Downtown Antanarivo with
the main marketplace. The
architecture had an interesting
French colonial flare to it.

This is the row of barber shacks.
Haircuts cost about 50 cents
& were very professional.

One of the common spiders which
looks too small in this picture.
They were all over Madagascar.

The castle and a “Malagasy”
palm at sunset.

Taken out of the bus window
on the way to Andasibe.

Andasibe

I never figured out why they
dried clothes on fields. The
clothes stank afterward!

Some of the many rice
paddies in the highlands.

This guy is catching an
avocado in his basket.

The first pousse-pousse ride
I took. I swore it would be my
last, but it wasn’t. The guy was about
half my size running me around the city.

Miandravazo Market

Pirogues are hollowed out tree
trunks, and are the most common
form of river transport.

French baguettes were the form
of bread (thanks to the French,
but the Malagasy never got it
quite the same as the French).

A school near where we
stayed in Miandravazo.

An official helping us get the
permit for the boat trip.

Our captain
Sulu on the left

Captain Sulu managed to
find a chameleon for us!

This picture doesn’t do it justice,
but this was a beautiful waterfall
we had lunch and a swim at along
the pirogue trip.

My advice to everyone – even
if a beach looks safe and clean and
you are under a mosquito net, never!
sleep in a sleeping bag directly on the
sand. The picture doesn’t do it justice or
show the other side of my arm, but I counted
on this arm just from my elbow to my
wrist I had 130 sandfly bites! Itchy!

Note his
weapon of choice.

Zebu cart ride
to the next village

This is where the villagers were
most curious about seeing someone
from another planet.

She loved seeing pictures
of herself which I showed
her on the digital display.

A famed
Malagasy tomb.

View from our room
Belo sur Tsiribihina

The innkeeper in
Belo sur Tsiribihina

There are a variety of
boats at sea – Morondava.

Here’s where I hitched a ride to t
he baobabs in a military truck loaded
with sugar, tires and guns.

Allee de Baobab –
nearish Morondava

Malagasy children love
posing for pictures.

The baobabs
are ginormous!

Flat tire on the taxi bus.
It wasn’t the last flat either.

These people got their
laundry up on fences. Ambositra

The food stalls were so
small – Malagasy size.

A typical taxi
stand. Ambalavao

Getting cattle together for
the big zebu market. Ambalavao

Ambalavao marketplace

This gentleman who looks very nice
and humble was actually very friendly and
very drunk. He evidently partied too much
at the zebu market.

Nearby villages drove their cattle
in for the market.

A rice paddy on the
way to Andringtra.

Barely made it back from the hike
before dark – good thing the guide
knew where he was going!

Normally pictures are taken of children,
and these two elders loved
having their picture taken.

A village within the national park.
The rice grinding going on in the
background is tough work!

Along the train ride from
Fianar to Manakara

There were a lot of poinsettia
in Madagascar

It wasn’t too much later
that the train broke down
for 6 or so hours in the rain.

Our train broke down and we
wandered out to some huts.

Ranomafana

Again with clothes
drying on fields!

This was the most interesting orchid
I saw in Madagascar. The orchid season
is during the rainy season Jan-Feb,
so I guess I was lucky.

Ille Ste Marie

Lots of nice beach!
And coconuts!

The owner of the bungalows had
a few lemurs loose on his property.

The view from where
we were staying

Michelle and I had
high tea at the Vic.

The train ride from Victoria Falls to
Bulawayo. Beautiful fall colors!

Amakhosi Cultural Center in Bulawayo.
I need to look up the name of this instrument!
These students did a great job at an impromptu
performance just for me!

It’s hard to tell from this picture,
but cars and people are just lined
up forever near gas stations.

Jane Gavaza from Harare was in
the same cabin as me on the train from
Bulawayo to Harare. The train arrived 5
hours late, so we had plenty of time
to get to know each other (17 hours).

Downtown Harare.
A nice, clean and modern city.

Outside Windhoek on the
way to Hardap Dam

At Hardap Dam

I met up with Nadira who happened
to be in town from Sydney.

Al and Nadira in the Drakensberg
north of Durban.

Here’s me and a real giraffe at a
nature reserve around the corner
from Al and Tamara’s house.

One of the typical Xhosa huts along the
wild coast (between Durban and East London).

View near where Michelle and I
stayed at Hole in the Wall
along the wild coast.

One of the buildings on Long Street
near where we were
staying in Cape Town.

Robbin Island

Me and Mama Fefe

Me, Mama Fefe & Michelle

A former inmate
on Robbin Island

Jackass African Penguin