As much as we like safari, it was really nice to sleep in a room for a night where we didn't have to worry about closing the door/flap really quickly to prevent the bugs from coming in and where we didn't hear unexpected animal noises throughout the night. We also had the luxury of not having to wake up until 7 AM although both of us automatically woke up at the usual 530 safari wake up time.
The flight to Madagascar was slightly over three hours. They are an hour ahead of South Africa so we are now operating 7 hours ahead of eastern standard time. You have to get a visa at the airport but they are free if you are staying under 30 days.
Our guide, Claude, was outside of customs to meet us. He took us to get money exchanged as, unlike Botswana, they don't take US dollars here. Their currency is the Ariary and there are about 2,500to a dollar. I asked Claude if he would be with us until Friday and he said yes, he would. He later called to arrange our guide for the next two days which means he is really our driver. Claude is a little difficult to understand as are a number of people here as their primary language is French. Claude said they used to teach English in schools but they stopped so they don't have as much practice as they used to. He likes it when he gets English speaking guests so he can use it. They are getting more but a lot of their guests are from France, Japan and other places not the US.
Claude told us the drive to the lodge would be about three hours or maybe more depending on the traffic. Our itinerary said three so that wasn't unexpected. One of the first things Claide told us, that we had immediately noticed, is that while the people are African, they look a bit more Indonesian or Malaysian. Some people are darker but more people look a bit Asian. I suppose those are the first countries that did trade here or where people came from to settle the island. Not sure. We tried to ask Claude more questions but while he is nice, we found ourselves rephrasing things 2-3 times to get the answer we were looking for. I don't blame Claude for this. It is just a communication thing.
The drive showed pretty on that Madagascar gets more rain than where we came from, as the landscape is very lush. Similar to Uganda, as we drove we saw lots of people walking along the side of the road, going about their daily business. Claude said that cars are expensive and there aren't a lot of buses. We went by one of the places that the buses originate from and it had a whole market that sprung up around it. Reminiscent of Vietnam, there are a lot of little street/roadside "shops" where people seem to sell everything from food they made to clothes to grocery items. I think if you have a street front place, you are obligated to use it for some sort of commerce. There were also a lot of rice patties and places where they made brick along the way.
The road to where we were going is one of the main ones in the country, traveling from east to west. It is still two lane and somewhat narrow though. Trucks use it to go across the country. Even with Claude overtaking trucks as he could, the trip ended up being 4 hours. There is a system to passing where Claude beeps to let someone know he wants to go by. That person then beeps to indicate he has safely passed and then Claude beeps as a thank you. When we arrived at the Vakona Forest Lodge at around 7, we were both a bit hungry as we didn't get our usual afternoon tea. But Claude had called ahead and arranged for someone to be ready to take us on a short night hike. We didn't really want to but we didn't have the heart to say no. After checking in (cabin 7), dropping off our bags and pre-ordering our dinner, we headed out with a staffer - whose name may be Peter or Theodore- to do about an hour long walk. Peter/Theodore shined his light up into the trees looking for nocturnal lemurs. They have red eyes. We mostly saw bugs that look like sticks and chameleons. Moira had just commented wthat all the lemurs must have partied too hard the night before when Peter/Theodore found one for us - it was a dwarf lemur but we will take it.
Dinner was back at the main part of the lodge. We were both pleasantly surprised by the food, as this place is a bit more rustic than the other places we have stayed. We also followed our tradition of having the local beer our first night. It is called Three Horses. It is light but not bad.
The options are somewhat limited around here as to where to stay though. Even at 4 stars, this is the best in the region. We have a two story cabin, with the second floor as a second bedroom. I think this was a communication error on my part. I thought the guy at the front desk was asking me if we wanted two beds. He must have been asking two bedrooms. The first bedroom is in the ground floor with a bathroom. The second involves walking up a twisty staircase. I took that room and am hoping I don't need to go down much during the night. There don't seem to be many bugs here so far but it does have a little bit of a musty smell. I am guessing that can't be entirely avoided in a rainforest area. Actually given now remote this place is, they have done a very nice job. I can't even really imagine how they built it.
Even though we could have slept in a little later, we were both up at 630, which is...you guessed it...530 in Botswana. But instead of a gentle "good morning!" from our guide (I really should have recorded KD saying that to be my alarm) or noise from critters, we instead got the annoying sounds of the guests next to us. The cabins are adjoining and there seem to be thin walls. I swear one of them was singing. On the plus side, it was quiet and cool all night which was a nice change.
Claude picked us up at 8 and he had our guide with us, Tina. We later found out there are 72 guides here and only 17 of them are women. She is the youngest and has been doing it for 7 years. We were going to the Mantidia National Forest which abuts our lodge. It is heavily vegetated so Tina warned us the lemurs wouldn't be the easiest to see on our trip. First we had to get there though, which required riding over a very bumpy road, very much like the road to see the gorillas in Uganda. Muddy. Bumpy. Big holes. It resulted in what KD called an Africa disco, where we all bounce back and forth together. I think it took about an hour to get to the spot where we would get out and start to hike. This would be our first real physical activity since we left the states, unless you count cowering in sheer terror, with a pounding heart, from an elephant a form of exercise. I might given now much it elevated our heart rates.
Anyhow, we took off into the jungle. It was humid and while it was never really hot, it did get warm pretty quick which had us shedding layers. Tina took off pretty quickly so we had to hustle to keep up. It wasn't always easy with the tree roots, wet leaves and mud. She pointed out the sound of the lemurs right away. It sounds as if they are calling or shrieking to one another. We ran into another guide friend of hers and the two of them helped each other out. It worked as we got to see three different kinds of lemurs. The first was somewhat tan in color and is the second largest lemur that there is. I would tell you its name but I can't remember and I have no internet while writing this. While Tina is easier to follow than Claude, she sometimes faces forward while talking which makes it hard. And I hate to make her repeat herself more than, oh, 3 times. Eventually as the second largest lemur type called out, three of his buddies joined him in the trees. It is cool to see but very hard to photograph. They are very high up (so quite far away). The sun wasn't out and the lenses kept fogging up. Also, the little guys (or not so little guys) weren't that great about looking at us. Regardless, we got a few good shots. But truth be told, I honestly didn't realize it would be so hard to spot the little guys in the wild. I didn't think it would be like the movie Madagascar where they would all rush out to greet us singing "we like to move it, move it" but I did think they would be closer to eye level, swinging from the trees. Ok, maybe I was unduly influenced by King Julian and his crew in the movie (but I didn't really expect singing).
Not long after that we also saw the biggest type of lemur and the smallest, whose name I remember...the bamboo lemur. We continued walking through the forest until we got to one of the small bridges. There we could hear frogs. Tina told us there is a little frog there that is very rare and only found in this area of Madagascar. We tried to follow the croaks, which were more like chirps, without any luck. Tina's guide friend and his couple joined us. No luck. We walked away with Tina for a bit when we heard a loud whistle (the guides whistle and make other sounds to alert one another...guess it is a system similar to Claude's beeps). Tina said "they found one! Hurry!" and started running back through the forest. We did the same. When we got back to the bridge, we saw a very colorful frog called the Montela Barrony (at least that is how we determined its name phonetically). It almost had neon versions of yellow, green and orange and was no bigger than a kid's thumb. We zoomed in and took a few shots. And while it was cool to see, we weren't quite as amped up as the guides over it. As Moira said later, I can't believe I was running through the forest to see a little frog.
We emerged from the jungle/forest about three hours after we entered. Unlike safari camp, where you have a camp manager explain exactly what your day is going to be like, we were unsure of what would come next. On the drive, Claude asked us if we wanted to take our lunch at the lodge or a restaurant. We opted for a restaurant to shake it up. He also told us we would have our choice of crocodile preserve or lemur island in the afternoon and whichever we didn't do, we would do the other tomorrow. We also heard from Tina that the nocturnal walk was at 615. There was talk of the other park we'd go to tomorrow. And Tina left us for the afternoon. So here is how we surmised it works here...morning walk with a guide in a national park to try to spot lemurs in the wild. Lunch either at the lodge or a restaurant, on our own dime (and our lunch today was 40,000 Ariary total, which is under $20 so we can handle that), an afternoon visit to a preserve, a nocturnal hike to spot lemur in the wild, and then dinner.
The visit to the crocodile reserve took less than an hour. They have 44 crocs there, that are descendants of the Nile crocodile. Which by the way this iPad initially corrected to Nike crocodile. Just sharing. They feed and count them every day. They also had some ducks, snakes, and tortoises. Nothing special but the guide was nice and it was interesting to see the crocs eating the meat up close. We had a couple of hours free after that. It was somewhat drizzly and cool so we stayed in our cabin.
The nocturnal walk was about an hour and a half long and this time it was through the woods in the national park. Picture the Blair Witch Project and that is what we looked like. Three people going through the woods with flashlights. Or torches as they call them here. We did see a few lemur. The Olly lemur (or at least that is how I heard it) which is the third biggest lemur. For those keeping track, we have now seen the three biggest. And more significantly, according to Tina, we also saw the mouse lemur, which is the smallest of the nocturnal ones. She got quite excited to show it to us. Maybe because it is the world's smallest mammal (don't say I never taught you anything). Moira is not a particular fan of the night walk as you can't take pictures and all you really see are far off eyes. To combat this, she walked behind us doing her lunges...100 to be exact...so she wouldn't be in as much trouble from her trainer when we returned.
Similar drill on our second day here. Woken up earlier than we needed to by the critters (aka the family) next door. I am not sure what they could be slamming that loud in the forest but they surely found something. Breakfast. Pick up. Drive to other national forest. Antisbe. Meet up with Tina. The hike today, she told us, wouldn't be as challenging as yesterday as there were more paths. She was right although we did find ourselves going off the path pretty frequently. It works a lot like Africa in that regard. One guide spots something and lets the other guides now - sometimes by whistling or making other noises, other times by cell phone. Tina showed us a map of the park and the various trails. We were taking track 2 which was about 2 hours. I heard the track 2 part but thought she said 4 hours. It took more like 3-3.5 hours as we went off the trail so often to look at lemurs. And we saw a bunch. The idri lemurs. Bambolino. Other kinds I can't remember (we both acknowledge we should have studied this country and the lemurs more before coming). Tina would hear the calls and the rustle in the trees (or her cell phone would ring) and we would be off, running - or trying to - through the forest. Tina does do a good job of finding us the good locations to spot them and get a clear shot. It wasn't always easy as there were often a number of people crowding around the same trees. Tina also has this other thing she does where she will tell us to wait for a couple minutes (which can then range from 2-10 minutes) and she will try to find where the lemurs are heading or where the other lemurs are that they are talking to. Her instructions are to wait ther unless the lemurs start to move and then follow them. I am still not quite sure how she finds us when we follow but she does. I guess she follows her spidey sense...or the crowd of people. I feel like we saw more today than yesterday and some babies clinging to their moms. The pictures from the cell phone aren't that great but see if you can spot one here:
We also learned some lemur facts:
- Madagascar is the only place in the world where lemurs live in the wild. We thought that but it is confirmed.
- There are over 100 types of lemurs in Madagascar, across the whole island.
- 12 of the species are in the forests around here.
- There are extinct species that used to be quite big. Almost like small gorillas.
After a few hours, we started to head out when Tina got another call. She did her "Hurry. Follow me please" and we started back the same way we came. We didn't know why. It turns out another guide found some wooly lemurs tucked into a tree. They are the smalles diurnal ones and very hard to track. So now we have seen both the smallest nocturnal and smallest diurnal ones. Impressive, huh?
As we walked off the trail, we noticed there were lots of people there, almost all school children. I am talking a few hundred. Tina was plowing through to get us out but we asked, "why are so many people here? Is something special going on." Very matter of factly, she responded "Oh, it is national lemur day." What?!? We are here on national lemur day and we didn't know? Thinking maybe it is a regular occurrence, I asked how often it happens. "Once a year," she responded. Okay then. Tina will not win a prize for over sharing.
Lunch was at a Chinese restaurant although the menu didn't differ too much from the place we went yesterday or our hotel dinner. We are still amazed at the cost. It was the equivalent of less than $15 for two entrees and one of their big bottles of beer. Most restaurants are part of hotels and this hotel looked somewhat nicer than the others. Not as nice as where we are but decent.
The next stop was Lemur Island which, like the croc place yesterday, is part of Vakona. It is a preserve in a sense as it has lemurs that used to be kept as pets. It opened in 1996 with those and other started donating their pet lemurs. Some were in bad shape and they nursed them back to health. Over time, the population has grown. But they have never captured lemurs to bring them here. The sun was shining as we took our little canoe across (with a ranger of course). Here, because the lemurs are tame and almost like pets, we got the reception I anticipated...more like the movie and like I have seen in some travel websites. The guide had bananas and would break it up in pieces for us to feed the lemurs (there are five kinds here). The lemurs would come take it and then start to crawl up our arms and on to our shoulders and heads. At first, it was terrifying as we didn't expect it (and because they are kind of like monkeys which are evil and scary as proven time and time again). But their fur is soft and their paws are actually really soft. They have opposable thumbs and then four fingers which are sort of webbed together. Two of the lemurs types where right there as we exited the canoe. We walked a bit further back to see the brown lemurs. And then we say the bigger ones that are almost orange, which he called jumping lemurs. We got into another to canoe to head out to another island (I think there are actually 4) to see the striped ones. Those are the ones that look like the ones in the Madagascar movie. They also were a little aggressive and kept coming into the boat. For some reason, they liked Moira's green Masters hat that she had on for the first time this trip and they kept licking it. And licking it. They wouldn't leave. Part of it got pretty wet with their saliva. Although this won't read too funny, we were laughing so hard we cried.
Our next activity was Moira's favorite...another nocturnal walk, this one along the side of the road. Claude drove us to meet up with Tina and we headed out. I should mention that everyone does these night walks so we have seen them by the side of the road every night. People carrying their torches and wearing the small lights strapped on their heads. I was skeptical that we would really see anything but we did. In fact, we saw a couple more of the mouse lemur. Because so many people were out,,whenever we would find something, other guides would rush in with their guests as well. But Tina did a good job of moving herself and us to the front. At one point, though, and this may be my favorite Tina moment, she made sure no one was around us and led us to a tree, in front of what looked like a ranger station. She said, "I want to show you my little friend." And there on and under a leaf was a beautiful little bird, yellow and green. She told us she found it there about a month ago and now, she looks for him on every nocturnal walk. It was very sweet.
With that being the end of the trip - with the exception of about a 40 hour trip home which we certainly don't need to document as it would essentially say "Then we sat on the plane for 11 hours" - Moira had the great idea of us adding our lessons learned. And here they are:
- Don't book the destination that is farthest away on your trip as your final destination. This will make your trip home and re-entry into society even harder. Dumb rookie mistake on our part.
- Bring eye drops (Visine, contact re-wetting drops) when on safari. Otherwise, after a few days, you will want to rip your eyes out.
- Don't run from elephants (or lions or other animals). Stay still in your cabin or on the path.
- No matter how much bug spray you use, sometimes it isn't enough. And flies are immune to every kind.
- Anti-malarial drugs, while they no longer induce hallicinagenic dreams, do still provide vivid dreams. Or at least they do to us, with all dreams involving people we knew at some time in our lives. It was like a walk through our Facebook timeline.
- When in doubt, order the local beer or some South African wine.
- If you really want to see an animal on safari, repeat its name three times the night before. Sometimes it works (like with the pangolin and honey badger).
- Always add at least 25% more time to however long your journey is estimated to be. A 20 minute plane ride is at least a half hour and a 3 hour car drive is guaranteed to be 4.
- Try to keep one outfit relatively clean for the trip home. It will make the long journey back a little easier in both you and those around you.
- Lemurs have soft hands and like to lick green hats (or just Moira's head).
- Monkeys are still scary and evil.
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