Category: Travel

Madagascar Adventure ends – Free day in Tana/departure for Antananarivo Airport. Sleep in today.Up and re-organise the packing a bit prior to brekkie and meeting the others at 9:30.We sat over a long brekkie before heading off for a walk along the Avenue of Independence or Liberation.Before we left the hotel, we booked for lunch…

Queens Palace and Lemur Park, birthday celebrations continue. Farewell Benj 🥲 Nice sleep, if short. The majority of pillows for the past 6 weeks have been made of small foam blocks held in some sort of pillow shaped bag – the room here has some options (including the foam block option) first world problems. Up…

Happy Birthday Suzie. Fly back to Tana. Happy 75th Birthday to Suzie! Today we marked the milestone 75th with a visit to a local reserve/botanical garden in Ifaty, Madagascar. Reniala Jardin ReservePrivately owned by French/Malagassy. Est. 2000. Also the Brigitte Bardot sanctuary rehabilitation for the Ring Tailed Maki Lemur. They started with 5 now 125.Reniala…

Ifaty – Coastal Activities Suzie took a pirogue ride with Benj to the Village and back again. The rest of took another different a pirogue (local outrigger canoe) out to the Massif de Roses reef for a snorkel. Here is Benj’s outline for the day today. Day 13: May 19th, 2025 – Ifaty : Discovery…

Isalo to Ifaty via Tulear. We actually managed to depart ahead of schedule today – if only by a couple of minutes at 7:13. Today is our last loooong day in the van. There is no activity stops along the way and we have a packed lunch from Isalo Ranch.I was experiencing some Bali belly…

Gorge Walk in Isalo & Lemur Picnic. We dropped Nairin and our Chef back into town and headed home to the Ranch Isalo, the name comes from the Portuguese sailors who were shipwrecked on the coast. They walked to Isalo and sheltered here in a grotto. The ‘I’ precedes a Proper noun, I Benj, I…

Ringtails and Flower Paper Leaving Ranomafana and heading south for warmer weather to Ranohira Here’s the plan from Benj – sent via What’s app each day. Day 10: May 16th, 2025 – Ranomafana to Ranohira Isalo 06:30 AM: Early breakfast at Manja Guest House.07:15 AM: Depart Ranomafana, drive through the city of Fianarantsoa (actually 7:25,…

Ranomafana Rainforest Bit of a glitch with the photos today. I haven’t got them in any particular order so I will just leave them in a jumble. Also I can no longer remember which chameleon is which. Suffice to say they are all amazing and taken in a very wet rainy night. Popped my head…

Antsirabe to Ranomafana. Antsirabe to Ranomafana Rano-water, mana – hot. It’s another short distance but long trip. Let’s see how we do. Nico has an artisan family cheese/dairy factory. Today he brought a small wheel of cheese and a yogurt for us to share. (The yoghurt for Benj as it’s fermented and maybe not ok…

Antisirabe Gem Shops & Local Artisans Water and power stops and starts here it seems. I was in the shower last night when the power went off- very dark in the bathroom. Suzie was readying for hair washing day this morning when I discovered no water! Off to reception to ask about it. The water…