December 30: Ranomafana NP

Another early start with our quarry for the day being frogs and birds! It is slightly disconcerting to watch a 57 year old man ( our guide Emile) crouching and grabbing at frogs whilst ankle deep in water. He is however a master frog catcher! Over a period of a couple of hours we were lucky enough to be up close and personal with at least 7 different types of all colours and size. The most interesting was when Emile, after listening very alertly, unsheathed his Swiss Army knife and sawed a bamboo cane in half, and there lo and behold was a tiny frog living in the middle of the bamboo stick, hello Mrs Bamboo Frog! She was carefully replaced with all her tadpoles.

We were accompanied for the half day by Kendall from LA a frog enthusiast who also teaches maths. Kendall literally plans his vacations around his amphibians!

It took us a day or so to realise that technology plays a part in lemur bird and frog spotting. Emile was in mobile phone contact with the half dozen or so spotters who would call in when a lemur was found. It is extraordinary given the mountainous terraine that they could even get a signal, I'm sure BT or Optus could learn a lesson. The use of a nano iPod and a small speaker assisted Emile in locating both frogs and birds by going through his vast collection of calls.

In the afternoon we made a valiant effort to find some birds but instead had a good 4 km walk in the forest and managed to see the less than 1cm big mura mura frog singing at dusk. The sweetest little chap… how Emile found it

was extraordinary.

December 29: Ranomafana NP

Day 2 in Ranomafana NP on the trail of the black and white ruffed lemur…….it was a beautiful morning and we got distracted by some golden bamboo lemurs munching on some rather large shoots. After a circuit or two, some forest scrambling and a call from the spotter we finally found our target lemurs - mum with two babies. They were very high in the canopy and we remembered our neck ache from the day before.

We were also treated to red forest rats, geckos and ground rollers plus a few leech bites.


After lunch by a waterfall we headed off to the local arboretum home to over 150 species of tree. Here we played with the world’s largest chameleon feeding him cicadas - the two horned Parsons chameleon that does not actually change colour. We also saw snakes ( not poisonous) which our guide Nicky played with happily and tasted local cherries straight off the tree.

Upon checking the step meter on the iPhone we discovered we had walked approximately 17 k and climbed the equivalent of 140 floors over the 2 days, we slept like baby lemurs.

December 28: Ranomafana NP

We were up early ready for our 7 am start with Emile our guide and his off sider the spotter.  We were on foot and crossed a set of rapids on a rickety foot bridge. Climbing upwards we saw many wonderful endemic species including 7 types of  lemur (including the rare Golden Bamboo and Greater Bamboo lemur) ,3 types of tree frogs and the amazingly camouflaged Satanic faced leaf tailed gecko - only some 2cms long and disguised as a dead leaf!!

Nikki discovered how hardy bamboo is after bashing he head into it as she fell down on a mud patch. 

A highlight of the day was watching a group of ten hybrid lemurs play in the trees and commune with us. One  even climbed down to look at his own photo! 

These little fellows are so playful, family oriented and sociable - focused on jumping from branch to branch to get the next juicy piece of fruit. Their little faces a cross between a monkey and a cat with those big eyes!

We must have climbed and descended some 12 odd kilometres in that visit rewarded with a sighting of a pair of red vontsiras at the end.

December 27 Antsirabe to Ranomafana

This next part of the journey down south to Ranomafarna NP was again characterised by slow tortuous hairpins, and potholes that could swallow a semi trailer. The soil was rich and volcanic with lush vegetable gardens and terraced rice fields. Fast flowing brown rivers and Malagasy houses  built from local bricks, narrow 2 or 3 floors with minimal glass less windows and thatched roofs. 

Our guesthouse is in the local village of Ranomafana right next to the NP and before dinner we embarked on our night walk in the pouring rain. It was a worthwhile meander through the puddles and heavy rain to see mouse lemurs (similar to ring-tail possums), chameleons, frogs and the ancient brookesia ( pre-historic chameleon). 

December 25 - 26: Madagascar Melbourne to Antsirabe

After an uneventful flight to Jo’burg (conditions were so good we did not even have to go near the south pole to avoid the winds) we spent the night at the airport hotel. The next day we caught a tiny 35 seater plane to Antananarivo to start our Madagascar adventure. 

And it started at Tana airport when Nick presented the visa desk with a USD 100 note to pay for our visas and it (plus the next 4!) were refused as the serial numbers were out of date. There followed a stressful 20 mins trying to get cash out of the ATM (card declined…) when finally we remembered we had some sterling we could change (AUD not accepted either…) …. Eventually we were allowed into the 8th continent ..

Met by torrential rain, our guide Nicky and driver Rindra our rather damp and clammy 170kms 4 hour drive commenced through the suburbs of Tana…. Bumper to bumper traffic complete with rickshaws and cattle on a single way highway. 

Nicky it turned out was no ordinary guide. He has an MBA in herpetology so we will have to be extra sharp with our questions. It is fascinating to find out from him that Malagasies share similar DNA with Indonesia and parts of Borneo, even the root of the Malagasy language is Indonesian. 

After finally breaking the shackles of the capital’s traffic chaos we entered the central highlands of the 4th largest island in the world with topography not unlike Ecuador or Jura mountains except for the agriculture which is mainly terraced rice paddies.

Four hours later we arrived somewhat green at Antsirabe - Madagascar’s 2nd largest city - prosperous from industrial food and diary processing. The drive was hairy on the single lane N7…with massive trucks coming towards you and many hairpin bends…