It’s really hard to imagine, when you are on Route Nacionale 6 in Madagascar, that on the other side of the world there are advanced projects, preparing to get human beings on to the surface of Planet Mars.
At the end of this day, we would visit our own version of Mars, Madagascar style, but no Perseverance rover or Cape Canaveral here, only 130 kilometres of the RN6 – Route Nacionale 6.
The RN6 is classified as a ‘Primary Highway’. EU development funding paid to partially pave this 713km long road in the early 1990’s, but it is now described, by the Government itself, as, ‘ mostly paved but in poor condition’.
See map below. The RN6 is the longest highway in Madagascar.
Judge for yourself local road conditions.
Sights on route.
After another 100 km of body shattering bumps and blows, we finally turn off the RN6, to visit Tsingy Rouge.
The geological sight is reached by a further 20 km of truly off roading, that only a 4 x 4 can manage. The red chimneys (Tsingy) that are formed by the action of wind and rain, really takes you by surprise, by its oddity, but also, by the wonder of nature.
This really is how I imagine Mars to look, but for sure to get there will take more advanced engineering than the RN6….
Comments
4 responses to “Route to Mars”
And we thought some Turkish roads were challenging! Looks amazing. Your pictures are outstanding. Keep these posts coming please!
Thank you Joan!
Looks like the roads in Shropshire.
Ha…think maybe we have no right to complain 🙂