Archive for the ‘Ranomafana’ tag
First day in Ranomafana National Park
Taken from the Madagascar Team 1 Journal, originally by Andrew
A good night in a comfortable bed and a big breakfast and we were ready to start preparing for the next phase. Transport people arranged transport, supplied raided the market and accomodation hit the phones to plan ahead to Tana. Everyone was busy. All was completed by 11 am, and two consecutive groups headed off for the National Park stopping off to look at the spectacular views of rainforest and the waterfall. The campsite was great, showevers, loos and even little covers under which to pitch your tents. We were ready to start our next phase.
And so it began - tents were set up whilst a small team went to source guides for our 2-day stay. We had planned to do a walk in the afternoon - perhaps to a scenic spot on the river so people could have a wash etc. We had all read the guide books and decided that an evening/night walk would also be good for lemur spotting. The guides seemed to prefer the plan of a long afternoon/evening walk combined. Since we were base-camping and leaving all the heavy stuff at the campsite, there was little objection.
After a large lunch following the morning’s resupply mission, we were ready to go. For the first time on the expedition, I felt like a tourist on holiday. The paths that we started on were paved with stones, steps had been cut and there was a huge iron bridge over the river. It was not long before we’d left this behind and moved on to lesser trails, most of which were still well trodden. As we moved deeper into the rainforest, we started to see what it was really like. I was expecting a really dense green jungle with a hot and humid atmosphere. It came as quite a surprise to discover that this great rainforest was not all that far removed from an English wood.
There was, however, one very great difference. Lemurs - in total we saw 7 different species while we were in the part. They were:
gray gentle bamboo lemur red bellied lemur mouse monkey greater bamboo lemur spotted lemur red fronted brown lemur Verreaux’s sifakaThe guides should be commended for the way they managed to allow all members of the team to see so much of the wildlife. Like tourists, we all partook in a camera-clicking frenzy. I am confident that we will all have difficulty trying to convince friends and relatives that the black splodge on a background of trees and sky is in fact a lemur. Such is.
The guides asked us to bring an assortment of sardines and bananas along ‘for later’. Indeed following another quick sunset, we retired to a clearing often frequented by the local lemurs. Baiting them with a scattering of sardines on the floor and bananas smeared on a tree it was not long before the opportunity for a photo shoot arose. Remarkably, the lemurs seemed completely unphased by the strobe-lke effect of 20 camera flashes all going at once. Being able to see the endemic wildlife within arms reach is an experience I don’t think anyone will forget.
As it was Hannah’s birthday, we were again treated to an excellent evening meal when we returned. The chips were finished off very quickly and bananas and custard dessert was a very refreshing change from the usual pineapple.
