Madagascar! The island of lemurs, chameleons, and baobabs. A global hotspot of biodiversity, home to over a quarter million fascinating plants and animals, 75% of which are found nowhere else on earth. And the home of the Malagasy people, a unique race born of Austronesian and African ancestors. Today we journeyed deep into the western lowlands of the island, in search of all these wonderful facets of this gem of the Indian Ocean.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, about the size of Texas. Its only preceded by Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo, and followed by Baffin and Sumatra, all of which you can visit with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic.
This morning we set out from the coastal town of Toliara, driving up through rolling hills covered with low scrub. As we drove we passed scattered villages surrounded by small fields of corn and cassava, brickmaker’s ovens on muddy banks near small wetlands and smoky, sooty yards where men were working log stills to make tamarind-flavored rum in the same way their ancestors did centuries ago.
The landscape around us changed from scrub to savannah to grazed grasslands and finally to a low, dry forest where we stopped for a walk in Zambitse National Park. We strolled along the easy trails with our local guides and very soon came upon a small group of Verraux’s Sifakas, our first wild lemurs! These beautiful snowy white primates were moving through the trees only a few feet above our heads, clambering from one branch to another and occasionally making long, graceful leaps as they searched for the tastiest tender leaves. We watched them for some time, burning up a great many pixels photographing, then moved on down the trail in search of more wildlife. And we saw quite a bit more: a huge Austerlitz chameleon, a crested drongo, and a Madagascar paradise flycatcher and, certainly the best of all, a little brown sportive lemur–a night active species—huddled into a broken crotch of a large tree but still in good view for our binoculars and cameras.
Back in our mini-vans we drove on, this time up into a sandstone upland where wonderful jagged, sculpted ribs and towers of pale golden rock thrust up from the grasslands around the road. And suddenly, there among the rocks, were our hotels for the night. It was amazing! Like a mirage in the desert—two beautiful, luxurious properties with green lawns and winding paths leading from the main building out to lovely bungalow rooms, all worked in among the wild rock formations as if they had grown there.
Our day concluded with a trip out into the rocky landscape to watch the sunset through a famous window in one of the long ramparts of sandstone. We spent a few minutes strolling through the grasslands and took many images of the sun blazing through the window, then turned to watch the full moon rise over the crags to the east. Madagascar had greeted us with its very best and we were ready for a delicious dinner and a good rest before continuing on our overnight trek.
