Breaky at Kirindy. They produced good food from a basic kitchen set up. Red fronted Brown lemur. (Brown are female, grey are male) females lead the group. Brown lemur – male And again. Red fronted? Or brown? Brown again. Captured the tail this time. Wise old looking face of a Brown LemurIt was challenging to get the shot. High up and lots of foliage between us and then. Red fronted (rufous) brown lemur. Verreux’s SifakaBrown again Forest walk with Delicia Brown lemur. We were pretty excited to see our first lemurs of the trip. Verreaux’s SifakaAnd again And again They kept getting lower and better. Hanging on in a fork of the tree. Human like feet and hands They don’t use the tail for climbing Just a yawn. A piece of vineBeautifully marked. This is a nocturnal species. Lucky to see them. Red Tailed Sportive Lemur and baby peeking out from behind. Crested DrongoTermite action on a Boabab fruit. Purple flower Termites on a tree. Such cool patterns. Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher Giant Coua with great eye shadowVerreaux’s SifakaGolden Orb/web spider. Typical poses. Twisted Boabab Our little basic room. The lock rock. My bedMy bed left. Spare to The right. Suzie to the left behind the short wall. My bag. Looking towards bathroom door and Suzie’s section. Suzie and her bed The bathroom. Some of The kids attending an environmental camp program at the lodge playing a game just like bocce Another Scaly Tailed Iguana. Fabulous patterns. Later in the trip it was referred to as Three eyed Lizard. Orange butterfly. Sonosaurus lizard. Benj sorting out the billLunch It was great to see the commitment to environmental education for the next generation. We stopped at Sacred tree to purchase a locally made souvenir each. Henry the maker of my treeLovers or Boabab Amoreaux (Twisted Boababs are rare)Us – can you see Phil? Trick pano to get us all in one shot. A trick we learnt from Max our photographer on our Antarctic cruise. There was a very nice cafe/bar at the twisted Boabab. I tried Boabab juice – very nice. Tony, our driver pointed out the Elephant Boabab. NB trunk shape on the right. Another victim of the road. These trucks and local buses have a hard road to haul. We were too early for sunset at Boabab alley and didn’t want to wait for two hours. A village with baobab behind. Lots of goats and sheep. And rice…so much rice. A well loaded Ute Rice weighing Typical roadside Cyclobus. TrickshawMan drawn cartBoababs silhouettes in afternoon sunlight Small Boabab Avenue. Carrying rice sheaths.
Crossing a causeway. Trickshaw and Boabab A basic wooden barrow. Michellin man on front of truck. Boabab Avenue Bath time. Water is carried – there is no running water for most. So where there is a source people are using it for everything washing clothes and bodies.Zebu carts are EVERYWHERE we went in Madagascar. The zebu are the Madagascan cattle breed. Humps like Brahman, big horns and a range of colours and patterns. Our accommodation in Morandava backed onto the canal. Some boats We walked down to the end of the street to the Mozambique Channel. many fishing boats. Back from fishing and dismantling the pirogue mast in sunset. Pirogue taxi. This was paddling passengers across a narrow water to another sandbar where they either caught another pirogue or walked to the other side. Another fisherman coming in during ‘golden hour’Sunset over the Mozambique Channel Looking the other way over the canalPre dinner drinks at Trecicogne. Our local gin tonight. Harpoon. Grilled calamari. The hotel dog
Surprisingly good sleep overnight. It cooled off. We locked up ( put our rock in front of door) and went over for breaky. Some huge hot dog style rollsu, with jam and cheese. No milk or crema here, it’s condensed milk – so black tea and Suzie has the milk in her coffee. Simple egg omelette was nice. Morning walk. Magpie Robin Crested Drongo Red fronted Brown lemur. (Brown are female, grey are male) females lead the group. Dancing lemur. (Verreux’s sifaka) Take all their liquid to through leaves. Red Tailed Sportive Lenur. Crested Drongo. Madagascar Paradise Fltcatcher Madagascar Millipede. Giant Coua with great eye shadow.
The photography under these conditions is challenging and this photographer is not up to the job. I have so many fuzzy, out of focus and missed shots – it’s not funny. Hoping there’s a couple that portray what we saw. The lemurs were so acrobatic flinging themselves from tree to tree and branch to branch. I think we were quite lucky to see as many as we did and the camera can never catch what the human eye sees. We returned from our two hour walk to pack up and order an early 11:30 lunch. It’s been the same menu for two Lunches and dinner here at Kirindy Lodge. The afternoon saw us returning to Morondova along the same road with a stop for us to purchase a souvenir Baobab from Henri (Harry) at the Sacred Baobab, then we pulled off to see the Boabab Amoreaux or Lovers Baobab. They had a nice campsite there with a bar and dining area, baobab carvings for sale. We had a cold drink (the fridge at Kirindy wasn’t powered all day so the drinks were ok but not ice cold. I had a baobab juice which was yum and for sunset with the Baobabs.
Lovers Boabab – Baobab Amoureax. Twisted boababs are unusual.
Baobab types Grandifiti Rubrotiba Fony. Is the local name. Zaap – much darker. Fruit is oval/ rounder. We arrived at Boabab Avenue too early for sunset. We went onto some single Baobabs but still way early. We were still to early and took some shots. We were all eager to get to our hotel in Morondova for a good shower. We arrived about 5:30. Checked in to our air conditioned room. Our hotel Trecigogne (3 storks) is located at the top be of a short peninsula of land between the Mozambique Channel and the canal. Mary, Phil and I went for a walk before returning for dinner at 7:00. There was no pre- order required and we had a full menu. A lot of seafood given Morondova is coastal. Suzie has a crab salad and Fish. The rest of us had grilled calamari with chips followed by a most delicious chocolate ice cream. Of course preceded by G&T (local Harpoon brand) and beer for Phil. Tonic is a bit weird here but a slice of lemon helped. Cheers in Malagasy – wella velln Benj had a rum with us tonight and he explained that at home they pour a little in the North East for the ancestors- the original discoverers were from the North East Dutch and Portuguese and the devotion to Ancestors is like their religion. The hotel room is small but has air con which is amazing and a good shower. Many of our pillows across the trip are basic made up of foam pieces for stuffing. When you are tired it doesn’t matter.
Travel adventures with Nicola & co. 
4 responses to “Awesome African Adventure. Day 31 – May 9, 2025”
those photos are amazing especially the monkeys!
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These are lemurs. Not monkeys I’m afraid.
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The shot of them dismantling the mask is just STUNNING, Nic!
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What an amazing adventure! 🤩
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