Mon, Aug 19 - Recovering in Tana

We awoke at 8:45 AM and realized that the restaurant was to close at 9:30, and so hopped out of bed and dressed. 

View from our Room

I had slept like a log and felt pretty good.  We found the others, including our friend and guide, David Bishop, and got coffee, fruit, crepes, and pastries. 

We walked around the attractive grounds for a bit and returned to our rooms to organize our gear.

We met up for lunch; Bob had good vegetable soup and I had a strange essence of fish broth. 

The Beer of Madagascar

We relaxed for a while and then met up at the bus at 3 PM for a short drive past the markets we had seen last night, now bustling with goods and customers.  We turned onto a new, excellent 2-lane road that the Chinese had just built last year and were able to drive speedily along through rice paddies and villages.   We passed through a gate in a high brick wall and found ourselves in a quiet wilderness area, right in the middle of the city, consisting of a large lake surrounded by reeds.   A man who liked duck-hunting years ago had purchased this land, and his heirs decided to keep it, but as a nature reserve and formed the Tsarasaotra Park.

Madagascar Malachite Kingfisher

Red-billed Duck

White-faced Whistling Ducks

  We spend a couple of hours walking slowly along a path around the lake, logging in birds, a beautiful iridescent blue butterfly, and some interesting plants.

At 5:30 it was staring to get dark, so we returned to the bus, and back to the hotel.  Bob and I walked over to the bar and got a Cuba Libre, surprisingly on the menu, and beer and waited for the others. 

We had a good dinner of sautéed shrimp for me and a pork chop with mustard sauce for Bob.  More beer, the List (David supplied us all with a printed list of expected birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians which we review together every evening, marking the quantity seen by the group). 

Dave, Nancy, and David work on the List

We are to fly up north tomorrow afternoon, and will be limited to one checked bag each and one carry-on - so we’ll have to rearrange our stuff and leave one bag behind.  Bed at 10.