Domaine Nature Ranomafana

... my last 4 weeks to enable me to catch up and keep this blog current, don't worry I'll write you all a nice book when I return giving all the details that have been missed.

After spending a couple of days with the Pioneer Volunteers in Lanirano the Lemur Venturers' jumped into a Cambion (an old truck with seats and a rusty roof) for the 40 mile drive to Sainte Luce. 40 miles doesn't sound a long way but when the transport is ready ...

Hi everyone

Just a quick blog to say we reach fort dauphin and our hotel was lovely including hot frequent water, so complete luxury for 5 nights. Also the food has been really good, the steak is amazing and the local malagassy food is alo surprisingly good. However the easy times are now over as we have moved to the campsite and to a diet of rice and beans! It's not so bad now but i can see having it for the next 4 weeks been a bit boring to say te least, but we are ...

Hi All, as internet access is extremely limited please bear with the lack of a blog. We're having a great time although I have a little bit of a Madagascan Belly. I saw my first Chameleon today, it tried to catch a caterpillar but managed to miss, due to stage fright I think. We have also seen spiders bigger than my hand, an eagle chasing a magpie like bird swooping across the sky in a ...

... of the window watching the plane's taking off, which after seeing a couple lost it's novelty value quite rapidly!

We finally got onto our flight bound for Niarobi, we had managed to get the exit seats to accomodate Steve's long legs... obviuosly not required for me. We got handed headsets but i'm not sure why as the on borad enterainment of films and TV never transpired, just a crackling noise through the headsets for 7 and a half hours. We ...

... that the bungalow was going to blow down. The storm had cleared the cold and rain away making us much more eager to explore the more remote areas of town. So we, George, Genevieve (Gen), Ruth and I took a stroll down to Libona and Monsieur Beaches to watch the surfers and feel the sand between our toes for what we thought was the last time. After a bit of time on the beaches we fancied exploring the headland so, tightning our shoe laces and hitching up our belts ...

... mostly French bread and tea which is common for most places I've stayed with a French heritage. Babba drove us to the national park where we met our guide who I'm sure was the only English speaking one of the group available. You must have a guide to visit the park and these guys were pretty good at finding animals. The trail led downhill to a waterfall on the river and we ...

Hi all, So my time with Blue Ventures has come to an end. It has been a long fun six weeks full of lots of highs and, of course, the occasional low. I am now officially a divemaster, have mastered my coral identification and can tell my skunk anemone fish from my long thin banner fish. I have become an expert rum drinker and can shake my ass in true malagasy style to ...

... the car he turns to us in the back and starts sprouting off in French about how petrol prices have risen since midnight last night and that the price of the ride has now gone up by a third! What? You're joking mate we've been doing this back packing lark too long to be fobbed off with that ol' story and we told him that by getting out of taxi and taking out our bags with us. Then he was trying to haggle with us. No mate we agreed a price last night ...

... Catholic church, clean and affordable. Although sunny when we arrived, it rained solidly from 4pm until 10 am this morning, to be expected as it can rain up to 200 days a year here. Today we visited the Lemurs in the park and after finally agreeing a price for a local driver to drive us the 7K uphill we went on a two hour guided walk. The objective was to see the rare bamboo lemur, luckily we saw three, one very close ...

... déçus car nous ne voyons pas autant de lémuriens que nous l'imaginions. Dans cette forêt tropicale, il existe 26 espèces de mammifères et 96 espèces d'oiseaux ainsi que des orchidées et des plantes aux vertus thérapeutique. Après réflexion, ce que nous y avons vu n'est pas si mal pour 3h de marche seulement.