Wednesday September 6 – ‘Tana to Kirindy Dry Forest via Morondava
Managed to wake up in time for breakfast and had a few bites but wasn’t overly hungry given the time. We left for the airport around 4:45 with the plan to arrive around 5:30. It was amazing how many people were up at that time and appeared to be starting their day. The airline we were using was apparently a private airline, which operated out of a hangar. We walked in and “checked in” and went through “security”, which consisted of stepping up to the two desks inside the hangar. Showed my passport and put my bag on the scale. It was a few kilos over the 18 kg limit but they didn’t seem to care. I then proceeded to the security desk, where a guy looked through my bags; although he seemed to get tired after looking through a few pockets and just had me pass. We then watched as they started up the planes and load the luggage. Looked like they left the door opened! Given the hangar and the security I was surprised that the seats were assigned given there were only about 24 or 30 seats on the plane. They finally started the boarding, which seemed to be boarding by group, with our group going last. As we walked up the stairs I was even more shocked to see a flight attendant! Got on and there was another one! We took off for the 1 hour flight and they actually came around with snacks, which included a bunch of little snacks including a quiche and a muffin. Flight landed safely in Morondava, where our jeeps picked us up. Went to the hotel we would be staying at in a few days time and did a walk along the beach. Was a really nice beach with no one but fisherman and a few locals. We had lunch at the restaurant where I had some garlic shrimp and fries, which were also tasty. We then headed out to see the baobobs at Baobob Alley before heading on to the Kirindy Dry Forest. The road was bumpy and a bit slow but now at bad as we were expecting. On the way we stopped to pick up our “road snacks” for our lunch in Grand Tsingy in a few days. After getting to our camp we prepared for a night walk. The camp is located in the middle of a very dry forest and is home to a few species of lemur. The rooms are tents, which are covered by a bamboo structure, with a bathroom in the back, which did not include a door so the view from the toilet was into the forest! The toilet seemed to be a swimming pool used by ants and every time I opened it there seemed to be a few hanging around the bowl! The nocturnal walk was in the forest around the camp and we were able to spot a few mouse lemurs, which were hiding in the tree. We also spotted a furry white lemur in the trees above my tent and a few brown ones hanging around the dinner area. After the walk we headed to the diner hut for some food. I had the vegetable soup to start, which was probably a poor choice given the heat and the fish as the main. It was tasty but given the early flight, I had a difficult time staying awake. Headed back to the tent and fell asleep quickly.