Many of us think we know Madagascar from the hit animated movie, but what’s it like to visit in real life? Travel writer Julia Hammond hopped on a plane to find out. They have a saying in Madagascar: “mora mora”. It means slowly slowly, or take it easy.
When visiting the world’s fourth largest island, it’s a mantra that travellers should embrace, whether relaxing beside the Indian Ocean or braving the lamentable state of the country’s roads as they tour its mountainous interior. I eased myself in gently to this captivating African nation with a stay on Nosy Be island, where the tourist infrastructure is well developed. At first, there seemed little point in straying far from my beachfront guesthouse in Madirokely – if you sat for long enough, everyone and everything passed by.
In the early mornings, a zebu cart came for the rubbish. Fishermen bailed out weathered lakanas, the local name for outrigger canoes, and unfurled their shabby sails. Grinning kids chased footballs into the surf.
Women clad in colourful sarongs strolled past to buy fruit to fill the wicker baskets they effortlessly balanced on their heads. At sunset, the sky brightened to an intense shade of tangerine and then faded to inky black in the time it took to drink a bottle of Three Horses Beer..