DAY5 Madagascar Road trip🇲🇬

 

DAY5  Madagascar 

Road trip🇲🇬

14/05/2025 - Antsirabe - Ranomafana Via Ambositra : 

Trip plan:250 km - about 6h 30 drive : we carry on the road to the south part to reach Ranomafana rainforest - Lunch at leisure - Arrival in Ranomafana and installation at your hotel - we will have a night walk to spot nocturnal animals : lemurs, frog, chameleon... Dinner and overnight

 

Antsirabe

Antsirabe (Malagasy pronunciation: [anˌtsiraˈbe]) also known as Ville d'eau is the third largest city in Madagascar and the capital of the Vakinankaratra region, with a population of 265,018 in 2014. In Madagascar, Antsirabe is known for its relatively cool climate (like the rest of the central region), its industry and the high concentration of pulled rickshaws or pousse-pousse. It attracts around 30,000 tourists a year.

Architecture
Several buildings in central Antsirabe date back to the first decades of the 20th century. These include the thermal bath centre (opened in 1917), Hôtel des Thermes (1922), the railway station (1923), and the residence for French retirees (1934).

Our Lady of La Salette Cathedral, Antsirabe

The Our Lady of La Salette Cathedral (French: Notre-Dame-de-la-Saletteis a cathedral of the Catholic Church and is located in Antsirabe, the third-largest city in the island country of Madagascar.

A small clay church had been established by French priest Father Dupuy prior to 1900. At the start of the century the missionaries of Our Lady of La Salettearrived in Antsirabe and in 1908 built a church that was 22 meters long, 16 meters wide, 8 meters high, with a bell tower 14 meters high.

In 1921 with the establishment of the Diocese of Antsirabe, Monsignor François Dantin ordered that a new church would be built, as the previous one was too small for the growing Catholic population in Madagascar. Dantin also ordered that this church would be the cathedral for the new diocese.

Father Joseph Michaud was the master builder and the architect of the new church. Monsignor Jean-Baptiste Raharijaona was the director of the project. The corner stone, imported from France, was laid in 1924. On 5 January 1925 work began on the new building. On 19 September 1931 the cathedral was officially dedicated, although the building was not yet completed. On 22 September 1931 the official benediction took place, conducted by Monsignor François Dantin in the presence of Bishop Charles Givelet, then Vicar Apostolic of Fianarantsoa, and Bishop Etienne Fourcadier, then Vicar Apostolic of Tananarive.

The present day church stands 60 meters long, 16.77 meters wide, 14 meters high. Its bell tower has a height of 45 meters.

In 2005 the parish celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Today, even though there were not many people attending the ceremony, but the sound of their chanting was very loud and beautiful.

During Morning rush hour in front of the church

Within the city public transport consists of small buses and numerous pulled rickshaws ("pousse-pousse"), as well as cycle rickshaw ("cyclo-pousse"), auto rickshaw("touktouks") and private taxis. The pousse-pousse is something of an emblem of the city; 5600 of them were recorded in 2006.

There is also an airport.

A pulled rickshaw, also known as a jinrikisha, is a human-powered two-wheeled vehicle used for transportation. It features a carriage-like body, often with a collapsible hood, and is pulled by a person between two shafts. Historically, they were a common mode of transport in many Asian cities. While they are less common now, they are still found in some areas, including for tourist rides, and are also used in some situations where other forms of transport are less practical. 

In Madagascar, pulled rickshaws, also known as "pousse-pousse," are a common form of transportation, particularly in cities like Antsirabe. They are pulled by one or more people, often on foot, or by a bicycle. The name "pousse-pousse" means "push-push" in French, and is a holdover from when they were pushed uphill by a second person. 

Madagascar. Rickshaws, known as pousse-pousse, were introduced by British missionaries. The intention was to eliminate the slavery-associated palanquin. Its name pousse-pousse, meaning push-push, is reportedly gained from the need to have a second person to push the back of the rickshaw on Madagascar's hilly roads.

Nowadays, although the rickshaw is still used as a mode of transport in some regions of Madagascar, it has largely been replaced by more modern means of transportation such as pedicabs and motorcycles. However, it remains a powerful symbol of the island’s history and culture, reminiscent of a bygone era.

National road 7 (RN7) connects the city to Antananarivo in the north and to Fianarantsoa and Toliara to the south. Antsirabe is connected with Morondava on the west coast through RN34 and RN 35.   Public transport to and from Antsirabe are provided by taxi-brousses (share taxis) and buses. Most taxi-brousses operate from the main bus station in the north of the city.

This morning I felt like it was the most beautiful morning since I arrived in Madagascar. I saw the landscape of the warm and lively hillside fields, with people working in the fields around their homes.

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Local innovations

In 1867, restrictions were relaxed on the aristocracy's use of stone and brick as building materials, before all restrictions on construction were abolished in 1869 by Queen Ranavalona II, who had already commissioned Jean Laborde in 1860 to encase the exterior of her wooden palace at the Rova in stone. The building took its final form in 1872 after James Cameron added stone towers to each corner of the palace.^[12] The queen converted to Christianity in 1869 and that same year the London Missionary Society commissioned James Cameron to construct a private home for its missionaries. He drew his inspiration from the work of Gros and Laborde to develop a multi-story wooden house with veranda and columns. This model exploded in popularity throughout Antananarivo and surrounding areas as an architectural style for the aristocracy, who had to that point continued to inhabit simple homes similar to the wooden palace of Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga. These newly favored brick houses often featured shortened tandrotrano and elaborately carved verandas.^[12]These homes can naturally range in color from deep red to almost white depending on the characteristics of the earth used in its construction.

 Over time, and particularly with the colonization of Madagascar by the French, these earthen houses (known as trano gasy – "Malagasy house") underwent constant evolution.The simplest form of earthen house is one or more stories tall, rectangular, and features a thatched roof with slightly overhanging eaves to direct rain away from the foundation and thereby prevent its erosion. Wealthier families replace the thatch with clay roofing tiles and construct a veranda on the west face of the building supported by four slender equidistant columns; this design is even more effective at protecting the building's foundations from the eroding effects of rainfall.Further expansion often entails the enclosure of the western veranda in wood and the construction of an open veranda on the eastern face of the building, and so forth, leading to wrap-around verandas, the connection of two separate buildings with a covered passage, the incorporation of French wrought-iron grills or glass panels into verandas, the application of painted concrete over the brick surface and other innovations.In suburban and rural zones, the ground floor of the trano gasy is often reserved as a pen for livestock, while the family inhabits the upper floors.The entrance typically faces west; the kitchen is often to the south, while the family sleeps in the northern part of the building. This configuration is consistent with that seen in the traditional Zafimaniry houses and reflects traditional cosmology.

Trano gasy: In rural areas, simplified brick houses retain the two stories but may lose the veranda and obscure the supporting columns

Their house is a big house, but there is no road to the house. They mainly use walking, no need for vehicles.

The dimorphic egret (Egretta dimorpha) is a species of heron in the family Ardeidae. It is found in Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mayotte, Seychelles, and Tanzania. The dimorphic egret is sometimes considered as a subspecies of the western reef egret (Egretta gularis)or as a subspecies of the little egret(Egretta garzetta).

The great egret (Ardea alba), also known as the common egret, large egret, great white egret,or great white heron,is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe. Recently, it has also been spreading to more northern areas of Europe. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.

plows are used by farmers, often pulled by Zebu cows, to prepare the soil for planting rice. However, in many areas, the use of plows is forbidden by a taboo system called "fady," where farmers instead walk the Zebu over the fields to break the soil. In more advanced areas, seedlings are raised in seedbeds and later transplanted. 

Their fields are fertile with abundant water from streams and waterfalls flowing down from the mountains in the distance.

The Central Highlands of Madagascar, also known as the Central High Plateau, are home to various highland communities, most notably the Merina and Betsileo people. These communities are known for their unique cultural practices, agricultural traditions, and historical significance within the island's context. 

Houses made of mud covered with straw

Because of their ubiquity, rice fields are part of the landscape of Madagascar, except in the extreme south where the climate is arid. These endless green fields draw stunningly beautiful geometric lines across the land. The Betsileo region is considered the rice granary of the island; it is famous for its incredible rice terraces dotted with clusters of bright-coloured houses throughout.

Yes, buses, particularly those known as "taxi-brousse," are a primary means of transporting goods and people in Madagascar, especially in rural areas. They are often used to carry necessities and commodities between markets and other locations

Fianarantsoa is a city (commune urbaine) in south central Madagascar, and is the capital of Haute Matsiatra Region.

Apart from the capital the major towns were Andohapatsakana, Alakamisy, Fianarantsoa and Fanjakana. The province was home to four major national parks: Ranomafana National Park, Midongy Du Sud, Isalo National Park, and Andringitra

Finaly,We arrived at Ramanofana National Park in the late evening in the pouring rain. Two local guides were waiting for us at the park office entrance and we set off on our night zafari . We had to wear raincoats to see the nocturnal wildlife in the rain and goodluck we saw the rare mouse lemur and several camelons.

Brown mouse lemurs are nocturnal creatures, which means they sleep during the day and search for food at night. According to National Geographic, brown mouse lemurs consume "insects, fruit, flowers, and other plants." They are known to be mostly frugivorous primates (primarily fruit eating), but they can be omnivorous as well.The brown mouse lemur is able to store "thirty-five percent of their body weight" in the form of fat. This fat is stored in the lemur's hind legs and tail and is used for energy when food sources are scarce.

Labord's chameleon

The species is endemic to dry and deciduous forests, including spiny forests, in lowlands of western Madagascar, at altitudes of 20–100 m (66–328 ft). It is considered vulnerable because of ongoing habitat loss.

 

Calumma

Calumma is a genus of chameleons, highly adapted and specialised lizards, in the family Chamaeleonidae. The genus is endemic to the island of Madagascar. One species, formerly known as Calumma tigris (the Seychelles tiger chameleon), was transferred to the genus Archaius in 2010, upon the discovery of its closer relation to Rieppeleon—one of several genera referred to collectively as "leaf" or "pygmy" chameleons—rather than to Calumma.The earliest known fossil of the genus is of Calumma benovskyi, from early Miocene Kenya, showing that the genus likely originated on mainland East Africa.The genus includes one of the heaviest and longest chameleon species, the Parson's chameleon (Calumma parsonii).

Brookesia nana

Brookesia nana, also known as the nano-chameleon, is a species of chameleonendemic to montane rainforests in northern Madagascar (North of 16°S).Unlike some chameleons, Brookesia nana does not change colors, which is an example of paedomorphism.^[1] The majority of northern Brookesia species are restricted to rainforest. The nano-chameleon is blotchy brown in color with a yellow-orange tail. Like other Brookesia species, females are generally larger than the males to accommodate their eggs.

The gold dust day gecko (Phelsuma laticauda) is a diurnal species of gecko. It lives in northern Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, and the Mascarene Islands; it has also been introduced to Hawaii and other Pacific islands.It is primarily an arborealspecies which can be found in tropical forests and may also associate with human dwellings. The gold dust day gecko feeds on insects and nectar.

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