Soavinandriamanitra Nature Parc

This weekend we left the city and investigated Soavinandrimanitra Nature Parc. Just 32km away (20 miles) but it took an hour and a half of driving through Tana traffic and then on some dirt roads to get there. It was brilliant and uncomfortable at the same time! We really enjoyed being able to see so many species that are endemic to this island. The poor guide has probably never had such a long tour as Bethan spent forever with each animal (except the snakes, apparently they are not worth her attention). We definitely got our money's worth, entry price 10000Ar, or £2.50 per adult. However all the animals were in small cages and having watched UK zoos striving for better facilities and welfare for their animals it was hard to see. Especially as our guide was keen that we should see all the animals, so insisted on unearthing them from their hiding places or poking them to make them come closer. She even got bitten on one endeavour to convince a creature out of its hiding place.

It was great to get out of the city and see a little of Madagascar's countryside, and Bethan had a very enjoyable 4 hours! It was also fun to see several species of lemurs freely roaming around the park's trees.

Golden Mantella Frog - which our guide gave to us and failed to mention that it excretes toxins!

Heath and Safety is non existent, to the left of this pipe is a 15ft drop which the path follows all the way round the parc.

There were loads of plants with what I assume is Malagasy for 'we were here..'

Trying to persuade this chameleon to eat all the leaves she had found it was on of the highlights of Bethan's day

Tomato Frog

Baron's Painted Mantella Frog

Feeding red bellied lemurs

Mongoose lemur

Mongoose Lemur

View from the park

Driving home

Life in Madagascar

Life here will quickly become normal to us so while things are still new and unfamiliar we thought we would try to give an idea about some of the differences we have found living in Madagascar compared to the UK.

Driving around Tana is slow but whereas traffic in England can be frustrating, it is the norm here so everyone seems quite chilled on the roads. There are people everywhere, walking on the roads or sat by their market stall with children tied on their back or playing quietly in the heat. There is a lot of poverty here and people have hard lives trying to earn a living. There are hundreds of market stalls selling things like fruit, meat (that has been hanging in the sun all day) and a range of car brake disks! Watching street-sellers chase would-be customers down the road trying to sell them paintings or caged birds and watching people on bikes carrying precarious loads means you never get bored while driving here!

We live in a suburb north of Tana called Talamaty and there is one road towards the centre of Tana, which takes you past supermarkets, malls, markets and many restaurants. The MAF hanger at the airport is a 10-minute drive in the opposite direction. There are no road markings or road signs but plenty of Taxi-Be's - minibuses which are crammed full of people. They pull out whenever their last passenger has got on board so you have to watch out for them. You must also look out for "important people" on the roads, who identify themselves by driving with their hazards flashing. I'm not sure who classifies as important but there are a lot of them driving around! Horns are used a lot here, although it is usually to let you know you are being overtaken. Once you get used to the mayhem on the roads and learn to expect the unexpected, its not so bad.

Freshly bleached market vegetables

Shopping takes ages at the moment because everything looks different and is written in French so you don't immediately see what you want (of course, quite often they just don't have it here). And I have Bethan with me so a lot of time is spent returning items back to the shelves that she has decided we need to buy! Every price is mentally divided by 4000 to see if its a reasonable price compared to England. I look forward to the day when I see a price in Ariary and know if its good-value or not. We have found a place where we can get fresh milk so we don't have to use UHT anymore. Also I now know the meaning of "lait cru", which I didn't when I bought some last week. Consequently, I have now learned how to pasteurise milk as a result! When we get home all the fruit and vegetables are bleached in the sink and rinsed with filtered water. Bethan is particularly enjoying the mangos here, which are just coming into season. It is very strange to have had the English summer and now be approaching "spring" here in Madagascar. We've had our first rain in the last few days as its coming to the end of the dry season but its getting hotter as we approach the summer months when there will be a lot of rain.

Washing apples in filter water

Madagascar is known for its diversity of wildlife, with around 75% of its animals found nowhere else in the world. Soon we hope to take a trip into the rainforest where there will be more animals to see than here in the city, although we did see a chameleon in our first week here. I asked our gardener, Dennis if he had seen any interesting creatures in our garden as Bethan likes "minibeasts". So now he brings her whatever he finds. This week it was a praying mantis. We sleep under nets to keep the mosquitoes away and have to make sure we shut all the doors before sunset otherwise they all come into the house. Finding geckos on the wall is still an exciting discovery but cockroaches are not.

Bethan and a praying mantis

We feel very settled in Madagascar and have found a church (Tana City Church) that is English speaking and similar to our home-church in Buckland so we are really pleased about that. It has also helped us meet people here as we adapt to life without our family and friends nearby. Becki has been doing a lot of flying training in the last week and should soon be ready to start taking passengers. We will try to update this blog regularly with stories and photos of some of her first MAF flights.