Wow,
what a day! Travelling is as much the meeting of people as the travel itself
and boy did we meet some interesting locals! I think this is a post best
described through pictures, so I’ll keep it short. Waking early we borrowed a
couple of push bikes and ventured out to find Lake Tritriva approximately 17km
away from Antsirabe. Getting out of city was in itself interesting, as not
having ridden a bike for a while, I was on edge the whole time trying to dodge
and weave between the mess of cars, bikes, pousse pousse, zebu carts and
pedestrians on the road. Once we cleared the centre though, it was easy sailing
and we were soon amongst a beautiful scene of rice patties and corn farms.
The
lake (the most famous of the 3 in the area) is approximately 1800m above sea
level and we slowly made our way up over bumpy paths and into the rural
villages. Often a simple “salaama” (Hello) and a smile was enough to bring out
the bright Malagasy spirit. Furthermore, being apparently Japanese looking and
a rarity in the rural parts (most tourists hire cars or taxi brousse to reach
the lakes), I met with many staring gazes; though they almost always broke into
big smiles with the greeting. The children were wonderful. From far away they
would spot me and Arno and yell “Bonjour/Salaama vasa!” (Hello foreigner!) I
returned by handing out some gummy snakes to the enthusiastic ones who
approached me. Such simple gifts were well received and often the children
would run back home shrieking and laughing while dangling the coloured candy
from their fingers.
At
one point, I asked a man if I could photograph him threshing some wheat (very
different from CSIRO!). After handing out some more candy (it seemed like a
hundred children for sure!), the man’s wife came and invited us to see her home
and how they lived. The house was small and rough, but very much a home with
one wall decorated with magazine pictures and old, ragged barbie dolls. The
wife showed us how she makes hats and souvenirs from left over wheat stems. The
skill and speed of her fingers was just extraordinary! Their daughter was also
very bright and could already speak some French and English which she’d been
taught at school.
The
journey continued, we saw two of the three lakes and returned to Antsirabe. But
as the wise say, the point of a journey is often in getting there and not the
destination.
