Thanks mate, all the best with your blog.

You probably needed to pop this comment on the other blog (the one for Madagascar though).

I found the roads in Madagascar are ok - as long as they go to mines. This is because the mining companies pay for them to run their big trucks on (anywhere else and they are very poor and make for a great back massage riding along). The rest are maintained by locals who occasionally checkup from their closest village and do their best.

Apparently Madagascar Govt. has some... interesting long term lease arrangements with overseas parties - While I have a feeling the deals are 'different', on top I'm not sure the money is actually being dispersed to all the people fairly. Still I'm not really qualified to say for sure.

Like any island once their finite resources are used (exported), they will be in real trouble. I'm afraid other international parties that normally intervene have their hands tied. These things are always very complicated.

I will look in on your posts, Happy travels.