Off to see the lemurs

Leaving the coastline we head inland over the rainforests of eastern Madagascar in search of lemurs. The locals say we were lucky because this time of the year the clouds sit on top of the mountains and getting in and out with our planes can be impossible. We navigated past some cloud formations but it was clear for our afternoon landing after a 5 hour flight across from the west then up the east coast. 

The next morning until about 11 we were in the clouds, but it burned off and we headed back to the east coast, leaving a day early in case the weather changed. The runway was quite challenging as there were tall trees at either end and was waterlogged. Andrew and Sean in the taildragger went in first and we followed in our Sling swooping down over the tall trees to connect with the runway. Getting out the next morning we had a briefing on short-field take-offs over obstacles, but the Sling and our technique got us off the ground and over the trees again without too much difficulty.

Our premature departure, a day earlier than schedule, great controversy because our flight permits for Madagascar were specifically dated and we were held up at Toamasina, our next refuelling stop, for the airspace contravention.

Fortunately this is the home base of Madagascar's largest aeroclub and we had made prior contact with the vice-chairman of the club who arrived to meet us and help us for the afternoon negotiating in French with the local administration to get us off the hook. Nothing materialised of the contravention but we were forced to stay in Toamasina overnight so that we could leave the next day in accordance with the dates specified on our permit. Stephan and his fellow club members kindly carted us into town to find hotel accommodation and we spent this unscheduled stop-over in the city, another unique experience.

Approaching the east coast after crossing from Toliara in the west

Flying north up the east coast for the point we would venture inland to the rain forests

We landed in the rain forests at Vakona, on a waterlogged grassed runway in the middle of the forest

We had to take a 2km walk up the road to the nearest hotel where we could phone to confirm our transport to the hotel we had booked into about 18kms away along some challenging rural roads

The most amazing thing is that in the middle of nowhere they have built some pretty amazing hotel with superb accommodation facilities and their own generated electricity

We stayed at the Hotel Lodge Eulophiella near the Andasibe National Park in the rain forests.

Mosquito nets were the order of the day as this is maleria country

Our hungry group of 12 anxiously awaited dinner. As we were isolated, most of our stop-overs were half board - dinner and breakfasts included

Wooden bridge over the stream connecting our chalets to the main buildings

en route back to our planes in the morning we stopped to walk through the Andasibe village

Elections in Madagascar were scheduled for that week Fri 31 July

We had a very bumpy ride on the back of a 4x4 bakkie with everyone's baggage

This cat enjoying the view from atop the window shutter

It rains every morning here, so every day's glimmer of sun helps dry the washing, mostly done in the local streams

They have a few mini-buses like ours, but the main form of transport was bicycles and cycle-rickshaws

Local butchery

Fresh vegetables and dried fish

Marc wondering how serviceable this vehicle is

Their rum was excellent

We found the lemurs - black and white raft lemur

Brown lemur. We also saw bamboo lemurs

Haggling at Toamasina about our airspace infringment. We were told that another aircraft parked there had been impounded for 6-months pending an investigation into their infringement so were were anxious we might have to leave our aircraft behind while they debated our minor infraction. The permits said 72 hours leeway was allowed, but they now said this was on either side of the entry/departure dates and didn't mean we could vary the dates en route.

Greetings and goodwill from South Africa to Stephan from the local aeroclub and our chief French-speaking negotiator

We drew 200 000 Malagasy Ariary in multiples when we could find an ATM in the city, and these converted to about R800 so everything we paid for was in the thousands - huge numbers to deal with

These brown lemurs were hungry for banana and would go to any heights for a taste