A bird's-eye view of central Madagascar

My previous posts “Five Minute Friday: Risk” and “Look to the heavens” refer.

We flew west from Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo to the Manambolo / Melaky region earlier this week … I captured these scenes from the Helimission helicopter …

(Click on the first photo below to access a slideshow of better-quality versions)

A home and its rice paddies.

A little village amidst the rice paddies.

This typical Malagasy village is built straight up a ridge.

Madagascar was once covered in rain forest but slash and burn practices and indiscriminate clearing has ravaged the island over many years. Erosion, as a result of the lack of undergrowth, sees much of the island’s topsoil washing out to sea in red-tinted river-arteries during the rainy season …

The Manambolo river from the eastern plateau.

Zebus and grass-cutting a few hundred metres from the Manambolo river. The grass is used for building, mattresses and Zebu-feed.

A patch of rainforest in the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park and reserve. According to recent estimates, only around 10% of Madagascar’s natural rainforest remains.

A Rocky outcrop – like an other-worldly landscape.

A patch of green in winter.

The Tsingy is a forest of limestone rocks – once part of the sea-bed and now 60 – 80km inland from the island’s western coast. Unfortunately we couldn’t walk into it to explore its many natural treasures.

The Tsingy is a haven for wild birds, undiscovered beasts and lemurs, many of which find protection deep in its crevasses.

The rocks have been weathered by rain, forming a forest of needles. Several species of hawk and lemur make their home in the Tsingy.

The team enjoying a short picnic break after flying over the Tsingy

Tsironomandidy – the last major town one can drive to easily when heading west towards Ankavandra …

A valley of rice paddies just west of Antananarivo.

An alternate use for a basketball court – clothes-drying court.

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