Surprisingly I was awake before the alarm went off at 4am! The washed clothes were 90% dry and packable - today's attire saw me wearing my underwear ( thankfully as I have never much fancied y fronts) - it was almost dry and anyway it soon dried once on - my half trousers, John's t-shirt,socks and shoes - the latter were easy as we have identical pairs of shoes except his are supposedly half a size bigger - not that I could tell.
A very light breakfast and we were off to our next national park - Ankarafantsika- as we drove we watched the sunrise and world wake up. Many Madagascans had clearly been up a while; we passed lots of Zebu pulling carts with their owners making their way into town with palms and other roofing materials on the carts to sell at the market. The settlements we passed early on were mud huts and real examples of subsistence living - indeed it was difficult to see on the bare savannahs we passed how people did make their living. However after about an hour we passed through a slightly more affluent area (affluence here is relative and needs to be in the context of my last statement) - the main rice growing area of the country and a large lake damned so it can irrigate the fields. Here and in the area before the park there were also a lot of mango trees - here and in the north are the main mango growing areas - green mangoes here - yellow and apparently sweeter ones in the north.
We arrived at the park at 7am to be met by Tena our guide who whisked us off on a walk for the next 3 hours - today we saw lots of birds - particularly rare and endemic ones which was a treat.....see list at end. We also saw another dozy nocturnal Milne-Edwards sportive lemur poking his head out of a tree stump, the longest chameleon albeit not fully grown - the Oustalets chameleon (see picture for 27/10/12), a young dromicodryas snake, some great insects - flatid leaf bugs nymphs- all white and wispy and a tree covered in caterpillars who apparently make one big, rather than individual, cocoon. As we got back to the staring point we saw a family of 4 Coquerel's sifaka (today's picture) sitting in a mango tree - we were transfixed by a young one exploring the world around his mum.
A much needed coffee and a slice of banana cake before siesta and lunch.At 3pm we met again and went for a walk around the lake - we saw lots of water birds and the endangered and very large Madagascan fish eagle. We also saw a family of mongoose lemurs - who looked more like teddy bears than mongooses sitting in the top of a tree resting before their nightly excursions. Finally at the end of the walk we passed the worlds second tallest baobab - the tallest is in the south - I have to say that the small clump of baobabs were very tall! When we got back at 5.30ish we ordered supper for 7.30 - 8.00pm; checked and wrote down all the birds we had seen during the day and waited for 6.30 when it would be dark enough for a night walk.
We headed in the people carrier to a secluded sandy track and set off - what a start we saw several golden brown mouse lemurs, two dwarf fat tailed lemurs, rhinoceros chameleon - needless to say with a big nose, the smallest gecko - just like a twig - an Orpheus snake, two western tufted tailed rats and a sleeping common jery - a very small and fluffy little bird. Coming back along the path we saw very little but couldn't grumble as the outward walk was very rewarding!
After dinner it was a much needed shower as the temperatures had been in the mid 30s and it was still very warm and needless to say we were very hot and sticky - as the huts were very basic the cold shower made up a small bit for no fan or aircon. An early night beckoned after our early start this morning; I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!
Birds today included:
Madagascan fish eagle, white breasted mesite, red capped, crested and coquerel's coua, rufous vanga, lesser vassa parrot, hoopoe, scops owl (western),paradise fly catcher, common jery, madagascan green sunbird, souimanga sunbird, purple heron, humblots heron, squacco heron, black winged stilt, green backed heron, glossy ibis, Madagascan jacana, pied crow, Madagascan partridge, broadbilled roller, beeater, black egret, pond, heron, great egret, diamorphic egret, cattle egret, white faced whistling ducks, mascerine martin, sakalava weaver, magpie robin, African darter, Madagascan coucal, common newtonia, Madagascan button quail, cuckoo shrike, long billed greenbul, Madagascan bulbul, cuckoo roller, common sandpiper and a three banded plover. Most birds can have Madagascan in front of them as most species are specific to Madagascar and look different from similar species which evolved elsewhere.