Tulear to Isalo National Park

We left the coast this morning, driving NE up the RN 7 (Route National 7) on bitumen. It was a weird experience to travelling at 100 kph on a good sealed road. It seemed a little too easy!

However, before we left Dyna was keen to show us where he had the bushes made for the front stabiliser bar. It was quite something to see. Men cut rough blocks of rubber from big slabs of the material salvaged from heavy earth moving equipment and then shaped them on a hand driven lathe with a very sharp hand held blade. The skill level was something to see. The guy could make any size or thickness of washers and big bushes.

There was general motor works in the area, and this engine was being sent off for repair.

We were still in the semi desert environment of the west coast, and we passed some of the poorest villages we have seen to date, and that is saying something. Thses people even had to buy trucked in water. The children were filthy and wore rags. The villagers made money by getting firewood from the very depleted forest, making charcoal, or manually making gravel from the limestone rocks. Really desperate stuff.

We had a stop at the only legal moonshine making village in Madagascar. They ferment a mix of tamarind seed and sugar cane in steel drums and distill off the alcohol with wood fires, condensing it in crude wooden tubs.

There was the usual roadside scenery. This typically colourful Christian grave...

...plenty of zebu carts..

...and one of the most run down mini taxi brousse we have seen. The passengers even had to push start it after every stop.

We passed through the renowned sapphire mining town of Ilakaka, the old panning stream now mostly given over to the spoils and clothes washing.

There were shoulder to shoulder sapphire stores, with this one getting the most photogenic prize.

The village car and body washing area was a hive of activity as well.

We were now in open grasslands (deforested like 85 % of Madagascar), and some interesting hills started to appear.

Then the gateway to Isalo National Park.

We passed one of the more famous formations on our way through, the Queen rock.

...before settling in at the less than celubrious, Orchidee Hotel in Ranohira, but it was clean. We are here for 2 nights, spending the whole day tomorrow walking in the park.