Parc National d'Andasibe-Mantadia, Madagascar

We packed up our small day packs for a two day stay at the park. We caught a taxi to the bus station where we would catch our 'taxi brousse' (shared minivan taxi or bush taxi). The taxi was an old French Citroen. The fuel is stored in a recycled plastic water bottle in the parcel shelf in the front of the car with a tube going to the petrol tank! Sarah, in Tana told us she once got in a taxi like this and the driver had no key and had to join two wires together to get ignition! We will have to have a good check of the taxis next time we need one!

At the taxi brousse station the touts directed us to the right minivan. No one could speak English and we had difficulties understanding the ticket lady and the tout and with a bit of French we were able to work out that the tout wanted us to pay for the whole minivan's seats and the driver would take us directly to the park. The ticket lady was telling us we needed to change minivans as it didn't go directly. However, after a short wait we were all loaded and filled with enough people for the seats and each person had a numbered seat!

road was nicely sealed to the park and other than a lot of broken down trucks on the side of the road and a minivan like ours in a river being pulled out by a truck it was an uneventful trip. At Moramanga we had to wait for a big old bus to fill up and it was absolutely cramped. Entry to city commuter buses and this one are through the back where the door is in the middle and everyone piles in and fills up the bus from the front to the back as the folding aisle seats fill up. The conductor hangs out the back shouting and whistling to get more commuters when ever some get off.

There were a couple from UK, Jenny and Jon who were on the bus with us going to the same park.They had been volunteer teaching in villages in and near Diego Suarez (aka Antsiranana) on the northern tip of the island. It was interesting to hear their tales about life there.

Jenny

We all got off at a complex near the park with bamboo bungalows and a restaurant. Our bungalow was a climb up to the top of a hill with two beds, nets and a little deck. We shared the hot water showers with about six other bungalows. We could hear the indri lemurs calling to each other every morning at about 4.30-5am.

We walked to the park and met a guide touting on the way. His English was not bad so we hired him for four hours. It is compulsory to have a guide in the parks in Madagascar. His name was Richard and I was about to abandon him part way through the first hour as he stunk of alcohol and tobacco and spent the first hour and half on his cellphone! The noticeboard in the park had photos of all the 70 guides and as there are not many tourists it is getting more and more difficult for the guides to make money so the competition is tough. However we put up with him.

Indri

We saw several common brown lemur and yellow lemurs. The indri are Madagascar' largest lemur and they have no tail. Their calls can be heard 2-3 kms away as they tell other families to keep out of their area or let their families know where they are. There was once a lemur as big as a gorilla but is now extinct.

Richard broke up some saplings and managed to coax down a huge green chameleon to show us. It climbed off the short stick it was on and up my arm and over my head. It has a split between its toes where it spreads them out so it can wrap them around the tree branches. He, because he had horns, felt surprisingly cold to touch and his tail was so cute curled tightly like a mosquito coil.

The next day we decided to go with Jenny and Jon and their guide into the park again as they had a far more enthusiastic guide. Donna managed to find us a tiny owl that was camouflaged in the dry leaves of a palm tree. We also saw two different indri families and watch them mating close up. They were so close I could have reached out and touched them. He showed us a boa that had eggs and hadn't moved from the park office for two days that Richard should have shown us as well. At times he would show us things and then go looking for more lemurs or other creatures he had seen recently and then would come back and get us. Some of the chameleons that didn't change colour were still well camouflaged on the tree branches and took some identifying in the trees.

Madagascar has over 70 varieties of lemur as well as the world's largest chameleon and the world's smallest one. It also once had the world's largest bird, the elephant bird. Because Madagascar drifted from Africa it has developed so many unique plants and animals and is regarded as the world's number one conservation priority.

We had to rush back from the park to catch one of the last minivans back to Moramanga from the village near the park and wait for another back to Tana.