DAY 49
Another day in the car to go back to Antsirabe. We're reaching our limits with bad roads because it's not possible for us to do anything anymore but look at the road or face the prospect of being road sick. Before breaking for lunch, we stop by the Benedictine monastery to buy cheese. The whole congregation is gone but for a nun. She shows us around, sells us their last cheese and even opens the church for us. The center for their order is in Paris and the church is built similarly she tells us. The walls are white with bricks of different colors for arches and pillars, the furniture are plain wood. The whole is very simple but bright and peaceful.
DAY 50
Yet another day in the car to go to Andasibe national park. We both still feel nauseous from yesterday and stop at a pharmacy to buy something for the motion sickness. We hang in there with the prospect of a few days off the road when we'll stay in the lake. The landscape around Andasibe is different. The land looks more fertile, the trees are different. The little handicraft shops by the road bring memories of the very beginning of our trip with Justin and Adrien; The Little trucks, the animals, the drums and mini-guitars,... It feels like it was such a long time ago! We then pass by the ludicrous and eccentric tomb tour again and enjoy the sight of the nice red brick houses by the road. For lunch we come back to the delicious "Le coin du foie-gras" obviously, to feast on foie gras, civet de lapin and homemade yogurt; Delicious and super cheap!
After a few more hours of a zigzagging road where we are able not to puke (it's an accomplishment) we finally pull up at Andasibe. The hotel scene there is laaame. Bad quality and overpriced. I suspect the park is too close to the capital for its own good. Unexpectedly we meet the Dutch couple again. We knew their itinerary but though they were a day ahead of us. Happy mistake! It's always nice to have dinner with friendly faces.
DAY 51
When we enter the park, the Ingri's are shouting. We hear two different types of shouts. A horn like one that is for alarm (predators, invading families) and a shout that is much more melodic, used for communication and for marking their territory. Our first experience with an Ingri is disastrous. 30 people are looking at the lemur, talking pictures and trying to imitate it to get its attention. Sad display. On top of that some of the guides are playing recorded sounds on their phone, confusing the poor lemur. We don't want to be part of this and ask our guide to leave. He does not even seem to understand why...anyway. The place is teeming with lemurs but they don't compete for the same resources so they all live in peace. We come across 2 golden sifaka, one small lemur fulvus, a wooly avahi (nocturnal specie) that is desperately trying to sleep and stumble upon another group of indri. They are very close and the humans are behaving much better this time. The indri is a tall lanky lemur with the particularity of not having a tail. It's the only lemur without tail but it does not seem to be a problem as they travel gracefully from tree to tree.
Deeper in the park we visit a 2nd family. No babies there but a group of 5. 3 of them are visible, the other two are in the canopy. They eat quietly and hum. 5 is a big group, they have one baby every 2-3 year and they leave the family group around 8-10 to found a family of their own. We're the only humans this time so we can move quietly around and observe them without stressing them; a much nicer experience. Shortly after we spot a clearing ahead with a bird of paradise singing. Birds are very elusive in all the forests we visited so we enjoy that occasion to observe one. It ends up spotting us and fly away. We're about to exit the park when we spot a gray bamboo lemur half hidden in its bamboo grove eating bamboo shoots. It's super small, super cute but super shy ;) Barring our way is one last weird animal. It's a spider, bright red and weird looking. It's called a crab spider.
During lunch, we spot a lemur from the terrace of the hotel. We're definitely getting used to spotting them and it seems there's no need to go in the forest to see them ;) Just like we did in Ranomafana, we planned a night visit here too. A chance to see different kinds of creatures and maybe the super elusive (and tiny) mouse lemur. We start with 2 chameleons then a baby praying mantis spotted by our honorary scout and expert spotter: Mar. The visit is a bit dull until we see bright eyes in the distance. Our guide gets very animated and we start scrambling in the forest towards these eyes. After a lot of effort we'll have a quick glimpse at a nocturnal lemur probably wondering what these 3 noisy creatures are doing in the forest so late...We return to the path and resume the hike with more ugly spiders, mantis, chameleons and finally one frog at the end. We heard them sing all along but they are nearly impossible to find. Once outside of the park, we walk along the road, still looking for interesting things to see. We're almost at the railway station, where our drivers awaits us, when our guide spots an avahi, fully awake this time ;)
DAY 52
We get up with the Indri singing in the forest. Some find it spooky but I like the way they sing. For the 1st time since we're in Madagascar, we leave ahead of schedule! It's not a very long ride to Brickaville where we change for a 4*4 to reach Manambato, 29km away. We'll stay one night there then take a boat to the hotel hidden in the middle of the lake. While eating at the hotel, we meet a group of French who are going to a reserve north of our hotel in the lake. We're tempted to see if we can tag along but they leave in a hurry for their boat so we take our time to finish lunch then head to the beach to see if we can find a cheaper option to cross the lakes. To our surprise, the French group is still there, waiting in their boat for their pilot. They are ok for us to tag along, we just have to see with the pilot once he gets there. When he finally shows up, and when we are finally able to understand each other, he proposes a fair price so we go fetch our stuff and are on our way, one day earlier to the secluded hotel.
That place feels like being on a deserted island. And the feelings is reinforced by the fact that we're the only tourists there. To be honest it feels a bit weird. Instead of frogs, like in the Tsingy, we have a huge gecko living in the shower. We settle in and try to get used to this unusual place. When the night come we feel even farther from civilization. The sky is gorgeous with so little light pollution and the wind brings the sound of the ocean, loud and impressive.