I don’t remember when Madagascar first came on to my radar as a place I needed to visit. Maybe it was a seed planted by one of those early influencers ( in the days before Instagram), Jacques Cousteau or David Attenborough…

I only know one person who has ever visited the island. A colleague, from my corporate past, who lived in Madagascar textile factories for two years and described it as a, ‘god damned awful place’. I trusted his judgement, after all he had worked in many challenging places in the world, but at the same time I knew this was only one viewpoint/experience, and that mine could be different.

For me it reads as a magical place. Formed in part 180 million years ago when it split away from Africa and then taking its independence from the Indian subcontinent 90 million years later to finally ‘swim’ on its own.

After so many millions of years of isolation, and the evolutionary process, there is nowhere else like it on Earth. Some ecologists name it as the Eighth Continent, a recognition that, despite its small size it, ‘punches way above its grade’

90% of the wildlife and species on the island are endemic, so found nowhere else on the planet. Just let this simmer for a while along with other factors :

90% of the 260 species of reptiles are only found here.
60% of the 300 bird species are only found here.
66% of the Chameleon species are only found here.
80% of the 14883 plant species are only found here.
78% of the 860 varieties of orchids are only found here.
95% of the 170 palm species are only found here.
100% of the 103 species of Lemurs (main picture) only live here. If you want to see a Lemur in the wild you have to make a trip to Madagascar.

Why would Madagascar NOT be on my bucket list?

….But then I need to see it now.

Madagascar has enjoyed 90 million years of splendid isolation to create rainforest nirvana, but then a mere 2350 years ago that horrible species, homo sapiens, arrived on the shores, in dug out canoes, and, in this miniscule amount of time in the island’s history, 90% of the forest have disappeared.

It will take a Herculean effort now to save the remaining 10%.