Madagascar Travels

Madagascar is an island of secrets, where new species of wildlife continue to be discovered and rumours of mysterious aboriginals and natural phenomena persist in the forest. Christina Dodwell explores its least accessible corners and makes friends with its people. Her four-month journey began in the highlands where, travelling by horse-drawn stagecoach, she encounters a healer, a village poet and families who perform bone-turning rites for their ancestors. Taboos, fetishes and astrology weave through her travels among wood-carvers and lead to a royal meeting. Christina paddles her canoe on the south-east coastal rivers and makes plans to enter the capital s Grand Prix horse race. In the remote west of the island she threads her way between amazing limestone pinnacles in an area normally reserved for scientists, navigating canyons and river tunnels where crocodiles live on blind white fish. Travelling by ox cart and on foot, she enjoys Madagascar s rich plant life and learns how this invaluable genetic bank is at risk, while delving into prehistory leads her in search of one of the world s largest fossilised forests. Christina s great courage, open mind and unbounded curiosity enable her to go to places few would dare visit, and she almost invariably finds kindness and hospitality wherever she travels.