Day 10: close to Ikongo Mount

 

In the first day lights, after a copious breakfast, we resume our road for a day which, we do not know it yet, is going to be one of more hard day, one of the more painful day.

We immediately find some blooming orchids and everybody  want to photograph them...but we do not realize that it we slowed down a little more every time...

Cynorkis calanthoides et Angraecum linearifolium
 

Once again our progress is difficult.
It is necessary to us to cross numerous little rivers, to by-pass hills, to climb stiff and slippery slopes.

For the first time I found myself in a river, having slid on a rock, but fortunately I managed to save my camera

 

 

We meet for the first time a boa, perfectly concealed in high grass...

 

 

We see the Ikongo Mount, but we won't climb it, we won't have time.
We are too "slow", but we find so many orchids to photograph that it is normal...normal, but worrisome because we absolutely have to arrive at the next village before the nightfall

 Ikongo Mount
 

Oeonia curvata
   

Jumellea sp.
 

We are still far from this village, but already we discover the first zones where the forest was destroyed to give way to cultures

 

 

The weather is good for the moment and this small river which we cross for the first time is still quiet...
 

 

...but once again a thunderstorm bursts and the problem is that all this rain is going to make rise the water level of the river.
Before to arrive finally at the village, we have to cross several times this river and the level does not stop rising.

At the end we have to carry our bags above our heads!!

 

After 12 hours of walking, we finally arrive...exhausted!!

Aeranthes peyrotii Bosser (1971)

Geographical origin:

Epiphyte in humid places in lowland evergreen forests at an altitude around 700-1200m, Madagascar, eastern régions.

  

Culture :
 

This Aeranthes can be grown mounted or potted, but it needs space for its long spikes which continue to grow up after each flowering.

Mounted, it needs to be daily mist, and in pot, with medium barks and chopped sphagnum, the substrat must never completely dry.
Temperate to hot , good air movement, high humidity and low to medium light.

 
TROPICOS
The Plant List
MNHN
KEW
IOSPE

Aeranthes strangulata Frapp. ex Cordem. (1895)

Geographical origin:

Epiphyte, usually amongst mosses in shady, humid, evergreen forests,  at an altitude around 1400 - 2000m.

Central regions Madagascar.
  

Culture :
 
Temperate temperatures, low light level and good air movement.
A lot of watering during the hot season, less in winter but never stop to give it water ...in winter once per 7-10 days would be enough
In pot with fine barks and chopped sphagnum or mounted on a slab, with sphagnum or natural moss.

 

Madagascar in situ, Itremo

TROPICOS
The Plant List
MNHN
KEW
IOSPE

Aeranthes grandiflora Lindl. (1824)

Geographical origin:

Madagascar.
Epiphyte on tree trunks in coastal and plateau humid evergreen forests, widespread; sea level to 1200m.

  
Culture :
 
This species is really easy to grow.
IOt can be mounted on slab with sphagnum or moss, but it can be potted too , with medium fir bark, sphagnum moss or even pure coarse perlite.
The light range that it tolerates is considerable, but this Aeranthes is happiest  at lower light levels.
It doesn't like to keep to dry, so don't reduce too much the watering during winter and give it a lot of water when it is hot.
Temperate to hot temperatures.

TROPICOS
The Plant List
MNHN
KEW
IOSPE

Aeranthes caudata H. Perr. (1938)

Geographical origin: 

It grows epiphytically on the tree trunks at altitude of 700 to 1500m in central and Eastern regions of Madagascar.
Never far from the ground, hung on from 1 to 2m50 high.
  

Culture :
 
Medium to low level of light, intermediate températures.
This Aeranthes can be potted in medium fir bark, but it thrives in many type of media (sphagnum, rock-wool, etc...)
A lot of watering during the hot season, less in winter but no real resting period.

 

 

Madagascar, in situ, Ambondrombe

 

 

TROPICOS

The Plant List

MNHN 

KEW

IOSPE

 

 





Jour 9: on the way to Ikongo mount

At the crack of dawn the carriers join us.
Dishes, tents, water, food, you should forget nothing because we leave for 4 days of hike in the forest.

 

Walkers' column is on the way

 

 

The first kilometers are made by following rice fields and a small river where we discover the first orchids in some trees and shrubs.

Angraecum conchoglossum and Aeranthes antennophora

 

 

 

Then little by little we penetrate in the forest, the real, that where to progress becomes really difficult because path disappear in the thick végétation.

 

We cross numerous rivers which we have to every time cross by removing our shoes, and protecting our bags

It we slowed down enormously but we have no other choice!!

 

Sometimes the vegetation is so thick that our guide has to cut a path with his machete.
Nevertheless we find time to discover some new orchids...sometimes easy to see, sometimes not...

   Aeranthes nidus

 

Aerangis citrata et Microcoelia gilpinae

 

After about ten hours of walking, we arrive at a small opened up zone, in the center of which thrones a unique small house.
Here live a Young couple, just married, who lived their village to find a place to live in the forest.

 

It is completly illegal, but it is always the same.
They start to cut some trees, to plant corn, banana trees, tomatoes, they build a rice field, cut more trees to have more place. Some years later some other persons come and finally the forest completly disapear of this area...
 

 

 

As every night we go to sleep in our tent under thunderstorms, but this time the ground is sloping, what is going to complicate enormously our sleep...

When the morning come, there is water in our tent, our sleeping bags are wet and our legs are painful ... the day is going to be hard...

 

 

 

 

  

Day 8: destination massif of Ambondrombe

Just before the departure, we have to go to the market of Ambondrombe to buy big bags which will protect our bags during the next days in forest.

On the road again and all around us, once more a landscape of big granitic boulders and rice fields.
 

When we arrive in the village we fall at the time of the break and we are quickly surrounded with children in pupils' clothes, curious to see these "wasaha"...there are not so many strangers in this part of Madagascar.

In fact, we wait to obtain the permit which will allow us to penetrate into this area and it is also necessary to us to find carriers and guides.

There are not enough pupils' clothes for all the pupils, and the pupils are too numerous compared with the number of teachers, so when one half is in school, the other half is in break....that's why there are so many children near the school all day.  

We take a track which leaves the village, a really bad track full of holes but fortunately it has not rained much in this part of Madagsacar.
We far in the direction of a school complex, lost in the countryside, but which allows a lot of children to be schooled.   

This school complexe has been created by Germain, a friend of my friends, an highschool teacher, who became in the same time the Director of this school. 
We will sleep in his house tonight and once more when we will come back in 4 days.

Even if the school is free, some children are not at school because their parents are too poor and they need them to work in the fields...

Germain's house is one the left on this picture, its roof shine in the sun light.
We have to walk half an hour to arrive to its house, there is no more road after the school yard.

We quickly lunch and decide to take advantage of the afternoon to visit forests surroundings, just to have an idea of what we will find the next 4 days.

We immediately  find our first orchids.
Terrestrial orchids in grasslands...

Cynorkis speciosa and Cynorkis fastigiata

Their natural hybrid, Cynorkis fastigiata x speciosa

...and epiphytic orchids as soon we arrive in areas with trees.We  discover gorgeous tree ferns too.

Aerangis pallidiflora and Aeranthes caudata

Aerangis citrata

This stroll was short and twilight falls fast, especially when we are in forest thus it is reluctantly that we give up our researches.

It is our last night under a real roof before finding the enjoyments of the "wilderness camping".

A surprise before sleeping, all the children of the district came to see the strangers...the "wasaha"...