A new touristic site, a historic cave and the summit of the hill where once a king resided are now open to the public. It takes some stamina to arrive, but the stayers are rewarded! The cave is high upon the hill near the hamlet Marovato in the Eastern Rainforest of Madagascar. Marovato is only accessible on foot, an eight kilometre walk from Gismay, where the boat from Brickaville moors. The cave is a little more uphill. Here, in times of unrest people would hide. The last time was during the 1947 insurrection against the colonial rule. Since then, the cave was filled up with dirt. But the villagers did a good job to improve the path that leads to the cave and cleaned out the cave itself, which is much deeper than they ever expected. A small puddle has formed in the middle, much to the delight of the Indri-indri that live in the surrounding forest. They use it as a watering place. The indri-indri, a black and white lemur, is a sacred animal for the local people and therefore it is not very shy. Thus there is a reasonable chance to spot them.
The path to the cave continues to the summit where one has a splendid view of the surroundings. Once, a king lived upon this summit where he was protected against his enemies. The grandson of the last king is now the tangalamena (warden of traditions) of Marovato.
More information about Marovato, the cave and the king can be found in a brochure that shortly will be available as a download from this site. Also, a new trek including a visit of this new touristic site will be put together by the local organisation, Rianala, and Centre Lambahoany and published on this site.
Featured image (top): Brickaville
