November 9, 2010
Forming a group for a group for Masoala was both more necessary than I expected and more difficult that I had hoped. I was carrying a scary amount of cash, more than enough, I thought. Unfortunately, the cost of the boat, already expensive when the guide book was published had more than tripled and there just were not enough tourists. In the end, I gave in and drained more than two weeks budget and almost my entire cash reserve on a six night solo venture to Masoala and Nosy Managabe.
I left on a Tuesday, one day short of one week after arriving in Maroantsetra. Having just taken a financial bath, I had not considered that I might be in for another, more literal drenching. The sky opened up during the two hour boat ride. There was a tarp and my packs had rain covers but I had not properly prepared for such a deluge . I ended up with a slightly dampened sleeping bag and deep concern about the survival of my netbook. I managed to dry the sleeping bag adequately before opting not to sleep it on account that it was too warm. I waited until the humidity dropped to “muggy” before testing the netbook.
It rained a lot at Mosoala. Except for a thirty hour period across days two and three, it rained every day and night. And yet the biggest practical issue I had was lack of water. To save money, I camped in the village. There was no running water and the collected rain water was not enough to bathe or to wash clothing.
Although I was neither bathing nor changing my clothes nearly as often as I would have liked, I still had fun in the forest. The light was limited and the obstructions many but I managed decent photos of Red Ruffed Lemurs, White Fronted Brown Lemurs, as well as the much sought after ( by bird people) Helmet Vanga. All of this was in spite of the bizarre timing favored by my guide. The rain forest is always best at dawn. 7:30am is two hours too late. After two days of trusting the guide's judgment, I requested an early start for the third morning. It poured buckets until near 6:30am. By the time it looked safe to go out, it was almost 7:30 anyway.
I requested an early start for the fourth day but there was no outing that day. At 7:30am, we climbed in the boat for the 1.5 hour trip and the final phase of the Eastern Rain Forest Odyssey.
The sea was heavy. It rained little. My sleeping bag was safely inside the main pack and under the rain cover. I was less concerned. Then I saw a gray shroud hanging over an island: my first impression of Nosy Mangabe.
Nosy Mangabe reminds me a bit of Bako, one of my favorite parks in Malaysian Borneo. Both are lush coastal rain forests littered with giant boulders and thick with mosquitoes. The Madagascar park service has a long way to go to match the sophistication of Bako's facilities, however. No shop, no restaurant, no dorms or bungalows. A few simple structures are available to keep the relentless rain away from the tents. There is running water; fed by a waterfall that doubles as the only fully functional shower. Laundry is futile.
While it easy enough to find water to wash clothes, they will never dry.
Over the two days I was there, I saw most of what Nosy Mangabe has to offer, though I was still not impressed much by my guide. It took a few attempts but I managed quite good photos of white faced brown lemurs and more than good enough shots of the black and white ruffed lemurs. My request to go out at dawn was accepted but ignored when the time came. I'm not sure that it made much difference. Nosy Mangabe is not known for its birds birds and I never heard of other tourists seeing anything else all that interesting to me, at least in day light.
The night was another matter. My first night walk was almost pointless. A chameleon and a sleeping kingfisher vs multiple mouse lemurs and a glimpse of an aye aye reported by other tourists. The second outing was at least somewhat productive, netted a couple of bad photos of a mouse lemur vs excellent mouse lemur photos and a tenrec (not from the same people, however)
I tried for another early morning trek and got it, sort of. We set out at 6:30am (sunrise is a 5:30am) on the trail leading to the rock etched with inscriptions by 16th century dutch sailors. I looked for frogs (found a couple), my guide didn't seem to be looking for anything. I managed a good photo of a frog species I hadn't seen before, a few more lemur photos, and a snap of a large crab crawling on the forest floor. Small crabs are very common on Nosy Mangabe. They are always scurrying through the leaf litter and a couple of them even set up camp in the drain pipe of the bathroom sink. This one, however, was big enough to be dinner.
The boat ride back to Maroantsetra was uneventful. There was no rain and the sea was relatively calm. There was time to get all my clothing clean, which is good because I don't expect to stay more than one night each for the next two stops. I need to get to Kirindy as quickly as possible. If I'm a little lucky and don't delay, I have a decent chance of getting there in time for the fossa mating frenzy.
Today, I traveled by air to Antananarivo and then,without spending the night, by taxi-brousse to Antsirabe. It was made a little tricky by the failure of the ATM at the airport but I found a shuttle service which, in combo with a more local taxi got me to the taxi-brousse station without completely draining the cash I had remaining. The ATM in Antsirabe worked which is fortunate because I was down to about $10 after checking into the hotel.
I'm hoping to leave tomorrow for the West coast town of Morondava, last stop before Kirindy. First, though, I need to catch up on three weeks of neglected Internet. I'm a little frightened.