Lemurs

We had a good sleep in this comfortable hotel and were up and out by 7.30 for the Ranomafana NP walk. I’m still suffering from the reaction to the doxycycline but advice is to ignore it and forego the Imodium.

We split into 2 groups, slow and fast. Everyone but me thought they were fast but eventually the 3 sisters, Dennis and Mr C joined me. It was an arduous 4 hours climbing up through prickly slippy undergrowth as we had to leave the tracks to find the elusive limits. We saw just the same as the others- golden bamboo, lesser bamboo and greater bamboo lemur (very endangered, only one female left in this area, and a few in another park) as well as the Milne-Edwards Sifaka. We saw the last female left of the ? Type. We also saw some chameleon and a roller bird which moved too fast to photograph.

We had a sandwich lunch and while some people went for another walk I opted to go to the thermal pool with Carmen, the youngest member of the group. Hari advised us to take only the 5000 entrance fee for safety and take no valuables. Carmen’s husband decided to accompany us down through the village and across the rickety bridge. At the entrance we found we needed another 1000 to have the required swim hat. We hadn’t got the extra so opted to walk back via a push hotel and spend our 5000 on a beer in the lovely garden. By then I’d lost the 5000 from pocket - suspect it fell out when I took out a tissue to wipe the sweat from myself but Nick kindly shared his beer.

It was a hot sticky walk back up to our hotel. I’d walked 5 miles and the knees are knackered. It’ll be another early start tomorrow’s for yet another long drive. A week after starting the trip this is the first time I’ve had a couple of hours to chill!

Mr C arrived back to find he had been leeched - a huge lump on his foot - and he’s on anti-coagulants. Oops.