Sun, Aug 25 - Flying to Diego Suarez

The alarm went off at 3:15 and we staggered up, made coffee and tea, and put our luggage outside our door.  Our great crew loaded the van and we took off for the short drive to the airport.   There we checked in - Fano again somehow stuffed our third suitcase into his so we wouldn’t have to pay extra!  A little cafe was open and due to the French influence, excellent pastries were available, so Bob and I split a figure eight of puff pastry filled with chocolate and a Fanta.  At 6:45 we boarded and took off into clouds.  

We were served a third breakfast snack of a banana-filled donut and cruised over rugged mountains and quite a lot of undamaged forest.  The beautiful circular bay of Diego Suarez appeared and we landed, got our bags, and emerged into warm trade winds and tropical vegetation.  Fano found our local guide and we loaded into two 4-wheel drive vehicles and set off inland toward the Amber Mountain National Park. 

The Nature Lodge

We drove through farm land and up to about 2000’ where we suddenly turned off the road, through a tiny village to Nature Lodge.  We walked towards the main hotel building with its large wrap-around veranda and settled into seats with a view all the way to Diego Suarez and the ocean. 

We had some Three Horse Beers as our rooms weren’t quite ready, and then decided to order lunch.  I had a delicious piece of fish with leek sauce and some ice cream.

Our rooms are small bungalows overlooking the view and very nicely outfitted.  We snoozed until 2:30 and then met up the vans and were driven up another 1000’ and into the park.  The road became very rough and rutted and we had to creep along.  Angelum, our new local guide, had us come to a halt to see a lovely Amber Mountain Forest-Thrush, and then amazingly found a very tiny chameleon. 

He has very good eyes!   We walked along a trail though a lovely green forest full of monkey-puzzle trees (we found out later that these were planted by the French and are Not native) and other large species.

Chameleon head

  Sanford’s Brown Lemur appeared, all brown with white whiskers on the males.   We got great views of the White-necked Rail, a notoriously shy bird. 

Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher

We were going to go on a night walk once it got dark, but at five, David realized that we were all exhausted and suggested driving back to our hotel for dinner and bed!  A great idea!  We drove back through the tiny villages leading to the park, past people heading back to their homes.  There is very little electricity - only a few small shops had lights on.  The grinding poverty of the area is quite profound.  Sitting for 12 hours in a dark hut must be a difficult life, although most people waved cheerily to us.  

   At six  we had a good dinner of an escargot starter for Bob and me, followed by duck and lasagne.