The next leg of the trip takes us ‘oop north’ and we fly (this time) into Diego Suarez. The descent and landing was one of the bumpiest I have ever been on. Apparently it is always like this but it gets worse in July/August so I am glad we came here when we did!
Our first stop in the north was the Amber Mountain, a hot, humid and wet rainforest (it does what it says on the tin). Amber Mountain National Park takes its name from the resin that is found in the local trees, said to hold medicinal qualities (and still used by the local Malagasy people) with waterfalls and volcanic lakes surrounding you. Although the area is a rainforest when you walk through it, it feels like an English forest but I suppose it mainly rains in England so is no different really. Here we saw one of the smallest Brookesia (chameleon) in the world plus lemurs and birds galore. It was here that I mentioned that I would do anything to see lemurs and Stew nicknamed me the lemur whore! Harsh but fair I think lol!!!
We went to two waterfalls that were sacred as they contain their ancestors and for miles around people come to them to leave offerings and ask for 7 girls and 7 boys for a family (!!!!) and any other items that they wanted, possibly like money to pay for all the kids that they have just been granted by their ancestors.
The hotel we stayed in here (The Litchi Tree) is owned by a French guy who is also a really good chef, we only stayed here one full day but the food was exquisite, it was worth the stay.
We moved onto the tsingy forests based in and around Ankarana. Tsingy in Malagasy is translated to ‘ ‘to sharp to walk on’ and boy is it! We went to see the red tsingy, which is a formation of sandstone which has been formed by erosion of the rivers in the area, it is like looking down onto a martian landscape.
We travelled through many villages with each village all selling the same produce. We saw a mango village, a raffia basket village and a chilli sauce village! It took me quite a while to get Stew out, I thought we would be setting up home there.
When we got to Ankarana we visited the grey tsingy which is made of limestone rather than sandstone but the same thing happens with water formation. To get to the grey tsingy we had to walk for 4km but we did some nature watching as we went. The first 10 minutes of the walk was pleasant and we saw geckos and birds and then the horse flies found us…. They are about twice the size of a normal fly and ten times more persistent. I ended up with over 40 bites on my shoulders alone to the little b****ards!
We walked to see the first glimpse of the area of grey tsingy to see what it looked like and have a photo taken from the view point. We continued walking in the forest until we came to a more arid open area (less horse flies hoorah) and started the descent to the tsingy forest and then ascended to the canopy walk (eek) across it! It all sounds so easy when you write it quickly! The descent was across loads of normal rocks which were a little lose in places and the ascent and walking across the tsingy was treacherous and really hot! The tsingy looks as if it has been sharpened to the sharpest points possible and you have to walk across these teetering on long drops down. Both of us were very very careful and worried about falling as if we did there wouldn't be much left of us if we fell or there would be broken bones and a lot of blood! I don’t like heights at the best of times but seeing jagged rocks below was terrifying. There is not a chance that you would be able to do this walk in Europe or the US without walkways being put over the tsingy as it is too dangerous for the western world. The sight of the tsingy is incredible.
We then had to manoeuvre the suspension bridge made of wood and wires, my head for heights was screaming no but I went ahead. We could only go over one at a time as the bridge wouldn’t hold more than that, but I was glad as Stew couldn’t bounce on it behind me. My heart was in my mouth but I did it.
We also visited bat caves, clambering through and up little crevasses to see the bats who were very vocal about at our attendance in the cave.
We had very good lemur encounters here.One of the best was a mum with a year old son and a baby that had became inquisitive enough to start jumping around in the trees on her own. When we first arrived the mum was cleaning the baby and wouldn't let her go until every last bit of her was clean including her tail. Then she ran off over just past us and was looking at us when big brother came to protect her. While this was happening mum was keeping a watchful eye and when there was too much space between her kids and her with us in the middle she came over to round the family up and move away from us.
Then there were some lemurs waiting around the picnic area in the hope of food and one little boy was very inquisitive and came to my level to look at me. He jumped from tree to tree around me listening to me jabber on in English to him not understanding a word I said but it was such a lovely experience.
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