We find the amazing Indri

  Fort Daupin, Madagascar
Sunday, June 11, 2006

June 7 continued-
Reverse trip is physically similar, good mountain views approaching the coast. Stop in the spiny forest because the guide sees from the vehicle a good sized chameleon by the roadside,

and a loo stop near a river shaded by big gum trees - could have been Australia, except for the fact they were making a dugout out of a gum tree.


Fail to encounter the chicken man, so miss one of the world's great shots.
Closer to town, we see a group of boys on bikes coming back from delivering zebu milk 40 kms each way every day. Carried in used coke and grog bottles. Could have something to do with MP's later health problem.
Arriving back at town, still looks run-down, but interesting. Book into the Hotel le Dauphin, having dragged our bags up stairs to reception, to find we are in the dreaded "annex", 400 metres up the road, so drag them along the road and through sand patches, rather than go through the hassle of finding appropriate tip change.
The "annex", is brand new, with no floor covering in the foyer, an improvised reception, and workers still building upstairs, but the room is the best we have seen, brand-new, air conditioned, TV, big double bed. Only shortfall is no mosquito net, but this seems to disappear as A/C is added.
Having asked a couple of times about the security situation of walking up to the internet along our dark, relatively quiet street, we were told that it would probably be OK, whereas the others were discouraged. We have a long walk up to the curiously empty administrative centre of town. Find the telecom, but can't find the internet until we are directed to the basement in a side street, where we find the rates are reasonable, but the system is down. Are told it will be OK in the morning, so do a careful walk back for another 7 pm meal, which is included in our tour. There are three courses, and the first is either oysters (no way!), soup or crab natural. Dianne, seeing she has nothing to lose, decides to have the crab, figuring she doesn't have to eat it if it looks suss. Surprised to see a large, bright orange, full size, chunky mud crab, which turned out to be one of the best she'd ever had -quite delicious and very meaty. Murray maintains the cautious approach with the soup. It is a late start in the morning, so we make it an early night after some vigorous discussion on public servants' pay rates, and some members' of our group wanting to urge the locals to revolt against working conditions at Berenty. Ran the A/C all night, but pretty good night's sleep.
June 8 Fort Dauphin-Antananarivo
Lazy day as our flight is not till 4pm. After a quick, basic breakfast, out about 8am to explore some more of the town, which is backed by mountains.

Head south towards the beach at Baie des Galions, which looks cleaner and less rough than the other side.

Keep fairly close to the coastline, which has quite a lot of primitive housing on it, and plenty of "shitters ditches" which detracts somewhat from the scenery. See Libanona Beach, supposedly the best beach, from the headland, but don't walk down to it, instead cutting off the end of the headland and walking up to Fort Flacourt, on the northeastern tip of the town.
From here we can see the local dugouts being sailed in to the shore, using one very small sail.

Apparently they paddle out in the morning, then use the breeze, which picks up later, to sail back in.

There is an extremely weatherbeaten tug on the slips, looking like it has been beaten into shape with a sledge hammer. Beside it is the side of a shipping container, which ha been cut up for repair plating.
Everything we see confirms just how poor the people are. With a large majority of people having no access to the cash economy, they have to make do with what they can find. No bottle or container or timber or old tire is wasted. Quite reminiscent of what we saw in Morocco in the 1970's. Most countries have moved on from this to some degree now.
Head down to the internet, which is now working, though very slow, and sort out our tenants' problem with the air-conditioning, which they are very thankful for, as we here it is raining heavily in Sydney for the last week, and is only 13 degrees during the day. Glad we're here!
Back to hotel for 12 o'clock checkout, then have some lunch, followed by a last walk around the town with Bobbie and Kez. Get caught up in a mobbing by the local kids when Kez gives them some balloons. We have some real problems with the rights and wrongs of this. We don't want to turn the kids into beggars, and hate seeing that expectant look in their eyes when they see a tourist, knowing that they are going to be disappointed as there is no way you can give to every child you see on a trip. For this reason we choose not to give to any of them. However it is nice to see the sheer joy on their faces when they get something! This brings up another fact that is very evident as we travel around the country - the Malagasy are very fertile. Everywhere we see families with so many small children you doubt that there could be twelve months between them. We hear that eight children is a VERY common family. While ever this happens, it is hard to see any improvement in the economics of the people, or the environment as they need increasingly larger supplies of timber for making charcoal, as there is no money for things such as gas for cooking.
Photo of woman carrying large load on her head.


Get our 4pm flight with no dramas, and back into Antananarivo and book into the Hotel de France. We've all been invited to dinner at Grille du Rova, the restaurant run by the owner of Malagasi Tours, who operate the tour on behalf of Guerba Tours. Not exactly sure what this means, as this meal is not included in our package. Bobbie and Kez decide not to go, and Murray is keen to go to bed, as he is feeling very fluey (with what turns out to be the start of something), but we decide to soldier on, as it looks bad if only two of the six go. Restaurant turns out to be lovely, just down the hill from the Rova, and with a balcony which overlooks the whole city below. Beautifully decorated, and the hostess is very welcoming, though the host only welcomes us and returns to another table, whereas we were expecting he wanted to talk to us. Start with rum and lime all round, and have a good three-course meal ( really nice breadcrumbed eggplant, zebu brochettes and fruit salad) with bad local rose wine. Murray doesn't want any, but is given entree and dessert, which he hardly touches. When bill arrives, find the meal is complimentary, and we're only charged for our drinks. When we consider the cost we're paying for our tour (we backpackers take careful note of the huge discrepancy between the cost of tours versus the cost of independent travel), we consider he can afford it!
Home and straight to bed for Murray, while Dianne stays up and uses the slow, free internet till after 11pm, attempting to clear all the junk from our email account.
June 9 Tana - Perinet Park
Murray drags himself out of bed, after a night of vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. Have breakfast, and head off East on the RN2 towards Andasibe, 115 kms away. MP takes the front seat again, on account of his delicate condition, and spends a fair bit of the trip snoozing.
Photos of zebu working hard before they become someone's very tough dinner

and Malagasy version of a gypsy caravan


Road is in reasonable condition (relatively), but it is very winding, and is the main route for the port town of Toamasina, so there are lots of trucks. For the first time in the country we encounter quite a bit of dangerous driving. Also see the result of this later in the day when we come across two trucks which have run off the road and overturned.
Our first stop is the butterfly and chameleon park at Mandraka. Our first impressions are not particularly exciting - a number of sheds with palm frond roofs and netted sides, all looking a bit the worse for wear. However when we enter the first shed we can't believe our eyes - lots of different chameleons, with the most incredible colours.

and

and

and


Certainly have never seen so many different varieties anywhere - not in any zoos, and certainly not in the wild when we get excited about an ordinary grey and green one. The helpful guide collects grasshoppers on a stick, and gives quite a few demonstrations of the incredibly long and fast tongue of the chameleons grabbing them. Manage to get one (bad) photo.
Also see some other sheds housing little orange frogs, black and lime green frogs, all sorts of geckos and chameleons , including some with amazing tails that look like leaves, and some whose heads look like those of miniature crocodiles.

Also see an interesting moth


Also see a civet cat that is housed on a dank, bare-dirt floor, with just a small box for sleeping. Those in the group who continually tell the locals what they think needs improving, do so again. Also see our first tenrecs (a sort of hedgehog).
Adjourn for a picnic lunch, which we find far preferable to sitting waiting forever in a restaurant.
Continue on to Hotel Feon'ny Ala at Andasibe, which is in a lovely setting, right on the edge of the forest, beside a small lake.

Bungalows are ageing a bit, and everything feels a bit damp, which is to be expected, as we are now in the rainforest.

As Murray is still feeling sick, and Dianne is quite tired, lie down when we arrive about 4pm, and end up having an hour's sleep. Out after dark with our local guide, walking down the main road spotlighting for night life. The moon is full, the leaves are wet, and it is not ideal for spotlighting. May have detected a lemur in the undergrowth, saw a couple of frogs, and another large spotlighting party. MP is ready to give up and walk back after an hour, so was pleased to be told we would be picked up and driven back.
At dinner some of us try the various flavoured rum - guava and pineapple. Verdict is "interesting". Dianne has another excellent fried tilapia (the local trout). MP has a very ordinary soup.
Murray, Bobbie and Kez to bed early, and Dianne, who is feeling quite perky after her sleep, stays up talking with Lisa, Kate, the guides, and a young English/French Canadian couple who have only been here for a few days, and are travelling by taxi-brousses, but finding the going quite hard. He is fairly disparaging of England, which gets a real bite from Lisa (a la Murray's previous experience), and when the conversation turns to a TV program which advises women on fashion etc, is then very disparaging about women who have these values, and who own more than twenty pairs of shoes. You could cut the air.
All to bed about 11pm. All could here Kate and Lisa laughing and talking loudly for quite a while, as the bungalows are quite close and the walls are palm-frond thin.
June 10th Perinet Park-Antananarivo
Have to be out of room, packed and breakfasted by 7.30. We make the deadline OK, but have some chatting stragglers to contend with.
Drive to the park entrance, which was where we walked to last night, and picked up our guide, Jervois. Whenever you're in a National Park you have to have one of their guides, as well as our Tour Guide. We suspect this is more to do with local employment than anything else. Looked around the well set-up visitor centre, and set off along a well made rock paved trail through the scrub. Lots of camellia trees, large eucalypts, and pine trees. This was used as an experimental exotic tree propagation area many years ago, and the trees are quite large. See some interesting birds, and cross a pretty creek on an interesting bridge. Lots of dew-covered spider webs across the creek, sparkling in the sunshine.
We cross deep channels associated with a fish farm, and do a steep 50 metre climb to the top of the ridge, and the guide leaves us at a clearing to go chasing lemurs. Niry, our Tour Guide, has gone back to the start because he also is crook. MP is just hanging in. Guide returns at the run, and we hurry along the path, then off into the bush to see a group of thickly furred brown lemurs. OK, but not what we are looking for. We have come to see the Indri, which is the largest lemur, being up to 90cm tall, but almost tail-less. It's a tree dweller that clings vertically to tree trunks, and can leap up to 10 metres at a time, on large powerful back legs.


It's also famous for its eerie hoots, which can travel up to 3 kms. We have heard indri calls, so know they are about. Get a couple of brief sightings of them swinging from tree to tree, which gives us quite a shock, as they appear to just touch the tree, and propel themselves off it, rather than landing. Finally tracked them down to a clearing along a creek, where a family of 4 were taking it easy, and eating fruits from some relatively low trees. We can't believe how big they are in comparison with other lemurs. Face on they look quite like a koala bear. They are entirely black and white. We're very impressed, and take lots photos.

Get some good ones, but a lot of the time they are obscured by the foliage.
The word is out and other groups descend on us. It is Sunday, so the locals are out in force - lots of kids, women in high heels, all very friendly. Hopefully, they will be impressed by the indri, and become a force for conservation.
Back to the hotel, where we pick up the backpacking couple, who have negotiated with the guide and driver, with the OK of the tour party, to ride back to Tana with us. After last night, the seating has to be carefully arranged.
There is a hold-up on the way back because they are recovering the load of one of the crashed trucks, using a human chain to transfer what looks like bricks, but is boxes of soap, which smell like fish - very strange. The truck which is still on its wheels, but nose down in the scrub is connected by wire rope to another truck on the highway, and in turn, by chain, to a second truck. There is a pile of old tackle on the road, indicating this may not be their first attempt.
We manage to squeeze past,and carry on through a major saw milling area to have a very good Chinese lunch at Moramanga, Dianne with a wonderful chicken and tamarind dish, and MP on the soup again, having decided to start a course of Noroxin with two tablets in the morning. Spends a lot of time sleeping in the front seat.
There is not a lot of variation on the reverse trip, but do see an amazing sight of community washing alongside a rocky creek with a large bare granite rock face behind. Maybe a hundred people are gathered to wash and dry clothes, wash vehicles, and sit around talking and picnicing while the washing dries on the rock.

Stop for photos, pretty good, but would be fabulous if the sun was out. In town, stop for half an hour at a craft supermarket. Nothing there that was special, unlike the artwork and crafts you see in the hotels and restaurants.
Do a detour to the Rova Grille to check if an electrical item left at Ifaty belonged to the group. It was a computer battery, not ours. Someone must be shat!
Our group of four is dropped off at the Saka manga Hotel, where we say our farewells and give the customary tips. We give our guide 90,000 ariary and our driver 60,000, but have no idea whether they are happy with it or not. Seems like a lot of money on top of wages in such a poor country, especially considering they also received money from the other four on the tour. Even so, it appears to be on the low side from other safari rates information.
Get our rooms, have a quick farewell meal, and to bed.
Sun June 11 Antananarivo
Bobbie and Kez leave at the crack of dawn, and are gone by the time we get up. Today is the day of rest! Spend most of the day on the internet uploading our diary and photos, washing, reading, and generally taking it easy. Photo of our lovely courtyard area

Out to get money from nearby ATM which is broken, forcing us to walk a fair way to find another, with MP in an increaingly fragile state. It's Sunday afternoon, and there's a carnival atmosphere in the streets, with families out. Kids are carrying balloons and riding on ancient, miniature replicas of cars. As usual, there are also the poor kids, in dirty, threadbare clothing, sitting with their parents who are either selling something, begging, or just there because they have nowhere better to go. Such a contrast!


Murray was feeling better at the beginning of the day, but by the evening had suffered a relapse, with lots of diarrhoea and hot and cold chills. About 11pm we decided it would be silly to leave the only place with decent medical facilities while he was feeling so bad, so down to cancel our 5am taxi (we were flying to Diego Suarez at the northern tip of Madagascar), and try to arrange an extra couple of nights' accommodation in the hotel, which is normally always full. Told won't know if anything available till 10am.
Mon June 13 Antananarivo
Both have very little sleep during the night. Dianne down to reception at 6am to see if they can ring Air Madagascar to change our 7am flight, as not sure whether we'll lose the money if we don't turn up. Told that as it's a Y ticket, we'll be OK, and just go to the office later in the morning.
Ask at reception about a doctor, and told the doctor normally comes here to visit patients, and they'll ring him.
Nurse Dianne then spends the morning changing airline tickets, finding chemist supplies and some water and bananas, and organising to stay another two nights. When she gets back, told the Doctor has just arrived. Up to find both a doctor and a nurse, both in white uniforms with "Espace Medical" printed on them, and with a plastic box of medical equipment. General conscensus is it's giardia, and to use our fasygn, which is exactly what we were going to do next. However we were worried about the hot and cold sweats, so ask for a malaria test to be done as well (which comes back negative the next day). They then prepare the bill. We're thinking the sky's the limit, what with two people personally attending, plus the blood test, so can't believe it when the bill only comes to A$47.
Both take it fairly easy for the rest of the day, having an afternoon sleep for a couple of hours after our bad night.
Dianne spends part of the evening paying bills etc on the internet, which is on a real "go slow". It was much faster on the weekend. To bed fairly late after our afternoon sleep, but have a good night, only momentarily interrupted by everyone coming up the very noisy wooden step till the small hours, then those leaving in the small hours to catch early planes etc, then the cleaners starting early, bashing brooms against the wooden steps.
Tuesday 14th June Antananarivo
Sleep in till about 8am, then down for a late breakfast about 10. Murray is much improved, and has bread and jam and juice, with no ill-effects (though may be due to the "blockers" he's taken).
Go out to stock up on money from the ATM, as may be hard to get in the North. The near machine is still broken, so have to trudge across town to a working machine.
Back to room for Murray to rest for a while. He's not feeling too bad, so after a rest we decide to head out to walk down from Haute- ville and around Lake Anosy.

Unfortunately it's not a terribly pleasant experience, as people are living in the nearby parks, and around the lake seems to be one long "shitters ditch". Pass a row of about twenty barbers stalls, built out of rough timber (looked a bit like old-fashioned bathing boxes you find at the beach).

Check out the flower market, which is quite colourful, but fairly ordinary. Buy fresh bread and papaya for later.
As the way back home is up a fairly steep hill, we decide to get a 2CV taxi for old-times sake (we drove one all around Europe for two years in the mid 70's). Car is pretty clapped out, and has a litre bottle of fuel on the dashboard - prepared for emergencies. Wonder how on earth we managed to sleep and cook in one for twelve months. We're definitely getting old!
Back at the hotel, the buffet lunch is being served (7000 ariary for salads, soup and dessert) so Dianne succumbs for the third time, while Murray settles for a soup. Back to room to read, and get this diary up-to-date, which happens only rarely.