As the park was so close we didn't have to leave until 8am - so at 7am we had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony taking in the views and eating home made cinnamon buns and fruit.
We were collected a few minutes early and set off towards the park - at the bottom of the hotel drive we turned immediately right to go up to the national park -we noticed a lot of men gathered - they were waiting for today's supply of 'khat' this is a legal intoxicant which is chewed all over Madagscar but only grown on the edges of the this park - once the growers bring it down it will be shipped all over the country - this happens everyday as the leaves are only good for one day. As we drove up the roadway we saw people coming down with supplies - like most intoxicants the long term effects are apparently not good.
Today we did two walks - the morning walk took us to see the highest waterfall in the park and the afternoon walk took us to see a large green crater lake. Enroute we took in the wildlife - today we were hunting for the 7 species of chameleon that live in the park, the 4 species leaf tailed geckos (well Jack was - I still cannot spot them unaided), the hook billed vanga and the pitta like ground roller which can only been seen at this time of year as it is nesting in the banks.
The walks we nicely energetic and in the morning whenever we stopped it was to look at a really well camouflaged chameleon or leaf tailed gecko. Today's picture is of the latter; I cannot get over how well concealed they are. Their predators, birds, do still get them but as they sleep head down quite they are often only left with the tail and the rest of body gets away to live another day!
At 12 noon we went back to the hotel for a light lunch and returned to the park again around 2 ish fir our next walk. This was an up and down walk to the lake - again nicely energetic. From the edge of the lake we could see an african darter and a vassa parrot in a distant tree, on they way we saw magpie robins and the amber mountain rock thrush. When we returned to the top we walked to the viewpoint and enroute saw the ground roller - a truly colourful bird with greens, blues, orange and white in its feathers - we also saw the little cuckoo, the cuckoo roller - male and the previously unseen speckled female and the hook billed vanga. The only thing we missed seeing today were the ring tailed mongooses who live in the area - but we might get a chance to see them on our trip south next week.
As we drove back to the hotel we did some chameleon spotting - they are much easier to see at night because in the light they show up as white/ grey shapes......indeed Jack spotted the final species he had been hunting for a small horned chameleon so that made the 7.
Back at the hotel we were the only guests - so after all our walking we had a well deserved dinner - specially cooked for the two of us. Apparently we were the lull before their next barrage of guests - they are fully booked for the next 3 weeks which is positive.....but with the excellent food, service and accommodation I can see exactly why.