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Madagascar is everything I hoped it would be, and every day I become more intrigued with its culture, landscape and most importantly, its geology. Rather than the world’s fourth largest island, it is better described as its own continent. It’s much larger than I had expected and our permits extend across vast expanses of central Madagascar. Malagasy people are friendly, actually, they are better described as not really being that interested in what’s going on outside their small communities. They don’t often see foreigners and children chant “vazaah” [foreigner] in french as they run away laughing. Most locals are on bare feet, which amazes me, as sharp quartz fragments litter the pathways. They herd zebus, a type of Indian cow with large nose and fat hump on the shoulders, a tasty meat. Chickens and ducks are abundant and I often see people walking or cycling back from the markets holding these birds upside down in bunches, alive. The chicken meat is stringy and dry. Bananas, plantains, papayas, pineapples and enormous mango trees are common, although restricted to small oases that form in the gullies of the arid, grassy highlands. When I follow the rivers, most of which are easily crossed by foot, I encounter numerous small-scale gold miners. The locals follow narrow lenticular gold-bearing veins, down to depths of 30m, build a fire to heat the rock and add water to cause the rock to break into thin sheets. These are brought to the surface and milled by women in 10 cm diameter hollows worn into the bedrock by pounding with a long stick. The milled rock is then panned and they recover on average half a gram of gold per day (that’s for a 5 man operation), all this with zebus keeping their feet cool in the river and chickens walking around pecking at left over rice grains. They eat a lot of rice here, three huge bowls per day per person, many small rice paddies line the gullies. The camp is very nice, we have a cook, several small cabins and about 30 local people working here. There are three geologists, myself included, all from Vancouver. I communicate, or rather, try to communicate, in French with the locals. It’s tough, but I’m starting to get the basics down, like “that’s good, not good, I’m hungry, where can I buy menthol cigarettes, where did you find this rock”, you get the picture. The weather is fantastic, clear blue skies, hot days, but nights can still be cool, winter is just ending. I can see the milky way at night, lots of small bats, and an ugly large spider used to hang over the toilet. I had asked one of our guys to kill it, but after he came out and said “ca partie” I realized he had only scared it away temporarily, which made it worse, as I now don’t know where it is. We have a well, which recharges at an amazingly fast rate, and a shower (not heated, so refreshing). First light is at 6am, and night sets in around 7pm. There is malaria in our camp, but I wear long sleeves at dawn and dusk, light mosquito repellent coils and hope for the best. We have top notch malaria medication, should anything happen. There are many pegmatite veins, some with gorgeous massive pink quartz, black tourmaline and thick books of muscovite. Antsirabe sells aquamarines and other pegmatite gemstones, which I look forward to seeing. The local police are part of the “gendarmerie”, they travel around in large, intimidating groups (our local geologists hide when they drop by for a visit), they carry old-looking guns and open beer bottles with the gunsights, so I guess the odds of them shooting on target is slim. The senior geologist is a really great geologist and we talk geology morning till night, I love it. We often go for day long hikes and get excited about all the different rocks and textures. The other geologist is always stressed out over nothing, a bit large and often sweaty, he makes me laugh. I haven’t seen much wildlife, some interesting looking birds, but that about it. There are no lemurs here, they are mostly in the east, where the protected rainforests are. That’s where most of the tourists go. There is a shrub that when you touch the leaves, it closes up. I don’t think it consumes insects, though, it must be some sort of protection mechanism. I’m very happy here, the project I am working on is super exciting. Last night a banana tree crashed onto my cabin, but didn’t do too much damage. That would be something, for me to get killed by a banana tree ;))) Well, time to crawl into my mosquito-net covered bed and get some sleep. Don’t get the wrong impression, though, I rarely see mosquitoes, but all it takes is one. I did see a large cricket that resembled a stick, it looked very funny.Continue reading... Arachnophobia, Dabolava, Central Madagascar, 2005
Thunder and Punch Coco, Tsiribihina River and Baobab Alley, Western Madagascar, 2005
New Years in Mada, Morondava, Western Madagascar, 2005
Of Snorkeling and the Barracuda, Cape Town and Mauritius 2006
People of the Thorns, Androy, Southern Madagascar, 2006
Emeralds and a King, Mananjary Region, Eastern Madagascar, 2006
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