Antsirabe to Ranomafana – 30 October
The 2nd day was far more scenic as the rice fields looked more elaborate. On the way we even stopped at a Lemur Reserve for lunch so that we’d have a nice break doing some trekking. However, this reserve was little a green oasis among miles and miles of nothingness where burning the ground is common practice to plant new crops. The smell of burning wood was lingering in the air everywhere and we could even smell it when we were trekking in the reserve. It smelt almost ‘too close for comfort’ and I can’t imagine the distress that the poor lemurs must be feeling sometimes. All of these fires have actually affected the weather pattern and it now rains less & less. In the South, sand dunes are now the norm. Since there are no tree left in some parts, it’s impossible to stop the desert moving in...
Whilst at the Lemur Reserve we also saw some lovely chameleons and wild b/w lemurs with babies on their back. As the forest was quite dense, the only way to be guaranteed to see them was to put collar on the dominant female. Two guides had also gone ahead of us with a tracking device to pick up the signals from the collar and then they basically kept an eye on the lemurs for us. Then they can help the guide locate them for the tourists by pointing us in the right direction. It wasn’t easy to get to them (totally off the beaten path – no track whatsoever), but it was a nice little adventure with interesting insects and mangoose too !
We got to Ranomafana for 6pm and stopped along the way for many pictures as it was getting lusher and lusher by the mile. This beautiful park wasn’t supposed to be on our itinerary but I had asked for a detour to be included and I was so glad to have done so as exploring it turned out to be one of our most thrilling days.
We even took a nocturnal walk to look for chameleons (they prefer to come out of of the forest by night so you can often find them hidding under leaves). We also saw the microlibus lemur which looks more like a jumping rat but ever so so cute. However, they were moving far too fast for pictures, sadly. But I was absolutely mesmerised by them, seriously, seriously cute.
The 2nd day was far more scenic as the rice fields looked more elaborate. On the way we even stopped at a Lemur Reserve for lunch so that we’d have a nice break doing some trekking. However, this reserve was little a green oasis among miles and miles of nothingness where burning the ground is common practice to plant new crops. The smell of burning wood was lingering in the air everywhere and we could even smell it when we were trekking in the reserve. It smelt almost ‘too close for comfort’ and I can’t imagine the distress that the poor lemurs must be feeling sometimes. All of these fires have actually affected the weather pattern and it now rains less & less. In the South, sand dunes are now the norm. Since there are no tree left in some parts, it’s impossible to stop the desert moving in...
Whilst at the Lemur Reserve we also saw some lovely chameleons and wild b/w lemurs with babies on their back. As the forest was quite dense, the only way to be guaranteed to see them was to put collar on the dominant female. Two guides had also gone ahead of us with a tracking device to pick up the signals from the collar and then they basically kept an eye on the lemurs for us. Then they can help the guide locate them for the tourists by pointing us in the right direction. It wasn’t easy to get to them (totally off the beaten path – no track whatsoever), but it was a nice little adventure with interesting insects and mangoose too !
We got to Ranomafana for 6pm and stopped along the way for many pictures as it was getting lusher and lusher by the mile. This beautiful park wasn’t supposed to be on our itinerary but I had asked for a detour to be included and I was so glad to have done so as exploring it turned out to be one of our most thrilling days.
We even took a nocturnal walk to look for chameleons (they prefer to come out of of the forest by night so you can often find them hidding under leaves). We also saw the microlibus lemur which looks more like a jumping rat but ever so so cute. However, they were moving far too fast for pictures, sadly. But I was absolutely mesmerised by them, seriously, seriously cute.
posted by Sylvie at 9:45 PM
<< Home