I had
wanted to go to Madagascar ever since David Attenborough mentioned that 80% of
all the wildlife there is endemic. i.e. you can't see it anywhere else!
We went
there in August 2017 on a generally wildlife themed holiday run by Exodus. In
addition, I was hoping to see some birds, but I didn't really have much idea of
what I would see. If the holiday had been specifically for birds, then Lynne,
my wife, would not have gone!
The worst
part about the trip to Madagascar was getting there. We had an overnight flight
from Heathrow to Nairobi on Kenya Airways, arriving at about 0500. Our onward flight was six hours later,
although the plane was slightly delayed, so it was nearer 7 hours! Nairobi airport is not the most comfortable to
spend a long stopover, especially as I had not slept during the overnight
flight.
The flight
from Nairobi to Antananarivo had a woman pilot and co-pilot! How cool is that! We arrived in the capital, Antananarivo, mid afternoon, and were met by the Exodus rep, and our guide for the trip, Rija.
She advised us to change money at the airport. As there were two of us, I changed £500, and was instantly almost a
double millionaire! The banknotes are not as bad as the Gambian ones
but you do get a lot of them.
After 20
hours travelling we were glad to get to the hotel; the Belvedere in midtown
Antananarivo. We had a beer on the terrace overlooking the capital as the light
faded, and met up with most of the rest of the group for dinner.
The
following morning the entire group of nine were united - Me (Phil) and Lynne, Chris and Al, Mike and Sian, Nic, Steph and Norma. I have to say that
it turned out to be a very friendly group. The ages ranged from 35 to 89! Yes,
you read that correctly: 89! Norma, an active Australian woman, was indeed 89,
but did everything that everybody else did, and more. Amazing!
After
breakfast, we headed off by bus to Andasibe, to the East. It's near Moramanga, but isn't shown on this map. The arrow indicates approximately where it is. For reference, here is a map of our whole trip:
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| Madagascar - part. Showing our journey. |
Now, I
ought to tell you a few general things about Madagascar. The first is that 70%
of the country is Highlands. Antananarivo
is at nearly 1300 metres above sea level and Andasibe is nearly 1000
metres above sea level. It was fairly
cool when we arrived at the charming hotel where we stayed for two nights: the
Feon’ny Ala hotel. It was dusk on the balcony overlooking the small river. Nic had noticed a striated heron in the gloom:
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| Striated heron at dusk |
The communal areas of the Feon’ny Ala hotel were very pleasant, and our
room was too. The only problem was that
the running water, apparently from tanks, had a very unpleasant smell to it. Our bed had mosquito nets,
but we probably weren’t at any great
risk at this time of year, as it was still the end of winter and not the rainy
season. Nevertheless, we used them!
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| Typical hut at the Feon’ny Ala hotel |
The tour was for bed and breakfast accommodation only. We had to buy our own lunches and dinners. The price
of meals in Madagascar was very reasonable, even in the tourist hotels where we stayed. A bottle of beer of 650 ml was about £1.50. A main course was £5 or £6 and a dessert might be £1 or £1.50. Coffee or tea was perhaps 50
or 70 pence.
Our first
activity was a night walk on the road outside the nearby Perinet National Park to find
nocturnal lemurs, chameleons and geckos. Guide was Saholy. We had all brought our head torches
and our guide skilfully found mouse lemurs, geckos and chameleons of various
sizes. Here are some of them:
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| Goodman's mouse lemur |
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| Spider |
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| A chameleon roosting |
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| Short-nosed chameleon |
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| Frog - Heterixalus? |
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| Frog - Boophis? |
29 August 2017 - Andasibe/Perinet National Park - Guides Saholy and Flore
The following day, after an early breakfast, we made our way to the Perinet National Park. We had a quick look around the entrance area while the guide was buying our tickets, and found a few birds.
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| Crested drongo |
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| Red-tailed vanga |
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| Madagascar wagtail |
We set off in search of
lemurs and other wildlife. Our guides were
very knowledgeable, not only about the mammals, but also the plants. We learnt about the Travellers tree which is widely
used to make houses and thatch the roofs, the palm tree that was used to make
blow pipes, and the toilet paper plant!
We saw Eastern grey bamboo lemurs, common brown lemur, a sleeping weasel sportive lemur as well as Eastern woolly lemurs.
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| Eastern Woolly Lemur |
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| Weasel sportive lemur |
Finally, we met the most
impressive lemur, the Indri. Indri are
the largest of the lemurs and the ones with the loudest and most impressive
song. Here is the Indri:
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| Indri - largest of the 100 odd species in Madagascar |
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| Indri singing |
And here is 20sec of the song:
This recording was made
quite close to the Indri. Heard from
further away, the song tends to echo through the forest, and takes on an eerie
quality. It reminds me of whale song, or an out of tune oboe!
During our wandering through the rain-forest, we discovered two groups of Indri. Finally, our guide led us to a group of diademed sifaka lemurs, which many believe are the most attractive. See what you think.
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| Diademed Sifaka |
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| Diademed Sifaka |
We saw several other
species of bird in the rainforest. Photos
of some of them appear below.
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| Cuckoo-roller |
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| Madagascar Blue pigeon |
We returned to the
hotel for lunch. From the terrace
overlooking the river, we saw several other birds.
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| Mascarene Martin |
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| Madagascar Buzzard |
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| Madagascar Coucal |
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| Madagascar Green Sunbird |
Here is a green day
gecko on the nearby travellers tree:
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| Green Day Gecko |
Up to now, we had only
seen lemurs in the wild. After lunch we
visited Lemur Island, where some species of lemur are held. They are free to roam
without being in cages, but they are restricted to the island. They were quite
used to visitors and eagerly came forward. They were not troublesome as some monkeys are
in some countries. They could, with
banana, be coaxed to sit on your shoulder. Only the common brown lemur and the black and
white ruffed lemur would sit on your shoulder. Other species kept their distance.
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| Phil with Black and White Ruffed lemur |
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| Lynne with Common brown lemur (and Nic over her shoulder) |
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| Norma with Common brown lemur |
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| Steph with Black and White Ruffed lemur |
I also saw a Madagascar swamp warbler on the island:
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| Madagascar swamp warbler |
This visit was quite
fun, in the sense that we got close to one or two species. When they sat on your shoulder and touched your
skin they had no claws. Their fingers
were actually very soft.
We had a very long canoe ride to get to the island, in boats like this!
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| Chris and Rija in canoe |
On our way back to the hotel,
we went through the village of Andasibe. It had a railway station, but the limited railway
no longer functions much in Madagascar. There are only two unconnected networks, originally
built by the French. The track has not been maintained. There are some goods trains that run infrequently. A passenger service runs from Fianarantsoa to the East Coast. This is all quite surprising in a country that is so big (over
1500 km long and nearly 600 km wide).
Getting around takes time
as there are only a few major roads. There
are no motorways or dual carriageways. The
main roads through the hills are winding. Journeys take a long time.
That evening we enjoyed
some drinks and dinner in the hotel before getting an early night. We had quite a long drive ahead of us in the
morning – to Antsirabe.
