20th - Walking on sunshine

Today we were to spend the night at a homestay to which we walked to ourselves. This meant that everything we’d need for the day and night we’d have to pack into our daypacks with the rest left at the bus. I decided to leave my big lens behind as there would be no wildlife and I could use the space it took in the camera bag for a change of clothes and the like.

Breakfast seemed orderly until they tried serving our ordered menus and it was made clear they had no idea what they were doing. Jam and juice never arrived and it took several attempts for them to understand it was missing.

We left at 0845 and on the way to our drop-off we stopped by lake Andraikiba. When getting dropped off we did the 8 km walk at a gentle pace to the homestay and have lunch. The weather was clear and hot so luckily we avoided the rain.

Lake Andraikiba.

Starting the walk towards the homestay.

At 1400 we left and had a short 2-ish km walk to meet a shaman living in a local village who showed us various tools and medicinal herbs and plants. It was quite interesting and probably even more so if you believed in it (though I’ll admit that a lot of modern medicine is based on the healing abilities of certain substances found in said plants). During the start where he asked the gods & spirits for permission to start he managed to drink half a bottle (37cl bottle, though) of rum as part of the procedure. It was amazing to watch. He finished off with summoning a spirit into his assistant. That was…. theatrical. And apparently spirits are summoned by modern dance music played on an old mobile phone.

The shaman (with his assistant) describing the use of a duck's head.

By holding it's beak you can make people not talk, opening it it has the opposite result.

One of the many fruits and plants used for its healing abilities.

On the way back to the homestay we were crowded by local children; they love getting their photos taken without asking for anything in return – and some of them are surprisingly photogenic.

On return at the homestay we were treated with snacks and moonshine (which hasn’t been less than 60%, probably 70%). Then a fire was set up and a few locals came to play traditional songs with what seemed to be every child from the nearby villages who ran around dancing.

Afterwards we had dinner but not before our day’s guide sang and played us a few songs and one in the group couldn’t avoid us singing happy birthday for her on her 50^th birthday.

Tomorrow is an early departure; breakfast at 0630 and departure at 0715. We’ll walk a short 4 km walk back to the bus and then drive 8-9 hours to Ranomafana. We are all looking forward to that and showers – due to the dryness and dust here we have all acquired ourselves impressive dust tans. I feel sorry for the bed linen here.