A long, long time ago there was a super-continent called Gondwana.
About 88 million years ago, part of it split from what is now India to become the world’s fourth largest island (after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo). That part was called Madagascar and it has since evolved in relative isolation. This has lead to two particularly mind-boggling facts:
- over 80% of the flora and fauna on Madagascar is endemic (i.e. can’t be found anywhere else on earth), including 8 whole plant species, more than a thousand orchids, hundreds of species of frogs, about 420 kinds of reptile, five families of birds and 220 different mammals.
- Five percent of the world’s animal and plant species are found only on this island, including 110 bird species
It’s the result of “adaptive radiation”: the flora and fauna weren’t all here when the island broke away, but have flown, swum and journeyed here since and then diversified very quickly as they encountered new environments to the extent that new species were formed. It’s resulted in a bewildering array of species, most found nowhere else.
This may or may not have something to do with why I wanted to visit.
My security concerns were alleviated considerably when I found out that it’s the third safest country in Africa (after Mauritius and Botswana) and ranked higher for safety than the UK and the US (although given the current state of play in these countries, I guess that’s not entirely surprising).
Madagascar is also very poor. By GDP, it’s the 10th poorest country in the world (£1,028). In comparison, the UK is the 27th richest country with a GDP of £34,686. For info, the poorest country is Central African Republic (£535) and the richest is Qatar (£105,791).
And so I arrived in Madagascar.
The only point of note during the journey was Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport. It is, quite simply, a triumph of style over function. I’ve not done specific user research on this, but I’m fairly sure most travellers passing through an airport will want the following:
- Toilets
- Somewhere to sit
- Water fountain
- Decent selection of on-the-go food
- A cup of coffee at a reasonable price
CDG offers just the first two and, in the place of the others, an extensive selection of top-end boutiques selling clothes, makeup and other things completely useless and irrelevant for the majority of travellers. A medium latte was €5.30 – almost double London prices.
The international airport in Madagascar, on the other hand was very efficient, especially considering the size of the airport (small) and the size of the plane (huge). After navigating the multiple visa and passport controls, I emerged into the arrivals lounge. It was heaving with locals. Many were there to collect specific people, but quite a few just seemed to be hanging around, touting for business. So it was with some trepidation that I exchanged £200 and €200 for a huge pile of Ariary (at the time of writing £1 will buy you 4,100 Ariary).
I went to bed a millionaire 🙂