The 1999 Big Trip: Africa

Part 6: Madagascar

 

When one thinks of Madagascar, one thinks of lemurs and vanilla. (OK, that's what I think of. For all I know, you might think of icebergs.) Besides those items, I now also think of the ecological disaster facing that island.

Unlike Kenya and Tanzania, Madagascar is not set up for tourism. There are no lodges with special trips for safaris. Accommodation in parks is rather basic. I had no problem with this.

Antananarivo airport was a bit of a mess. There were only eight people working the immigration desks, and like in Egypt, they were slow. Arriving in Egypt, though, we were a 767, and this flight was a 747. I suspect it took over an hour to get the last person through.

I managed to get through in twenty minutes. By that time, all fifty luggage carts were claimed, so I ended up needing to carry all my luggage by hand. Since there were 40 kilos, that meant I was lugging about 90 pounds on my back. It is a good thing that I am fitter than I look. Then, customs insisted I open up the camera case, they did not believe I needed a case that size to carry a camera.

After customs, I was met by Roger, my representative from Trans-Continents, the local organizer for my visit to Madagascar. Roger is a former football player who played in the African Cup. He also did some work for the Duke Primate Center in Berenty. Roger is a decent person; it was a pleasure having him as my Madagascar point of contact. With Roger was my driver, Wilson. Wilson did not speak much English, and may have had a virus; he seemed to have the sniffles my entire trip. It was a pleasure to dump my luggage in the back of the car.

There are no ATM's in Madagascar, so I exchanged one of my $100 travelers checks for just over 600,000 Malagasy francs. The largest bill in Madagascar is the 25000 Franc note. I had a few of them.

My destination in Madagascar was Perinet. This is a national park 59 miles from Ivato Airport, on the other side of Antananarivo, known for being the best place to see the indri. Living in the Western world, this does not sound like much, and if I pointed out that the roads were well paved all the way there, you might come to the conclusion that this was a fast trip. What you failed to take into account, though, was Tana.

Antananarivo is the capital of Madagascar. Three million people live in or near the city. And the main roads through it are one lane in each direction, at best. These are heavily traveled roads. It took three hours to get through Tana. Three hours of sitting in traffic. Three hours of diesel fumes and stop and go movement.

We finally escaped the hell of Tana driving, and were on our way. We stopped for lunch in a small town, where I had cassoulet. It was very good. On this drive, I spotted two new birds, a hammerkop (Scopus umbretta) and a darter (Anhinga rufa).

Madagascar Landscape

Two more hours, and I was finally at the hotel, the Feon'ny Ala. This is a set of bungalows next to Perinet. (Lonely Planet said it was ten bungalows, it has expanded to about 40 since that was published.) One of the rivers ran right in front of my bungalow. That afternoon, I saw a Malagasy malachite kingfisher (Alcedo vintsioides) and some eastern lesser bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur griseus griseus).

Having just got my camera back the day before, I decided to test it with a roll of film. I just wandered around the place and used up a roll of film taking pictures of the trees. The camera advanced the film properly, and rewound properly. I am happy.

Later in the afternoon, I ran into a group of American students who were on a course in Madagascar. They were with the International School. They were from several American universities, I recall one was from Stanford and another was from Brown.

One strange thing about how they handle their money in Madagascar: They collect the money into groups of ten, and staple the notes together. I've not seen that before. Or if I had, I never noticed.

Night seemed to fall early in Madagascar. I went on a night walk to see wildlife at 7PM. You need a flashlight, which you use to look for the reflection from the eyes of your quarry. In the case of the nocturnal lemurs, the reflection glows. The first lemur I saw was a rufous mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus). It had yellow eyes. We heard a brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus fulvus) crashing through the canopy. Later in the walk, we saw an eastern woolly lemur (Avahi laniger). We also saw two species of tree frog, two species of chameleon, and a temric. Seeing seven species in an hour long night walk is excellent.

After the night walk, I heard a Madagascar scops owl (Otus rutilus) calling in the distance.

When I got back to the hotel, I had dinner. I had a Malagasy beef stew and battered chicken. Most people opted to have spaghetti.

My first day in Madagascar was incredible. I had ten more to go.

One odd thing about the Feon'ny Ala. While they had no shampoo available in the room, they did provide condoms.

I woke fairly early the next morning. The French women in the next tent seemed to keep an animated conversation going well into the night, but I was tired enough that this didn't bother me.

Sunrise was 5:17AM. This was a minor shock. Intellectually, I know Madagascar was about an hour ahead of Kenya as the earth spins, but it is in the same time zone. I read a bit. At 6:30, I heard the indri for the first time. These lemurs have a very loud call, it can be heard for miles. It is a haunting sound, more reminiscent of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' dinosaur movies than anything in the Twentieth Century. I came half way around the world to hear this.

I skipped breakfast, it was just bread and tea. Instead, I went to the park early for my lemur tour. We opted to walk the longer indri circuit. This was also good for birding. I saw a drongo (Dicrurus forficatus), blue coua (Coua caerulea), blue pigeon (Alectroenas madagascariensis), a little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), and both male and female Malagasy paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone mutata). The males were in breeding plumage, with their long tails streaming behind them.

After a while, we went off trail to see a spectacled greenbul. This was a fairly vigorous thrash through thick undergrowth up the side of a hill. Had I known the hikes would be like this (and they were like that all over Madagascar) I'd have brought by heavy jeans. As I expected heat, I brought lighter weight hiking trousers, and two pair had holes torn in them while hiking in Madagascar.

It was worth it, though. Shortly after seeing the greenbul, we saw the indri (Indri indri). These are sometimes called teddy bear lemurs, as they are the largest lemurs, and have a nice black and white fur. To me, they looked more like pandas, but I can see how someone might think of them as a teddy bear. While we were watching them, one of them started calling. It was loud back at the Feon'ny Ala, and underneath the lemurs, it was almost deafening. Then, they started leaping from tree to tree to find a safe haven.

Up there!

Mother and child

Click on any image to see a larger picture

Indri may be the second most famous lemur of Madagascar, behind the ring-tailed lemurs of the south. They are threatened with extinction due to a reduction on available habitat. They earned their name when a European explorer visited the island, and, unable to speak Malagasy, convinced a native to guide him to the local large lemur. When the guide found the lemur, he pointed up and said "Indri." The European assumed that was the name of the lemur in Malagasy, and noted it.

It turns out "indri" means "up there" in Malagasy. The Malagasy name for the indri is "babakoto." So, I think of it as the "up there lemur."

After the indri went off, we continued on the trek to find the other lemurs of Perinet. We saw a brown lemur and I pointed it out to the college girls when we passed them on the trail. Later on, we found another family of indri who were more photogenic. Among these lemurs was a baby indri, clinging to its mother. We continued to wander along the trail, and we saw a dead woolly lemur. It was likely killed by a raptor in the night, but there were no obvious marks. It might also have been killed by disease. With bubonic plague endemic to Madagascar, we gave that dead lemur a lot of space.

We tried to visit the post office, but it was closed. Back at the Feon'ny Ala, lunch was croquette au poulet (fried chicken). It was OK, but no where near as good as my mother's. I had a short rest, during with I photographed the kingfisher, and saw a parson's chameleon and a Madagascar boa. I also saw a Madagascar buzzard (Buteo brachypterus). In the afternoon, we went to orchard park for a hike, and there I saw a huge spider, at least 4 inches long. I also saw more brown lemurs, sleeping.

Madagascar Malachite Kingfisher

Parson's chameleon

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When I returned to the hotel, I picked up my laundry. It was a whopping 64,500 francs, or less than $10. That was for 8 days of laundry. In Nairobi, that would not have covered a tee shirt and trousers.

I had the spaghetti for dinner, and went to sleep.

At 4AM, I woke up. I was not doing well, in episodes from 4AM to 6AM I brought up my dinner from the previous night. I took some imodium, as I was traveling that day. It worked for a while, but not long. I again skipped breakfast, and we started the drive to Ivato Airport for the flight to Fort Dauphin. Wilson's driving didn't help me feel better, as it was a lot of acceleration and deceleration. Midway through the drive, I had to stop again. I was very uncomfortable.

I really wasn't well, I felt like I had a fever with everything else. I decided to take one of the ciprofloxicilin. This is a very strong antibiotic for the digestive tract.

I managed to survive the drive to Ivato, and checked in. I had to distribute money for airport taxes, and went to the waiting room. A lot of cigarette and cigar smokers, which didn't help my queasiness. Fortunately, the flight was a non-smoking flight, and I was lucky enough to have three seats, so I laid down and rested.

Fort Dauphin is at the southern end of the island, on the coast. It is the gateway to Berenty, a private lemur reserve. The plane was met by a bus that took us to our hotels.

Cipro causes drowsiness, so I took a nap in the afternoon. When I woke, I found out that my room had no running water. I wanted to take a quick shower before dinner, and ended up having to wait an hour for the hotel to figure out what was wrong. After the shower, I went for dinner. I was served beef, rice, chips, and chicken soup. The soup helped me a lot. The beef was tough and chewy, enough to make me a vegan. I mainly ate rice and chips.

I took another cipro and slept that night like a log.

When I woke the next morning, I felt very good. Very, very good. There was less than no queasiness in my stomach. The long sleep left me a little stiff, of course, and my back at the base of the shoulder blades was sore all day (probably from the purges of the previous day). The real result of the illness is that I am more sensitive to the food. The meat I had been served was not of the standard to which I had become accustomed. It was much more fatty and chewy.

Beef in Madagascar is almost a religion. The type of cow is a zebu, which is much thinner and has a lot more surface area per pound. This extra surface area allows for more cooling for the animal, a necessity in the equatorial heat. Zebu is killed as a religious sacrifice, as well as a food. Zebu is also used as marriage dowries, exchange, and a measure of wealth.

Too bad it is too tough to eat.

I was met at the hotel by my driver, who would take me to Berenty. There were actually two vehicles, a bus for all the French speakers, and the truck for me. We stopped twice on the drive to Berenty, once for the pitcher plants, and once for the spiny forest.

A chameleon

Pitcher plants are a type of plant where the flower forms a cone which can hold water. You'll often see smaller animals making their homes in the pitcher plants. They were interesting to see.

The spiny forest is a low forest of trees with tiny leaves on the trunks, and thorns in rows up the side. Not much shade is provided, but they are an interesting flora.

The Spiny Forest

Yellow-billed Kite

The drive did not take long. We passed over an old, one lane bridge that pre-dated WWII. I arrived at Berenty before noon, and was directed to my room. I looked around the place a bit, and soon saw some yellow-billed kites (Milvus aegyptius). I also saw another Madagascar buzzard.

I had lunch, gingerly, and walking back from lunch, I was accosted by a band of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta). I stayed with them for a bit, and met someone who was doing his graduate research at Princeton with Alison Jolly.

Ring-tailed lemurs	Mother and child
Kids at play	Say what?

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At 2:30, I had my first guided walk. We headed past the well, where we first saw brown lemurs (a different subspecies from Perinet) playing in the well. next, I was treated to the site of a white-browed owl (Ninox superciliaris) sleeping in the tree near me.

The highlight of my lemur watching soon followed. We proceeded deeper into the forest, where we heard the crash of lemurs. We saw a family of verreaux's sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi) and came closer. It turns out they were as curious about me as I was about them. This was not a surprise, often the lemurs would see us walking through the woods and watch us pass. This time, one of the sifakas was more curious.

A male sifaka came down out of the canopy and slowly approached me, until he was at my eye level less than three feet away. He reached a hand out to me. When I started to reach back, he pulled back again and hopped one tree away. A moment later, he hopped back, and I again slowly raised my hand. This time, he reached out to my hand and for a few moments, held one of my fingers in his hand. Satisfied, he let go, and hopped away, but this family followed us for a while.

A brown lemur	Paradise Flycatcher
Verreaux's sifaka	White-browed Owl
He held my hand	Another newborn

Click on any image to see a larger picture

The sifaka's hand was quite warm. I suspect my thick beard and long hair, in a pony tail, may have been a slightly different sight for the sifaka. Particularly when the beard and hair framed a pale white face. No matter why the sifaka did what he did, for me it was quite exciting to make contact with the wild in that fashion.

Continuing into Berenty, we saw more brown lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs, and sifakas. Since these are the only diurnal lemurs at Berenty, I started to focus on the bird life. Berenty is rich in birds, as well as lemurs. I saw a giant coua (Coua gigas), hook-billed vanga (Vanga curvirostris), Madagascar bulbul (Hypsipetes madagascariensis), and a Frances sparrowhawk (Accipiter francesii). I also saw a crested coua (Coua cristata) and another drongo. I also saw one of the nocturnal lemurs, a sportive lemur, asleep in a tree. I also got a glimpse of a Madagascar harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus). At the end of the hike, we went by the huge fruit bat colony.

Mid-leap	Another owl
Hanging out	This is my path
White-footed sportive lemur	Hook-billed vanga
Frances Sparrowhawk	Rufous Mouse lemur

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The lemur walk lasted 2 1/2 hours. After a break, I went on a night lemur walk in the spiny forest. This was quite productive, as we saw both nocturnal species, the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) and the white footed-sportive lemur (Lepilemur leucopus).

Dinner that night was something of a disappointment. The best choice was a mutton ragout. It was some really tough meat, I couldn't finish it. A lot of fat and gristle. As I said, my illness made me quite sensitive to the food. So, I went to bed mildly hungry.

I was surprised to hear the overhead fan shut off at 10PM, apparently there is no power to the cabins from 10PM to 6AM. As it was warm and fairly humid, that meant I didn't sleep well.

Beds in Madagascar are a bit different. They are low platforms with thin mattresses. You can usually feel the platform through the mattress. If you are not accustomed to it, sleep can be a bit restless. It was almost like sleeping on a lawn chair. The pillows feel like a small bag filled with styrofoam peanuts. It's been the same everywhere in Madagascar. None of the places so far have been air conditioned, although the next three promise to be.

Anyway, at 6AM we left for our morning walk in the forest. A lot of lemurs about, and I added several species to my birding life list. I saw crested couas, sickle-billed vanga (Falculea palliata), Madagascar sparrowhawk (Accipiter madagascariensis), magpie robin (Copsychus albospecularis), Madagascar kestrel (Falco newtoni), green pigeon (Treron australis), and a Madagascar coucal (Centropus toulou). It was a very productive walk.

Madagascar Hoopoe	Madagascar Sparrowhawk
Crested Coua	Madagascar Coucal
Madagascar Kestrel

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I also got back after the end of breakfast. So, I bought a bottle of water and had some bread. No one had change for the water, so I paid a bit over the odds for it. After breakfast, I went walking on my own, and I saw a one-handed brown lemur. This lemur had lost its hand a few years ago, and was known to the folks at Berenty as Lefty.

Around 10:30, I left Berenty for the drive back to Fort Dauphin. I had lunch at Le Dauphin, seafood and chips, for 38,000 francs. That afternoon, I flew back to Tana via Toilare on the west coast. The drive to the Tana Plaza was long, but uneventful. I discovered that my flight to Mahajanga has been rescheduled for later in the day, so I have a bit of a free day in Tana tomorrow. Great.

For dinner, I had deep-fried, battered escargot and boiled chicken with saffron. It was good, and filling, but expensive. Over 60,000 francs. I had to cash my second travelers check. I slept well, this mattress wasn't as lumpy as the others, and there was a decent pillow.

One minor frustration was the lack of diet soda. I don't like the sugary sodas (too sweet) so I've been restricted to drinking water at all my meals. A bit bland.

I have some time to kill in Tana. The flight is scheduled to leave four hours later than originally planned (moved from noon to 4PM). I decided to check out the Internet from Madagascar. Yes, I am a geek...

There is one public Internet facility in Madagascar, near the US embassy. They have a different keyboard, and it does not include the @ sign. They've got three levels of shift instead of two. Kind of weird. There were a lot of problems with my web sites while I was in Africa, so I spent some time attempting to get them straight. The person Dave Taylor hired to oversee the sites was an absolute disaster. Crontabs and mailing lists were complete trashed. I sent Dave some mail suggesting some repairs to cron.

After trying to figure things out for a couple hours, I went back to the hotel for lunch. I had a croquette monsieur. This is a grilled cheese and ham sandwich. More water.

The flight to Mahajanga was fast, it seemed like I had wasted the day in Tana. Mahajanga is on the northwest coast of Madagascar, and is very hot and humid. My plans for the next day would be tiring. I was staying at the New Hotel. This reminded me a bit of the hotel in Siem Reap. Normal Malagasy beds, but the room is air conditioned.

Still no shampoo. None of the hotels in Madagascar had shampoo, and I didn't find any at the road side markets. For dinner, I had a shrimp pizza and fries. It was good, and cheap. I went to bed early, since I had arranged to leave at 4AM for Ampijoroa.

The trip to Ampijoroa was a glorious adventure. We left at 4:40 AM, a little late, as the driver over slept. The vehicle, a Renault, was in fairly bad shape. There were holes in the dashboard where appliances should live. The speedometer and odometer were non-functional. This was a surprisingly common problem with cars in Madagascar. The oil light was always on: This was a major concern for me, but the driver and guide both said it wasn't a problem. Three times on the drive to Ampijoroa, we had to stop and put more water into the radiator. Hmmm.

Sakalava Weaver

We arrived after 7PM and got a guide. Guides were required for entry on the trails at Ampijoroa, but none of the guides spoke English. Heh. I had my guide from the tour company who acted as translator for me.

Madagascar Fish Eagle

Our first hike was the Lake Circuit. This is 7.75 kilometers long, and circles the main lake in Ampijoroa. The main purpose of this hike was to see the Madagascar fish eagles (Haliaeetus vociferoides), and I saw them. There are fewer than 100 nesting pairs of these eagles left in the world. They are the closest relative to the Bald Eagle here, and even looked similar.

On this hike I also saw grey headed lovebirds (Agapornis canus), vanga, rollers, lizards, and the baobab tree. This was a fairly difficult hike, as much of it was on sand. Still, it wasn't as difficult as the next hike.

This was a 500 foot climb up a sand mountain to see lemurs. Much of the climb was in the sun, so it was quite hot. The coquerel circuit was well named, we saw coquerrel sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi coquereli), brown lemurs, western wooly lemurs (Avahi occidentalis), and Milne-Edwards sportive lemurs (Lepilemur edwardsi). I also got some great views of red-capped couas (Coua ruficeps) and a cuckoo-roller (Leptosomus discolor).

Madagascar Buzzard	Coquerel Sifaka
Milne-Edwards sportive lemur	Red-capped Coua
Cuckoo-roller

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I had a box lunch from the New Hotel, and it was huge. Inside was half a chicken, roasted, cheese, eggs, and bread. It was much more than I could eat, although what I had tasted good. I also had a lot of water. I waited out midday in the shade of the picnic area, watching the lizards and the lovebirds. Coucals were hunting the lizards when they could, but I never saw one caught.

I saw that the temperature was 38.3 centigrade, that is over 100 Fahrenheit, and it was easily 100% humidity. When things started to cool, I went to see the ploughshare turtles and I saw the coquerrel sifakas eating.

We opted to leave at 3:15. We had to stop at 3:30 to add water. We stopped again at 3:45 to add water. At 4:15 we stopped for an hour for the driver to attempt to figure out why we were using so much water. There was a leak in the cooling system. After much effort, we figured out the leak, re-cut a hose, and replaced the leaking hose. This helped, but it wasn't fully preventing the overheating. We ended up going no faster than 35 KPH on the drive back, and stopping regularly to let the engine cool. What should have been a 2 hour drive took more than 4 hours. At least the sun had set and the evening had started to cool off, although it was still quite humid.

I had another pizza for dinner and washed it down with my sixth liter of water for the day. I had a chocolate crepe for dessert.

I slept well. I woke the next morning, and it was the first and only time I'd see Mahajanga in daylight. It is a grey, dusty town. The adjective that came to mind was sunbaked. Even at 6AM it was very hot.

Breakfast was bread and water. What is it about smoking that causes smokers to get upwind of non-smokers? Yeesh.

I had another larium dream that night. I was watching a ritual decapitation, and there were three people for decapitation. However, the executioner had become so hyped up that after two people we killed, he had to be restrained with tasers. He had an insane, death's head grin at that time.

I don't know what it means, but it was an interesting dream.

My next stop in Madagascar was Nosy Be. This is an island resort off the northwest coast of Madagascar. It is probably the most touristy destination in the country. I flew in on a turbo-prop and was whisked to my hotel. I arrived at 11AM. My room wasn't ready, so I went exploring the town. I bought some postcards and wrote them at the hotel.

The Chez Gerard et Francine hotel was a nice place to stay. There was a large patio area outside my room where you could watch the ocean, and you could look down the beach at all the other hotels. I had lunch at Le Residence, Vietnamese Soup and pasta. I'm glad I am recovered from my stomach issues, but I am still nervous. After lunch, I went to Hellville, the main town on the island, to cash a check and but some spices. I bought 50 vanilla beans for under $8. I also bought some powdered vanilla, powdered saffron, and cinnamon. It all smelled real good.

I also got a 1 franc coin at the bank. This is probably the least valuable coin I've ever seen, it is worth less than one sixtieth (1/60) of a cent.

After relaxing at the hotel for a while (after all, that is the purpose of Nosy Be) I went up to the summit of Mont Passat, the tallest part of the island. On the way up, I looked at Crater Harbor. Nosy Be is composed of many cinder cones. A geologist would be fascinated. At the summit, I heard English for the first time since the American students... There was a group of South Africans on the summit, too. We chatted a bit.

After watching sunset from Mont Passat, we headed back to Ambataloaka, where I was staying. I saw a lot of nightjars in the headlights of the car, but was unable to photograph them. It was quite dark by the time I got back.

For dinner, I went to La Saladiere. I had fried prawns and chips. Still no diet coke, so I finally succumbed to Grant Hill. I had another chocolate crepe for dessert. I went back to the hotel and was lulled asleep by the crash of waves outside my bedroom window.

The next day was interesting. I was going to see Nosy Tanekely and Nosy Komba. I was introduced to another American, Nancy, from Novato. We opted to take the slow boat to Nosy Tanekely first. It took about an hour to get across the water. Most of the tourists went via the faster, glass bottomed boat, to Nosy Komba. On Tanekely, we went walking to explore the island. About a third of the way around, our guide followed us to announce a change in plans. We were to take a fast boat over to Nosy Komba.

Black lemur

Off we went. Crossing was under 15 minutes, and we were at Nosy Komba. This place is know for its black lemurs (Eulemur macaco macaco). This was underwhelming, as the lemurs were quite tame. The children there were trying to sell us bananas to feed the lemurs.

Flying foxes

Fast boat back, and we were to have lunch. Unfortunately, lunch was 90 minutes late, due to some organizational problems. When it was served, it was good: fish and prawn kebabs, grilled fish, zebu, and rice. I did not stay for dessert, however, I needed to explore. I limbed to the summit of Nosy Tanekely (which was not difficult) and saw a red-tailed tropic bird (Phaethon rubricauda). After climbing back down, I went exploring around the island. There were many flying foxes. The highlight, though, was seeing an aerial battle between a Madagascar buzzard and a pied crow. I managed to shoot about 15 pictures of the battle in quick succession. The crow actually hit the buzzard in flight, and feathers flew.

A Madagascar Buzzard and	a Pied Crow go at it
Shadowing	Contact!
Take evasive action!	Climb
Too close	HIT!
In contact	Got to get away
Ouch, my feathers	Escape
I'll hide here	Nope
Making my getaway

Click on any image to see a larger picture

After a ride on a glass bottom boat, we headed back to Hellville and our hotels. I watched sunset from a hammock on the beach, and then read a bit before going for dinner. I had seaweed and fried calamari for dinner, and for dessert a chocolate mousse.

That night I had another memorable larium dream, two of them. First, I was John Wayne in a WWII movie. That was weird. Even wielder, I climbed Sagarmatha, but to make the climb, I had to cross a footbridge that connected Camps I and III. Very strange.

I slept well that night, and before breakfast I watched the tide recede. I saw a pygmy kingfisher (Ceyx madagascariensis) near the ocean. It was tiny. Jean Robert called that morning about the trip to Lokobe. It would cost 200,000 francs, which was a bit more than I was initially quoted. Oh well. I was told he was a good guide to Lokobe. Apparently, the transfer costs to Lokobe were not included in the price.

At least Jean Robert knew English.

I saw a few chameleons on ylang-ylang trees on the way to Lokobe.

The chameleon

On arrival, I learned we had to take a canoe to the park. Since the tide was out, we had to walk a half mile across a tidal flat, with quicksand, then wade an additional 100 yards out to the boat. My shoes did not dry until I got to the US. On landing, we had to wade another half mile, then walk a half mile down the beach. I was able to wring at least a cup of water out of each sock. We ended up waiting for about an hour before setting off on our walk in Lokobe. The locals were setting up their sales, of course.

The walk was a disappointment. Jean Richard went through the jungle too quickly, and I twisted my knee trying to keep up. Plus, the other three people were French, so most of the information was in French. We did see three snakes, and more black lemurs. We also saw the gray-backed sportive lemur (Lepilemur dorsalis). I saw no new birds.

Even more disappointing was Jean Richard. He would flush the lemurs by throwing sticks at them. I'd much rather observe with minimal impact. They'll jump eventually. No need to force it by shaking trees or throwing sticks.

We had a brief lunch, which was mainly rice for me. After waiting a while, we were to go back on the canoe.

During the wait, I got to learn a new game. It is similar to oware, but more complicated. You get a board that is four by eight. You evenly distribute stones in the holes. The target is to clear the closest row of stones on your opponent's side of the board while keeping your row with stones. On your move, you grab stones from a hole and redistribute them, oware style. Instead of stopping after one distribution, you keep distributing stones until you end up placing the last stone in an empty hole. If you end a distribution in your second row, and there are stones in your opponent's second row directly opposite, you can grab them and begin distribution from either end of your own second row. Alternatively, you redistribute the stones from the last hole of your previous distribution.

It is an interesting game. I'm now undefeated, 1-0, after a single game.

On the row back, we set a fast pace, and actually managed to pass three other boats. It was an invigorating effort. I washed my feet when we got back to the cars. As I was putting on my socks, someone else washed their foot, and poured the water on my socks. At least the socks were able to dry after a while. I tried to see if there was a hair dryer at the hotel, but there was none.

I went wandering after getting back, and managed to watch the last 15 minutes of Argentina vs France at a bar. It was the rugby World Cup, and France extended their lead from 30-26 to 47-26 as I watched.

I went back to La Saladiere for dinner. I got a different menu this time, which was hand written. I was confused; they used two menus. I got the other menu, and ordered pesto for dinner. I had another chocolate crepe for dessert. Yum.

That night, I had yet another larium dream. I flew to Nairobi on my bed, and then flew back. In Paris, I was asked to infiltrate a neo-Nazi group. So, I started to do some research. Someone else saw me reading the neo-Nazi literature and attacked me. I was in a full nelson, but somehow managed to punch him repeatedly in the testicles to be released. I also had a girlfriend, who helped me restrain the attacker. She was extremely gaunt, with visible bones in her fingers. We held hands, but kept them in her pockets. I recall asking her if she minded holding hands.

Later, I had a platonic dream about Helen Outhwaite, whom I knew at St. Andrews.

Madagascar White Eye

The next day was my last on Nosy Be. I went exploring, walking up the outside of the crater for Crater Harbor and looking down on the inside, then exploring the beach. I had a cheese pizza for lunch, and found the taxi waiting for me. It was a shared taxi, and the next person wasn't ready, so we ended up waiting for 20 minutes while he ate lunch.

I checked in for the flight, and we had to wait. The flight to Tana was 15 minutes late leaving, and I ended up with a screaming infant next to me for the whole 55 minute flight. I could not change seats as the plane was full. What a pain.

So far, I had seen 60 species of birds in Madagascar, 52 of which can bee seen no where else. I added a squacco heron (Ardeola ralloides) on arrival at Tana.

I checked in to the Tana Plaza and checked the Internet. It turns out the damage to the site was worse than I expected. Mailing lists were gone, majordomo was gone. The person who was supposed to provide administration is a complete and total idiot. There were no working backups. I have a lot of work to do when I get back.

There were thunderstorms that night, which allowed the Tana taxi drivers to raise their rates by a factor of ten.

When I got back to the Tana Plaza, I started to repack my luggage to minimize the excess luggage fees for my flight the next day to Mauritius and Seychelles. In addition to my backpack, I put every heavy item into a carry-on bag. I'd guess this bag weighed 15 kilos.

For my last dinner in Madagascar, I had lobster in vanilla sauce with rice and fired polenta. I also had creme brulee for dessert. Yummy.

When I planned my trip to Africa, Madagascar was to be the highlight of the trip. I usually emphasized the stop when I spoke of my plans, and I spent more time here than in any other country. I wanted to see lemurs and the fish eagles, and I achieved both goals. I saw thirteen species of lemur, 61 species of birds, frogs, chameleons, and spiders. It was Darwin's dream of the Galapagos, writ on an island the size of California.

The trip was not perfect. The car in Mahajanga was a joke, and getting sick in Perinet was not much fun, but you do have to take the bad with the good. This country is not easy to visit, nor is it for everyone, but I would like to come back. There is much more to see: Ankarana, Ranomafana, Montagne d'Ambre. If I can skip visiting Tana, I will be much happier. In retrospect, the biggest hassle was really the Gallic attitude towards English. I had more problems conversing in Madagascar than in Paris.

I woke my last night at midnight, and no matter what I tried, I could not get back to sleep. I am out of reading material, too, so there wasn't much for me to do but roll around in bed. Worse, during the bit of the night where I did sleep, my arm was bitten by bedbugs. All the bites were on the part of the arm in contact with the underside of the pillow.

My ride arrived at 5:10 AM to take me to the airport. I paid my hotel bill and off I went. I was assigned a window seat. The rows of seats on Air Mad were even closer than those of American airlines. I could not lower the tray table, and my seat did not recline, nor did I have an overhead bin. Still, the plane left Ivato and I was on my way to Mauritius.