Avenue of the Baobabs — Madagascar Sunset
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The Avenue des Baobabs near Morondava, Madagascar, at sunset — the ancient Grandidier’s baobab trees silhouetted against a fiery sky, their swollen trunks and skeletal crowns reflected in roadside paddy water.
Description
The Avenue des Baobabs — Alley des Baobabs — near Morondava on Madagascar’s west coast is one of Africa’s most iconic landscapes: approximately 25 Grandidier’s baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) line a dirt road for 260 metres, their massive swollen trunks rising 30 metres before branching into the characteristic crown structure. Some specimens are estimated at over 800 years old. The trees are remnants of a dense forest cleared for agriculture, and their silhouette quality at sunset — when the orange-red sky provides maximum tonal contrast against the grey-brown trunks — has produced some of Africa’s most published landscape photographs. This photograph was made at the optimum seasonal time — November/December when the roadside paddy fields retain water from early rains, providing reflection potential. The baobab reflections in the paddy water double the compositional impact.
