More sand

After visiting the red sands of Sossusvlei, we headed to the west coast of the country and the town of Swakopmund…

… which is a beach resort for those in Windhoek to escape the heat. We took a 4WD tour with an excellent guide to Sandwich Harbour, with its hundreds of flamingos -

(the black and white ones are juvenile Greater Flamingos, like the pink ones)

(Video alert - open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, so you can view it.) The flamingos stir up the sand and mud to get the crustaceans they feed on -

We then drove on the beach for miles, passing numerous shore birds, including this flock of Cormorants…

… until the dunes met the water -

So we did what any self-respecting 4WD driver would do - we challenged the dunes -

Our guide told us that the maximum slope of a dune is 37%, and a car heading directly down will not flip tail-over-nose until well past that gradient. The first time we crested a dune and headed down, it sure made your heart speed up!

While we were in the dunes, we enjoyed several stops for walks…

… and to enjoy the solitude -

We also saw some wildlife, like this Black-backed Jackal…

… and a Springbok -

Back down on the beach, we enjoyed lunch at the edge of the water, and the guide showed us the actual make-up of the sand. This beautiful pink area…

… is actually made of innumerable tiny gemstones, including garnet (which imparts the color) -

This next shot shows how dunes get started behind a small clump of vegetation -

On our way back to town we drove by the salt processing plant, with its mounds of road salt…

… and the drying pans for pink table salt -

I’ll leave you with this beautiful sand sculpture, to close this post -

Sossusvlei

This word has a mixed origin. Vlei in Afrikaans means marsh, while sossus is Nama for dead-end or “no return”. The sand dunes in the area are various shades of red due to the iron content in the sand that has oxidized or rusted.

The early morning light brought out the various hues, as well as cast beautiful shadows. A Springbok was enjoying the cooler temps…

… while a beautiful Oryx provided a nice scale element -

(they are bigger than a deer, but smaller than an elk)

His close-up:

Our guide stopped in an area to show us the little residents of the dunes…

(I’m sorry about the fuzzy focus, but I wanted to share the colors of the Red-tailed Lizard)

He showed us the trap door of the White Lady Dancing Spider’s den…

The sand is so fine that you can see the spider tracks leading up to it!

This one small area told a story of multiple creatures passing by (lizard, desert rat, and beetles) -

As we drove deeper into the region…

… the dunes grew higher and redder -

The pinnacle (pun intended) of our visit was to see Deadvlei…

… a white clay pan surrounded by the (purported) tallest sand dunes in the world.

Big Daddy dune is 1,000-1,2000 ft high -

We didn’t have time to hike up there, but we did hike up the one alongside Deadvlei…

… enjoying the expanding views…

… and the local residents -

Shovel-snout Dancing Lizard (which is keeping its feet off the hot sand)

It was a bit intimidating when our guide dropped us off at the beginning of the track to Deadvlei, and told us “climb up the dune on your left, and then slide down”, and he drove off to wait for us to return. We followed the tracks of others before us…

… but we didn’t know where to start down, as previous tracks had disappeared. The guide had given us the tip of stepping down with our heels, and just keep sliding. Here’s Steve demonstrating good form (video alert - open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end) -

He took a video as he slid down, to show the soft sand sluffing away as we went -

Where we came from -

After the water source to the marsh dried up, the clay soil hardened so much that the dead trees were left standing -

It was difficult to get pictures without people in them…

… but I kept trying…

This long day started before sunrise…

… but as the shadows grew long(er), we took one last picture -

Namibia

When we were setting up this trip, mainly for Madagascar and the lemurs, Steve suggested we add a safari in Namibia “since we’re basically already there”. If you don’t have your African geography down, Namibia is actually over across the southern end of the continent on the west coast (while Madagascar is off the east coast). Our first evening we stayed at a lodge with typical housing style…

… that seemed to mirror the Sociable Weaver nests -

We had landed in Windhoek, the capital, and collected our rental truck for a 3 week driving safari. We headed south and then west, and we saw a whole lot of this…

… with rare hills and their passes thrown in -

As we neared the SE coast, we started seeing sand creeping up the rock escarpments -

We drove many, many miles on gravel roads…

… and were always quite happy to reach our lodgings each afternoon. One evening we opted for the “sundowner” activity, which at this location included a nice private set-up…

… and even had a drinking buddy - a Dassie Rat (related to a Rock Hyrax) -

(it looks like a gerbil to me)

The setting was very grand…

… and the sunset had a serene glow -

The Milky Way that night was spectacular -

(You might need to zoom in, depending upon your monitor settings.)

Our early morning wake-up call was aided by these Helmeted Guineafowl -

(as you may have guessed, this picture was taken the afternoon before)

We were heading out on an all day excursion to the sand dunes of Sossusvlai. I’ll share more in the next post -

Summing up Madagascar

Wow, what a trip. Madagascar is the world’s 4th largest island and is about the size of Texas, but we managed to see a fair bit of it. Here is our rough travel route for 5 weeks.  Blue lines show our three air trips, while red indicate SUV and boat journeys:

Our quick overview of the country was consistent with the statistics.  Madagascar is  young (median age 19.2; life expectancy of around 63), poor (median income of about $400 per year), depends upon subsistence farming, is undeveloped (only about 1/3 of the people get electricity, and even in the capital, outages averaging 6 hours per day are normal), and pretty corrupt (frequent road block shakedowns by uniformed personnel, as well as tip seeking by immigration and security personnel at airports).  Thus, it is no surprise that cash is not only king, but is often the only option of payment in most of the country.  We withdrew several million Ariary (each tranche equal to $221) over the course of the trip (basically whenever we happened to be in a town with a functioning ATM), but still found ourselves counting and recounting our currency holdings to determine how quickly we would need to make another withdrawal. 

These issues are said to have been the impetus for the demonstrations and eventual coup that took place during our visit. For your future reference, when you’ve registered for the STEP program and the State Department issues a Level 3 Travel Warning for your destination during your trip, you will receive emails that you are “strongly urged to shelter in place,” should reconsider any travel,  and are urged to “have a plan to leave in an emergency that does not depend on U.S. government help.”

Notwithstanding this kerfuffle, our trip was uneventful, the people were typically friendly and welcoming, and we were able to enjoy the wealth of natural attractions that the country has to offer.

 Lisa mentioned the roads.  They were indeed quite bad in the West, South and even around the Capital.  (The North was smooth sailing though!) One of our first areas to visit was Big Tsingy:

Getting there was . . . interesting.  Day 1, the last 100 KM to our hotel took 4 hours, with one ferry crossing—and, as shown by this video, getting a car loaded onto it was not for the faint of heart (Reminder—to see video, you need to open the blog in your browser, not just your email):

The next day, the drive from our hotel to the Park entrance was a mere 17 KM—but took an hour with two stream fordings. 

Granted, those were not major roads, but the main highways were not much better—and sometimes actually worse.  Highway 7 from the west coast to the Capital was reminiscent of a long-abandoned mall’s parking lot.  Our itinerary stated that it was 870 KM and that, over the course of 7 days, we would spend 28 hours driving it. Unfortunately, the estimated pace of 30KM per hour (~19 MPH) was overly optimistic because of the poor road and the need to share the road with pedestrians and other slow moving vehicles:

Granted, this last type of vehicle wasn’t always slow moving!

The roads were so bad that in some areas people would sweep gravel up to smooth out the bumps, then request tips from drivers. 

Similarly, like in Nepal, people (usually women and children) would be engaged in making small rocks or gravel out of big rocks—with the products being used to smooth the road:

We eventually got somewhat used to the slow pace, and embraced the fact that it was nice for capturing vignettes of village life:

Baby gonna have a sore neck!

A common site—-clothes dryers (and even lines) are not a thing here….

And for getting pictures of road side vendors, such as this young lady in the central highlands who was selling the hats for which her tribe is known, wooden kitchenware, honey, and moonshine (both big bottles and small!):

(Note the reuse of water bottles; I quickly learned not to crumble my empties!)

There also was the occasional stall selling live animals—but we are pretty sure they weren’t pet stores:

We also had many opportunities to observe the brick making “industry” in action. Rice farmers in the capital have a side job of brick making, using mud from the irrigation canals to fill molds, and then firing the brick in grass-fueled kilns. 

This was essentially the same throughout the country, although one area in the highlands seemed to be more focused on production than others:

Unsurprisingly, based on my limited sampling, the bricks were all solid, rather heavy, of non-uniform sizes, and softer than those commonly used in the US.  That, however, did not hinder this lady in her brick-hauling duties:

Only once did I get a clear view of bricklayers in action, and it was pretty much like home, with the use of a standard trowel and a line to ensure the course was level.

Back to the main focus of our trip: Wildlife!  National Parks here are not open after sunset, which posed a problem when looking for nocturnal lemurs and chameleons.  The way around this was to walk along the border roads of the parks with a guide, which sometimes resulted in unusable pictures:

Or, even worse, having to get into the ditch to allow tractor trailers to pass us by on the narrow roads.  We won’t forget one walk when we were being passed by two trucks on the 1.5 lane road, which resulted in one of them pulling off and then slowly backing up as we waited on high alert a couple feet from its back wheels!

Of course, those roads also posed issues to trucks. This truck, which we walked by when looking for chameleons, ended up a few feet from a 100+ ft dropoff, and apparently had been waiting a week for a tow truck (or trucks) sufficient to haul it back out:

(The mud puddle is the road!)

(Note the two cables to keep the truck from going over the cliff…)

I had read some years ago of the funerary customs of the traditional Malagasy religion, in the context of spreading bubonic/pneumonic plague.  That religion, a combination of animism and ancestor worship, continues to be followed by only a small percentage of people, but has influenced the practices of the majority Christian population. Exhumation from temporary graves, redressing, and eventual reburial was a standard practice and still retains a devoted following.  We saw several temporary graves on our travels, but they didn’t stand out like the permanent tombs in the country’s South.  Basically, if there was an impressive masonry structure with a lot of decorations in that part of the country, it was a tomb:

(The juxtaposition of these structures with the houses in nearby villages made me think of ancient Egypt.)

 Despite the poor road conditions, we never had a car break down (just one flat tire).  BUT, we had one boat die on us.  Fortunately, it was at the very end of a two hour commute, and after a little bit of poling…

we were taken in tow for the final quarter mile by one of the more reliable boats in the area:

Finally, going back to the country’s short life expectancy, our 30-something guide told us a story as we passed by a funeral.  He explained that some funerals are sad, while others are happy.  His example of a Happy Funeral involves a 50 year old grandpa who had lived a full life.  Needless to say, we both thought that was a bit young!

And with that, we are finished with Madagascar.  As the day passes and the shadows get longer,

we will be following the sun across the Mozambique channel to our next destination, from where you’ll soon be hearing from your favorite story-telling photographer:

Nosy Komba

In Madagascar, “nosy” (rhymes with mossy) means an island. Komba is a smaller island south of the big island of Be (pronounced bay), which is the top tourist destination for beaches and water activities. These are located off the NW coast of the country. We had to take a small outrigger from the mainland to Nosy Komba -

There are no roads or motorized vehicles (so it was calm and quiet) -

That wasn’t our villa that we rented for 4 days… this was -

… complete with sweet young ladies who cooked all our meals, cleaned, and gamely tried to understand our requests as we used Google Translate to Malagasy. :)

We also had a resident family of Black Lemurs…

… that visited daily. Here comes a video, so open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom.

We went scuba diving one day, using rental equipment (which was a new experience for us), and enjoyed the morning. This is a view from the scuba shop towards the beach…

… and a video from Steve’s GoPro of some Orange-Spotted Filefish:

He was (rightly) proud of this nice still of a Yellowfin Surgeonfish…

… and this Unicornfish -

One day, the manager of the villa directed me to a little beach that he said no one visits. This was the path there…

… and this was my view of my private swimming beach -

It may not look like much, but I had that whole little bay to myself, and some nice rocks to sit on in the shade and read.

So that’s “bye” from me and the lemurs, to end my posting from Madagascar -

Tsingy Rouge and Ankarana National Park

Before heading south and west to Ankarana park, we struck out almost due east from Amber Mountain to make a quick stop at Tsingy Rouge. It lies at the end of a broad valley…

… and is much smaller in scale than Big Tsingy -

I bet you’ll never guess where the name came from. Red (sandstone) anyone?

This type of formation made me smile - it looks like kids under sheets playing “ghosts” -

The requisite shot with Steve for scale -

Just for comparison, this was Big Tsingy -

Tsingy Rouge had me reminiscing about Bryce Canyon in Utah, especially with the gradations of red and pink and the layering -

Moving on down south and west, Ankarana gifted us with some brilliant birds, from the Blue Vanga…

,,, to the Malagasy Paradise-Flycatcher…

Female

Male

We also found Gollum…um, I mean the Ankarana Sportive Lemur…

… and some Crowned Lemurs -

Male

Female

… and baby -

Ankarana has a Gray Tsingy…

… that was pretty impressive in scale, while giving us some tight squeezes as we explored…

As we walked out of the forest, we passed some baobab fruits…

They are softball size and fuzz-covered

… and checked out a sinkhole. In the next picture, I’m standing in a riverbed that is totally full in the rainy season, as is the sinkhole!

Just imagine the whirlpool there!

This Hoopoe was strutting his stuff…

… as he preceded us on the path out of the forest.

Goodbye for now!

French Mountain and Amber Mountain

We flew from Ile Sainte Marie to Diego-Suarez, the largest city in the north, via the capital, but luckily had no issues spending the night in Tana, given the demonstrations and replacement of the government that was occurring. After landing in Diego-Suarez, we drove just 7 km east to hike up French Mountain. It was hot and sunny…

… but we were promised 360-degree views, and they were delivered -

The island in the middle of the bay is called Nosy Lonjo (nosy means island) and is a sacred place for the locals. It is forbidden to land there. From different vantage points, you can appreciate the beautiful blue water of the bay -

Also from the top we could see the northernmost point of Madagascar (Cap d’Ambre) and the Emerald Sea -

The Emerald Sea is just off the coastline to the right.

Along the hike to the top, we found a juvenile Panther chameleon with markings that looked like a tiger -

We also saw two different species of baobab — the Suarez, with its branches straight out at 90 degrees and dark bark:

… and the Madagascar baobab with its crown of curving branches -

We then moved on to the Amber Mountain national park, which is known as the home of the smallest tree and ground chameleons in the world. The first species we found was Brookesia Minima, represented by this nice pair -

The male is the smaller darker one in the foreground

Female

Another tiny species is Brookesia Antakarana -

We also found a somewhat larger chameleon, the Blue-nose (but you can only see the color in the right light and angle) -

Some interesting insects also showed up — Shield Bugs…

… and a Longhorn Beetle -

Check out those mandibles! —

You didn’t think I’d let you get away without more lemur pics, did you? Crowned lemurs (not soaking wet). [Apologies for the inferior quality of the shots - they were at the top of the trees with the sun behind them.]

The male is the brownish one in the center of the picture, while the females and baby are gray-ish.

A Malagasy Kingfisher was a gorgeous gem…

… which we found on our way to this rare waterfall -

From our lodge on the slopes of Amber Mountain… Adieu!

Ile aux Nattes

So, continuing our story — we caught the (3 hour) ferry from the NE coast of the mainland to Isle Sainte Marie -

Upon arrival, we needed to take a Tuk-tuk from the harbor to the south point of the island…

(to see the following video, be sure to click the link at the bottom of the post to open it in your browser) -

… where we hired a small pirogue (boat) to take us across the shallow channel to Ile aux Nattes (island of mats) -

There are no roads here or motor vehicles, only walking paths across and around the island (size: 5 km x 3.5 km). Thus, this was our route to our resort…

… and our beachfront bungalow -

It was blessedly quiet. On our one full day here, Steve and I planned to walk around the island…

… cutting inland at times, and other times sticking to the beach -

However, as rain was threatening…

… we cut across the island (to get back to our bungalow) passing taro and rice fields…

… and a lone zebu -

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the mainland, courtesy of those rainclouds -

More Lemurs

I’m sure you’re just shocked to know that I have more pictures of lemurs. We had advanced northward up the east coast to the Canal des Pangalanes. This is a waterway consisting of canals, rivers, and lakes that run parallel to the Indian Ocean, and which are sheltered from the sea…

…creating a means of transportation of goods and people between small fishing villages.

The hotel where we stayed had several species of lemurs in the area that we hadn’t met yet, like the Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur…

(they look like they’re wearing fuzzy gloves)

… the Crowned Lemur…

(looks more like a fox to me)

… a hybrid of a Brown and Crowned Lemur…

… and a Short-tailed Indri (complete with disgruntled baby) -

(check out that stubby tail!)

The morning we were to walk through the forest near the hotel dawned cloudy, then turned drizzly as we started, culminating in a steady rain…

… that had us as wet and unhappy as the lemurs - who basically stayed hidden as we tromped through the forest for 2 hours.

We did see a Golden Orb Weaver…

… and some carnivorous Pitcher Plants -

The highlight of our visit to this area was seeing Aye-Ayes. These are rather not-pretty beasts…

… that have long fingers, with an especially long middle finger, that they use to catch grubs out of tree trunks.

For the upcoming video, please click the link at the bottom of the email to open it in your browser -

The Aye-aye is the world’s largest nocturnal primate (about the size of a housecat), and their incisors never stop growing. The guide told us that local villagers often killed them because they raided their coconuts, as well as looking like demons. About thirty years ago, a man-made island was constructed across a lake from any people and 6 Aye-ayes were relocated there. Their numbers have increased very slowly, as they bear a single offspring only every 2-3 years.

It was pretty contrived in how we saw them. We were boated over to the island at dusk; walked a short way into the forest; and found a clearing where coconuts were fixed to trees and a few lights illuminated their feasting -

After two nights, we headed a little further north to catch a ferry to a small island for some relaxation, but the ferry didn’t run for a day, so we were stuck at a hotel on the beach…

… which was a real hardship (eyeroll). :)

Chameleons!

We headed east out of “Tana”, the capital. After several hours bumping and winding along terrible roads, we arrived at the Peryeras Reptile Reserve. Before seeing the reptiles, we got to say hello to some friendly lemurs - a Brown…

… and (new to us) a Coquerel’s Sifaka -

I just loved their coloration -

We headed to the enclosure with numerous chameleons that this reserve was breeding and releasing into the wild. We started with a female Parson’s chameleon, which is the world’s largest chameleon species …

… and also saw a male Parson’s (complete with horns) -

We didn’t see any other Globifers (Globe-horned chameleon) in the large enclosure bsides this neat one -

Next up was an Elephant-eared chameleon…

… followed by a Green-eared one -

The colors on this one (Parson’s, I think) are incredible…

… and watching it walk on the ground (rather than holding a tree branch) was very interesting.

This pair of Parson’s chameleons posed very nicely together -

the female is in the foreground

Now I know this post is entitled “Chameleons”, but I have so many more pictures of cool animals that I’m going to branch out a bit. One of the coolest (especially at camouflage) is a Leaf-tailed Gecko. Here’s one that’s relatively easy to spot…

The next one is more challenging. Both of these were found in the wild during a forest walk in the Mitsinjo National Park -

Hints - it is in the same orientation as the previous one; the toes on its left front foot are slightly elevated off the trunk

On this same forest walk we saw two more new lemur species. This is a Golden (Diadem) Lemur…

… and the other is an Indri, one of the largest lemurs -

They look like very intense teddy-bears…

… and their vocalizations are spectacular. The next video has a little bit of some Indri jumping around, but the main reason I included this, was so you could hear the “conversation” that the family was having right above us. Two notes - 1) as usual, to help you see the video, click the link on the bottom of the email to open it in your browser; and 2) have your volume turned down on your speakers, or you’ll get blasted.

One last chameleon to close out this post — but first a little story - We walked up and down hills, through a village, and along a river for 45 minutes to get to the one little place where this species is found in all of Madagascar. The guide had been scouring the bushes and trees, without spotting it, and had even turned around to go back towards our car, when he found the little one! A Pinocchio Chameleon. It’s only about 5 inches long, including the tail.

Bye!

Ranomafana National Park

Well, we just kept heading NE across the country until we were due south of the capital, “Tana”. Ranomafana National Park is a rainforest in the highlands and encompasses 161 square miles. It was just made a national park in 1991 after the re-discovery of the Greater Bamboo Lemur…

… and the discovery of the Golden Bamboo Lemur -

This second one is critically endangered, as there are only about 1,000 individuals left, and they are only found in this national park, and in a small area adjacent to it. They looked like a plush teddy bear to me. :)

As we were just walking along a trail, a family of them came right by us, and Steve happened to be in the perfect spot to capture this video (remember to open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end of the post) -

Madagascar has some pretty cool insects, including this Giraffe Weevil -

We were quite happily surprised by this encounter with a pair of Ringtail Mongoose…

… and thrilled to find this Satanic Leaf-tail Gecko -

Its tail is curled up over its body, and the head is pointing down in that picture.

Back at our cabin, this Day Gecko was showing off -

We also went on a night walk while we were here, and saw a number of chameleons…

… and the guide was telling us the names, but his accent was so strong, we didn’t catch them.

I left that one above for you to enlarge if you want, because I wanted to convey just how small they were. It was amazing that the guide would spot them as we walked along, shining a flashlight all throughout the forest.

The pebbly texture of the next one’s skin, as well as the vivid coloration, was very interesting -

My favorite creature of the night, however, was the Rufous Mouse Lemur -

In the next video, please forgive this amateur videographer the focus problems in the middle (there is not good WiFi here to try to splice it out) -

We continued heading north as we left the rainforest. Every possible piece of land that could be planted was in terraces…

… or if flat and close to water, in rice -

Leave it to us to find grapevines even here! (no we didn’t do any wine tasting)

The roads in Madagascar are truly the worst we have encountered anywhere in the world! Forgive the poor quality of the next photo, but I had to shoot through the dirty front windshield to give you a glimpse of RN-7, the major road in the country, as we drove towards the capital -

As we drove along, there would be groups of kids walking home from school, in different colored coats…

Primary (age 6-11)

Junior Secondary (ages 12-15)

Senior Secondary (age 16-18)

I didn’t have any great photos from these several days to close with, so I’m cheating a little and giving you a preview of the next post (coming soon) -

Panther (Painted) Chameleon

Anja Reserve

After leaving Isalo National Park and continuing NE, we started seeing the housing change from bamboo siding to brick covered with plaster -

This was because the clay is structurally better for brick making (than that of the west where sand is predominant). This was a common structure, with either thatch or tile roofing -

Terracing for rice fields started being surrounded by rising hills…

… and then came large granite formations -

The Anja Community Reserve is a 75 acre reserve that was established in 2001 surrounding the Three Sisters mountains…

… to protect the largest concentration of Ring-tailed Lemurs in Madagascar -

We learned that baby lemurs typically spend the first 3 months of life holding on to mama’s belly and chest, and the second 3 months on to her back.

This Giant Chameleon…

… enjoyed the snack delivered by the local guide (video alert again - open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end of the post, if you have difficulty viewing it) -

We climbed up out of the forest, through the jumbled rocks…

… to see the valley below -

Back in the forest we were introduced to the Malagasy Lantern bug in its larval stage…

… that from a distance looks just like lichen on a branch, until they start moving -

I wanted to share some more “on the road” scenes: handcarts are pushed along major roads carrying everything from bricks…

… to people -

And speaking of people, I thought this was precious -

We’re outta here (for this post) -

Isalo National Park

Now we were headed inland across the island, with a brief stop at Zombitse National Park, where we met yet another lemur species - the Zombitse Sportive Lemur, which exists nowhere else in Madagascar -

They are nocturnal, but this one was just zoning out at the top of its lair.

We also saw the striking Standing’s Day Gecko…

check out its toes!

… and this neat looking Chameleon -

I love the 360 degrees each eye can swivel

Our main destination was Isalo National Park, which is in the center of the southern part of the island and comprises more than 200,000 acres. As we approached, we saw more and more rock ridges appearing out of the dry grasslands -

On our way to our evening activity, this ridgeline glowed warmly in the “golden hour” -

We had come to see the Isalo Window…

… at sunset -

The next morning we met a local guide for the park, who took us on a 5 hour hike. We got to see some Ring-tailed Lemurs with babies…

…Stick insects…

this was a massive example; the eye and teeny-tiny mouth are on the right

… grand vistas…

… and unique plants -

Pachypodium - mistakenly called “dwarf baobab”

The trail headed down to a stream…

… where we met more lemurs in the woods, including a Sifaka with a baby -

Then a pair of Sifakas showed why they’re dubbed “dancing lemurs” (video alert - open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end of the email) -

We dropped down to the stream and were transported into a very different micro-climate from the hot, dry desert we’d hiked across. Suddenly everything was cool, shady and moist -

And there was even a refreshing waterfall and pool -

Coming back out into the dry forest, I was mesmerized by this chameleon’s movement -

So to close this post…on the previous night, after the crowd around us got their sunset shots, they all took off. But we know that the most beautiful light is about 15-20 minutes after sunset -

Southwest coast

To get to our next destination, we needed to catch a speedboat across a large bay. As we drove through town on a Sunday, everybody was dressed in their best. We’re guessing the matching clothes probably signified singing groups?

At the “office” of the boat company, we found that the tide was way out -

I didn’t get a picture of it, but the wheel in the bottom R corner above belonged to a tractor that pulled a large cart in which all of us passengers and our luggage rode out to the speedboat. The zebu carts were used to ferry goods and locals.

As we neared the beach where we were meeting the car to take us to our hotel…

… the water was really shallow, and the boat had to stop short of the beach. Guess how we met our car?

Luckily we were wearing shorts and sandals!

As we drove down the coast to our hotel, we could see we were definitely in desert country, and the housing was much simpler than it had been up north -

The local vehicles were even more packed (I didn’t think that was possible!) -

We arrived at our beachfront hotel to find that we were the only guests! (we didn’t complain)

The next morning we visited a large salt lake (Tsimanampetsotsa) because it is home to a large population of Lesser Flamingos…

… that migrates here to breed and bear young before returning to Tanzania in October, after the rainy season arrives.

We saw the “Grandmother” Baobab, which is said to be 1,600 years old. Here in the desert south, baobabs don’t grow as tall as they do in the north, but they have a mighty girth.

did you notice our guide?

We also visited a massive Banyan tree (from India)…

… that was next to a sinkhole, connecting to a cave system -

We then moved to a different hotel up the coast, where we watched our dinner of tuna brought in…

… from this boat -

We had switched hotels so we could visit Nosy Ve, which is an island about 3 km off the coast and is home to nesting Red-tailed Tropicbirds -

They can nest on the ground because the island is uninhabited and they have no predators here. This ball of fluff was 3 days old -

We enjoyed a grilled fish lunch on the beach, watching the locals sail by -

We took the speedboat back to the other side of the bay the next morning, and it was quite a different look as we came in during high tide -

I will close as I often do -

A very long day...

On the second long day of driving, we needed to be on the road for nearly 12 hours (!) to reach our next resting point. Remember the type of roads I shared with you in the last post? Well, they didn’t get much better; the water crossings continued and we had many miles of bumpy dirt road to contend with. We passed through many traditional villages…

… with house construction varying from brick (rare) to walls of bamboo…

… topped with a thatch roof, that is replaced every 2-3 years.

Some houses were surrounded by bamboo fences -

Kids waved to us all day as we passed…

… and it was very interesting to see the young ladies with dried paste on their faces. This is made from aloe or tamarind and is used as a sunscreen (lighter skin color is desirable) as well as a skin treatment (for acne, etc.) -

The young woman on the left in the picture above has a young child wrapped up against her back, like this -

Most women wear a T-shirt and then a brightly colored cloth tied as a long skirt. I loved the chaos of color in this market scene -

An interesting sight was the braiding of tobacco leaves into ropes:

As I had noted at the end of the last post, we caught the baobabs at sunset, but before we got there, we passed through a village with some massive specimens -

We did have another deep water crossing as we headed south, but this ferry didn’t have a working motor, so the locals made do -

We were leaving the giant baobabs behind…

… and entering the (mostly) desert area of the SW of the country that had many termite mounds -

Then some of the bigger towns showed off the variety of transportation used -

The orange van above is an example of the local buses, where belongings and bags of goods bought at the weekly market are piled on top, and people are crammed inside. The zebu cart was a very common sight throughout our travels. Zebu are the only “beasts of burden” in Madagascar, but they also provide meat, and are sacrificed for village celebrations like funerals and marriages.

Before we stopped for the night, we visited a reserve of a Spiny Forest. No explanation needed -

This is an Ocotillo, or “octopus tree” to the locals -

We also were treated to some special denizens of the forest; a Ground Boa…

… a White-footed Sportive Lemur…

…. a Warty Chameleon…

… a Kung-Fu Cricket..

… and to finish off this long day, with a picture of how we felt… a Madagascar Tenrec -

not a hedgehog; he’s more closely related to shrews and elephants!

Big Tsingy

That’s not a typo. Tsingy is a Malagasy word meaning “the place where one cannot walk barefoot” or “walking on tiptoes”.

That picture was from the top of the hike we did, and those limestone needles and sharp edges are every bit as painful to walk on as you suspect. The full name of the park is Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park and it is located in NW Madagascar, about 2/3 the way up the west side of the island.

To get to that viewpoint above, we first climbed through a dry forest, and found some unique birds. Sorry, you’re just going to have to be patient…

Madagascar Parrot (yes, it’s black)

Malagasy Paradise-Flycatcher

And the neatest to me was a forest Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher. I thought kingfishers always lived by water -

He’s 5 inches long and weighs less than an ounce. I find his stubby little tail adorable. :)

Before we could climb up to the top, we passed through a cave, walking by tree roots…

… and some beautiful formations on the walls…

… and nearly crawling on all fours, before we reached the ladder and cables section -

Steve enjoys snapping pics of me at work -

Once on top, everywhere we turned we saw “stone forest” interspersed with green trees -

Climbing on down continued to be interesting…

… but the swinging bridge really wasn’t as scary as many others we’ve crossed. ;-)

I really liked the horizontal cuts that made the rocks look like they were floating

Continuing on…

… through the rocks…

… we arrived in the forest again, to find another species of lemur -

Von der Decken’s Sifaka -

(this species doesn’t have the black cap of the other Sifaka we saw)

The next day, we started our two longest days of driving. This first one was “only” 8 hours, on roads like this…

… and this….

… that Steve aptly described as “steeplechase” -

(this was taken from the middle of the shallow but wide stream we were crossing)

There were some water crossings where you couldn’t be sure which was the safest way through, but the sticks were there to guide you (and you paid the guy working in the river, who put them up) -

We made it safely through the steeplechase course to arrive back at the Avenue of the Baobabs in time for sunset…

… and a sundowner of rum punch.

Kirindy Forest

Along the west coast, north of Morondava, is an area of deciduous dry forest that’s loaded with unique bird and animal life. I will try to keep the bird pictures to a minimum, but they are so beautiful! :)

Giant Coua

The afternoon that we arrived, we went on a walk in the woods (when it was about 90 degrees and without any breeze). It was definitely worth it, for all the wildlife we saw. First up were some Red-fronted Brown Lemurs…

… which were quite thirsty (be sure and open the email in your browser to see the videos) -

(apparently it’s ok to give the lemurs water in a snail shell, but not to feed them)

A Verreaux’s Sifaka and her little baby really moved around right in front of us -

A pair of White-browed Owls were just chillin’…

… and a usually nocturnal Gray Mouse Lemur peeked out at us from his den…

… and then got bolder -

He is about 5 inches long and weighs about 2 ounces.

The guide rubbed a twig along the edge of the hole, causing sap to be extruded:

Then just after dark, we went on a night hike, and saw even more lemurs, like the Fork-marked Lemur…

…and the Pygmy Mouse Lemur (which is smaller than the Gray by 1/2 inch & 1/2 oz) to be the smallest lemur in the world -

After staying in a very rustic cabin in the eco-lodge in the private reserve, we got up early for a bird-watching walk, and I definitely won’t bore you with all the unique and beautiful birds we saw. But I just have to show you the White-breasted Mesite that had all the birders with their long lenses agog around us. Apparently these are fairly rare, even in Madagascar, which is the only place in the world that they live -

Anyway… we moved on north from here, and had a very interesting river crossing. First we got to ogle a herd of Zebu, which are the local cattle (both genders have horns, but the males’ are much more impressive)…

… including this gorgeous guy -

We were able to watch as the car ferry loaded…

… and luckily, this didn’t happen to us -

this was on the far side of the river, which we were treated to as we arrived and drove off the car ferry safely

The second river crossing of the afternoon was much smaller, which was good, because the ferries didn’t have working motors:

This was our reward after arriving safely after a long day. G’night!

Madagascar!

On our journey to this island nation off the SE coast of Africa, we spent a night in Johannesburg, South Africa. I mention this because we had a very interesting and delicious dinner there. We sought out the restaurant - Tribes African Grill - because the menu featured all manner of grilled meats. We greatly enjoyed the Mixed Grill that included ostrich, warthog, impala and kudu. Rather than posting a stock photo of a kudu, I urge you to search online and check out this beautiful animal. Of the four meats, we enjoyed ostrich and kudu the most - they were moist, tender and had very pleasing flavors. We don’t know for a fact that these animals are farmed, rather than hunted in the wild, but we strongly suspect that.

Now on to Madagascar…

As we approached the airport, you could see lots of red dirt, agricultural patches and mostly dirt roads. On the ground, we found that the capital of Antananarivo was well into the spring season of planting rice:

Anywhere there was flat land and a way to get a lot of water to it, rice is grown. It is the staple crop of the country -

Our flight to Morondava was cancelled at the last minute due to equipment problems, so we spent an unscheduled extra night in “Tana”. [That’s a much easier way to refer to the capital than its full name.] The next day we arrived safely on the west coast and the home of the “famous” Avenue of the Baobabs -

There are 7 species of baobab in the world and 5 are endemic to Madagascar. A sixth occurs in both Madagascar and Africa, while the seventh is in Australia. When they are young…

… they have a lot of branches. As they grow older and bigger, the branches become so heavy that they break off, giving the trees their distinctive shape -

A baobab is essentially an enormous sponge surrounded by bark. The local people cut into them to reach the stored water, but they are not cut down, as they are protected by law. They also harvest the bark for use as roofing materials. The trees have remarkable regenerative properties, so the bark grows back, somewhat like cork trees.

I repeatedly put Steve up against trees that I was photographing, to show just how massive they are -

Those were the common species, while this next one is frequently referred to as the “Rasta” one (with so many branches hanging down) -

Other famous residents of the island include chameleons…

… and lemurs -

Red-fronted Brown Lemur

I plan to be sharing with you all the different species of lemurs especially that we saw on our travels here. I think my favorite family is the Sifaka, because of their striking coloration. These are Verreaux’s sifakas…

… and the baby was really cute to watch. As usual, to see the video, you’ll need to open this post in your browser by clicking on the link at the end of the post -

I think I’ll wrap up this post, a little on the short side, because I just wanted to give you a quick overview of this very diverse country (and internet is very spotty). As I have before, I try to get a picture of a country’s flag, so here’s Madagascar’s -