February 14, 2007
Last summer, as we started to think about the this summer and where to go, David suggested doing something different and biking through Scotland. We talked about biking through England off and on, so this seemed like a neat way to sort of do that, but also go somewhere new. Through a series of birthday emails to Mama in July, the plan turned into a family trip, so all seven of us are meeting in Scotland at the end of May for two weeks. Exciting! And nerve wracking.
Biking through Scotland as a means of transport, though, we realized was not something we're really equipped to do. Though our skill level (well, my skill level anyway) is no where near some friends of ours, we vastly prefer mountain biking to road biking. Plus, Scottish drivers are widely reputed to be 'daring,' not something we're interested in experiencing on narrow roads with no shoulders to move to for safety. So, we started the inevitable discussion of what to do with the rest of the summer months.
I say inevitable, because our trip plans go through at least half a dozen iterations before we decide on whatever it is that we're really going to do. Much of the time we end up doing something else for somewhat practical purposes. Last summer we didn't go to Cambodia and Laos, our original plan, because it was monsoon season and the roads all get washed out. For people who rely on public transport to get around, no roads creates a bit of a problem. And then we didn't go to Mongolia, because we thought it would be too expensive: they don't really have roads, so we'd have to hire a 4x4 and driver, which is a bit out of our budget. China and Korea, then, became places we were interested in, but also could reasonably travel through.
So, for this summer's plans, after ditching the "biking in Scotland" idea, we thought we'd go hiking in the Alps, since we'd be in Europe anyway and hiking is something we love doing. That quickly morphed into having to go to Italy to see our friends there, too. And then David suggested hoping over to Morocco, since we'd be 'in the area' and visiting my host family from Peace Corps days. In the end, though, we realized that this will be the last time before I have to get a job, so we might as well do something really different. So we're going to Madagascar.
Madagascar has all sorts of things in which we're interested. 80% of the plant species on the island are only found there; lemurs are cute, and only found here, all 50 species of them; they have 109 endemic bird species; and all of this in national parks and reserves where we can camp! Plus the people, who are generally thought to have arrived only about 2000 years ago from Indonesia/Malay. So while some of what we see will be vaguely similar to what we're familiar with from Mozambique and Malawi, there will also be enormous differences.
