In Madagascar last week, the director of the TV show I’m co-hosting for NatGeo asked me what I most missed about California after an arduous month on the road, and what I was looking forward to eating once I got home. Tomatoes, I said. It’s tomato season in California.

Travel in Madagascar is hard—very hard. To get anywhere remote requires hours of four-wheel-driving, down rutted-out muddy roads intended for ox carts, not motor vehicles. But the payoff is huge. I attended a circumcision festival in a tiny mountain village, after which the boys’ grandfathers each ate the foreskin—with a banana. (Yes, you read that right.) Then came the savika, an afternoon of bull-wrestling; I participated and cracked a rib.

To wrestle a 2000-pound Malagasy zebu bull, you sneak up beside the animal, grab the giant hump behind its neck, and hang on tight as the bull whips around in circles, trying to buck you off. Twice the bull paused, cocked its head to look me straight in the eyes, then—wham!—whacked me right under the armpit with its giant horn. Then it spun around again. And again. I only let go once the rodeo master looked truly terrified for my welfare. Later I found out I was the first-ever Westerner to have participated in this savika, and all the men of the village shook my hand. It still hurts to laugh ten days later.

Madagascar’s real mind-blower is the “turning of the bones” ceremony, when families exhume their dead ancestors to worship them, and give thanks for the blessings they have bestowed from the spirit world. Then the families rewrap the bones—as matter-of-factly as if they were changing bed linens—and pop them back into underground tombs, which I was invited to explore by candlelight. My host gleefully exclaimed, “That’s my grandmother! That’s my uncle and my aunt!” I tripped over a sack of bones and jumped backward in horrified embarrassment, hitting my head on the tomb’s low rock ceiling. Far from gloomy, it was a great party, more like a wedding than a funeral, with much dancing to accordion music and drinking of gasoline-like rum. It’s called the Famadihana, and families celebrate it every seven years. Few Westerners have seen it, but you will—at least on TV.

The television series is called, Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled, a 13-episode package of hour-long shows to broadcast this fall on National Geographic Adventure. Check out the trailer for the series’ debut, me in Morocco. The show airs in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Latin America (dig the Spanish trailer)—-basically everywhere except the US and the UK until sometime in 2010. Which is fine by me. I’m not convinced I want to appear on American television and lose the anonymity that permits me to remove my clothes at San Francisco street parties. There’s a reason you never spot celebs at the Folsom Fair.

BBC Worldwide holds distribution rights, once the series initially airs on NatGeo, so you’ll eventually catch it somewhere. Maybe on BBC America, or Discovery Channel, or maybe on the in-flight entertainment system of your next swank voyage aboard Virgin Atlantic. And p.s. if you are planning a far-flung journey in the near future, read my tips for arriving fresh, following an 18-hour flight.

How comforting to return home just in time for tomato season. Two hours off the plane, and I was at the Castro Farmers Market, bags heavy with heirlooms and basil. Such luscious foods Madagascar has not. Here’s my local-travel tip: Find the nearest farmers market and feast. It’s harvest time in California. Of such bounty, most of the world’s people can only dream.

Over at our sister site, Trazzler, we’ve been busy putting together a big contest for summer—and coming up with a dream job for the winner, who will be Trazzler’s very first “writer-in-residence.” Learn more

Theme: Oasis
1. n. a fertile or green area in an arid region (as a desert).
2. n. something that provides refuge, relief, or pleasant contrast.
(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.)

Modern life can often feel like a trek through the desert. For this contest, we want you to write about a place that not only satisfies your thirst for a change of scenery, but goes beyond this, breaking the spell of everyday existence and providing the “refuge and relief” that we all crave, especially in the summer. Your oasis might be an urban park, a meal in a restaurant that you’ll replay for years, a swimming hole on a hot summer day, a romantic hideaway that you return to again and again, a museum where you lose yourself for hours… really any place of extreme beauty, culture, flavor, respite, or relaxation.

We’re Awarding 14 Writing Contracts:
• 1 Grand Prize: $10,000 contract to be a two-week writer-in-residence in New York City and write 30 Trazzler trips covering the five boroughs of NYC. Hotel accommodations (14 nights) provided by AKA luxury hotel residences. Round-trip airfare provided by JetBlue.
• 9 Runners Up: $250 contracts to write 10 Trazzler trips.
• 4 Editors’ Choice: $500 contracts to write 15 Trazzler trips.

Learn more

Mark your calendar: Plan a weekend daytrip to Marin before July 12th to see newborn Snowy Egrets and Great Blue Herons at Audubon Canyon Ranch, in West Marin. After Sunday, July 12, the ranch closes for summer, so the fledgling birds can find their wings in peace.

Show your children these magnificent winged creatures, and watch their eyes light up. Then tell them how this ranch is the reason there’s not a freeway up the Marin-Sonoma coast.

I won’t be posting again till late summer: I leave next week for Australia on a media tour, then I’ll be in Madagascar for a three-week TV shoot – at the furthest place on the globe from California. Pray for me. For some Father’s Day travel ideas, watch me on TV this Sunday, June 21, at 8am on the Susan Sikora Show, KBCW Channel 44/Cable 12. Happy summer!

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 200 California state parks—that’s 80% of our park system. We can stop him, but must act fast. On Tuesday, June 2, the legislature’s budget conference committee will consider this proposal. Contact your state rep now.

If the parks close, they’ll get trashed—there’s no way to stop determined people from breaking into an open space. The existing threats are bad enough, but if this goes through, vandalism will be rampant and the threat of wildfires will increase exponentially, as unmonitored trespassers will inevitably light campfires. Extra and expensive law enforcement will be required in the long run. Then if the parks ever reopen, there will be huge clean-up costs. It’s far easier to maintain something than it is to clean it up. Take action now.

Parents need inexpensive places to take kids—especially during recessions—and state parks provide an invaluable educational and cultural resource. It costs $354 for a family of four to visit Disneyland for a single day. It costs $5 for a state park. The parks also draw overseas visitors, who inject vast sums into our broader economy.

There is a solution. A $10 vehicle-licensing fee would raise $282 million for the parks. In exchange, the public gets free access to all state parks. This had been proposed by retired legislator John Laird, but Don Perata killed it. Take a look at the last year’s plan: it’s time to resurrect it. Contact your state representative now.

The land belongs to the people. Stand up and claim what is ours. In the wise words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Let’s not find out.

For more on the story, check out what Frommer’s has to say, based on my report on 71miles.com.