This morning we had an early start as our driver, Carl, wanted to get out of Tana before the traffic hit. Breakfast at 6am and expected to be out the door by 7. We’ve learned that times here are more relaxed than we’re used to. Meaning 0600 breakfast was more like 0615 and the omelette person never did show up. We didn’t suffer though – lots of good choices for breakfast. And Carl showed up at 0745 because he said he was washing the car. I will say that the SUV was spotless. Whatever. We headed out of town and I didn’t find the traffic too bad at all. I’ve certainly been in much worse.
A few shots out the SUV window:
We did stop in some village at an Orange store. Orange is a huge European mobile company and has a good presence here. 110 000 MGA ($44) later and we have 20GB of data. Good thing too because our wifi at our lodge kinda sucks. We’ve learned to bring our own internet.
It was about a 4 hour drive to Vakona Lodge. We made one stop at in Marozevo at the Reserve Peyrieras Madagascar Exotic where we got to see and hold some chameleons. There are 120 species of chameleons in Madagascar and they vary widely by size and colour. We got to see about 10 different species. Not all change colour. We also got to see and play with some very funky looking geckos. They had weird leafy like tails and looked like tree branches. Really interesting stuff.
We also go to see them feeding on crickets. I managed a slow motion video:
We arrived at the Vakona Lodge in time for a late lunch and then a nice nap. Jet lag is still hitting us. A nice dinner at the lodge and off to bed for us.
Tomorrow we will see the reason for the trip – lemurs. We are looking forward to seeing them.
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