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The 30 mm tailed-leaf gecko, so small and yet able to find one. Specsavers spotted the Amber Mountain Leaf Chameleon. Nice to see other  leaf-tailed geckos.

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More awesome herpes! We won't be going to the far north unfortunately, but its really interesting to see what we will miss.  How was that area for birds? You haven't posted many, were your guides pointing out birds at all? (I realize that birds weren't your main interest!)

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On 10/27/2018 at 3:44 PM, janzin said:

More awesome herpes! We won't be going to the far north unfortunately, but its really interesting to see what we will miss.  How was that area for birds? You haven't posted many, were your guides pointing out birds at all? (I realize that birds weren't your main interest!)

 

The Amber Mountain Parks guide definitely wasn't as 'birdy' as the previous one, but we were so busy looking for the different geckos and chameleons that we didn't worry too much. However, there are a couple of nice ones coming up. The Ankarana guide was better so more birds coming up later on.

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Saturday 22nd September

 

After the gloom of yesterday, we were treated this morning to a glorious blue sky.

Walking from our room to the main house.

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Breakfast was taken on the front porch and as with all the other meals here was the best of the trip. Warm, fresh baked bread with cheese and scrambled eggs, and each morning there was a different type of pastry, huge croissants, savoury filled brioche etc.

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It was an 8.15am start at the National Park. We picked up Innes and drove through the Park to the start of a different trail.

Early on we found another Boettger's Chameleon

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Then we had a better sighting of the Sanford’s Brown lemurs.

This is the male with his white facial fur.

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These are the females.

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This pretty little bird was seen many times on our walks in the Park.  Very confiding and happy to pose for photos.  It is a local endemic just to Amber Mountain and has an Endangered status.

 

Amber Mountain Rock Thrush.

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Amber Mountain has many waterfalls and crater lakes. We walked 1300 feet down a steep slope to get to this one.

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Lake Mahasarika supplies the water to Diego Suarez. We watched two kingfishers skimming over the water catching fish some distance away, but apart from that there wasn’t much else going on so we made the steep climb back up.

 

The Park is very scenic and has viewpoints out across the rainforest and towards the Mozambique Channel.

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View back down to the crater lake.

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One of several waterfalls in the Park.

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Another Amber Mountain Chameleon doing it's best to blend in among the green leaves.

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Then there was a lot of excitement between Innes and Lionel. Very high up in the trees Innes had spotted an Amber Mountain Forked-marked Lemur. This is a small nocturnal lemur with a very loud call. It was jumping from tree to tree very quickly so no chance of photos, but Innes said this was the first time he had ever seen one active during the day so a good spot by them.

 

It was getting towards lunch time by now and we started to make our way down through the forest from the high trails we had been walking. 

We were dropping down another steep slope when Innes spotted a Pygmy Kingfisher in front of us.  I took loads of pics from way back and then he just let me go in front slithering down to see how close I could get before it flew.  Very close as it happens, the last 2 pics are not cropped. It must have been watching something intently because when it did finally fly it almost flew right into me just veering off at the last moment.

 

Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher

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We carried on down to the lower path and towards where we were going to be picked up by Adel. Then suddenly on the path running towards us was a Ring-tailed Vontsira. I just managed to get some shots of it as it ran past us, then it was into the forest and gone.

 

Ring-tailed Vontsira  (Galidia elegans)  This is a small carnivore originally thought to be related to the mongoose. Recent genetic studies now show this not to be the case. The name has been changed from Ring-tailed Mongoose to Ring-tailed Vontsira. This one is the Northern sub-species.

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We were taken to a lodge very close by called Nature Lodge for lunch. This was a very nice three course meal on tables set out on decking looking over the surrounding countryside.

After lunch we went back into the Park for the afternoon walk. 

 

We found something really interesting on a tree. I remembered seeing these on a documentary. They are the nymphs of the Madagascan Flatid Leaf Bug  (Phromnia rosea)

In their final stage, the adults look like pink flowers, they also look like green leaves at another, but as juveniles they secrete a white waxy substance that grows in little tendrils over them. This acts as protection against birds.

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Another photo attempt at the Amber Mountain Leaf Chameleon (Brookesia tuberculata)  They are so cute!

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Then more Mossy Leaf-tailed Geckos (Uroplatus sikorae) in two different colours. I am not getting fed up of seeing these fascinating geckos so you will have to put up with more pics I’m afraid. These are different ones to yesterdays.

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Finally, a walk to the Sacred Waterfall. As the name suggests, this is a place that is sacred to the local people who come here to make spiritual offerings.

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There was a local family of 2 adults and 4 children by the waterfall with us.  We left before them to walk back to the parking area where Adel was waiting.  This is what they came in. This is the only kind of Taxi allowed to operate in the Northern area. It is basically a three-wheeled scooter with a canopy and everyone piles in on the back seat. Later in the trip I saw one with eight people squashed into the back, sitting on each others laps.

Three-wheeled taxi.

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We left the Park at 4.45pm with just enough time to freshen up before meeting Lionel and Innes again for the nocturnal walk at 6pm.

 

Fred, the Giant Leaf-tailed Gecko was waiting for us again near the start of the trail.

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Also, a lovely Panther chameleon. Chameleons often turn a paler colour at night and tend to sit at the end of branches so are quite easy to spot.

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A Mossy leaf-tailed gecko just waking up.

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A large moth hiding amongst the leaf litter.  You really had to watch the torch light at your feet, I was always worrying about standing on something whose camouflage was just too good!

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We saw a lot of these Orb-web spiders on walks. The webs are often at head height so something else to watch out for while you are trying to watch your feet!!

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We finished the walk at around 7.15pm.

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Quality photographs of the Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher. With regard to the Leaf-tailed Geckos, the majority of your photographs show them with the head facing down, is this the norm?

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That's a very picturesque park @Zim Girl,  looks much more so than the rain-forest national parks of  Andasibe-Mantadia or Ranomafana. 

 

Nice work with the Pygmy Kingfisher and Vontsira

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1 hour ago, CDL111 said:

Quality photographs of the Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher. With regard to the Leaf-tailed Geckos, the majority of your photographs show them with the head facing down, is this the norm?

Yes. during the day they remain face down.  It is thought they do this to avoid eye shine/reflection attracting predator birds.

 

3 minutes ago, AfricIan said:

That's a very picturesque park @Zim Girl,  looks much more so than the rain-forest national parks of  Andasibe-Mantadia or Ranomafana. 

 

Nice work with the Pygmy Kingfisher and Vontsira

Thanks, @AfricIan

Yes it was a very scenic park with the lakes, waterfalls and viewpoints breaking up the dense rain forest.

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Sunday 23rd September

 

Another bright morning, (although that was to change later on) and another tasty breakfast.  We left at 8am and met Innes again at the Park. This time we walked from the entrance.  Our first new species was a Northern Blue-nosed Chameleon. He kept twisting around the branch so it was a struggle to take a photo, but Adrian managed to get a close up phone pic of his blue nose.

 

Northern Blue-nosed Chameleon  (Calumma linotum)  Local endemic to Amber Mountain, around 6cm in length.

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Then Innes and Lionel went on another Brookesia hunt for us.

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They found another Brookesia tuberculata  -  Amber Mountain Leaf chameleon

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and then shortly afterwards they found us a brand new one!

 

Antakarana Leaf Chameleon  (Brookesia antakarana)   Local endemic to the Amber Mountain area.

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While looking for them they uncovered a couple of small frogs.

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We also finally managed to see in the open, the Madagascar Cuckoo-roller.  It has a loud whistling call and is found all across Madagascar in various habitats.  It is unusual in that it is the only bird in its family – Leptosomidae and also has it’s own order – Leptosomiformes.

 

Male Madagascar Cuckoo roller  (Leptosomus discolor)

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Throughout the morning we also saw the Sanford’s Brown lemurs again, but high up in the trees this time.  Also, Arthur’s, Amber Mountain and Panther chameleons but by now I was just enjoying watching them rather than taking many more photos.

 

Another very scenic waterfall.

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Just as we were walking back to the pick up point it started to rain heavily.  This is the first (and only) time we were caught in rain so we were really very lucky. We took our time over lunch, which again was at Nature Lodge and instead of going back into the forest for the last couple of hours, as the rain was set in for the afternoon, we went back to the Litchi Tree. It has a nice selection of books, so we read for a while and then when the rain eased off went for a wander around the grounds.

 

Wild Pineapple.

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Luckily, the rain stopped completely in time for the nocturnal walk at 6pm.

 

We were driving down the track from the lodge when this big snake slithered out in front of the vehicle.

Well before Lionel even had a chance to ask if we wanted to get a closer look, I was out and all over it before it disappeared. We have never seen any snakes really close up on all our travels around Africa and I wanted to make the most of this.  It is a Madagascar Tree Boa. The pictures are all from Adrian’s phone as I was so engrossed in studying it I forgot about the camera. A wonderful animal and another huge highlight for me from this trip.

 

Madagascar Tree Boa  (Sanzinia madagascariensis)  

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It glowed blue under torchlight.

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But more new stuff still to come. 

We started the walk and said hello to Fred, no photos this time, found a couple of frogs and another leaf-mimicking treehopper.

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Then we found our last new Brookesia of the trip which means that we found all the Brookesia species that live in this area. It was well hidden and very wet. Both are phone pics as I made Adrian push through the wet undergrowth to get them.

 

Plated Leaf Chameleon  (Brookesia stumpffi)  Endemic to the North West.  

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Then probably my favourite nocturnal shot of the trip with this beautiful Panther Chameleon.

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We also caught a rather surprised looking female Magpie-robin in the torchlight.

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Then lastly but definitely not least, a real lucky find, jumping above us was a Northern Rufous Mouse Lemur.

 

Northern Rufous Mouse Lemur  (Microcebus tavaratra)  Endemic to the North and classified Vulnerable.

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A great end to our time in the Amber Mountain.

Edited by Zim Girl
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A superb Panther Chameleon- you should be pleased with it!

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more fantastic stuff.  I've been meaning to ask...especially now that you mentioned rain and wet...how were the leeches? :o

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@Zim Girl Fab report, which is making me want to revisit Madagascar. Are you sure about that last mouse lemur though? It looks like a better  fit for Montagne d'Ambre dwarf lemur aka Andy Sabin's dwarf lemur Cheirogaleus andysabini , the ears are dark, it has quite a thick tail by the look of it and the dark eyerings and dark nose seem to point towards dwarf, rather than mouse lemurs..

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21 hours ago, TonyQ said:

A superb Panther Chameleon- you should be pleased with it!

 

18 hours ago, Sangeeta said:

Mesmerized, @Zim Girl

 

please keep going :)

Thanks Tony and Sangeeta

19 hours ago, janzin said:

more fantastic stuff.  I've been meaning to ask...especially now that you mentioned rain and wet...how were the leeches? :o

Never saw any leeches at all.  Guides never mentioned anything about leeches either so maybe only a rainy season problem. if one at all.

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2 minutes ago, Zim Girl said:
19 hours ago, janzin said:

more fantastic stuff.  I've been meaning to ask...especially now that you mentioned rain and wet...how were the leeches? :o

Never saw any leeches at all.  Guides never mentioned anything about leeches either so maybe only a rainy season problem. if one at all.

 

I also wondered about leeches when I saw your bare arms @Zim Girl - on our vist (November) we were told to always have long sleeves & trousers not shorts when we were in the rainforest and to check carefully when we came out that we didn't have any stowaways :(.  Having said that, we never saw one :D

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17 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

@Zim Girl Fab report, which is making me want to revisit Madagascar. Are you sure about that last mouse lemur though? It looks like a better  fit for Montagne d'Ambre dwarf lemur aka Andy Sabin's dwarf lemur Cheirogaleus andysabini , the ears are dark, it has quite a thick tail by the look of it and the dark eyerings and dark nose seem to point towards dwarf, rather than mouse lemurs..

 

That's interesting, I didn't know about that particular dwarf lemur, (although only very recently described so maybe why).

The guides told us it was a Northern Rufous Mouse lemur but I wouldn't disagree with you that it possibly looks more like a dwarf.  The mouse lemur is described as having thick tri-coloured fur with pale beige, brown and grey which seemed to fit but I just can't remember how big it appeared to be.

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2 minutes ago, AfricIan said:

 

I also wondered about leeches when I saw your bare arms @Zim Girl - on our vist (November) we were told to always have long sleeves & trousers not shorts when we were in the rainforest and to check carefully when we came out that we didn't have any stowaways :(.  Having said that, we never saw one :D

 

Mmm, November can be start of the rains in some areas so maybe that's why.  We definitely didn't have a problem with them, not that I gave it a thought to be honest.

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Great report @Zim Girl. I have always just thought of Madagascar as somewhere to go and see Lemurs, but it really is a world of weird and wonderful creatures.

That tenrec, I didn't even know was a thing, and those camouflaged geckos well they are something else. I have a house full of teenage boys, I just had them all stop what they were doing to come and try and spot them, my youngest amazingly spotted the satanic leaf tail.

You are right about the Panther chameleon that shot is top notch.

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20 hours ago, Ratdcoops said:

Great report @Zim Girl. I have always just thought of Madagascar as somewhere to go and see Lemurs, but it really is a world of weird and wonderful creatures.

That tenrec, I didn't even know was a thing, and those camouflaged geckos well they are something else. I have a house full of teenage boys, I just had them all stop what they were doing to come and try and spot them, my youngest amazingly spotted the satanic leaf tail.

You are right about the Panther chameleon that shot is top notch.

 

Thanks for reading along @Ratdcoops

Well done on your lad for finding the Satanic gecko, I had my face right next to it and still didn't spot it.  The leaf-tailed geckos were absolutely fascinating and a joy to watch.

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Monday 24th September

 

Today we were driving to our last destination, the Ankarana Special Reserve. 

On the way we stopped off to see the Tsingy Rouge.  You find it by taking a detour off the main RN6 road then it is around a 30 minute drive along a very rough road that is passable only outside of rainy season.  It took us just under two hours to reach.

This is where you notice a big climb in temperature, the Ankarana area is very hot. It was 10am and already 32 degrees. Pure bliss ?

 

Unlike the other Tsingy in Madagascar this one is made of sandstone and lies within a gorge, where over the last 50 years or so erosion has uncovered the pinnacles. This has come about as a result of deforestation which has caused landslides.  (On the drive from Amber Mountain to Ankarana we noticed a lot more evidence of 'slash and burn').

The red colour comes from the iron rich laterite soil and rock. As they are only sandstone they will eventually be worn away but the constant erosion will uncover ‘new’ ones.

 

The gorge is seen from a viewpoint.  You can see the Tsingy on the lower slopes near the river.

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Then a 15 minute walk takes you down from the other side of the viewpoint and allows you to get close to the Tsingy.

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We thought they looked a bit like figures under sheets pretending to be ghosts.

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After another two hours driving we reached our first stop,  Ankarana Lodge.  It seems to be usual to stay here for one night before going on to the more scenically located Iharana Bush Camp.  It is also very close to the main entrance of the reserve.

 

We had a very nice lunch. If you like shellfish you will love the North. Most meals have either a ‘shrimp’ (more like prawns) starter or main. We do and we really enjoyed them.

We had this very cute day gecko join us. These geckos are common in this area but sadly I didn’t get to see the giant one.

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Pretty cool face paint.

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View from outside the lodge.

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We set off for our afternoon walk at 2pm. It was only a 5min drive to the entrance where we met our park guide, Simon.

 

Ankarana Special Reserve was created in 1956. It is famous for the limestone karst landscape known as ‘Tsingy’. It has an extensive cave network with dry, deciduous forest found in much of the reserve. The main entrance is by the village of Mahamasina at Ankarana Est (East).

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We were going to walk to the Grotte de Chauves-souris (Cave of Bats). It is an underground cave that apparently has 8 species of bat living there.

On the way there we came across a group of Crowned Lemurs. This is the other main diurnal lemur along with the Sanford’s Brown that is endemic to the North.

 

Crowned Lemur  (Eulemur coronatus)  Endemic only to the far north and most easily seen in Ankarana.  Status Endangered.

The male has a reddish grey body with ginger head and black crown while the female is grey in body with a ginger 'tiara'.

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Young female

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Female sleeping with her tail wrapped around her head.

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We carried on the trail to the cave. We had to walk down a very long and steep set of steps to the entrance.  Here there was an overhanging rock formation that I thought looked a bit like a cat’s head.

 

We were nearly at the bottom by this point, there were several hundred steps.

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This is the first time we came across a ‘Fady’ or taboo. You have to enter the cave bare-headed, so hats and caps had to be left outside.

The walk in was on sloping rock with a vertical rockface on one side and a steep drop on the other. I saw one group of fruit bats hanging from the roof and there were bigger groups further inside but I had to stop there as the sloping path was getting narrower, so it felt (to me) like the vertical rock was pushing you over into the chasm below.

I have issues with my eyesight that means my balance is really bad. So Adrian went on ahead to look at them, he didn’t take my camera and his phone flash wouldn’t reach the bats so no photos I’m afraid.

Having now flattened myself into the wall of rock, I inched my way out and back into the heat ready to tackle the long climb back up.

 

We walked back to the Park entrance for about 4pm and drove back to the Lodge.

We didn’t do a nocturnal walk that night as the only place you can really do this is in the Lodge grounds and Lionel said it probably wasn’t worth it. This was fine by us as it gave us more time to get ready for dinner.  Before that we went for a walk ourselves through the grounds and towards the village.  As we left the Lodge we could see Adel had stopped on his way out and was looking in some bushes.  He saw us walking towards him and waved us over.  He had found an Oustalet’s Chameleon. This was my last big ‘must see’ for the trip so we were really pleased.  They apparently are more likely to be seen on the roadsides and peripheries than in the forests themselves, so quite lucky to find one.

 

Oustalet's Chameleon  (Furcifer oustaleti)  Endemic and found mainly in the dryer western parts of Madagascar.  As noted earlier, this competes with the Parson's chameleon for the title of world's largest chameleon. Fully grown, it can reach lengths of up to 68cm.

I think this one is a female.

P1080639c.jpg.5237033e4c8dcf23096e98e0073b9426.jpg

 

Another one that didn’t want it's picture taken.  She was right in the middle of a thorny bush so I took a few scratches for my efforts. Well worth it though.

P1080641c.jpg.495f3317347258363193208c02d4ad55.jpg

 

P1080645c.jpg.80b92543c9dc3de378249f0a3a27d159.jpg

 

After we had spent a while watching her we wandered back to the lodge. It was quite nice to have an early dinner for once, at 7pm, and yes, more ‘shrimps’.

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I'm starting to wish I'd booked the longer trip as well! :lol: So much to see!

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@Zim Girl, what a great report so far.  You have seen just about everything you possibly could in these locations which is fantastic.  I am totally blown away by those leaf mimicking geckos.  They are extraordinary and worth the trip alone in my book.  I  guess I need to start doing more research about a trip.

 

With that in mind, did you book this trip through a tour company?  I didn't see that mentioned but I might have missed it.  Also, it sounds like the food and accommodation so far have been really good which isn't what I expected in Madagascar.  Did you stick to the safe route of only drinking/brushing teeth with bottled water and only eating cooked food?  

 

Anyway, I can't wait to ready the next installments.

 

Alan

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Those crowned lemurs are just gorgeous. But then so is all the wildlife you spotted.

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On 11/2/2018 at 9:52 PM, Atdahl said:

@Zim Girl, what a great report so far.  You have seen just about everything you possibly could in these locations which is fantastic.  I am totally blown away by those leaf mimicking geckos.  They are extraordinary and worth the trip alone in my book.  I  guess I need to start doing more research about a trip.

 

With that in mind, did you book this trip through a tour company?  I didn't see that mentioned but I might have missed it.  Also, it sounds like the food and accommodation so far have been really good which isn't what I expected in Madagascar.  Did you stick to the safe route of only drinking/brushing teeth with bottled water and only eating cooked food?  

 

Anyway, I can't wait to ready the next installments.

 

Alan

Hi Alan

Thank you. Yes, we were very pleased with everything we saw. The geckos and chameleons were the things I most wanted to see as well.

This was booked as a private trip through Steppes Travel in the UK. We have used them many times in the past. All the lodges were very good and all the food was good to excellent. We only drank bottled water but used the tap water for brushing teeth (although I would do that anywhere unless specifically told not to on pain of death).  With the food, again not something I would ever worry about and we did eat salad and fresh fruit. Pineapples, bananas and mangoes are very popular.

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