Around the world - Madagascar - Efforts create dreams

Ever since I have arrived to Madagascar, I have been sleeping like a baby. Ever since I have been sleeping like a baby (for at least 8h per night, do I dare to confess?!) - I have been having nights entirely filled with dreams. Pleasant, restful, happy dreams. But last night turned out to be the exception. There is always one. I had horrible dreams last night. My mother and younger sister got murdered and nobody in my family would let me know. So when, after a trip, I returned to my parent's house - it was all tears from there. That dream gave me a stunning headache and shortened my night. But I guess that was fine by me anyway. I love to dream but I'm more of "peace, love and life" kind of a girl rather than death! I was glad it was over.

Taking a cold shower seemed to be not only a refreshing idea but also a very refreshing action in itself. The electricity was again out of order and so really, did I have a choice? Nope, one would say. But then again - I never did mind the cold water, quite on the contrary (my japanese friends will nod their heads in agreement as they read this. I was the only one taking a cold shower instead of sitting in the boiling hot onsen!). Obviously, we had a rich breakfast and at 7am we were off to our new trekking adventure. 

So are you ready? This time I will be taking you all into the Isalo National Park. The park is known for its wide variety of terrain, it's a massive expanse of eroded sandstone and its formations dating from the Jurassic era (only some hundreds of millions of years ago!), deep canyons, palm-lined oasis and grassland. It all extends over almost 82000 ha. Yay for the legs! Even though we left early, the first 2h of our walk were very challenging. Not that the terrain was difficult but it was sooo darn hot!!! The sun was hitting the body from the back and the canyon rocks from the front. A real oven! I truly, madly and deeply dislike this kind of heat. Makes me feel anxious, annoyed, weak - and more - all at the same time. It's excruciating! 

Like I mentioned just a while ago - the landscape is totally different from the previous trek. It's canyon-ish, very dry, rocky, sandy at times, there are very few trees. The rocks look as if they were behind prison bars. It's gorgeous and there are so many colors that Mother Nature used there! After lunch break, the scenery changed very quickly and radically. Tropical forest/oasis kind of scenery. Even though I have never been to either, this surely feels like it. The relief is ruin-form, and the views are stunning, especially when the sun is playing the game. 

We ended up at the natural "swimming pool". There were actually two of them. One carries the name "blue", the other is "black". Blue is more shallow and the bright colored stones turn the water into a very intense light blue. The black is much darker because it is larger and most importantly - deeper. The water in both of them is fresh. I believe it isn't the greatest idea for one to jump into it. Especially because the temperature around you is somewhere between 30-35*C and the water must be 15*C at the most! 

After taking a swim, we dried on the stone - we just simply followed the example a variety of lizards gave us. I can assure you, it was not a pure bliss to put our heavy walking shoes back on on our refreshed feet but that was the thing to do and so we did. After which we headed for the camping site. 

I will be repeating myself but the walk was just amazing! I could have stayed and camped the night right there. Source water falling down along the orange walls of earth, palm trees, wild river, round grey stones, beige sand here and there. Tried to take some pictures but the eye catches so much more than a camera does! 

We were welcomed to the camping by a whole bunch of lemurs (Catta) and a one little cute chameleon. And flies, and some mosquitoes, and other bugs but let's not go there. We should be having dinner shortly and then off to sleep in our tent. I haven't done this since I was a little girl. The difference between then and now is the following: I cannot ignore the bugs, the rats, the lemurs, eventual snakes and other creatures that could try to co-habitate with us tonight.

Just before I go on one of my scare trips, let me tell you: The effort does create a dream or two. But a dream can turn the effort into a great adventure.