Madagascar Day 4: LEAPING LEMURS Ankarana National Park, Madagascar, Sunday April 7, WTRD 22 of 36

Madagascar Day 4:  Amber Mountain to Ihanra Bush Camp via Ankarana National Park, Madagascar, Sunday April 7, WTRD 22  of 36

Today is our last morning at the Nature Lodge. We say goodbye to a nice German family, mom, dad, and two young boys about 4 and 2 years old.  The boys are fascinated with the chameleons. and geckos. They are exploring everything sometimes to their parents’ delight and some times to their chagrin.  We mention that we are going to the Bush Camp Iharana.

They are happy for us and disappointed for themselves as they were told when they tried to make reservations that the camp was booked.  We swap information and hope to see them again sometime in the future.  They live near Dusseldorf.  Before we leave, Floris tells us the German’s driver needs reading glasses.

My stomach is angry.  It would be a day best positioned near a toilet, but that’s not going to to happen.  We have a very long drive on terrible roads to the Bush Camp via a morning at a Ankarana National Park.  It is not a good day for not feeling well.  Pit stops are far between and very primitive.

Today is Sunday. Most family roadside businesses are closed.

Locals are busy with laundry, bathing in streams

transporting bananas,

 tending their animals,

traveling from one place to another.

Dressed for Church

Picnicking,

Sunday Climb to Service

We stop at one roadside stand that is not closed and where there is a profusion of large plastic bottles that are being re-used to sell pickled fruits.

The proprietor of the shop hacks away at a coconut to provide us with a drink.

These coconuts are not like the ones in the the South Pacific.  They are filled with coconut water, but no hard white fruit inside the shell.  There is a small coating of soft yogurt like coconut gelatin that can be eaten in a couple of mouth fulls.  Then the husk is discarded with no further purpose. Seems that these husks could be repurposed for art work or something. After visiting the tea bag art studio in South Africa, I am convinced that human ingenuity could and should repurpose resources as much as possible.

Despite stomach distress, coconut water and a small bite might be of help.

Floris buys a bottle of fruit and we dig out some balloons to give to the coconut lady’s children.  They are delighted at receiving the balloons, as we are in giving them some fun and taking some photos.

Bright eyes and beautiful smiles.

We check into Ankarana National Park 

and take a short walk through the rain forest to see the creepy, crawlies, before the lemurs.

Toe boot in bottom photo gives perspective to the mega size of these millipedes.

Saulo has gone ahead to  the picnic area to set up for lunch.  I am anxious to get to a privy, and not too interested in the wildlife at the moment.  At last we get to the picnic area.  Lunch is set up but it will have to wait until I make a nature call. 

We eat lunch in an open shelter at Prince’s Camp (named for Prince Phillip’s visit here)  in the primary forest of baobabs.  I am not very hungry, eat rice, and politely refuse a taste of the pickled fruits.  Our guide is wondering about me when the first lemurs leap into the scene, and I have an excuse to leave the table with my camera in hand.

There are many species of lemurs here.  Every region and island seems to have its own variety.  Darwin would have loved it.  The inquisitive animals have a distinctive voice that beckons others to come or flee.    Unfortunately,  like the bears of Yosemite, the lemurs have become habituated to handouts and are leaping across the rafters and jumping from pillar to post in the shelter eagerly eyeing our food.  They are very cute and inquisitive.  

I tried to capture some photos of them leaping from one place to another, but they were too unpredictable and fast.

What is fascinating is the way they use their long tail for balance and when they land, the land upright on two feet with their tail behind them, similarly to a kangaroo. 

Our guide asks us not to feed them which we would not have done anyway, but when he goes on a nature call, our driver gives the lemurs some banana peels and the lemurs are eager to make friends with him.  We would have liked  to do the same, but remember we chose not to get a rabies vaccines before leaving America and are  not sure about getting too close to these cute little critters.

We leave Ankarana.  The north south main road six is in terrible condition and one could not imagine that it could get worse.

Our driver weaves back and forth from one side of the road to the other to avoid giant sink holes and potholes.

Late in the day we turn off of the National Highway onto a rural road with small signage to Camp Iharana, and amazingly the the road gets worse.

The rainy season has just started tapering off, but the road is swamped with dark water that disguises what lies beneath. Our guide gets out and walks through the water while the driver watches how high the water rises up Floris’s legs.

He asks Floris to reach down into the water and show him the bottom mix.  Is it mud or is it sand?  Floris zigs and zags across the small lakes using his legs as a depth sounder.  The vehicle is a 4 x 4 but does not have a snorkel.  Our driver figures the path he wants to take, then guns it through each pond accordingly.  If the puddle is too deep or questionable, Floris hacks away with a machete small tree branches so that we can make an alternate route through the swamp without scratching up the vehicle.  What should have taken us a half hour takes us two.  It was an adventure.

At dusk, we are almost at our destination, but make a quick stop where guide and driver will be staying.  It is a primitive village house with no electricity or water.  The lady of the house is a candidate for eye glasses our guide tells us.   We will drop a pair off for her tomorrow or the next day.

When we arrive at Camp Iharana, it is almost dark.  The oil lamps are lit.  It is hard for us to get our bearings in the dark.  We will figure it out in the day light.  It appears to be patterned after the safari camps in Botswana.  Since there are no large predators here or big aggressive elephants, or guard dogs, we can safely walk the pathways.  There are guards with dark skin that blend into the night, and seem to pop out of no where when we lose our way to make sure we go where we want.

We are shown to our traditional Malagasy cottage.  It is made from slender tree trunks, wooden pegs, mud walls, open windows, and thatched palm roof.  The window coverings are of mud cloth.  There is no ceiling fan and the room interior is unbearably warm.

Once we are somewhat settled, hard to do in the very dim light provided by a generator, we navigate our way back to the dining room.  We take our plug strip and charging cords to the office where we can recharge our computer, ipad, phone, and camera batteries.

There is only 1 other couple in the camp tonight.  They are from Washington DC. and the first guests of the season.   We chat with them a bit in the dining room.  They leave tomorrow.  We are the second guests of the season. Maybe the place will be booked tomorrow.  I wonder why the German family couldn’t get a booking.  

The dinner menu sounds good, but I can’t get past the starter. My stomach has been through the Madagascar road blender today and has had enough.  I excuse  myself from the table, and retire to the cottage and hope my stomach will calm down.  I take a cold shower, take some meds, douse myself with mosquito repellent, and climb through the mosquito netting to our bed.

I take my personal air conditioner (a spray bottle of water), my headlamp, and a bottle of drinking water.  Russ joins me a little later.  It is a restless night for both of us as the temperature has not dropped, there is no breeze, and the humidity is high.  Sweat refuses to evaporate off of our skin. My personal air conditioner is useless. A fly caught in a nearby spider's web seems to struggle for hours before the spider puts an end to its misery.

All is Hot and Sweaty with the Worrall Travel Rs in Madagascar