July 31, 2007
We adore walking. True, we also enjoy the play on words suggested by our site's name, but we really do love being pedestrians. And as equal opportunity enjoyers of any walking activity, we're also big fans of hiking. There's a peaceful, almost meditative state of mind I can only achieve hiking. Well, or listening to music while staring out at the desert on a souq bus in Morocco, but the hiking is easier to get to. Usually we prefer hiking just the two of us; comfortable enough to appreciate the silence, but also able to natter on about anything and everything. (That would be me when not in the meditative state.) But in Mad most of our hiking has been done with guides.
The national parks here have very strict rules about only being able to enter a park with an official guide, though oddly these rules differ from park to park. At Ranomafana we were assigned a guide by the park officials; at Isola we were besieged by men offering to act as guides, official or faux, with the ANGAP official looking on in amused disinterest; and at Andohahela the park officials are the guides. But in any case you can't go in any park without a guide.
Since maps are either non-existent or laughably bad in this country, and the guides are all licensed, having had to pass a test about the ecology in their area, tagging along behind a guide is hugely informative. They spot lemurs, lizards, birds, stick insects, point out interesting and weirdly shaped trees and bushes and caution about the poisonous plants, leeches ad scary-looking, but harmless, spiders. So we've been quite happy to hike with a third person when out in Mad. Even if it means I miss out on my meditation.
