I have to admit, by this point in the tour, I really have no idea where we were. The backwards itinerary is confusing enough, plus Coco's vague non-information, plus almost complete lack of signage, I am guessing by looking at the list of places we were supposed to go. The hotel name is the same for this area so I guess we were at Mitsinjo and Andasibe parks. Although, I don't know which is which. They were both is the same place???
Before I get to the lemurs, let me describe the roads here. The main highway is #7. It goes from Ifaty on the south west coast to Antananarivo, the capital close to the middle of the island. This highway is sorely in need of some love. But all in all, not too bad. Our driver took it slow and I know he knew every pot hole and twist in the road, and pot holes around the twists in the road. The worst part was passing huge trucks on bends while also avoiding the huge potholes.
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| #7 |
At some point, we left the main highway for an off road. That was very bumpy, to be kind. But still paved for the most part. Right before our last park, we circled Antananarivo, then we left #7 for highway #2 which is between the two biggest cities (Tana and some other city that I don't remember).
There is an election here next month. So the government has decided after four years and eleven months to do something to show how awesome they are. Road work is the most obvious so road work it is. Highway #2 was a nightmare of road closures, bypasses, rickety bridges along side of the shiny new, half finished bridge. There is no way this is all getting done in three weeks but I'm not a voter so I guess no one cares what I think.
Anyway, back to where ever we were. It was east of Antananarivo, that much I know.
We arrived in late afternoon. Time to get our cabins and wash up a bit before heading out for a night walk!
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| My cabin (more stairs!) |
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| The hotel |
Night walk:
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We hadn't even left the hotel grounds before we saw a Dwarf Lemur
You are going to have to trust there is a lemur in this picture
You can sort of see his tail. |
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| Parson's Chameleon. I have better pictures later |
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Goodman's Mouse lemur
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| Some sort of bug |
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This guy again. So cute!
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Praying Mantis
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| There were way too many people on the night walk path |
Well, those few pictures took forever to upload with my current wifi situation so I think this post is going to have to wait until I am back in Tana.
I'm back. Back in Antananarivo and back to the blog. I leave for home tomorrow so I have some catching up to do!
Ok, where were we. Night walk... next day.
We had three potential walks the next day. A morning walk, included in the tour, an afternoon walk and another night walk, both extra. It was raining lightly that morning but nothing too much to stop us. Just enough to cool things down and make everything green and fresh!
Guess what! The morning walk was up a mountain. But way fewer stairs, thank god. The three non-hikers were definitely feeling left out so they ventured up with us. I'm glad they were finally able (or allowed?) to come. We saw lemurs!
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| This doesn't help me know where I was... |
First up, the Grey Bamboo Lemur. The third Bamboo species. We had a full set.
These guys had the kindness to hang out right over the main path. But they were the only ones
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| That's a Blue Pigeon |
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| Madagascar Kingfisher |
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| precarious, rickety bridge |
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| Mushroom |
The walkie talkies buzzed! Another family of lemurs. The famous Indri Indri. Tidbit of info. The name lemur comes from the word ghost. The first explorers heard the indri indri but never saw them. Their call is very loud and very haunting. I wish I knew how to upload a video from my phone! I'm not sure if this will work...
It is not baby season for the indri but someone got a video of them mating, so soon enough.
And them almost right way, another group of the prettiest, most colourful lemurs of all, according to our guide, the Golden-crowned Sifaka. When we arrived, there were three young ones playing in a tree just inches over our heads!
And a baby to boot!!! I don't think I managed one good picture of both baby and mother but let's see.
Wow!
That was the end of the morning walk! Awesome!
As we were walking through the hotel grounds, back to our bungalows, an Indri pair were just hanging out across the stream.
We had time for lunch and then it was off to the afternoon walk in a different part of the park, still hilly, still not too bad.
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| getting out tickets |
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| find the teeny tiny frog! |
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Oh, hello.
Parson's Chameleon. |
Lemur alert! Brown Lemurs. We had seen one of these guys, begging, on our very first hike. But this bunch were in their more natural habitat. I think that first one was a red-fronted brown lemur and this was a common brown lemur but don't quote me on that. The brown lemurs seem fairly comfortable around people as we will see later.
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This is a baby parson's lemur. Not sure how old they
are when they stop being orange |
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| Wilma on her forest throne! |
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The Giraffe-necked Weevil.
We really had to search for these (male and female) |
I didn't go on the night walk that evening, after two long forest hikes that day, I was pretty much done. I also skipped the morning walk. It was described as lots of up and down, with stairs. Unfortunately, both of these walks saw a woolly lemur but I don't think I could have done one more!
And that was basically the end of the tour. We headed back to Antananarivo, a long drive. We stopped at a village and visited a school. Then we walked through the town to the giant train station. The village was Andasibe. I know because I took a picture! I finally catch on, on the last day!
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| The school |
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| Wave to the white lady |
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| Bye white lady! |
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| Brown Lemur!! There was a fruit tree next to this house |
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| Innocent children playing on the tracks |
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| the giant train station |
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| Are those innocent children I see? |
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| Lemurs!!! Run for your lives!! |
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| Quick! Must get the children! |
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| la la la, crazy tourists keep taking pictures... |
We finally got back to Antananarivo and the Belvedere Hotel. We had a good-bye dinner. I had been a bit worried about this group gelling after my Morocco group got along so swimmingly. But by the end, they/we were a good bunch. Coco had nothing on Mohammed though.
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| John thanking the driver and Coco |
This is a pretty long post so I will end the talky-talk here. But the grounds of our last national park hotel were beautiful so I am going to end with one million pictures of flowers and general flora.
You've made it to the end. Congratulations on a job well done.
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