A tomb with a view

Death is not the end but the beginning of a long, hard climb. At least that’s what the Bara people believe. No sooner have your bones been scraped clean than you’re off, into the Isalo Massif. Fortified with rum, your relatives will shin up the cliffs to find the perfect niche, at heights of up to 4,000ft. The greater you were, the higher they’ll climb. Occasionally they’ll fall, and there will be more rum, more climbing and more coffins. But eventually, you’ll be properly dead, enjoying eternity from the top of the world.

For outsiders, it’s a tricky business, getting to Isalo. For a start, Madagascar is stupendously big and empty. It has a road network no greater than Jamaica’s and yet it’s 53 times the size. The massif is just south of the centre, in an area that gets all its rain at once, and then almost nothing from March to October.