Why is madagascar called the red island

Arriving in Antananarivo or Tana by flight with a friend, we were welcomed at the airport by Christian, who would accompany us for a week to the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. Getting there was not going to be straightforward, and in Madagascar, the journey is quite often the destination.

We went to the taxi-brousse station and sat in a sort of bush taxi, waited for nearly two hours for passengers to be stuffed in like sardines and the roof to be loaded with bags until it was almost double its height, before leaving for Antsirabe. The Route Nationale RN 7 was in acceptable shape compared to other roads in the country, and we drove past brick huts that looked exactly like houses that children draw.

They practise slash-and-burn agriculture to cater to their insatiable appetite for rice. Villages many In Antsirabe, we went to a house which belonged to Lanto, a young guide and tour operator, and were welcomed by his wife Tojo and their children.

She cooked us dinner, rice and zebu, of course, and hosted us for the night. We then took another taxi-brousse to Miandrivazo village and reached in time for an extraordinary sunset. The next morning, yet another taxi-brousse took us to Masiakampy, where we climbed into a pirogue a dugout canoe to float down the Tsiribihina for more than two days.

While rowing down, we encountered fishermen and pirogues transporting food and people. Christian cooked us a sumptuous vegetable, fish and egg salad, and rice with a zebu sauce. After lunch, it got very hot, so we opened our umbrellas for protection. But in the evening it was more pleasant as we entered the Bemaraha gorge, whose wall blocked the sun. We spotted our first lemurs here — beady-eyed baby brown lemurs which frolicked on the rocky gorge wall.

We soon reached our campsite, a beach by the river with a beautiful waterfall further inland, which served as a shower. It is after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo the largest island of the world.

It is located in the central plateau at more than 1, meters. The country consists of flat coastal strips more or less broad and a central plateau, which rises to heights ranging from to 1, meters. It extends from the Tsaratanana Massif in the north to the Ankaratra Massif 2, meters in the center and to the Ivakoany Massif in the south. In the north in the Tsaratanana Massif lies the highest mountain of Madagascar, the Maromokotro, which reaches 2, meters. The coasts of Madagascar are generally low and sandy, often bordered by lagoons, only in the northern and southern areas of the country, at some deep bays, occur sometimes high and rocky coasts.

In this period there came Austronesian peoples from the Indonesian islands. Madagascar is the home of five percent of the world's plant and animal species. Of its many unique animals, it is perhaps best known for its tree-hopping lemurs. Although they appear to resemble felines or canines, lemurs are primates. There are approximately 33 different species of lemurs on the island, and they are considered the most endangered primates in the world.