Marvelous Madagascar

God is so good. He blesses us in little ways that I often do not appreciate until later. Last weekend Kalinda, Susanna, and I decided to travel to the National Park between here and Tana. We knew of only one other group from the ship that had gone. It was a wonderful weekend (more on that in this blog).  This weekend was a ship holiday. We have a long weekend about every 6 weeks where just the essential people work. Kalinda and I agreed to both work this weekend. This way no one had to miss out on the whole weekend. We thought we could both work in the morning and then play in the afternoon. Many people were going to the Andasibe National Park this weekend. We were blessed with two quiet weekends. Such a blessing. What better way to spend my last weekend here than to work with patients, go to the market, get passion fruit ice cream, go to the beach for a swim, nap, swing and read in the hammock, walk with friends.

Now for last weekend's adventure. Warning...it involves lemurs. 5:30 AM We leave the ship to meet our transportation at the port gate by 6:00. To our surprise when we arrived at 5:50, the car was already there. We began our journey on time. Because we had all sailed, no of us had experience the windy road between Tamatave and Tana. Curvy is an understatement. It is a true test for sensitivity to car sickness.  The driver was safe and skilled, but he drove very quickly. The scenery was beautiful green hills spotted with roadside villages and people walking. After 31/2 hours we turn off the paved road entering the rain forest. It truly felt like we were entering an enchanted forest. Tall trees, short bushes, wild flowers, moss covered rocks and tree trunks, became thicker and thicker as we drove. All of a sudden we arrive at Vokana Lodge which is a wooden building on a man made lake surrounded by gorgeous flowers and tall trees.

The bungalow was beautiful dark wood floor and spiral stair case to a loft. The widows had screens. The mosquito nets had a weighted trim finish to keep them down and seams closed. The shower was hot water with good pressure. The weather was cool (in the 60's) and not raining.

Our first outing was a canoe ride around man made canals to separate islands of lemurs. Black and White Ruff, Ring tailed, brown lemurs, bamboo lemurs, and my favorite Dancing lemurs (sifaka) all greeted us. The tour finished on the first island where the lemurs are very used to humans. We were treated to brown lemurs and black and white ruff lemurs jumping all over us and staying on us for up to 10 minutes. It was so special.

We then went for a walk in rain forest up and down hills enjoying the greenery and quietness. Off white flowers that reminds me of oversized honeysuckle filled the air with sweet fragrance. Tall vines, elaborate spider webs, and small colorful flowers also lined the trails.

We arrived a crocodile reserve in time to see them being fed. It is times like these that I am reminded of the different safety standards here. All that separated us humans from 20ish hungry (they only are fed once a week) was a wooden fence 3 feet high. The guide threw pieces of raw zebu over the fence while the crocodile climbed over each other to get their piece. The sound their bodies made and the smooth scales of the bellies slid over the spikes on their backs was very unique.  We also had the opportunity, which I personally did not take advantage of, to hold a boa constrictor.

After a restful afternoon, we gathered our rain coat and hiking shoes for the guided night hike. I was once again amazed at the guide's eye sight. He spotted small green chamelons and mouse lemurs (the smallest noctornal lemur) in trees.

We had a wonderful dinner in the main lodge and slept well in the comfortable beds. The next morning the sun greeted us. We enjoyed the longest game of lemur hide and seek in the Andasibe National Park. Here the lemurs are wild (not fed by humans). Although the guides know their territories, the lemurs do not tell the guides where they will be. After walking through the woods both on and off the trails enjoying fungus, birds, spiders, chamelons, Indri lemur calls, we spotted the Indri high in the trees. We also were able to find brown lemurs,sifaka (dancing lemurs) ouli lemurs (nocturnal), and bamboo lemurs. After lunch, we said goodbye to the rain forest and enjoyed to
beautiful scenery back to the ship.

A wonderful gift, a weekend in the woods with lemurs and cooler temperatures!