It’s really hard to believe that an economy can still be driven by oxcart in this day and age. But on top of that, some of them even have still had wooden wheels. The central North West of Madagascar is reliant on this mode of transport

Snaking trough the hills the Zebu track winds up into the clouds and then down it goes again. How I hate the down, because that means swamp again and there is no way around it. You must go through it, knee deep mud and slush with

It had been 5 hard days, not much to eat. The town of Bikapeka laid ahead, a chance of food. The recent rain had left the Zebu Chariot track a muddy swamp, shin deep leading into town. As usual the village looked quaint from a distance,

There is not much that I wont eat or cant, over the years I have developed quite a strong constitution as well as mentally I can switch off to what I am eating in order to get it down. The most important thing is that you

Most of the remote villages have no where that one can stay on a rest day very few have rooms to rent that are called “Hotely”. The only place to stay is with a villager, but this does not work at all. Firstly you have to

Looking at this journey, the over 2000km that I have now covered by land and sea. The constant changing climate, terrain , temperature, the relentless onslaught of the insects found here, all of these put massive strain on one and slowly and quietly eat away at

It’s raining now, as it has been for the past few weeks. The humidity builds and builds like a bad mood, clouds begin to gather as the temper explodes with bolts of lightning thrashing left and right as all duck for cover. The growl of thunder

The hand axe or chopper. Madagascar’s weapon of mass destruction has sown its destructive virus from south to north across this massive island. There is hardly a tree that has escaped it. The few that are out there show the deep scars of many attempts there

I was lying scratching my head last night, worried that I might have picked up some head lice on the way. We often see villagers sitting in the sun delicing each other. The thought struck me of and incident a few weeks ago. It had been day

When I planned this trip, my aim was to travel up the centre of the island, but heading a little east and then follow the western side of the mountains from Antananarivo move east 150 km and then straight up to Ambatondrazaka up on to Andilamena,