Got picked up by our driver at 8 AM - who was a really nice man but doesn't speak a lot of English so we were told the day before that everywhere we go there would be a local English speaking guide looking after us but that he would be our driver for the next 4 weeks. Left Antananarivo in rush hour so was a lot of traffic getting out of the city but again really interesting to watch all the local people. Had a young boy who raced us on his bike and one time after another took over the car - clearly it was a lot faster on the bike than in a car. Finally we got out of the city and could properly start to enjoy the country side, which looks very different but enjoyed getting away from all the chaos in the capital. Our first stop of the day was a visit at the Peyrieras Reptile Park - which I to be honest wasn't that sure about since I knew that the animals were living in captivities here. However most of the animals did look like they were well looked after and we had an excellent guide and saw so many different chameleons, geckos, frogs and snakes, that I believe we all 3 loved it. Was especially great that the chameleons and geckos didn't mind crawling on you - so was quite funny when they were touching you - all very smooth and cold at the same time. One gecko also jumped for Heather's camera bag clearly trying to get an escape to freedom - but Heather nearly jump as high as well so not sure who got the biggest shock. Unfortunately with all that jumping the gecko got caught in its little escape plan - so didn't succeed in getting away to freedom. We also saw the Comet Moth, whose habitat is threatened but luckily successfully bred in captivity - so very special to see this rare insect.

We made a lunch stop in the town of Moramanga - where the menu at the café we stopped at was quite limited so we all had a pizza. Our destination for the day was the Sahatandra River Hotel just outside the village of Andasibe - but on the route we were going to register at the National Park and to meet our nature guide Monica, who was going to be with us for the next 3 days. For some reason all 3 of us expected everywhere in Madagascar to be warm and none of us were really prepared for it being quite cold and rainy as well. OK I know we are going into the Rain forest - so assume we should have guessed that this means rain - but clearly we didn't take that very seriously. We were therefore all 3 freezing when we walked around the Information centre to the National Park and I was starting to think about if I had actually got any warm clothes in my bag at all. Getting to the hotel we were going through the very interesting village of Andasibe, which was surely a very local place and just amazing to pass by. All the houses are made of raw wood and the village looked quite different to anything I have seen before since the houses were just bare but then all the colours in the village came from the things that were sold in the shops or the clothes people were wearing. This is a cyclone area so did wonder whether they didn't have time to paint the houses before they were going to be knocked to the ground. Definitely didn't look like houses that would survive a cyclone. Another thing that struck with me was that you could also see these people were quite cold since most of them were wearing fairly warm clothes. However, whenever you looked at their feet they were either barefoot or just in flip flops - so a big contrast. Shortly before reaching the hotel we had to cross a very interesting wooden bridge that didn't look very stable at all. The guide explained that every time there is a cyclone the bridges are gone - so they just very quickly construct a new bridge - so quite interesting to cross. Anyway, arrived at the hotel safe but was pretty surprised when we realised that we were the only 3 guests at this big complex. Ok we know it is not high season but still this was really weird.

We got a nice bungalow and all of us quickly changed into some warmer clothes. Had then 3 hours to chill before we were going on a night walk in the V.O.I.M.M.A Reserve - so time to catch up on diary and have a proper rest since my back needed to stretch after a bumpy car journey. Dan managed at this point to make a crack in the left side of the toilet seat - which Heather and I had a laugh about. At 6 PM our driver picked us up to drive us to the V.O.I.M.M.A Reserve where Monica was meeting us for a 1 hour night walk in the rain forest. I guess the biggest problem with these night walks are that you are spending most of the time looking down on the path to make sure you are not falling over something and particular when the path is quite uneven. However Monica still managed to find us some spiders, a moth and some very small chameleons - how she spotted them I have no idea - but she did. Didn't see any lemurs and after 1 hour we were all cold and wet so time to get back to our hotel for dinner. Luckily we reserved a table since we were the only guests in the restaurant but all 3 of us had a nice Spaghetti Bolognese. However even the dinner couldn't get us proper warm and the beds looked very tempting so had an early night crawling up under a very nice duvet.

Visiting Mantadia National Park - Friday the 25th of May

From a crack in the left side of the toilet seat we went to a completely broken toilet seat the 2nd time Dan sat on it, where it literally broke in 2 halves - so now made Heather and I laugh even more. Got picked up by our driver at 8 AM outside the hotel with our picnic lunch, which we ordered from the hotel the day before - since we were going to spend a day in the Mantadia National Park. It was still raining in the morning but I thought it looked like it was going to clear so crossed fingers that it wouldn't rain the whole day. Went back into the interesting village Andasibe to pick up our guide Monica who was living there and then we had an hour drive to the entrance of the National Park mainly going on dirt road. We were going to spend the morning walking the Circuit Tsakoka, which was another hour drive from the entrance continuing on dirt road - but was a beautiful journey despite the rain. However, we were really lucky since we were not far into the walk before the rain stopped and the weather just got better and better. Was a great park for trekking and today we got our first real lemur experience. Monica was very enthusiastic about finding the lemurs for us and sometimes she would just tell us to wait while she went exploring to see in which direction we had the biggest chance of finding them. We saw 5 different species of lemurs that morning on a 4 hour walk and got really close to the Indri Indri, which is the biggest lemur with the strongest voice, which can travel as far as 3 km through the forest. While we were standing next to the Indri Indris - Monica played their communication song on her phone and suddenly all the Indri Indris next to us went ballistic and started replying. It's one thing hearing the sound from a distance but when you stand right next to them it sounds like an air raid siren has just started and you nearly go deaf. Was quite an experience and not something we would easily forget. Monica also explained that the Indri Indris have 3 ways of communicating. The communication sound - which we just heard, the alarm sound - to warn against predators and the love sound (which sounds like a kiss) - when they are in mating season and which you will only hear in October - December.

The 4 hours walk in the morning flew by - so were a bit surprised to see that the time was nearly 2 PM when we got back to the car. Had to do a short walk in the afternoon to a waterfall but since the Park was closing at 4 PM there wasn't a lot of time - so also ended up that we just had our sandwich, fruit and eggs for lunch in the car while driving to the next starting point for the Circuit Rianasoa. It was just 650 meters along a beautiful river into the end of the trail by a lovely pool and waterfall and had we had more time we could have done a swim - but was also really slippery and rocky - so decided against it even though at that point the weather was really nice. We all 3 enjoyed the walk very much and got back in time so we could manage to leave the park before closing time. After leaving the park we passed through a tiny little village and Monica asked if we wanted to stop and walk through the village. We were not going to miss out on that opportunity and all the kids in the village were so curious about who we were and all came up to us even though we couldn't communicate with them. They were clearly all very poor - but at the same time seemed quite happy - such a different life to the western world - but inspiring to see such a different type of living. Also did a stop by the river by the special palm called elephant heart, which is growing in the river and really beautiful.

Got back to our hotel just an hour before darkness (since it already gets dark around 5.30 pm) - so was tempted to jump in the pool - but a cold beer at the terrace before sunset won. Was just so lovely to see the sun being out here as well - so it doesn't always rain in a rainforest. For dinner I was brave and went for a proper Malagasy course with pork in some special leaves but also looked like I paid for that the day after - but more about that later. Otherwise we enjoyed some wine and vodka tonight in our little bungalow - so made up for the early night yesterday.

Visiting the Analamazaotra reserve, Lemur Island and the Crocodile Park - Saturday the 26th of May

Started the morning at 7.30 AM and this time we went back to the Information Centre of the National Park where we met our guide the first day. We were going to spend the morning in the Analamazaotra National Park, which is particular known for the Indri-Indri and the Diademed Sifaka but of course we already saw them both yesterday. Monica took us on an 8 KM walk around the Circuit Adventure and again did everything she could to get us close to the lemurs and to even find some special insects for us. We were well impressed when she showed us the stick insect, which look exactly like a stick and just something that is part of the tree or leaf it is sitting on. We had another morning with quite a few lemurs, some massive black termite mounds, where she told us that they would contain a thousand rooms with termites, we saw some small geckos, a snake crossing our path, some big spiders and in the end a chameleon in the tree. After another 4 hour walk we got picked up by our driver who was going to drive us for lunch at the Vakona Forest Lodge - a nice hotel in the forest as the name clearly indicates.

Had a nice lunch but did feel my stomach turn a few times when eating and also struggled a bit to drink my beer - but decided to ignore it for now and convinced myself that it would disappear so managed to both finish the food and the beer. At 2 PM we continued the tour where we first went to the Lemur Island which was part of the Vakona Reserve. The biggest laugh was that to get to the island you have to go in a canoe and it then took you less than a minute to arrive at the island on the other side. I always wanted to canoe in Madagascar and now you can say I got my chance :-). Anyway the Lemur Island was literally built for the lemurs that have previously been kept as pets - but since that wasn't allowed anymore they built this Island for lemurs to live in a protected environment. Since lemurs don't like water they won't leave the island - so they stick to their little oasis. Was the first really close up experience with the lemurs but a bit of a shock when the first one just decides to jump and land on your shoulders or your head. One lemur particular loved Heather's hair and kept landing on her head so looked like she had a fur hat on. There were 27 lemurs of 3 different species living on the island - so saw the Common Brown lemur, the Black & White Ruffed lemur and the small Bamboo lemur. The Bamboo lemurs were really cute and followed us around for a while. Walking around the island we at one point got to the shore where we could see the neighbour island where they had another 18 lemurs and one of the species being the Diademed Sifaka. The guide showed us why the Diademed Sifaka is also called the dancing lemur since if he threw a banana for it on the ground it jumped around on 2 feet to get to the banana - so really looked like it was dancing. He also explained that the Black & White Ruffled lemur and the Diademed Sifaka cannot live at the same island together since they both fight for their own territory.

After the Lemur Island we went to the Crocodile Park also at the Vakona Reserve where we were going for a 50 minutes walk around the reserve to see their 45 crocodiles and some of the other animals they had on the site. At that point my stomach was really starting to turning so I just prayed that I wasn't going to be sick over a crocodile. Managed the walk where we also saw some different chameleons, ducks and the fossa in a cage. Was not happy to see the fossa there since it looked really disturbed and felt sorry for it - but the rest of the animals had a fair amount of space. In the end of the walk there was a small museum showing some examples of a typical house in Madagascar and some stories about the crocodiles when living in the wild. I missed the last crocodile stories because at that point I was really not feeling well so went straight to the car. While Heather and Dan finished the museum visit I ended up painting the car park with the food and beer I had for lunch but at least made me feel slightly better after being sick and am still convinced that the Malagasy food I tried the evening before was the cause if this.

Luckily for me this was the last visit of the day and it was already late afternoon so was just able to go back to the hotel and lie down for a while. However did need to use the toilet a few times but after laughing so much about Dan cracking the toilet seat I managed to make a crack in our 2nd toilet seat as well - so at that point we agreed that these toilets seats were clearly constructed in a completely wrong way - otherwise how would they crack that easily. Think both Dan and I have tried a fair amount of toilet seats in our life but this was the first time for both of us breaking one :-). Decided to give the stomach a proper rest for the rest of the day/evening so skipped both drinks and dinner and just had a couple of cokes, which I think was the best for me at that particular time. Heather and Dan said that when they were having dinner another American couple turned up - so the first time we saw other guests at this big place after staying nearly 3 nights.