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EREMOMELA BIRDING |
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BIRDING MADAGASCAR A trip report by Michael Mills INFORMATION
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The reason for embarking on this trip to Madagascar (Mad) was to observe its unique fauna, and most especially the birds. Although there have only been about 250 species of bird recorded, there are 106 endemic species and 25 near-endemics. Furthermore, the ground rollers, mesites and cuckoo-rollers are all endemic families and the couas, vangas and asities are endemic subfamilies. Mammal highlights are the lemurs, while reptilian oddities include the spectacular leaf-tailed geckos and a mind-boggling array of chameleons. Simply, there is something for everyone. I started planning the trip about 8 months in advance. I searched the world wide web (Internet) and libraries for information. Thank you to a number of South African birders who gave me some first hand information. Also a very special thanks to Helian and Elyse, two Malagasy friends, who helped a great deal in planning the trip. The original idea was to stay for five to six weeks, but the airfare was almost R 1000 (± 170 $US) more expensive than for a return ticket after four weeks. We would also have had to renew our visas after four weeks, so we decided to stay four weeks and to take a number of internal flights to speed things up. I travelled with a friend from the University of Stellenbosch, Rudi. We are both young students so we decided, on the whole, to go cheap and rough. For the last two weeks my parents, sister and grandmother joined us, and our level of existence improved a bit. This was one of our biggest worries. The two main languages are Malagasy and French. We could only speak English. However, almost everywhere we went there was someone who could speak English. At all times we were restricted in our communicative abilities, but we managed OK. Obviously speaking French is a benefit, but don’t let a language barrier stop you from having an amazing experience in Madagascar. The people are friendly and will try and help you all they can. All the reserves that we visited had English speaking guides. The official currency is the Malagasy Franc (FMg). There is a second currency called Ariary. This can cause some confusion – one Ariary equals five FMg. Bank notes often have the FMg and Ariary value printed on it – be careful! In Nov/Dec 1998 one South African Rand was worth about 980 (We rounded it off to 1000). One US dollar was worth about 5000 and a British pound about 9000. Take US$ cash and traveller checks in denominations smaller than 50$. Guides are happy to be paid in US$. *Refer to accommodation, food and drinks, entrance/permits,
guides and transport for relevant information on those topics for
each site. ANTANANARIVO: ‘Tana is the capital city and the international port of arrivalfor most people - a good base to work from. AMPIJOROA: This forest station, in the western woodlands, is conveniently placed right next to the main ‘Tana-Majunga road. 11 hours from ‘Tana and two from Majunga. There is a large lake, Ravelobe, near the campsite, with a trail that leads all the way around it. Two Botanical trails systems, A and B, allow access to the other areas. The only place we saw White-breasted mesite, Van Dam’s vanga, Schlegel’s asity, Mad. button-quail, Mad. fish eagle, Coquerel’s and Red-capped coua, Rufous vanga, Mad. jacana, Mad sandgrouse and Mad squacco heron. Mammals only seen here: Coquerel’s sifaka, Western woolly lemur, Western sportive lemur, Mongoose lemur, Grey and ‘Undescribed’ mouse lemur and Common tenrec. I would recommend at least two days here. TSIMBAZAZA (‘TANA): Not a very pleasant place – some of the lemurs looked very stressed. The gardens are however attractive. If you have a day to kill in ‘Tana, spend it here. The only place that we saw Mad little grebe. NOSY MANGABE: An island covered in rain forest, about four kilometres from Maroansetra. Established to protect the endangered Aye-aye. Not ver good for birding (only Mad pratincole of interest). Excellent for frogs and reptiles though. Mammals seen only here: Aye-aye, Black-and-white ruffed lemur and White-fronted brown lemur. Spend at least one night to look for the Aye-aye. PERINET: Between ‘Tana and Tamatave, about two kilometres off the main road. Known as Analamazaotra Special Reserve. It is famous for its population of Indri. There is a small lake and otherwise covered in forest. The village of Andasibe/Perinet is one kilometre from the entrance. The only place we saw Mad Long-eared owl. Spend, if possible, at least three days in the Perinet/Mantady area. MANTADY: A fairly remote forest reserve 40 km from Perinet. Excellent birding – the only place we saw Mad flufftail, Scaly and Rufous-headed ground roller, Nuthatch vanga, Brown emutail, Cuckoo roller, Yellow-bellied sunbird asity and Dusky greenbul. Grey bamboo lemur and Diademed sifaka were mammal highlights. KALETA: A small privately owned reserve near Berenty. Access can be organised through the Kaleta Hotel in Tolagnaro. Visitors must take their own food. Small chalets for two, fine for most people’s purposes, are available at 120 000 per night. It is possible to take your own transport there. There are basically 2 options: firstly you can take the taxi brousse to Amboasary and walk 8 km to the reserve. On the other hand, you can hire a car and driver from Tolagnaro. There is not a lot of special interest in this area. The main attraction is tame lemurs (Verreaux’s sifaka and Ring-tailed lemur). A day trip should be sufficient – the guide (25000 per person per day) can show you both lemur species and giant coua with ease. It is almost as good as Berenty and it reasonably priced. Giant coua and France’s goshawk, as well as Ring-tailed lemur and Verreaux’s sifaka were seen only here. IFATY: An area of beach resorts about 30 km north of Tulear. You will need to hire a 4x4 to get there, or otherwise, take a taxi brousse. There is a fair range of accommodation available. The adjacent spiny forest is excellent for birding. During the heat of the day, one can snorkel at the off shore reefs. Bird species seen only here were: Hook-billed and Lafresnaye’s vanga, Archbold’s newtonia, Thamnornis, Sub-desert mesite, Long-tailed ground roller, Mad plover, Running coua and Banded kestrel. LE MANGOVE: This is a hotel, about 40km south of Tulear, on the coast. Once again a 4x4 is advisable to get there. Trips to the island Nosy Ve can be arranged. Red-tailed tropicbird breed there, and the snorkelling is excellent. The shrubby hillside behind the hotel is good for Verreaux’s coua. Littoral rockthrush is also meant to occur in the area. ISALO: An area of beautiful rock formations and open grassland in the highlands. Very little wildlife in the area. Lies near Ihosy, between Fianarantsoa and Tulear. This was the only place we saw Forest/Benson’s rockthrush. RANAMAFANA: The National Park protects a fairly large area of rain forest. The village of Ranamafana is about 5 km beyond the reserve entrance, down the valley. Domain Nature (Hotel) is about three kilometres from the park, towards the village. The village of Vohiparara lies about 6km in the opposite direction, at the top of the hill. Five kilometres from the reserve and 1 km from the village there is still some forest left – this, in birding terms, is Vohiparara. The ‘marshes of Vohiparara’ lie about 9km beyond the village of Vohiparara and 15 km from the reserve entrance. In the Ranamafana area we saw our only Mad snipe, Wedge-tailed jery, Crossley’s babbler, Yellow-browed oxylabes, Red-fronted coua, Brown mesite, Mad wood rail, Henst’s goshawk, Green jery, Cryptic warbler and Mad partridge. Golden and Greater bamboo lemur, Striped civet, red-bellied lemur and Rufous brown lemur were new mammals. Allow at least two full days in this area. *Prices in FMg Food on the whole was very cheap. I took Muesli and powdered milk from home, as well as some old military rations, to help us along if needed. We bought a lot of fruit from street markets: bananas, mangoes, litchis and pineapples. Also ate a lot of bread: French loaves between 700 and 1000. We found that a banana inside a French loaf was an excellent meal. Biscuits were on sale widely, usually at about 3000 per packet. We had a few meals in some suspicious looking places, but managed to escape severe stomach problems. The rice is OK and filling. Omelettes were good. We avoided all red meats in cheap places. We also had a few meals at good restaurants. A good steak and chips should costs between 15000 and 25000. We drank a lot of bottled water - Au Viv is the best and costs between 2500 and 5000 for 1.5 litres. If you can transport it, buy at least six bottles every time you’re in ‘Tana. As you go further from the capital in gets more expensive. Coke was fairly widely available and cost between 2500 and 5000 per litre. Make sure you get your deposits back on the bottle. ‘Three horse beer’ is fairly cheap - I generally don’t like beer, but found it OK. We also took a good supply of water purification tablets for when we were camping. I brought some energy mix drink from South Africa too. It was good for disguising the taste of the water purification tablets. ‘TANA: Two good meals at Hotel Jean Laborde. Otherwise ate from street markets. Visited a large supermarket where we brought some fresh vegetables for the trip to Maroansetra. AMPIJOROA: The warden’s wife cooks rice and omelette (7000). We brought some food from ‘Tana. Locals sell mangoes. Cold coke (1 litre) for 5000. Bottled water and biscuits also available. MAROANSETRA: One excellent meal from Vanilla restaurant. Otherwise ate from street markets. Litchis are very cheap and the best I have ever tasted. NOSY MANGABE: All supplies bought from Maroansetra. PERINET: The restaurant at the entrance gate sells very good meals. Brought supplies for Mantady from the market in the village. TOLAGNARO: We ate a lot of fruit. At Kaleta we managed to buy some rise from the guide – he also cooked it for us. IFATY: Some supplies from Tulear. Otherwise ate at Bamboo Inn’s restaurant. LE MANGROVE: Brought supplies in Tulear and also ate at the hotel’s restaurant. LE RAINE DE LA RAINE/ISALO: Ate in the restaurant. In the evenings there is a limited menu on fairly expensive dishes – if you make a special request, they are likely to oblige. RANAMAFANA: A few good meals at Domain Nature. Supplies purchased in Ranamafana village. FIANARANTSOA: Ate at a hotel near the market. *All permits were obtained from the entrance gate, except
for Kaleta. This was purchased at Kaleta Hotel in Tolagnaro. TSIMBAZAZA: Entrance 25 000. AMPIJOROA: Entrance 20 000 (unlimited time). NOSY MANGABE: Entrance 25 000 (maximum three days). PERINET/MANTADY: We were lucky with permits – the parks official let us use one permit for both parks. Entrance 50 000 (maximum three days). KALETA: Entrance 50 000. RANAMAFANA: Entrance 50 000 for up to three days. IFATY: No permits required. *Prices in FMg FLIGHTS: We took five internal flights on air Madagascar, all pre-booked and paid for in South Africa. All flights had to be confirmed, at the port of departure, one to two days before the actual flight. We almost got bumped off our international return flight because we hadn’t confirmed it. Other than that we didn’t experience any problems. Don’t expect refreshments on the flight – you will be disappointed. We only paid departure taxes at ‘Tana (15000) and Tolagnaro (10000). In Maroansetra we even managed to change our ticket to Tamatave to two days earlier. At Maroansetra the airport is a bit out of town. Air Madagascar provides a bus that will drop you off at your destination (3000). Another thing to note at Maroansetra is the first-come-first-served strategy. As far as I could make out, if the flight was overbooked, the last person to check on is bumped off. When the bus arrives at the airport, everyone jumps off and queues for check in. We didn’t know this and ended up at the back of the queue. Luckily the flight wasn’t overbooked. TAXIS: One of the first hurdles you encounter when you arrive, is to get a Taxi into ‘Tana from the airport. Our driver quoted 75 000. When we mentioned 50 000, he was immediately satisfied. Later during the trip we even managed to get one for 30000. The going price is about 40 000. Don’t get into the taxi before the price is settled, and better still, get the driver to write down the price agreed upon. Some of the drivers are pretty reckless, but on the whole drive very responsibly. Taxis around ‘Tana should cost about 1000 per kilometre. TAXI BROUSSES: Local transport between towns is very varied. It is pretty acceptable between all the major places. If you are travelling to some of the smaller places off the main routes, be ready for a squash. It is advisable to keep a pillow with you on every trip. It is amazing how much more pleasant it can make your journey. You can also travel in much more comfort by purchasing an extra seat – this won’t work on the minor routes, as everyone who wants a lift is picked up. We took the following routes:
CAR HIRE: Our guide, Julian, organised a lift from Perinet to Mantady (1 hour and about 40 km) for us (40 000 each way). We hired a 4x4 to drive us (six people) from Tulear to Ifaty (250 000). We then organised a deal to go from Ifaty to Le Mangrove, then later to Isalo and on to Ranamafana (1 600 000). It was done privately. Just ask some of the taxi touts at the airport on arrival. You should find someone. We organised it through a gentleman called Le Bien (Phone 9442225). He only speaks French. HITCHING: We managed to hitch a ride from Ranamafana to Fianarantsoa and paid 25000 for two people. Not an advisable way to get around though. BICYCLES: We hired some good mountain-bikes at Ranamafana National Park for 30000 per day. They were very useful for getting to Vohiparara and the marshes beyond. BOAT: We hired a boat to get to Nosy Mangabe from Maroansetra and back (100000 either way). Took about 45 minutes. It was a slow little ‘chugger’ owned by Ramil. We managed to spread the cost with two other travellers. At Le Mangrove we hired a fast speedboat to take us to Nosy Ve, about 30 km away. It took about one hour to get there and we paid 130 French Francs each. At Ifaty we hired a local to take us snorkelling at the reef (1km away) in his pirogue. We had about three hours in all (30000 for the boat). *We took our own tents, pillows, sleeping bags and sheets.
We didn't find it necessary to pre-book accommodatio. 'TANA: Hotel Tiana (30000 for a room – double bed and shared ablutions) was conveniently situated next to the taxi brousse station for taxis to Ampijoroa. Not advisable to walk around at night. Friendly staff. Rooms clean although poorly lit. Ablutions clean. We spent two nights here. When we returned from Ampijoroa, the staff allowed us a room from 5am at no extra cost. Hotel ???? – can’t remember it’s name and neglected to write it down. It is about 300m from Hotel Jean Laborde. Clean and well run – lots of other travellers. 56000 for a room with double bed and shared ablutions. Hotel Jean Laborde – situated about 15 minutes walk from central ‘Tana. Very good restaurant. Rooms excellent at 115000 or 150000 for a double room with en suite bathroom. Also some cheap rooms for about 70000. My family spent two nights here. On the last night, we arrived quite late in ‘Tana and couldn’t find any accommodation. The hotel staff let us sleep on the floor in my family’s room at no extra cost. AMJPIJOROA: Camping site with protective shelters and sand beds. Running water, cold showers (that’s all you want in summer) and strange squatting flush toilet. 20000 per night per site. We camped here for 2 nights. While we were there they were in the process of building some huts. MAROANSETRA: Camped in Hotel Co-Co Beach grounds on the lawn. Proper flush toilet and running water. 10000 FMg per person per night. We camped here for 2 nights. NOSY MANGABE: Camp site with shelters on raised wooden platforms. Running water and flush toilet. Camping included in permit price. We camped for 2 nights. PERINET: Free camping near the entrance gate, where there is a toilet and restaurant. One night camping here. MANTADY: Free camping with no facilities. Three nights camping in Mantady. AMBOASARY: Small shacks for 18 000. Didn’t use ablution facilities. Hotel has a very good restaurant where you can get cheap, filling meals. We had walked for 8 km in the rain, with 25kg on our backs, so were pleased to have somewhere dry to go. One night only. IFATY: Camped at Bamboo Inn for 10000 per person per night. Flush toilets and cold showers. There were very good chalets for 75 000 (double room), with en suite ablutions. Two nights. LE MANGROVE: Camped in hotel grounds for 10000/person/night. Two nights. ISALO: We stayed at Le Raine de la Raine. In addition to their pricey (but excellent) rooms, they have small basic double rooms for 50 000. Sparkling clean, mosquito nets included. One night. RANAMAFANA: One night at the new hotel/lodge, Domain Nature. Very nice – the best there is. My parents had booked and prepaid two three-bed huts for 4 people. We were allowed the last bed in each hut for an additional 25 000 each. There is a very good restaurant. *Prices in FMg AMPIJOROA: Three guides. Charles, the head guide, is meant to be best. We had Izo, who was also good and spoke fair English. I was a bit taken back, when we were ‘high-fived’ for every special species he found. A bit of a showman – but seen as that’s what a lot of visitors like, you can’t blame him. We paid 20 000 for a three hour walk. Izo enquired what species we wanted to see when we first met. The biggest problem was that as soon as he had found the day’s target species, he would head for home, even if we were only 2 hours into our walk. Make sure you get your money’s worth. Night walks were 2 hours long (30000). At Ampijoroa there is only one walk that you can do without a guide – the walk around Lake Ravelobe. On the opposite side of the lake, where the path starts heading towards the main road again, there was a path leading up the hill and away from the lake. We walked along it for about 500m and had stunning views of white-breasted mesite and button-quail. NOSY MANGABE: Our guide here was Felix. The most delightful person I met on the whole trip. Not a very good bird guide, but there was not much to see on Nosy Mangabe. He knew the basic frogs and reptiles and was very keen to learn and help in identification. Spoke good English. We paid him 60000 per day and 150000 in all. PERNET: Our first guide at Perinet was Donna, a herptile specialist. In fact, the best guide we had on the trip. He took us on a night walk. He found five species of chameleon and 10 species of frog in two hours. Not good on birds and lemurs, but that didn’t matter. MANTADY: Our second guide at Perinet and our guide for Mantady was Julian – a bird guide. He had no equipment, not a book or binoculars. But he was very hard working and genuine. We originally asked for Maurice and Patrice, but neither was available. I’m sure we would have seen more with them, but we were very happy with Julian. KALETA: One guide only. He showed us the Sifakas and Ring-tailed lemurs and Giant coua without a problem.. IFATY: Here our guide was Mosa - ask for him at the hotels. He knew his little patch of Spiny desert like the back of his hand and showed us all the species we wanted to see. Couldn’t speak English, but knew all the English bird names. We paid him 25000 per person for three hours. RANAMAFANA: This was a bad place as far as guides were concerned. Firstly, if you can’t provide transport for your guide from the village to the park entrance, he/she can only be available at 8 am. One plus is that you only have to take guides on the first day of your visit. Thereafter you are free to walk in the forest without a guide. Generally guides are very good, but are rather miserable people – no smiles ever! Jean Chry was a specialist bird guide. He showed us greater and golden bamboo lemurs on a two hour afternoon walk (30000). On our last morning we wanted to try and find short-legged ground roller. Jean Chry was going to meet us at the park entrance at 8 am. He was going to bring a tape with the ground roller’s call and I was supplying the tape recorder. At 8:30 he arrived to tell us that he brought the wrong tape. So now we had no chance and we had wasted three hours waiting for him. Our second last day’s birding was equally frustrating. We hired bicycles in order to get to Vohiparara and the marshes further away. We arranged with Fidi to meet at Vohiparara at 5 am. I checked a number of times to make sure that it would be possible for him to be there. He assured us there would be no problem. We were up at 4:15 the next morning and cycling up the hill in the dark. We arrived at 5 am and did some birding while we waited for Fidi. At 8 am, he hadn’t arrived, so we cycled a further 10 km to the marshes. Unfortunately I had left my tapes, as Fidi was bringing his. No chance for rail, or anything else skulking. Fidi was a very good guide, when he pitched the day before. He had his own bird calls and tape player. One thing I was a little concerned about was that he was rather tape happy. The worst was when he stood on the main path and played the call to a Henst's goshawk for about 10 minutes. It was about thirty metres away and calling repeatedly. After a while I was so annoyed I walked into the forest myself, where I managed to locate it with ease and had brilliant views. All the while Fidi was playing the call and irritating the poor bird. Same story with Crossley’s babbler. We paid Fidi 80000 for a six hour walk. ‘Night’ walks, which ended before it got properly dark, were 30000 per group. You march straight to the view point. The guide makes afire (you supply the meat) and a striped civet comes along. Red mouse lemurs eat bananas off the branches. Thereafter you march straight back. While we were at Ranamafana it rained almost every evening. Guides are not keen on taking ‘night’ walks when it even looks like it might rain. We used telephones to make five internal calls and one international call. We purchased a phone card from the post office near central ‘Tana for 40000. I managed to have a good long phone call to South Africa on it. There were two very big rip-offs we came across in Madagascar. The first was at Maroansetra. Boat owners are abusing the fact that visitor are totally reliant on their transport to get to Nosy Mangabe and the Masoala Peninsula (unless you have hiking gear and plenty of time). Unfortunately a few rich visitors have spoilt it for others by paying the high prices boat owners propose, and not bargaining. Please, even if the price is not going to make any difference to you, don’t pay high prices. Bargain to something reasonable in Malagasy terms. The boat owner wanted 900000 FMg to take us to Ambanisana and back, a three and a half-hour trip either way. We managed to talk him down to 600000, but still couldn’t afford it. We paid 130 000 for our trip from Le Mangrove to Nosy Ve. The boat was much faster and more reliable and the distance was about the same as that from Maroansetra to Ambanisana. The second rip-off was Berenty. The bad thing about it, it that it is a rich Frenchman charging these prices. My parents went there, so I have some good information. Firstly, in order to visit, one must take their transport - it will only cost you FF 420 per person (including the entrance permit). Then you have to stay in their accommodation and eat their food. My parents had three meals while they were there. One was excellent and worth the price, and the other two were rather pathetic for the prices paid. The accommodation was poor – the roof was not waterproof, there was no room service (guests make their own bed), and the rooms were badly overpriced. Berenty’s accommodation is at least three times more expensive than other places in Madagascar of similar quality. I would advise anyone rather to go to Kaleta (privately owner by a local). When back packing and camping, there are fairly severe limitations to how much equipment one can take. My luggage was more or less as follows. CLOTHES: Waterproof rain suite (a must for Madagascar), hiking boots, heavy-duty sandals, one set of warm clothing (necessary at all times of the year in the highlands), four changes of clothing (shirts and shorts), cap CAMPING: Tent, sleeping bag, sheet, small pillow, sealable plastic bags, waterproof backpack liner. A pot may be useful for cooking over a fire. EQUIPMENT: Binoculars, tape player, bird call tapes, bird book, frogs and reptiles book, small million candle-light spotlight and battery pack (this made night viewing an absolute pleasure – one of the most useful things I took), spare batteries, torch OTHER: lots of insect repellent and sunscreen, washing soap, rope for washing line, food (as described under food section), eating utensils, plate, mug, water bottle, medical kit, personal toiletries, locks for tents. The following is a break down of our expenses for the journey (all prices give in South African Rand (ZAR)) if 1 ZAR = FMg 1000 and 1 US$ = 5.6 ZAR.
As always, this is a very subjective list. It is influenced by a number of factors. The most influential are possibly: (i) the quality of views we obtained of a species, (ii) our mental state at the time and, (iii) the behaviour/coloration/rarity of the bird. My top ten species, in descending order were:
No coua made the list, largely because they are all fairly similar and we saw a lot of them. There wasn’t one that stuck out particularly. Red-tailed tropicbird, Mad crested ibis, Henst’s goshawk, Sub-desert and brown mesite, Mad button-quail, Mad long-eared owl, velvet asity, yellow-bellied sunbird asity, white-throated oxylabes, wedge-tailed jery and sickle-billed vanga were also amongst the highlights. Given in no specific order. They give an excellent cross section of Malagasy wildlife.
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18 Nov - Flight from Johannesburg to ‘Tana. Arrived at Ivato airport at 17:50. Night at Hotel Tiana (pronounced Tina). 19 Nov - Morning walk around the suburb. Waited for taxi brousse to Ampijoroa from 12:00 – departed at 15:00. 20 Nov - Arrived at Ampijoroa at 02:00. Camped next to road. Up at 05:00. Morning birding around campsite and lake Ravelobe. Afternoon with guide (Izo) on Botanical trail A. Camped at Ampijoroa. 21 Nov - Early morning with Izo on Botanical trail B. Afternoon walk around lake Ravelobe. Night walk with Izo. Camped Ampijoroa. 22 Nov - Early morning with Izo on Botanical trail B. Taxi Brousse to ‘Tana at 16:00. 23 Nov - Arrived in ‘Tana at 02:00. Slept in Taxi Brousse to 5:00. Day in ‘Tana, visiting Tsimbazaza. Night at Hotel Tiana. 24 Nov - Flight to Maroansetra: 8:15 to 10:00. Organising in afternoon. Camped at Hotel Co-Co Beach. 25 Nov - Boat trip to Nosy Mangabe: 8:45 – 9:30 with boat owner Ramil and guide Felix. Walk to summit and snorkelling in afternoon. Night walk. Camp at Nosy Mangabe. 26 Nov - Morning walk to lighthouse. Lazy afternoon. Long night walk (20:00 – 24:00). Camped at Nosy Mangabe. 27 Nov - Lazy morning. Boat back to Maroansetra at 12:00. Camped at hotel Co-Co Beach. 28 Nov - Flight to Tamatave in the morning. Taxi to Perinet. Night walk with Donna. Camped near entrance to Perinet. 29 Nov - Early walk with guide (Julian) around ‘Green lake’. Afternoon trip to Mantady NP with guide (Julian). Night walk. Camped at Mantady (about 4km along main road beyond waterfall). 30 Nov - Morning, afternoon and night in Mantady. Camp at same place. 1 Dec - Morning walk around campsite. Afternoon walk to new camp site near waterfall. Night walk. Camped next to main road near waterfall. 2 Dec - Early morning around in Mantady. Ride back to Perinet (Andasibe). Afternoon taxi brousse to ‘Tana. Night in hotel (can’t remember name and neglected to write it down) near Hotel Jean Laborde. 3 Dec - Flight to Tolagnaro: 9:45 to 11:30. Mid-day trying to organise. Afternoon taxi brousse to Amboasary. Walked from Amboasary towards Kaleta reserve. Camped somewhere. 4 Dec - Early walk to Kaleta. Morning in Kaleta with guide. Late afternoon walk to Amboasary. Very basic shacks in Amboasary for the night. 5 Dec - Early taxi brousse back to Tolagnaro. Mid morning flight to Tulear. Afternoon drive to Ifaty in hired 4x4. Camped at Bamboo Inn. 6 Dec - Early morning in ‘Spiny desert’ with guide (Mosa). Afternoon snorkelling at reef. 7 Dec - Early morning in ‘Spiny desert’. Mid-day drive to Le Mangrove in hired 4x4. Afternoon on hill side behind Le Mangrove. Camp at Le Mangrove. 8 Dec - Early morning on hill behind Le Mangrove. Rest of day at Nosy Ve. Camp at Le Mangrove. 9 Dec - Early walk along road southwards from Le Mangrove for ± 4km. Drive to Isalo National Park (Le Raine de la Raine) in hired vehicle: 9:00 to 16:00. Walk around hotel. Night at Le Raine de la Raine. 10 Dec - Early walk around area. Drive to Ranamafana via Fianarantsoa in hired vehicle: 8:00 to 20:00. Night at Domain Nature. 11 Dec - Walk along road around Domain Nature. Mid-day to Ranamafana National Park entrance. Afternoon walk with guide (Jean Chry). Camp at Ranamafana. 12 Dec - Morning with guide (Fidi) in secondary forest. Relaxing afternoon. Night walk with guide (name?). Camp at Ranamafana. 13 Dec - Bicycle ride to Vohiparara: 5:00 to 6:00. Cycle to marshes about 10 km beyond Vohiparara at about 9:00. Back to Ranamafana at about 13:00. Camp at Ranamafana. 14 Dec - Early walk around secondary forest. Mid-morning walk to primary forest. Hitched a lift to Fianarantsoa in afternoon (3 hour drive). Night at Tsara Guest House. 15 Dec - Taxi brousse back to ‘Tana. About 10 hours. Night in Hotel Jean Laborde. 16 Dec - Flight back to Johannesburg International (South Africa).
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| [TANZANIA 1993] [ZIMBABWE] [KENYA & N. TANZANIA 1996] [ MOZAMBIQUE 1997] [ARGENTINA 1997] [ MADAGASCAR 1998] [ETHIOPIA 1999] [ECUADOR 2000] [CAMEROON 2002] |