Madagascar
The ancestors of the Madagascans are said to have come from the area around Indonesia in South East Asia. Mixing with the Arabs and Africans who settled there later, they gave birth to a unique new culture.
A desert stretches across the south of Madagascar, dispelling preconceptions of a jungle island covered in tropical rainforest. Elsewhere, steep mountains fall away to reveal vast grasslands, stretching across the horizon as far as the eye can see. It is a landscape of dramatic contrasts, delightful to the eye.
And then there is the ecosystem of Madagascar. Unlike any other on earth, this is what has made the island's name known the world over. Madagascar was cut off from the continent of Africa over a hundred million years ago, and since then evolution on the island has taken a different path. Many of the animals and plants that inhabit Madagascar are not found anywhere else on the planet.
If you cut across from the north of Madagascar to the south, you witness such dizzying changes in the scenery that it is hard to believe you are still on the same island. Madagascar stirs the spirit of adventure that always seeks to discover what lies beyond the next mountain.
