49. Sweating like a princess

After 7 hours of driving we arrive in Ranohira. We say goodbye to our driver Freddy and his wife and son. They are driving back up to Antsirabe after 3 days with us. Yes, in a couple of days we can look forward to sitting in a taxi-brousse again. But first things first: we are going on a hike in the Isalo National Park. We get everything sorted out and the next day we are off for 2 days of sweating, climbing and descending and some more sweating! We start with entering the canyon. It is nice and cool here. We walk over rocks, loose a bit of balance here and there but enjoy it very much. An hour later we are climbing up the bloody canyon, loose a bit of balance here and there and I am not enjoying this very much! LOL My friends, I am sweating like a princess!It is boiling hot, and I mean BOILING hot! But good things come to those who persevere and once we are up the view is absolutely amazing! That and the fact that it is lunch time make it all worthwhile. LOL

Walking toward the canyon for a walk in it and afterwards a hike on it

Welcomed by the ‘I like to move it, move it’ symbol of Madagascar:
the ring-tailed lemur

In the canyon

On the canyon

Belly full, we head off again in the blistering heat. Of course like with all hikes in the mountains, we are going up and down, up and down. And there are some clouds but the sun is full on. You would think that there would be more shade with all the clouds but oh no, not here. Only once in a while the sun disappears behind a white piece of heaven. I really wonder why that is. At home I have the feeling that when there are a couple of clouds they spend most of the day hiding the so wanted sun. Here the clouds seem to avoid that nasty yellow ball in the sky!

After a good enough sleep in a tent we start the second day of the trek. But the suffering is finished. It’s not as hot as the day before and apart from the first 400 meters up up up, we are not climbing so much. Good thing we did the canyon first, now we only need to do the easy part. The sun still makes it a sweaty experience but this trek is definitely worth doing. Not only for the challenge it gives you, but more than anything else for the amazing surrounding and animals we see. Take a look at these nice bugs:

Beautiful dragonfly

Now how colourful is that!

Or that! Eeuw…