Day 5: Antsirabe – Ambositra – Ranomafana

17 August 2025

As we noted yesterday, every town seems to have its own craft speciality. Madagascar has lots of unique handicrafts, and in this region often with an eco-friendly twist on recycling. Although today is another long travel day, it is broken up with different visits to see how locals creatively transform materials into art.

First up we visit a workshop where the speciality is creating miniature vehicles from recycled materials. An artisan shows us how he makes a bicycle from various wires and tubing (all recycled of course). One bicycle takes 2 hours to make.

A short walk away, we visit a workshop where artisans turn Zebu horns into beautiful souvenirs. They demonstrate for us how they have total utilisation of zebu horn. The horns are boiled for 10 mins and then can be separated. The inner part is used for fertiliser, while the outer horn is sanded and polished to form goods. It is dipped in a wax and then heated, both for protection of the horn and for shaping. The shop has an amazing array of different products as well as many precious stones and local spices.

From the workshop we walk up through the local market to our minibus. There are all sorts of different foods available from vegetables to fish to live chickens. There are also foosball and pool tables that are well utilised. It is Sunday so we see people dressed up for church. As we learnt yesterday, there are many different religions (but predominantly Christian) – yesterday saw Seventh Day Adventists dressed up for church.

People walk everywhere – all times of day or night even in seemingly remote places. And they have an amazing ability to carry things especially on their heads. Kenny says they are trained from an early age – he remembers family races with things on their heads. Most impressive are the women who carry babies and infants in slings either on their backs or in front as well as balancing loads on their heads. It is quite amazing what different sizes and shapes they can balance seemingly effortlessly.

This skill is scaled up even further on bicycles – we regularly see people with 4 sacks of charcoal piled up on the back, or 30-40 baskets stacked horizontally across the bike, or even pedaling bow legged around an impossibly large container.

We continue our journey south through the stunning highlands, making a stop in Ambositra, the handicraft capital of Madagascar. This town is famous for its unique Zafimaniry woodcarving, a traditional craft so special it’s been recognized by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

We have a demonstration by Rasamy, a skilled artisan who has been working his craft for 50 years. He has made the equipment himself – using a bed spring and wire that he creates a saw edge on. Rasamy showed us how he makes delicate inlaid patterns. Would take 2 weeks to make the piece. The wood is dyed by putting pieces out in the paddy fields for a few weeks to take on different colours.

I was a bit disappointed that most of the woodcarving shops were closed as it is Sunday. I had hoped to find something I liked to take home but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything I loved enough to buy.

We had lunch at a restaurant just across the road and were serenaded by local musicians.

After lunch we continued on our journey, climbing the hills to the south-east and starting to see a change in landscape. We saw many Tapia trees (that are the food for the Madagascan wild silk worms Borocera cajani) and different berries for sale by the side of the road.

Crossed over into southeastern province of Fianarantsoa. Here there is a different ethnic group, the Betsimisaraka, who wear a lamba or colourful shawl/sarong and round straw hats.

There are ‘Zebu jams’ on the road. We are starting to see much bigger herds in fields (and on roads) and trucks transporting them. Zebu droppings are used for fuel and fertiliser. People often put their zebu enclosures at the top of hill by house and then the droppings wash down into the lower fields.

The houses are made of brick with a mud plaster of local soil mixed with zebu ‘drops’. There are wooden shutters on windows but no glass. Tiled roofs also appear as we go south.

We see large tanks near the roadside with huge piles of wood, and learn that these are Essential Oil Distilleries. The wood is used for heating the tanks or stills. A wide range of different essential oils are distilled in Madagascar, especially ylang-ylang, eucalyptus, vanilla, pepper and lemongrass.

As we pass through mountain villages, there are more craft roadside stalls – of wooden chopping boards and utensils. Also bottles of mountain spring water for sale.

We stopped for a toilet break at the most decorated WC block I have ever seen – in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.

We learn that petrol is same price across country – negotiated between the government and petrol companies, with ‘assistance’ from France.

We pass a truck jam over 20 trucks all lined up stopped on hill – reason a very large truck stopped blocking trucks getting through from both directions. Thankfully smaller vehicles were still able to get through.

Unfortunately a bit later on, we come across two trucks stuck on a bend in the road – one not able to go forward or back. There was lots of juggling of vehicles to get the other one through. But then all the uphill traffic tries to get through before the first truck can be cleared and another truck gets stuck in exactly the same place as the other one. The big muddy hole is just too slippery. Everyone gets out despite the rain and starts chopping trees to put down branches to help the truck tyres to grip. Eventually they managed to free the truck but then it was every man for himself going for any free space to try to get through (the first truck was still stuck). It took over an hour for us to get through.

It starts pouring with rain later in the afternoon. We see people collecting traveller’s palm fronds and other vegetation to create shelters, but mostly life seems to go on regardless.

After our delay we were much later than anticipated and had to stop at a local restaurant to use the restrooms. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and we had to go up the muddy garden path in the dark to a door-less shed with a hole in the ground.

We eventually arrived at our hotel at 7.00pm – quickly checked in and had dinner before heading off to bed.