There's a good article in this month's National Geographic Magazine about the Tsingy of Bemaraha in Western Madagascar.
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| Tsingy of Bemaraha, Madagascar 'A city of limestone towers' |
It reminds me of our trip there in May 2008; I still have a scar on my arm as a souvenir ! To read the article see Living on a Razor's Edge - Madagascar's labryinth of stone. Here are some more National Geographic photos of Madagascar; like the one above they were all taken by photographer Stephen Alvarez:
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| 'Vertical pupils identify a seseke, or leaf-tailed gecko, as a nocturnal creature. Its camouflage works so well that the lizard doesn’t hide during the day. It simply flattens itself against tree trunks while waiting for darkness and insects to eat.' |
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| 'Spiny, drought-tolerant Pachypodium plants also thrive in the tsingy’s top reaches.' |
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| 'Unexplored passages shelter some of the island’s—and the world’s— strangest species, from the ghostly Decken’s sifaka, a lemur, to a host of reptiles, insects, and plants.' |
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| 'Troops of Decken’s sifakas, found only in west Madagascar, cruise the tops of the tsingy searching for food and evading predators. Like other lemurs, they probably live in small family groups.' |
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| 'Fearless acrobat, a Decken’s sifaka leaps a chasm a 100 feet deep' |
If you enjoyed this post you might also like:
- Ile Sainte Marie - in 2004 we spent a week on this island off the north-east coast of Madagascar.
Suggested reading:
- Dancing with the Dead - A journey through Zanzibar and Madagascar by Helena Drysdale
- Muddling Through Madagascar by Dervla Murphy. Murphy and her 14-year-old daughter Rachel make their way across and around the southern two-thirds of Madagascar, finding spectacular scenery and severe erosion; no reliable modern communication system or transport network, and sanitary conditions best left unmentioned. Murphy interweaves the story of their adventures with an account of the island's history and its peoples.
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