A Sacred Baobab
Baobabs In Love
After our stay at Kirindy, we continued south towards Morondava. On the way we stopped to see some of the more well-known giant baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri). They were all located in vast expanses of degraded habitat, former forested lands which had been logged and burned for wood, charcoal and cattle production. It was amazing to see the trees, but depressing to see their surroundings.
Baobabs are revered throughout Madagascar, and many villages have one or more of these revered trees standing in their midst. Often, they are the only trees anywhere around; all other species have been cut down and converted into either wood or charcoal, the land they once grew on now dedicated to rice or zebu, with no opportunities for trees to regrow. Climate change is making this even worse, as this article makes clear.
We stopped at a huge baobab in a small village; it was fenced off, and we had to take off our shoes to go into its enclosure to see it up close. A ways further on, we stopped to see two entwined baobabs, "Baobabs in Love." They have been growing that way for hundreds of years.
We arrived at the famous Avenue of Baobabs, where we stopped for lunch. It was the middle of the day, so the worst possible time for photographs, but Sid managed to get a good one anyway. We had lunch at the restaurant at the site, where we tried a baobab milk drink, which we agreed would be ok if we were dying of thirst but would not be a go-to one for us.
Then it was on to Morondava, where we had our much appreciated showers and then enjoyed an afternoon and evening on the beach. We swam in the Indian Ocean / Mozambique Channel. It was warm and shallow.
Our hotel had a small enclosure with some captive turtles in it; it was mating season. I have to wonder if they are able to lay their eggs successfully in that enclosure, and what happens to the little ones if they hatch.
