Land of Lemurs
We had prepared and planned to publish this blog last year (2022) on Aaron's birthday, 28th October, that would have coincided with the last Friday in October and is celebrated as World Lemur Day. At that time though, we had just come back from South Tirol, so we decided to publish that one first as it was current.
The Love of my life, Aaron, didn't survive the cancer, it took his body away from me, from this earth on 18th December 2022, it stole his body but never his light, his love for life, his constant positivity and optimism, he is and will always be pure Love and a true Angel. I love you Aaron, forever.
It is with the deepest sadness and grief that I write this now, my heart is broken and my life has imploded. I miss you, Aaron, forever. But to honour my beautiful, amazing husband, my soulmate, best friend and greatest Love of my life, and with the deepest gratitude for the beautiful and exciting 30 years of life we had together, I am now publishing this blog – for you my Love, Aaron, and for all of you who follow our blogs and knew Aaron, a beautiful Soul.
Madagascar had been on our travel radar for 10 years, but since the infrastructure, bad roads, quality of touring possibilities and accommodation was so poor in order to travel within a time frame of approx. 4 weeks, we decided to wait for some improvements. In 2005, we finally felt it was time to explore Madagascar, an amazing country with unique wildlife, including a hundred different species of lemurs and inspiringly beautiful scenery.
About 30% of all lemur species in Madagascar are now Critically Endangered – just one step away from extinction – 98% of them are threatened. In 2005, Madagascar counted an overall human population of less than 20 million. Nowadays the population has reached 30 million. The people are poor and need space and food. So this has caused the biggest threat to the lemurs: habitat destruction for agriculture and logging where primary forest is replaced by eucalyptus and pine trees, as well as hunting for bushmeat. As a result, lemurs are undergoing substantial declines in their population as their forest habitats continue to be destroyed. Today, they are the primates at highest risk of extinction!
Lemur is a Latin word and means 'Spirit of the Night. Interesting, because most species are active in the daytime. The smallest species weigh about 30 grams and the largest about 9.5 kg. Their life span is 16-20 years. Sadly, infant mortality is high and as many as 50% of infants do not survive beyond their first year, which is another reason their numbers are dropping.
When we arrived in the capital Antananarivo another person suddenly joined us in our taxi to the hotel. He was very friendly and told us he’s a travel agent and can organize everything for us. Of course we were a bit sceptical, but since we hadn't organised any cross country transfers in advance, only the accommodation in the places we wanted to see, we agreed to hire a driver. The problem was, that he needed a pre-payment of half the price, so they could load up on fuel to drive to us in Isalo a couple of weeks down the road. Normally, we would never agree to such a deal, but 'no risk no fun' as Aaron often said throughout life, so we did, thinking there was a high possibility that no driver would show up in Isalo... ;-).
From Tana (Antananarivo) we flew to Toliara which is located 940 km southwest of. As a port town it acts as a major import/export hub for commodities such as vanilla, which is by far the main export product of Madagascar. Our goal was Anakao, just a short ride away.
On the way we had to cross a small river where we saw a group of people looking at something on the ground. We stopped to look too and saw this scary looking boa. This is the largest snake species found on the island and grows up to 3 metres. But snakes are not to be feared in Madagascar. In general, there is far less or almost no risk from dangerous animals on the island unlike on mainland Africa. Which is why fearless Clare picked up the snake and put him or her to safety 😉.
We stayed at a little bungalow resort called Le Prince Anakao owned by a French expat. At that time it was the only option at this unspoiled beach. Today, there are over ten hotels sharing the amazing location and the ambiance is probably quite different. We had an amazingly relaxing and great time. At night, the sound of thousands of crickets kept Clare awake, but during the daytime, resting with our feet up in a sun lounger with the view of this beautiful beach was simply breathtaking!
The majority of Malagasy people have mixed African and Asian ancestry. The original settlers were actually from Borneo which is why the Malagasy language is similar to the one spoken in southern Borneo! At the beach we met this group of women who were so friendly and agreed to let us take their photo.
There are around 18 different tribes in Madagascar all with different cultures and traditions. People living in the highlands brought their knowledge of rice agriculture from Asia. In the coastal areas like Anakao, there are Vezo people who are fishermen and use their own build of sailing boats.
Of course we ate mostly fresh seafood. This lobster was definitely the best food we had during our trip through Madagascar.
The Avenue of the Baobabs is a beautiful group of Grandidier’s baobabs near Morondava on the drier west coast of the island. Today, it’s one of the most visited locations in the country because of the famous photo location. But in 2005, flights were so infrequent and unreliable that we had to skip this highlight. Instead, we found these trees along a road near Toliara on the way to the Parc National de l’Isalo.
Isalo is different to the rest of Madagascar with flat grassy plains and sandstone canyons formed by wind and water erosion. This park was one of the great highlights of our trip as well as the lodge ‘Hôtel le Relais de la Reine’ with its excellent location right next to the rocks.
We took a guide in this national park and went on a fantastic hike through this amazing landscape. He took us to many superb view points. It’s a photographer’s paradise even though in 2005 Aaron’s focus on photography at that time wasn't as strong as in the last 15 years.
Walking through the open plains you should take enough water and sun protection as it really gets very hot.
But there’s also the chance to cool down and enjoy a very refreshing swim in the Piscine Naturelle - a natural rock pool within the wind-eroded rock formations - or in the Cascade des Nymphes.
The photo is a forest area called Canyon des Makis. Here we saw our first three different species of lemurs in the wild.
The red-fronted brown lemur is relatively large being about 40–48 cm tall and an average body weight of 2.25 kg. This lemur can be found in the southeast and the southwest and therefore lives in both dry woodlands and tropical rainforests.
The Verreaux’s Sifaka is known as the dancing lemur for the way it moves across open ground. About the same length as the red-fronted brown lemur, this primate weighs around 3.5 kg therefore a bit heavier. This species is most threatened and their conservation status is ´critically endangered’.
The park is also known for its ring-tailed lemur population - certainly the must famous and recognised lemur of Madagascar due to its long, black and white ringed tail. Unfortunately, the population in the wild has reduced to as low as 2’000 individuals. This is a 95% decrease since the year 2000 and sadly, there are now more ring-tailed lemurs in zoos around the world than in the wild.
This animal is highly social, lives in groups of up to 30 mates and family and doesn’t seem to be scared of humans as long as you bring some bananas with you 😊.
For sunset we drove to the Fenêtre de l’Isalo, a natural rock window. From up here we enjoyed lovely views over the plains. What a great ending to a perfect day in an amazing national park.
Isalo is where we had arranged to meet our driver to take us back to Tana. We soon realized that without a driver, it would be almost impossible to travel over the 700 km as there were hardly any public buses with any type of comfort. So, to our great pleasure, we were very happy to see that our driver had indeed arrived in his old Peugeot that already had over 300’000 km under his wheels!
From Isalo you head to the southern part of the central plateaus. This is where Bara people predominantly raise and sell herds of zebu.
The houses of the Bara are so small that we couldn’t even stand in them. And they still don’t have electricity which is still the case for around 85% in Madagascar of their homes!
On our drive, we had so many beautiful encounters with the local people. Whenever we stopped we were greeted with big happy smiles. The majority of people in Madagascar live in extreme poverty. According to the World Bank, 75% are estimated to be living on less than $1.90 per day as of 2019 which makes Madagascar the 3rd poorest country on our planet!
And still, we saw nothing but friendly, smiling people! Once again, as we've said and seen on so many of our travels, it seems the poorer a country is the friendlier their people are! Like this lovely lady in the only ´shop’ we saw along the road for hundreds of kilometres!
Our next stop was Fianarantsoa which is the 5th largest city in Madagascar with a population of 190’000. It’s considered to be the capital of wine, but we didn't see any local wine so the vineyards may have been planted in the last 18 years. The city is nicely located in a hilly region.
Not far away lies the Parc National de Ranomafana where we saw the eastern rain forest for the first time. It’s the third largest national park and home to 12 species of lemurs including the rare golden bamboo lemur which we unfortunately didn’t find.
But we were lucky to see two other species: the red-bellied lemur loves to eat guava fruit and is therefore easier to find by a guide who knows where to find guava fruit trees. Males are mostly brown with dramatic white eye patches and females have white bellies.
The second one was the Milne-Edward sifaka which is a large species with a weight of about 6 kg. In 2008 there were an estimated number of 30’000 individuals in the wild. Today, researchers estimate that fewer than 10,000 remain, and of which only about 3´500 habituate protected areas.
Our next stop was Ambositra which is surrounded by rice fields. Malagasy people have one of the highest per capita consumption of rice worldwide, with an average consumption of 120 kg per year - 1.5 times more than the Chinese! Just imagine how the country depends on water if you need about 2000 litres for one single kilo of rice!
More than 70% of Malagasy people work in agriculture, and of those, more than half in rice fields. It’s the Betsileo people who are probably the most efficient traditional rice farmers in the world living in the south of the Madagascar plateau.
Further north is Antsirabe, the third largest city of Madagascar. It’s famous for the brightly painted rickshaws and French colonial buildings....
....... and more rice fields.
Close by, we visited a large local market where the men wore hats and the women headscarves. It was a beautiful atmosphere.
Another 170km from there and we arrived in Tana. In 2005 the capital counted a population of 700’000 and as of today it’s over 1.25 million. The location is quite beautiful and we took a walk around from our base at the Hotel Colbert, which at that time was the best option. On the photo below you can easily identify the Rova - the royal castle - on the highest hill of Tana, where kings lived between 1610 and 1896.
We continued our trip to the east into the rain forest where we stayed at the Vakona Forest Lodge in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park which is home to 11 lemur species. We found two lemur species which were reintroduced from threatened areas where habitat loss means the incumbent population is unsustainable. The first was the colourful Diademed sifaka with its characteristic markings and large physical size. It’s the second largest with an average weight of 6.5 kg and a total adult length of around 1 metre half of which, is its tail.
The second reintroduced species is the black-and-white ruffed lemur. We found it amazing how different all these lemur look. We thought this one looks like a professor 😊. Here’s another example why lemurs are so near to extinction: The numbers of black-and-white ruffed lemurs dropped by 80% in the 21 years before 2020, an equivalent of three generations!
This common brown lemur wasn’t afraid of us at all and he loved to stay on our shoulders 😊. After this amazing encounter we realized that he probably needed a good wash since our shirts were really smelly and one wash wasn’t nearly enough to get rid of the odor.
The most famous resident of the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park is the indri - the largest lemur with a head-body length of about 64–72 cm and a weight of between 6 and 9.5 kg. This teddy bear lemur makes a very loud, distinctive sound that can be heard up to 4km away. Standing in the rain forest and listening to this sound was an unbelievably unforgettable experience. As other lemurs do well in zoos, only one indri has ever lived more than one year in captivity and none have bred successfully. Researches estimate that 80% of these beautiful animals will be gone in the next 30 years.
Madagascar is not just about lemurs. Next to beautiful birds you can find amazing chameleons in the forest. Look at this amazing Parson’s chameleon which can adjust its colour from dark brown to bright green thanks to pigment cells called melanophores which control the amount of light that gets reflected. It’s considered to be the largest chameleon in the world and is 47-68 cm long. Longevity in the wild was estimated at 10 to 12 years which is also an extraordinary long time for a chameleon.
This baby Parson’s chameleon has a red colour and it seems that it still needs to practice a bit more to find the right colour mix of his skin to be invisible 😊.
Our guide also found this brown leaf chameleon on the ground. Its appearance mimics that of a dead leaf and is the size of a finger.
We were also very lucky to see this little frog. Even with about 350 frog species they are hard to spot since many of these frogs are very very small.
And when we didn’t see any animals we just observed all the beautiful details of the plants. How amazing do these flowers look, when you look a bit more closely?
After this unique and rewarding tour we were ready for some relaxing time at the beach. We picked a resort on Nosy Iranja with beautiful white sand and where sea turtles lay their eggs. But unfortunately, we were advised at the end of our trip that the hotel has closed. As an alternative we went to the Amarina Beach Resort in Nosy Be. The location and the beach were certainly beautiful but two issues made the experience less delightful:
Firstly, there were sandflies on the beach. Everybody who has experienced sandfly bites knows that they get itchy and more itchy every day. Yuck!!! There was no way to stay at the beach so we had to escape to the pool.
Secondly, a group of very spoiled young Russians were staying at this resort who had no respect whatsoever for other guests or the staff. A couple of nights they played really loud music during the whole night and no staff dared to tell them off.
At home we learned that our originally booked hotel was open and still exists today. What a shame we were given this misinformation at the time.
On the second last day we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary before it was time to leave this unique and magic country which we would love to go back to. We found 9 different species of lemurs, so there are still 90 more to find 😊. How about on our 30th anniversary in 2025?
Our other African blogs so far:
"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"
(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)
Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker
© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker