So, dinner last night was rather yummy. I had a Zebu dish cooked with cassava leaves and of course some rice. Gee was with us to make sure we didnt get up to any mischief and hed brought Isan with him as a side kick. Isan is one of the drivers, and has been ferrying me, Jessica and Jason around. Hes a lovely young man, and a very patient driver. My goodness hes been working hard this week. I did feel a bit sorry for him though; his English isnt good at all so Ive had to do my best with my very bad French inthe car, and he ended up out with a group of people he doesnt know and couldnt chat with! We did of course pay for his and Gees meal. A few bevvies were had with food then the restaurant gave us espresso cup of rum, lovely, but I probably didnt need it! Anyway, a few of us got a tuk tuk back the hotel a few walked, and one stayed out in a bar with Gee; I hear beer, music and pool was involved.
National Park, an evergreen forest with a tropical humid microclimate. The last couple of kms of the journey saw most of us on the roofs of the 4x4s. A different view and quite exciting, certainly, but really however carefully Isan drove along the track.
We were guided over about 4 hours by local Malagasy guides Gary and Joel, as well as Gee. They were hugely knowledgeable about the forest and found various chameleons for us to view including the worlds smallest chameleon, about the size of a fingernail!
We saw and heard the Cuckoo Roller. Joel told us that if villagers heard it and it kept flying around the village it was a portent of someone dying within the next few days, so would go outside to shout and throw stones at it. We were OK in the forest though as it only relates to villages!
We also saw a Madagascan Kingfisher, some Sun Birds, a Madagascan White Eye, a Cuckoo Shrike, and just before we stopped for lunch, a couple of Lemurs high in the trees😁
Bay where we had been yesterday. It is amazing, and I think National Geographic are correct! No photograph would be able to do it justice.
We visited two waterfalls, important to the animist beliefs and where people go to pray. They were quite lovely ones! In fact the whole walk was fantastic!
Lunch was a picnic in a clearing near the edge of the forest. We sat on benches alongside two tables, and ate rice, chicken and Zebu, all very tasty! The Mongoose that jumped up on our table and knicked a leg of chicken from my plate thought so too. He did make me jump! We spent the next little while tempting him to stay around by giving him more chicken to eat. We did try Zebu and bread, but he wasnt keen on those. One of his friends turned up too, but wasnt nearly as brave and anywhere near us. They have very cute faces, and very sharp teeth.
Gee showed us how to find the smallest Chameleons in the world. They live in the leaf litter around the base of tree trunks. I found 2 and it was fascinating to watch them
change colour from the brown of the dry leaves to the paleness of my hand as they sat on it for a few minutes. I feel so privileged!
As we were watching the Mongoose again, having returned the chameleons to their leaf litter, we heard a yell from the other table. The bench that Sean was sitting on had broken, and he fell backwards onto the ground. You may remember the Chairgate issue from a few days ago. Well, this was equally as funny, and it took a couple of minutes for us to stop laughing enough to check he was OK. Were wondering what the third seating accident is going to be; peeps are getting a bit nervous to sit next to him now.
One our way home we visited Galileo, a giant tortoise housed in a small enclosure in a hotel garden; hes apparently 300 years old, but as the life expectancy is less than 200 years I find that unlikely. He was certainly big though! It was heartbreaking to see him alone in such a small space. His mate, Io, died about 22 years ago, and all the
We then visited a Monastery housing 12 nuns, a small shop, and a medicinal garden.
