Friday, November 15, 2013

Want to see what the countryside and plants in Madagascar looks like?

 I thought I would share some more photos I took in Madagascar. These first pictures come from an arboretum I visited. I also wanted to give you an idea of what Western Madagascar looks like. So I have a variety of pictures from the country side.


This is a map of the arboretum. One of the features of the park I did not capture are a number of huts, that model different styles from different parts of the island.

 The walkway through the park. Many of the plants are suited to survive longs dry spells. Western Madagascar is more desert like, as opposed to the more lush Eastern regions.
 This picture is sideways, this plant was around 25-30 ft tall.
 A closer look at the branches of this arid tree.

 This is a seed pod, the tree it was on was covered with these pods. The pod is about two and half inches wide.


 Here is one of the houses or huts that are common in part of Madagascar. I apologize since I can't remember from which part.
 Here is a friendly spider. Maybe not so much, this thing was big. It had a web ten feet wide and the spider was as big as a tarantula. It was probably around 5 or six inches long. I was scared just looking at the thing from ten feet away. Happily it did not move, because if it had jumped at me. . . .

 This is called an elephants foot. Supposedly it bears a resemblance. It kind of looks like a big white carrot.

The arboretum had a number of tortoises.  This big ones can be over 100 years old I hear. I got to see a number of baby ones too. I was surprised when the guide let us hold one for a few seconds.

 At the end of the arboretum was a small museum. Here are a few shots from there.

Ok, the next series of shots are from around the costal and mountainous regions in the southwest of Madagascar. This is to give you an idea of the environment.


 I did not take this picture, it is from Russ Perry. This comes from the Eastern part of Madagascar. I included it to give you some contrast to the other pictures you see from the West. I did not see a lemur on my visit.



This is a really deep sink hole. I could not see the bottom of it while flying over, we even circled it to get a better view. I was told tests where being done to look at the difference in the environment and air at the bottom of the hole.



I was not expecting to see a turkey.
 
To finish off,  here is a picture of a lunch I had. It consisted of naan and curry.

No comments: