Ranomafana

We drove down a long, steep road, past a large waterfall, and then along the deep Namorona river valley leading to the town of Ranomafana.  The valley opened up when we reached the town, and we met our local guide, Rodan.  We set out for a night walk at sunset.  Ranomafana has had increasing difficulty with poaching/harvesting in the park at night, so it is now closed after sunset, but Rodan was confident that we’d see plenty along that same road we’d driven in on.  He was not wrong!

Six Kinds of Lemur in One Day

We’d come to Andasibe for one major reason—because this is the place where the Indri Indri live. They don’t thrive in any other place. Not in zoos or wildlife parks, not in research facilities. Not even in other parts of Madagascar.  The morning after we arrived, while we were enjoying fresh guava juice at breakfast outside and chatting with Henriette, our hostess, we got our first indication of how the Indri Indri sound calling to each other in the distance.  Our lodge was probably five kilometers or more from where the nearest ones were. They can be heard for miles, keeping track of each other by sound.  Once we’d hiked into Andasibe, our guide, Desi, asked us to wait while he searched off the main trail for the nearest group of Indri Indri.  While we were waiting silently, we heard them calling again.  The sound is a little faint in the video above, though it wasn’t very loud in person, either.  There’s nothing to see in the video—aside from what an average section of trail looks like—just the eerie sound of the Indri Indri in the distance.

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: Isalo

Verreaux’s Sifaka, in Isalo, Madagascar.

Postcard: Anjy

Ringtail lemur, interrupted mid-scratch, in Anjy, Madagascar.

Postcard: Andasibe

Red Bellied Lemur pair, Andasibe, Madagascar.

Postcard: Ankarafansika

Coquerel’s sifaka in Ankrafansika National Park, Madagascar.

Postcard: Ankarana

Crowned lemur in Ankarana National Park, Madagascar

Bad Photo Friday: Lemur edition

This may come as a surprise to you, but taking a photo of yourself with lemurs on your shoulders isn’t easy. It does, however, make for a fantastic edition of Bad Photo Friday. I’ll admit I was a little freaked out initially, as the whole thing seemed like a bad idea, from smearing banana all over my hands to giving my camera to the boy who took us on a “tour” of “Lemur Island,” an island off the coast of Madagascar called Nosy Komba. But I’m kind of lemur crazy, so I did it anyway. You’ll notice there are no pictures of David doing this. Oh no. Also the bulk of these bad photos were taken by said boy who took my camera to take photos after smearing my hands with banana and giving the lemur (which he called "monkey") an invitation to jump on up.