Lows and highs

Deforestation

The drive from Isalo National Park to Toliara can get depressing as so much of the land has been subjected to deforestation. I read in the Lonely Planet that only about 10% of the country has been spared from it. Small patches of forest and national park remain, but locals keep cutting down smaller and smaller trees to sell as firewood on the side of the road, and businesses cut down huge areas of forest and replant pines and eucalypts in an attempt to promote faster tree growth. Something drastic needs to be done to stop more of the forests from disappearing otherwise sadly there won’t be much left at all in several years’ time.

On a brighter note, Madagascar has some of the most amazing and unique fauna and flora in the world, such as this baobab we saw along the way.

Who ordered pizza?

All of us were meant to fly from Toliara to Tana at the end of the trip, but the ex President had to fly to Tana for a ceremony and apparently booked out the whole of business class. This meant there were over 10 people bumped off the flight and two were from our group. Hery picked Clive to stay behind with him for one day (and we all wondered why!). Hery then got on his phone for a really long time and looked really stressed. But when we asked, he wasn’t stressed about the two of them getting bumped off the flight, he was stressed as he’d ordered us 17 pizzas to be delivered to Toliara airport and they hadn’t yet turned up! He must’ve gotten on the phone to the pizza delivery place at least three times to try and hurry them up, and eventually an official forced us go through to the departure lounge despite Hery trying to convince him that the plane would just have to wait! Hery was in a state of despair. Just a few minutes before boarding, the pizzas arrived and Hery was elated. They were actually really tasty pizzas and most of us wolfed them down within those few precious minutes.

 

Susan didn’t want hers so one of our group asked which of us wanted another one, and other passengers eagerly put up their hands! Merete couldn’t finish hers and gave the final slices to the official who gratefully accepted it (with a straight face). On another note, Hery and Clive made it to Tana earlier than expected the next afternoon, secretly grinning. What goes on in Toliara, stays in Toliara I imagine!