We were collected at 0730 for our morning looking for lemurs in the secondary forest and main national park. The forest was a mix of endemic Madagascan trees and imports i.e. eucalyptus and pines from Australia. This area is much more accessible so there were far more tourists visiting which meant sightings could have upwards of 20 people watching. That said it didn't cause any problems except for the rather large german guy,with a matching large camera, who was...

Today it was off into the depths of the untouched primary forest. Enroute we passed small settlements and people walking along the paths and saw bare hillsides where there had been slash and burn to create farmland for the ever increasing population. There was stark evidence everywhere of the pressure on these last bastions of original forest. If it was not for the tourist income and the need to preserve the wildlife they would surely soon disappear. Once in the...

After a good nights sleep we were well rested and raring to go. Breakfast was a very French affair - you feel the Colonial influence - of fruit, croissant and French bread. At 9am we were collected by our guide and driver and set off on the 3 hour drive to the East coast and our first reserve the Andasibe- Mantadia national park. As it was a Sunday there was less traffic and we got to see the bustling city at a more relaxed pace. The shops and market stalls were...

We left London yesterday, Friday 19th October, on the 1025 BA flight to Nairobi. On Thursday evening I attended an exceptionally good Police Bravery awards which PMAS sponsored and got back to the hotel at 0100am; so after barely 4 hours sleep I was up again at 5.15 to catch one of the first tubes to terminal five. (John was well rested as he had stayed at the hotel rather than brave the awards!) Luckily we stayed at the Pullman hotel very close to Kings Cross a...

SUMMARY OF OUR TRIP:- I have been thinking about the highlights of the trip and our key recommendations to anyone coming here. Brazil is a big country with good air-links so try several different areas - for wildlife what we picked really worked for us - we met several other international tourists doing the more traditional tour of Amazon, Pantanal and Iguassu Falls - we been to several rain forests - in Ecuador and Guyana so felt another trip was unnecessary t...