Tsingy Thingys in Reserve Special L'Ankarana, Madagascar

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Martin and Michelle on Tsingy

From the gorgeous beaches of the Emerald Sea, we started to head South.  After walking around in circles in Diego Suarez, trying to find the taxi brousse station, one actually found us.  You are always a little concerned when they find you, but it worked out again, and we arrived in one piece at Reserve Special L'Ankarana.  Another interesting park in Madagascar that was not only interesting for wildlife, but also the Tsingy that were within the park boundaries.  Tsingy is basically limestone that has been eroded over centuries by wind and water, into some amazing formations with razor sharp edges.

Upon our arrival in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, and subsequent acquiring of accommodation for our cheapest price in Madagascar (Yeah!!), we rushed to join a couple on a tour through the park.  A guide is mandatory in the park, but costs the same price for 1 or up to 4 people, so sharing a guide is a good way to save money.  Olivia and Ralf, from Germany, were ready to leave so Michelle and I quickly threw some stuff together and we were out hiking in the park.

We were surprised at how many lemurs we saw in this park - they seemed to be everywhere including the very small Northern Sportive lemur, Crowned lemurs, and the bearded Sanford lemurs.  Of course, the real star of this park is the tsingy, and we were thrilled when we finally came across the formations.  Smaller in size than I expected, but a vast expanse of the rock.  We attempted to walk out on the rock, but with the skinny, razor sharp edges, we didn't attempt very far to avoid cutting ourselves up, as a fall would be disastrous.  They had built a nice suspension bridge across a small gorge, so we were able to get good views over the area.  Also, since Olivia is a professional opera singer, we listened to her fantastic voice in the bizarre landscape.

We had a good evening with Ralf and Olivia, and enjoyed our stay at the little Chez L'Aurelien - and our little wooden huts were nice and comfortable.  But we all managed to get up super early to head out into the park again.  This time, our path led us to the park's Bat Cave.  En route, we saw some early morning lemurs in baobab trees - so very Madagascan.  The bat cave had a massive entrance, and 130 something steps down to it.  Seeing all the orange bat eyes reflected from our headlamps is a little freaky, luckily they weren't flying around us too much.

Crowned Lemurs on Tsingy

After saying goodbye to Ralf and Olivia, we took a nap, then decided to head back into the park again, this time with fun, friendly guide named Francois.  We did a very long walk, taking in more tsingy, lemurs, flora, and even a subway/cave walk through the tsingy, and over the suspension bridge again.  Unfortunately, Michelle fell on the tsingy, and sliced her hand up pretty good - very sharp stuff this tsingy.  We also managed to see something that National Geographic photographers waited 2 weeks to capture - lemur walking through the tsingy.  We were happy to see the brown females, and grey males hopping across the rocks - lucky us!   Our walk was so long, we arrived home in darkness and were exhausted.  A super early morning awaited us, with a taxi brousse, so we needed all the sleep we could get.   *Stub