Look, it’s raining. Part Two.
8th January 2012
24.12.2011 - 14.01.2012
19 °C
Today, we did a 10km walk through the south part of I’Isalo. It was brilliant and a welcome relief after the leeches. It’s dryer, more rugged, more expansive and we only saw two bugs the whole day…my kind of thing…Additionally, there were some awesome streams, waterfalls and pools in the gorges between the canyon sandstone mountains…places I’d do anything to visit with more time to spare and without a guide. While I fully get the idea of having a guide, a 3 hour hike usually takes 6, especially because one stops for every plant and creature and gets a full explanation, description and a name in French, Malagassy and Latin.
It rained. Obviously. But not badly.
- **
It’s raining heavily now, which likely has something to do with the cyclone passing the south-west coast and hitting us directly.
Scrabble.
Jayne: 271….281
Carolyn: 285…275
It’s now 6 hours later. Even Noah’s Arc is offended.
I believe we got in the better half of our trip sorted before the rain got awkward. To put it in perspective, Zina, who has lived in Tana all his life and been driving south for 11 years, said that he has never experienced a week of solid rain like this. Normally, like JUST before we arrived, daytime temps reach 40 and “the rainy season” consists of expected afternoon rain/thunderstorms. We have mid winter, post-snow, flooding Cape Town happening here.
We’ve decided to skip our planned night’s stop at Ambalavao (3 and a half hours north of here) and head on straight through to Ambositra- 8 hours in the opposite direction to the cyclone’s path. Ambalavao only has a paper factory anyway…and an-amazing-reserve-we-thought-was-closed-but-that-is-in-fact-actually-open-at-this-time-of-year, but that will now be washed out and inaccessible…and a Zebu-market-that-doesn’t-happen-on-Tuesdays-and-Wednesdays-like-the-book-says-but-only-on-Wednesday-and-Thursdays.
The pigs next door stopped squealing. I presume they’re in the arc.
Posted by JayneHol 09.02.2012 06:51 Archived in Madagascar Tagged rainmadagascarcycloneranohirai'isalo_national_parkchandasouthern_madagascar
