Madagascar 2020, part 6 (Antsirabe, Miandrivazo, road to Morondava) After Rija, our driver in Madagascar, picked us up at the airport in Antananarivo, we first stopped at a largish supermarket to buy water and something to eat along the way and then in the dark we headed towards Antsirabe, a town that is located almost in the very centre of this country and from which roads fork towards west and southwest. The distance between Antananarivo and Antsirabe is around 170 km and it was precisely because of this distance and the time it took the car to cover it (almost four hours) that it was ideal to arrive in Antsirabe that same evening in order not to disturb the remainder of our travel around Madagascar. I presume that after the very odd night, to say the least, and a stressful day filled with worry about whether and when we would arrive by the flight that was moved by around 10 hours at some point I felt very exhausted and then, apologising to Rija, I lowered my passenger seat and even managed a couple of times to doze off briefly which is extremely rare in my case at least when it comes to napping in cars. We arrived at the bed and breakfast in Antsirabe almost at midnight and we had to get up early in order to continue in line with the itinerary. We almost felt very sorry about this, since we had an extremely cute room and although we certainly would not spend our free time inside, it really felt good to be surrounded by beauty and harmonious interior decoration. The surroundings of the B&B, itself located in a very nice house, constituted a direct opposite – there was a torn up, muddy street with improvised stalls, a large number of people going up and down on their business, but I did not mind this in the least. It was just completely different from the nicely decorated and perfectly clean bed & breakfast. Street in front of our B&B in Antsirabe. So, after that early breakfast we were ready to start with the “real” journey around Madagascar by car. In front of us, there was a westbound road leading to Morondava while the distance was around 500 km. The expected duration of the travel was between 8 and 10 hours, but to start with we drove up the steep street with a market that extended in front of the B&B where we had spent our night. By the way, town Antsirabe is famous for its rickshaws, but I must say that we kept seeing them in other places as well. The only thing that made them a little more specific in Antsirabe was the fact that here there were more rickshaws which were pulled by their “driver” while moving on foot. Now would be a good time to say something about the geography of Madagascar. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world (after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo). It surface area covers around 590,000 square kilometres, it is around 1600 km long and 570 km wide. As far as its population is concerned, in 2018 Madagascar had around 26.3 million inhabitants and as I’ve already mentioned, they are mostly young – the medial age is around 20 years. On this day we started with the touring of the country by car and as a reminder here is again the map of our stay in Madagascar. The straight lines mark flights, while the blue lines of an irregular shape show where we were driving. Although the morning in Antsirabe was cloudy, soon the Sun appeared and with time the blue sky became predominant. We had a long day’s drive ahead of us and Rija did not hesitate at all, but rather pressed on the gas. It was actually very good that he was driving and not me, because my drive would take at least 10 days since I would stop every couple of hundred of metres. Namely, behind every curve there was a new sight which to me all seemed stunning and unrepeatable. Was this about the houses made of fired or unfired bricks, possibly covered with some mud, or children who hastily filled up potholes in the road expecting to be given some money for that, or numerous rice paddies that were sporadically arranged on the terraces made along the slopes, or people working these fields, the ploughs and harrows pulled along the road by zebus after they had finished with their work in the fields, or rice that was scattered here and there in a thin layer by the road in order to dry. On the road to Morondava. Zebus on the road. Rice fields surrounded by hills. Some maize and much more rice paddies. Rice paddies tucked in-between hills. Incredibly bright green colour of young rice in the field and the harvested rice arranged on the road in order to dry. Incredibly bright green colour of young rice. Pouring rice on the road where it will dry. Perhaps what delighted me most were the landscapes that were dominated by the amazing red colour of soil which renders the other name for Madagascar – the Red Island – particularly in the combination with green vegetation, whether these were grasses, rice, agaves or trees. On top of this, the addition of the blue sky with a cloud here and there, all lit by the Sun, made these sights magnificent and even the greyness of the road covered in red dust coming from the surrounding earth could not spoil the beauty. I felt indescribable exaltation inspired by that splendour and my heart was filled with happiness, joy, enjoyment and gratitude to my destiny, the Universe, my Holy Guardian Angel or whichever force had brought me here and allowed me to feel my soul by looking at this spectacular beauty. Impressive sights of the Red Island. Impressive sights of the Red Island. Impressive sights of the Red Island. Impressive sights of the Red Island. Parallel to the east coast of Madagascar there are hills and mountains and thus in the middle part of this large islands there are the central highlands that have the average height between 750 m and 1500 m, while the highest mountain peak which is situated in the north of the country is 2876 m high. In that elevated central section, almost in the very centre of the island, there is the capital, Antananarivo, as well as Antsirabe, the town we left from that morning. East of the central mountains and hills, along the entire island, there is a narrow lowland area, while west of the highlands the lowland area is significantly wider. Also, with majority of its surface area Madagascar is located in the torrid zone, but its south sections lie along the Tropic of Capricorn, which typically means that the climate in these regions is dryer and thus the deserts are usually located precisely in the zones of the tropics. In addition, east of the island there is the vast Indian Ocean, while in the west there is its integral part which is specifically called the Mozambique Channel. The climate is divided into the rainy and the dry seasons, but because of the size of the territory, the direction in which the island extends and different altitudes, you get a very interesting combination of, I would call them, climate micro-zones and this certainly influences the landscapes, the vegetation, as well as human activities. Since I’m mentioning humans, let me say something about the destruction of forests on Madagascar. A good share of the vegetation changes that can be noticed even during a simple car drive are a result of massive deforestation in order to use this timber for industrial purposes on the one hand and on the other in order to increase the surface areas for the growing of agricultural crops. Unfortunately, the humans are not known for their long-term planning, but are more focused on short-term gains. What happens, however, in the long run is that the soil gets degraded very quickly since the Malagasy like to cultivate their crops in the traditional manner, which certainly makes the products healthy and unpolluted, but already after a couple of seasons the soil is basically destroyed and is no longer good for use (since they don’t have sufficient quantities of natural fertilisers, while the artificial ones are expensive and do not fit into the traditional manner of cultivation). At the same time, the lack of the living roots of those logged down trees also leads to erosion and the examples of such “caving in” of the land can be seen along the road we were driving on this day. As Rija told us, once upon a time, all these areas were covered in rainforests. Before reaching the town of Miandrivazo and particularly in the first part of that section we also passed through bigger or smaller villages where people went on about their daily life and they certainly dried their rice there, often not directly on the pavement, but arranged over some pieces of canvass placed on the hot road. Settlement on the road to Miandrivazo. Settlement on the road to Miandrivazo. From time to time, we also crossed bridges that had been constructed over smaller or bigger watercourses which were at this time of the year, during the rainy season, filled with muddy water which on Madagascar, the Red Island, was regularly bright red. One of the rivers on the road to Miandrivazo.