Antananarivo

Thursday October 8th, 2008

On Monday afternoon we caught the plane from Morondava to Tana. It was noticeably cooler in Tana, but what really caught my eye in the Airport was the list of duty free items you are allowed export.

It included:

2 lbs of jewels, 
2 lbs of onions,
4 lbs of vanilla, 
10 lbs of meat 
20 lbs of seafood.

I can recommend the Palissandre hotel in Tana. A feature of the hotel rooms is the lovely polished palisander wood - similar to rosewood. Breakfast on the terrace looking out over the city was another plus.

However no rest for tourists and soon we were on our way to Marazevo to visit the private reserve at Pereyras. It specialises in chameleons and geckos, but also has frogs and butterflies.

 Lunch in Moramanga was at the Coq d'Or, a Chinese restaurant which served frog's legs and spring rolls and chicken in tamarind - all very good.
Although Sherritt, the Canadian company have a big nickel project near here  we didn't see it, but then I guess most of our group are probably not into mining!

We stayed in the Eulophiella Lodge - thatched cottages in lovely gardens and if you think you can cope with chillies, you could try theirs. They left any others I have tried for dead! Our nocturnal walk in the rain forest was not a rip roaring success. We spent two hours stumbling in the dark and failed to spot any wildlife.

On Wednesday we visited Andasibe National Park. It was pleasantly cool walking in the rain forest and we heard and saw lots of Indri. Apart from the Indri there were also common brown lemurs and birds including rollers, kingfisher and drongos. At the old railway station in Andasibe, the 1994 and 2007 cyclone flood levels were marked and they were metres above the level of the platform.

Chameleons at Marazevo.

 Chameleons have very long tongues, but I was a bit slow and this one's has almost disappeared back into its mouth.

An example of a brightly coloured day gecko which makes absolutely no attempt to camouflage itself.

In contrast it is hard to believe these "dried leaves" are actually living creatures.

Comet moths which are about six inches across.

The tomato frog is a change from the usual green frog.

 An Indri - these three foot high lemurs keep in touch with an eerie wailing song similar to the sounds of whales. There are none in captivity.

A common brown lemur. The different species live at different height in the tree canopy. Most prefer to avoid the ground, but can leap many metres from branch to branch.

A white epiphytic orchid in Andasibe National Park.

Some of the metal souvenirs fashioned by handicapped people.

A view of Antananarivo.

One of the ubiquitous 2CV taxis in Tana.

Breakfast on the terrace of the Hotel Palissandre.

No shortage of bananas.

A familiar advertisement.

Another street scene in Tana.