Last night we met our first driver/guide (sorry, I didn’t catch his name) to arrange an early departure for our first sightseeing. He talked about visiting “Blue Hill” and I had no idea what he was talking about.
Along our way to that mysterious hill we stopped at the Tsarasaotra Bird Sanctuary, a protected area with many birds.
The streets were crowded with cars and pedestrians heading for the city stadium where some religious event took place. We took a shortcut but the city was congested all over the place.
In general the street life in Africa is much richer than what we used to in Europe.
Same as in Angola when you get stuck in traffic there is so much to see!
Passing many tobms of the local rich we finally left the crowds behind.
And there was it, the Blue Hill or Ambohimanga, a former royal fortress with king Andrianampoinimerina's palace.
The palace is a quiet modest dwelling, it's actually a simple black wooden hut.The central pole of the hut is made from a single trunk. The king was very paranoid and scared of assasination so he usually hid in the rafters when visitors arrived, signaling whether the guest was welcome by dropping pebbles onto his wife’s head.
Behind and up the hut are the baths that the king used once a year together with his 12 wives. Afterwards his bathwater was considered sacred. According to our guide people still drink the water here.
Next to the hut is the elegant summer palace of Queen Ranavalona, who was widely hated for her cruelty.
Many local people still believe in the holiness of this place, there is a huge heart shaped stone where zebus are offered. There are few smaller places where you can offer smaller animals like chicken, as well as sweets and honey for luck and fertility.
Maarten was impressed by the blood stains but got really interested in the colorfull sweets scattered all over the exposed rock which offered a nice view of the surrounding countryside.
And then one of the gardeners pointed into the tree.
Maarten was all shaking with excitement. There was it at last!
Chameleon munching on cricket!
When the poor animal disappeared in the brush again our guide took us to the restaurant just outside of this holy place.
A group of young people from the village performed traditional Malagasy singing and dancing.
There was more waiting for us today.
It is a long way to the Anjozorobe forest. It's some 100 km north of the capital but it took us more than 3 hours to get there.
Especially the last part of the trip was quite challenging when the paved road ended and we bounced along a narrow, dusty, dirt road for the last hour before arriving at our lodge.
This small lodge has such a unique location, is the only one in the forest and offers ultimate tranquility.
It was so quiet far away from civilization, roads and crowds, an unique silence. For me it was like coming home.
After dark we made a guided walk hoping to see some wildlife. The night walk was quite exciting especially for Maarten but also a bit disappointing as we didn’t see any lemurs.
There were some chameleons along the path and a little bird in his nest.
Back at the lodge they served zebu for dinner so I went to bed hungry. No problem.
As usually Maarten woke up before the dusk but this time I didn’t mind. The whole night there were the most strange wildlife sounds but now in the early morning the forest was shrouded in mist and in the silence you could hear the lemurs calling. A magical experience!
Just after breakfast Jean Paul, the guide, awaited us for our second walk to look for lemurs. A German couple wished us luck as they spent 5 hours searching the forest without any success.
But we were lucky and saw many lemurs today, at least 5 species! I can name only Indri, Sifaka and nocturnal wooly lemur.
It was very difficult to take pictures, some were running across tree branches, others soaring from tree to tree.
This hike was quite exhausting. We started early but after hours walking through the forest it was getting really hot.
We were glad to be back in our cozy bungalow.
Maarten made friends with the staff. They were very friendly helping him to find his most favorite animals.
He was obsessed!
We had to say goodbye to this magical place and return back to the capital.
~~~
I wasn’t glad at all to be back in the city. It was the same chaos and was choked with traffic just like Luanda.
Our hotel was again special and a huge contrast with the eco lodge from last night. Seeing our extremely outdoorsy son finding his way through our antique decorated room made me a bit stressed.
Luckily he was very tired and after the sundowner served on hotel terrace he was glad to snuggle in his bed with Pungo (or Londo) lemur.
Even though I prefer the tranquility of the nature this was a special place. Our room was in a tower and the small windows offered breathtaking panoramic views of the capital.
Unfortunately next day our flight to Antsiranana was rescheduled and we had to wake up at 3 o clock!
Our guide assured us that it could get worse and we will be lucky if the plane really will take off.
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