Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
brousses connect Ranohira directly with Ihosy, 91km to the east (Ar20,000, two hours),
from where there are more options.
Public transport from Tuléar generally arrives in Ranohira between 10am and 1pm, while
vehicles from the north usually arrive before 10am.
Ilakaka
POP 25,000
Ilakaka is the perfect setting for a James Bond movie. Driving through the middle of
nowhere about half an hour west of Ranohira, you come upon a sapphire boomtown that
has spontaneously erupted astride the RN7. The main street is lined with ramshackle struc-
tures selling provisions for the miners, from shovels to cell phones. Side streets are lined
with gem buyers in shaded huts and women with painted faces squatting on the pavement
organising piles of stones by quality. The highlight is the nearby mining area, where hand-
dug mines pock-mark the earth (see boxed text,
Click here
). One can imagine 007 running
across this landscape pursued by the henchman of some evil gem lord.
In any case, you have to see this. By accident it has become one of the more fascinating
sights in Madagascar, all the more so because it appears completely unconscious of
the fact. The gem dealer
Color Line
( 033 73 252 13, 033 14 737 57; colorlineil-
akaka@gmail.com; main street; 7am-7pm) has caught on, however, and now offers
tours
(per person Ar16,000; 7-10am & 1.30-3.30pm). Far from destroying the authen-
ticity, it is fully part of it. It owns a secretive gem and fossil shop on the main street,
where you will be thoroughly looked over upon entering and exiting. The manager, Phil-
ippe Ressigeac, is straight from central casting, with his Indiana Jones hat, trailing cigar-
ette, and low-toned references to 'the stone'.
To really enter this scene yourself, attend the gem dealers' party starting at 1am every
Friday night at Color Line's adjacent bar, known as
Al2O3
(the formula for sapphire, nat-
urally). Coming into town from Ranohira, it's about a kilometre along on the left, near the
mosque. We suggest parking nearby.
Ilakaka has long had a reputation for being dangerous, a reputation that seems to have
been warranted in the past when the boom was hot, but has waned as it has tapered off into
some kind of thin normality. You don't have anything to worry about here during the day,
particularly during a tour, but we can't vouch for 3am, when the party ends. Travellers have
reported encountering corruption here and some have had run-ins with police. But would
Hollywood have it any other way? Round up the usual suspects!
