If you’re planning to take a holiday in the African country of Madagascar, you may get more than the sunset beaches and jungle wildlife you bargained for. On an island where the line between fantasy and reality is very often blurred, here are four inhabitants that you may are so powerful that even taking out a cheap travel insurance before your travels probably won’t protect you from their wrath:
Songaomby
A cheap travel insurance policy wouldn’t protect you from death if you were to meet this giant man eating antelope; however it would pay for your medical bills if you were lucky enough to escape in the scuffle. However some words of advice, if you meet a songaomby, then don’t do as a German Zoologist did in 1876 and climb a tree. Whilst this would protect you from danger if you met a rhino or a lion, the songaomby has a special trick for getting you down. It urinates up the branches of the tree, the animal’s urine is strongly acidic and as you fall out of the tree it will simply gobble you up in one go.
Kalanaro
The kalanaro has been described as a small man like animal with long fingernails and hair all over its body. Some people say it is almost lemur like, whilst others are convinced that it is similar to the trolls and dwarfs that frequent certain northern European countries. The locals however believe that they are very much spiritual beings, and if your parenting skills haven’t been up to scratch lately then you may want to reconsider travelling to Madagascar. This is because, it is believed that kalanaro hunt for bad parents and when they are asleep
replace their children with kalanaro offspring. Some locals reported an incident as recent as 1998, when their children were taken from their parents by the kalanaro, after it emerged that the parents weren’t cooking meat properly before serving it to their children. However, after their parents left honey and liquor for the kalanaro, the children were promptly returned.
Giant Man Eating Tree
In 1881, Carl Liche reported how a virgin was sacrificed to a giant man eating tree in Madagascar. If you think that the locals may take it upon themselves to feed you to a giant man eating tree then taking out a cheap travel insurance might cover your court costs in the event of your trial. Of course, it wouldn’t protect you if you were found guilty but at least the imminent death would be fairly painless. Liche reported how the tree fastened its coils around the victim’s body and produced streams of honey coloured viscous fluid, which mingled together with the victim’s blood. Another instance of the man eating tree had been repeated earlier in 1879. We can only imagine that both the observers had been smoking the leaves of a very different tree, when both these observations were made.
Bibyolona
Cheap travel insurance would certainly cover your medical fees if you were hit by an arrow from this half man half horse. However, you only need to worry about spotting him if you’re travelling to Madagascar during the time of the half moon. Bibyolona is always accompanied by a man, usually a witch or a politician, although we’re really not sure that we could tell difference, half moon or not.
Author Resource:
Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Journey’s Travel. Their consumer travel insurance website, Insuremore (http://insuremore.co.uk/ ) offers cheap travel insurance for families, couples and singles with a quick and easy online claims feature.