Wed, Aug 21 - To Ankarafantsika National Park

We got up at 5 AM and joined the others for breakfast overlooking the pool.  At seven we had to leave this luxurious hotel and load back on the van.  Tuvo drove us a short distance to a beach where we were to board a small outboard motorboat to cruise around the delta.  There was no jetty, so we had to roll up our pants, and wade through the surf, and clamber aboard!  

Madagascar Bee-eater

We settled into plastic chairs as the twin engines roared us up into the Betsiboka River delta which consists of marshy islands and low woodlands. 

Bernier’s White Ibis

We got good views of  Bernier’s White Ibis and Humblot’s Heron, both endangered, and Greater Flamingos. 

Bernier's Teal

Greater Flamingo

  We passed small settlements cut into the woods - fishing and/or charcoal production?

At noon we returned and all disembarked successfully without getting too wet!  We had lunch at the Baobab, loaded up our suitcases and took off,

stopping briefly to admire an 800-year old baobab in a traffic circle.  Tuvo drove us east through the city and into the countryside with miles of rolling grassland and small villages and rice paddies.

At 4 we entered Ankarafantsika National Park, about 300,000 acres,  fairly recently created so it includes small hamlets of people who hopefully will benefit from the park and protect it.  We stopped at the main campground and immediately saw a troop of very furry, endearing Coquerel’s Sifakas - our first lemurs!! 

Coquerel’s Sifaka

They are about 2’ long, and were leaping around the treetops.  They have white body, head, and tail, with chestnut faces and chest, and reliably roost at the park entrance for the night, making them one of the easier lemurs to see.

Lemurs are known as “Prosimians” - before the monkeys - and survived and evolved into many species on Madagascar. They never had to compete with the more-evolved monkeys and apes here as they would have had to in Africa and elsewhere, until, of course, humans came along!

Fano, our guide, has built a small hotel nearby as the facilities at the park headquarter are so primitive.  His hotel, the Tia Asity, ("I love the Asity", a bird we will look for tomorrow) has an open-air dining room, overlooking four attractive, thatched bungalows which are quite spacious. We’ll be here three nights, a slight change in plans, as we were to drive back to our beach-side hotel on our way back to Tana.

We met at seven for a good dinner with an amazing coconut tart for dessert, returned to our room, turned on the fan, and collapsed into bed.