Andasibe-Mantadia

We flew back to Tana from Morandava, where we met Dorique, who would be our driver for the rest of our trip.  We’d be driving south and east, and would not fly again until we flew out of Madagascar.  The scenery was beautiful, and reminded us a little of a Miyazaki film; vivid rice fields surrounded by rolling hills, and villages with European architecture.  Also, this little gas powered rail car seemed like it had driven right out of one of his films.

On our way to Andasibe, where we’d spend the night, we stopped at the Mandraka Reptile Farm.

Madagascar: Ankarafantsika

Our ferry trip back to the mainland from Nosy Be was pleasantly un-chaotic, by comparison to the other direction.  As we approached the port (ok, the shoreline) at Ankify, we spotted two men wearing green Cactus Tours shirts, and they definitely spotted us.  It was the two men who had sold us our original ferry tickets, and later carried us bodily onto the boat.  We had second thoughts about having given them the shirts—we hope they wouldn’t abuse the logos to pose as Cactus Tour representatives.  They pulled our luggage off the boat for us, and we met our new guide, Ndemy—pronounced Dem-bee—and our driver (we didn’t catch his name, and it became awkward to ask again later).  We got into a minivan, and settled back for a day of driving south.

Madagascar: Nosy Be

After spending much of our days hiking in Montagne d’Ambre and Ankarana, we had some lower intensity days of travel and relaxed day trips scheduled. We headed northwest to the coast, where we would take a ferry over to our next destination, an island in the Mozambique channel called Nosy Be (pronounced Nosy Bay). That is where we would finally be reunited with our luggage. We had been in contact with Rina, from our tour company, and she promised that it had already been delivered to our hotel. It’s funny how much attachment and affection we had for that small amount of stuff that comprised our worldly goods. When you’re excited to be reunited with your bras, you realize how much your life has been changed by 8 months of travel (David was more interested in his hat, razor, and the battery charger for his camera).

Northern Madagascar: Montagne de Ambre, and Ankarana

After spending the night in Diego Suarez, Shielo and our driver Bertrand drove us south to Montagne de Ambre, to hike into the national park there.  Shielo spotted this blue nosed chameleon in a tree, as we were driving.  The mountain is the remains of an old volcano, now covered in rain forest.  We were hiking towards the larger crater lake in the area.  As we walked, we saw our first lemurs—Sanford’s brown—and were delighted.  They were on the move, and we didn’t get any pictures, but we also didn’t miss seeing them by scrambling for our cameras, which we took as a hard-learned victory.

Postcard: Mandraka

Chameleon napping at Mandraka Reptile Park, Madagascar.

Postcard: Montagne de Ambre

Chameleon, blending in at Montagne de Ambre, Madagascar.