Description: After our previous two days hiking up to the summit of Pic Boby and enjoying the beautiful scenery and wonderful night skies at the camp site, I feared that our final day descending back to our 4X4 at the foot of the mountain would prove to be a horrendous anti-climax.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to retrace our steps and our final day’s hiking took us over the Diavolana (full moon) route, a rather barren area of huge moulded boulders.

I woke up at dawn, and took some wonderful photos in the river where Zu had scooped up water for our rice and tea the evening before. Our bathing facilities were in a rock pool closer to the edge of the waterfall, and we had caught the last of the sun’s rays the afternoon previously after we had got back from the summit.

While the final days walk was wonderful, I could help but feel wrenched apart from this magical place. As a result, I was in a sulk for an evening or two at our next hotel, but that’s an entirely different tale.

Our walk first took us in the opposite direction to where we had found the path up the almost impossibly rocky slope to the mountain peaks. Fortunately, there was less climbing today, and my thighs felt rock hard after the previous day’s exertion and subsequent painful cramping episode. On the way up to the ridge of the cliff, our guide Florene told us the tale of how Pic Boby got its name.

Apparently in the 1800’s a couple of French botanist explorers decided to climb the (at that point un-named by the colonials) peak. They agreed that whoever made it first could honour the achievement through naming the mountain after the victor. Unfortunately while making the arrangement, they didn’t take stock of Boby, the dog they took with them until it was too late.

At the edge of the cliff face here, there are the caves of the dead. The locals bury their dead locally in the village, and then have another party to celebrate them after two years, and the body has become bones. The bones are then stored in family crypts on the mountainside. Apparently, the parties cause hardship for the families as they are great feasts of Zebu cattle.

The spirits of the elders are said to wander the hills, but I have to say no one dropped in to say Hi while we were there. Florene also took time out to show us some more plants on the plain, including a very poison one used to mark a line around food, which rats will not trail through, and another used to ease whooping cough.

Finally, we reached the horseshoe edge of the cliff, and started a downward route by following the path down through the Diavolana Plain. It is so rocky there is little colour here, and so people thought it looked like the surface of the moon (Diavolana means Full Moon). It certainly looked different to the rest of the scenery on the mountain.

This seemed to be quite the thoroughfare, as the point on the edge of two local tribal areas; it’s a (steep) short cut from market to market. We saw quite a few locals carrying large bundles of food carried on a stick across their shoulders, through the pass, as we stopped to enjoy the view.

After a final short snack stop, we started going back down into the lower hills. Here, a fire had been started a couple of years previously, and the black trees and bushes were in bloom for the first time. The white flowers in a burnt backdrop looked surreal. After a couple of days in the heights, we suddenly realised we were once again getting hot.

Finally, early afternoon we found quite a party waiting for us; our porters, travelling companion (who again had to take the "easy climb" back down the mountain) and most importantly our 4X4 and driver. After a short lunch and a bottle of beer (kindly provided by our driver), we helped pack the camping gear onto the top of the roof, and after hugging and tipping our very kind and patient porters and guide, were on our bumpy way on the road back out of Andringitra National Park.

I absolutely loved our three days in the park, and for me, it was the highlight of our Madagascar tour (although there were a couple of experiences that ran it close). Our tour was arranged by the faultless, friendly, great priced but amusingly named Mad Trekking.
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