January 3: Mandrare River Camp

We were up at vanga fart to revisit the spiny forest in the sunlight. What a feast of activity and creatures greeted us, a very sleepy sportive lemur (the elusive white-footed) looked down on us from his bedroom in an octopus tree, we saw the endangered radiated tortoise who was quite beautiful and protested loudly when we picked him up. The bird life was abundant and easy to spot due to the singular nature of the octopus trees and the lack of foliage -many different Vargas, the lesser vasa and fodies. It was soon very warm so back in time for breakfast by the plunge pool! 

The remainder of the day was a time of total inaction the temperature was in high 30’s with no air conditioning only the coolness of the plunge pool and the shade of the tamarind trees to offer relief. Luckily we had this blog to write to keep our minds off the heat ;). At 5pm we had a Madagascan biology lesson with Franklin our guide playing with warty chameleons and pill bugs. 6pm we set off in the safari vehicle to have gin and tonics and watch the African sun set in cooled by a lovely southerly breeze.

January 2: Mandrare River Camp

The next day took us via canoe to the gallery forest which sits on sacred land across the river. Sacred meant that you cannot point to anything using you finger or pee anywhere. So when we saw our first troop of ring- tailed lemurs there was much hand pointing but no peeing! They live in big troops led by the dominant female and many had little babies on their backs - always curious to interact with us as much as they would allow themselves. The trees themselves were tamarind trees - large climbing trees with lush canopies of broad shade giving leaves it was a quiet and spiritual setting with easy relaxed walking much to see including a harrier hawk, snow coloured sifakas (Verraux’s), crested kua and paradise fly catchers.  Reluctantly we left this shaded sanctuary and headed back across the river for our lunch under our own tamarind trees at the river camp. And the plunge pool as we sweated through a 40C day.

The evening tour was a cultural one during which we learnt all about the Tandory traditions and visited Analoalo a traditional village. The Tandory people live in huts made of octopus tree wood - just enough room for a few beds - and share kitchens and storage rooms. They work in the sisal fields cutting 3000 leaves a day for a salary of USD 1.5 a day and subsist with corn, cassava, sweet potato and wild fruits such as cactus fruit and mango. They have around 6 to 8 children and the husbands move to the clans of their wives but can have more than one if they can afford it. Wealth is counted in zebu and when you die 80% your wealth gets buried or sacrificed with you - bringing everyone still alive well and truly back down to earth….no need for an inheritance tax!

January 1: Antananarivo to Ifotaka

New Years Day started at 4am - probably around the time some people were coming home. We caught a flight to Tolagnaro (Fort Dauphin) in the south, where Madagascar’s tropical rainforest meets the desert. We had a delicious first coffee of the year at the airport - Melbourne standard. Met by our guide our hearts sank a little when we were told it was a 4 hour drive to camp through spiny forest and national park - some bumpy and some Tarmac road. It was a fascinating drive as you saw the climate and landscape change from lush palms and wet forest to spiny cacti and octopus trees…and later hectares and hectares of sisal plantations.

 Early in the 20th century many French companies had planted sisal replacing the indigenous spiny forests, home to hundreds of species of birds insects lemurs and reptiles. These rapacious companies farm the sisal, used mainly in the manufacture of  rope, employing cheap local labour and on the surface giving little back to the community - most of the villages we passed had little electricity and no ready water source _ the basics. But people were happy with wealth measured through zebu (cattle) and not dollars. However we thought that these companies still need a lot of work on their CSR. 

We arrived at our river camp on the Mandrare River just in time for a welcome cold beer and lunch. Our hosts Theo and Zizzi showed us around and to our comfortable tent - we discovered we were the penultimate guests before cyclone season shut down and were the only guests there for the next few days - heaven….the staff were eager to please with 90% of them locals.

Our first venture was a night walk through the spiny forest a seemingly inhospitable place with thin spiky trees and cacti. Led by a local village guide under a beautiful full moon we were fortunate enough to see night jar, kops owl, white footed sportive lemurs waking up, sifakas just going to sleep, warty chameleon and a tiny rather busy grey mouse lemur. 

Back for a sumptuous dinner and much needed sleep.

December 31: Ranomafana to Antananarivo

Travel day today back to the capital. We drove to Fianarantsoa which is an industrious little town - clean and busy surrounded by fruit orchards. On the way we passed through rich farming country with plump happy people with a smile on their faces and a spring in their step. 

From there a charter flight back to Tana where we relaxed, lunched and snored in the new year…..Tana is a bit of a hole so no venturing out for us.

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.