Wake up around 2:45 am this morning and had a difficult time getting back to sleep – managed to fall asleep a bit before my alarm went off and definitely could have slept longer if I hadn’t had to get up and get my luggage ready for the trip to Andasibe.
Met the entire group of us at the group briefing as well as our guide, Sol (short for a much longer name that I have no chance of pronouncing as are most of the words here!). We then set out in our mini bus on a tour of the city including the palace and some areas high in the hills overlooking the city. The people seemed very friendly and the views were great. The road system is very chaotic though as the city has expanded without the roads being planned for the added traffic. Didn’t see one traffic light and the roads winding through the hills were narrow and it took quite a while to drive up to the view areas.
Afterwards, we headed back in the bus to head on towards Andasibe. Getting back down the hill seemed even slower and it must have taken us closer to an hour to get out of town. Stopped briefly on the side of the road to take some photos of a family making bricks on the side of the road in a field. We then carried on to our lunch stop, which was at some kind of little park on the side of the road that offered zip-lining, hiking and other activities, which we didn’t have time for. I had a Neapolitan pizza and a local beer. The pizza was actually pretty good and appeared to have been cooked in a charcoal oven. The cheese was proper mozzarella unlike the ‘Laughing Cow’ pizza they served in Morocco ?. Also had a honey crepe for dessert which was tasty.
We then continued east and stopped at a reptile “farm” where they apparently attempt to breed various threatened types of reptiles from around the island. The chameleon pen was a great opportunity to get some good photos of some different types of chameleons that live in areas we won’t be visiting on this trip. We also saw a giant millipeed, a big orange frog, some bats, some geckos, a snake and an amazingly large and colorful cricket. We also got to see the smallest chameleons in the world, which are very tiny and fit on your finger.
After the reptile farm we carried on to Andasibe, latter than the itinerary planned for so I think our driver was trying to make up time as we motored along at a pretty good clip. Fortunately the road wasn’t as pot holed as earlier. We did hit a chicken though as we were speeding through an area with houses along the side. I guess someone will be having chicken tonight!
Arrived at the hotel just after 5 and went to our rooms to prepare for our nocturnal walk. The rooms were actually little huts with bathrooms, which were quite nice. Changed into some long pants and a long sleeved t-shirt for the walk. We walked along a road not far from the lodge with two guides. Spotted some chameleons, some tiny frogs, a few spiders, some stick insects and a lemurs with its glowing eyes. I managed to get a photo but it was a bit grainy.
After the walk we headed back to the lodge for dinner. I had some vegetable soup and the vanilla chicken with vegetables. Seemed like an odd combination but it worked. Then headed to bed and was too sleepy to even review my photos as I kept nodding off. Tomorrow we’re doing a bit of a hike and then returning to ‘Tana. Posting a couple of photos but will need to add a bunch more later as I have stop many photos but not enough speed on the WiFi!
