Matt and Becki Dillingham

To Ranomafana (and back)

5R-AAD, the Cessna 182 that I fly is still without an engine. A new engine is currently being built in France and hopefully it will be ready to ship to us in May. In the meantime we decided to use up some holiday and explore some of Madagascar.

Traveller's Palm 

Bethan was not impressed with a 4 hour car journey to Antsirabe on the first day. She fell asleep not long after leaving Tana but woke up 45 minutes later and spent the rest of the journey telling us, in no uncertain terms, that she did not want to go on holiday. Two and a half hours of listening to "I don't want to go to Antsirabe, turn the car around and go back home" felt a whole lot longer! Thankfully things improved after that.

Thoroughly enjoying her holiday after the initial protest!

Easter weekend is somewhat of a party in Madagascar, especially 'Picnic Monday' when everyone has the day off and makes the most of the sunshine. In Antsirabe most of the population head to Lake Andraikiba (described in the guide book as picturesque and peaceful) so we chose to give it a miss and comtinue on to Lake Tritriva, which was as stunningly beautiful as we had been told. We drove back to find that the road had turned into a sea of people. Fortunately, a policeman decided to help us and gave directions to avoid the worst of the crowds. It made a nice change to have dealings with the police that didn't involve a long wait and phone calls by the side of the road as they try to extract money from us!

Lake Tritriva, which from this viewpoint looks like a map of Africa

We were not looking forward to trying to make our way through the crowds on the road

Around lunchtime we headed south to Ranomafana. A combination of potholes and revellers meant the journey was very slow and we got there in time to put a sleeping Bethan into bed and eat dinner in our hotel room.

A smaller scale picnic at the side of the RN7 

While in Ranomafana we visited the National park, firstly for a night walk, where we saw some chameleons and the nocturnal Greater Dwarf Lemur.

Sleeping Chameleon

Short-horned Chameleon

The next day we visited the park again and this time we saw Red-Fronted Brown Lemurs, a Red Bellied Lemur and the endangered Golden Brown Lemur. We also saw a very cool Leaf-tailed Gecko and many interesting insects.

                                    

                                                  Red Bellied Lemur

Leaf-tailed Gecko

Golden Bamboo Lemur

While in Ranomafana we wanted to visit the thermal baths, which the town was originally built around. The bridge across the river was in disrepair so we waded through the river only to find the baths were closed for cleaning. We did manage to put our feet in a shallow pool of thermal water though and, at 38 degrees Celsius, we thought maybe swimming would have been too hot anyway! Instead we explored the town and walked through the rainforest again,

We opted to wade through the river rather than balance on the log carrying Bethan

The thermal pool looked like a lovely place to spend the day if it had been open!

Game of Pooh Sticks in Ranomafana National Park

Finding Frogs in the rainforest

After Ranomafana we stopped at a private nature reserve (Ialatsara Lemur Camp) for the night. The owner, Daniel, has set up his own camp and protected an area of the forest. He has done an amazing job of it and we all enjoyed staying there. In the evening he showed us the Brown Mouse Lemurs living just next to the camp and during a 3 hour hike the next morning, we found Eastern Lesser Bamboo Lemurs, Red bellied Lemurs, Milne-Edwards' Sifakas and Small Tooth Sportive Lemurs. The guides were clearly not used to Vazahas (foreigners!) with toddlers and treated us as they do everyone who comes to visit the forest. If the lemurs are somewhere unreachable they hack a path through the undergrowth and clamber up the side of the mountain - not so easy whilst carrying a 3 year old!

Matt trying to get Bethan through the gaps Marcel had created with his hacking device!

Milne-Edwards' Sifaka

Sportive Lemur 

Milne-Edwards' Sifaka and Sportive Lemur

Bethan loved it at Daniel's place because there are 3 dogs and 7 cats living there. She spent most of dinner and breakfast tormenting the poor cats. This was one of the highlights of the holiday for her.

Tormenting 'Tap Le Porte' the cat

Spotted this park on the way home so broke up the journey for an hours playing

On our way home, we broke up the journey with an overnight stay at Madalief, just south of Antsirabe. It is a hotel that has been set up to raise funding for the orphanage run by the owners and provide work for single mothers in the area. It is a very beautiful place, with a play area which Bethan thoroughly enjoyed and the best food we have eaten in Madagascar.
http://www.madalief.nl

Madalief Guest House