Vakona Forest Lodge Antananarivo

I've added a link in the photo captions to species descriptions/photos. The most useful site is www.arkive.org.

Monday 13th July
Set out from the Lodge at 7.30 a.m for a morning exploring the Andasibe national park which is a relatively small area of primary forest but rich in endemic species. The main attraction is the Indri but there are loads of weird and wonderful creatures and plants. Naturally I had all the gear - goretex from top to toe - absolutely everything that was on th...

Going to Madagascar was a last minute thing. I wanted to make the most of my leave. I'd be going alone but I didn't want crowds, cities, culture, or noise. I wanted something absorbing and to see and do something different. Maybe a safari, but not Africa. Madagascar? Perfect. Lots of options, more endemic species than anywhere else on earth and being south of the equator it was (theoretically) dry season.

The country is so big there are lots of options but with so little time I opted ...

Its welll worth taking an evening stroll after dark to see what you can see. Without a guide almost nothing. With a guide all this and more. Also worth going out just to see the night sky. There is so little light pollution there seem to be a lot more stars than there are at home

Mantadia is a much larger area of primary forest than Andasibe, wilder and more interesting in some ways, but being bigger you have less chance of seeing the lemurs. We werent particularly lucky but the mass of ferns and palms of every description were wonderful

Andasibe 11th May 2008 So after staying one night in Antananarivo we then headed off east of the capital in search of more wildlife especially those lovely Lemurs. Andasibe is approximately 3 hours away. By the time we actually left and then stopped at a huge modern supermarket on the way out of the capital we ended up arriving at Hotel Feon'ny Ala in Andasibe in the dark. Driving in Madagascar in the dark is definitely NOT a good idea. For a start the amount of cars with dodgy headlights or ...

"Don't worry... about a ting... cause every little ting... is gonna be alright!" I'm awake and on my way to the travel agency for my 8 am appointment, half expecting Mr. Florent to be late/not show. He is there waiting for me and we decide to do a driving tour to two national parks not all that far away. I negotiate what I think is a good price and he says that besides expenses, I will pay him what I think is fair based on my experience. Too good to be true maybe? I think I like this guy thou...

"Don't worry... about a ting... cause every little ting... is gonna be alright!" Haha, it never gets old! I love waking up with nothing that I HAVE to do. Breakfast is simple (toast, jam, fruit and juice) yet peaceful as I beat all the other patrons to the lodge. Mr. Florent, Harry and ANOTHER guide name Fidy (pronounced like 50 Cent would say "fiddy") show up just on time to whisk me away to Andasibe National Forest. I now have not one, not two, but three people helping me, a 25 year-old guy...

* Watch out for pickpockets, theft, water, crocs, leeches, getting stuck on roads, false guides * Mantadia - national park in the vicinity of Perinet * Ramanofana - Golden Bamboo Lemur, Greater Bamboo Lemur and so on. Real special is the feeding of mouse lemurs and Fenoloka's in dusk at a feeding spot! * Antsirabe, litte Europe in Madagascar - precious stones extracted in Southern Ilakaka. Thermal source (and produces our National mineral water "Visy Gasy", the only non-boiled water you could...

Headed east from Tana to Andasibe Park today, picked up at the hotel by our drive/guide Sam. There was a bit of renegotiation of the order of activities, as Sam hadn't got the message that we had to be back in Tana by Friday (tomorrow) lunchtime, he thought we had until tomorrow evening. But Lisa's flight leaves tomorrow afternoon, and however much she'd love to stay, she intends to get the flight. It took us quite a while to get out of Tana, partly it is a fairly sprawling city, but also it ...