birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Following in the footsteps of Gareth Knass in 2010 and Shaun Coyle’s group in 2011 we decided on our own trip to this amazing island for 2012, which coincided nicely with my 40th birthday...which needed celebrating in style of course! Gareth had discovered that doing Madagascar wasn’t just the provenance of rich participants on expensive tours – and the amount he did it for was nothing short of unbelievable! Using BF as a starting point I posted my initial plans to see if anyone else was up for the adventure. Luckily, my long-suffering girlfriend, Dawn, was of course in, and so were two friends, Chris Glanfield and Bola Akinola (or B as I call him). Soon got in contact with Kev Verlander who’d had the same idea and thought it would make sense to join forces – cool! Near to the departure, a new job situation forced Dawn to unfortunately have to halve her trip so she decided to come out for the last two weeks for which we were to be joined by Kelvin Britton also. Now Kev had already contacted Eugene and Gaby with whom Shaun had travelled with a year earlier so he was unofficially handed the role of trip organiser.....something I’m sure he was thrilled about
He did a sterling job and after many emails back and forth between ourselves we had gotten a rough itinerary sorted, but more importantly, had a price quoted for us: for the full 4 weeks we would pay €1550 each....that’s right, roughly £1315!! (Kelvin & Dawn would pay €975 for the two weeks). That included driver fees, guide fees, park fees, car & fuel, full board and accommodation and ferry crossings. The only other extras we’d incur were drinks other than water, private purchases and the boat trip out to Nosy Ve (c£30 each). Flights cost us £740 so, for a little over two grand, we had a month in Madagascar planned – saving at the very least £3500 over any tour company.
LOGISTICS:
Money:
Currency is the Malagasy Ariary (MGA) and the rough conversion rate was £1=3200MGA, so we just worked things out as £3=10,000MGA. Also in some places the prices are still worked out in the old currency, Malagasy francs. This figure just needs to be divided by 5 to get the Ariary price - not as complicated as it sounds! As it turned out we paid for a few meals ourselves as we found better alternatives but then Gaby got us our own rooms where possible so it was all swings and roundabouts really. Steak (good old Zebu) and chips was on average £4 and beer and soft-drinks were about 70p a bottle (an ice-cold THB Fresh is lovely on a hot day!!).
Visas:
Despite being told by the woman on the desk at Heathrow that we needed to purchase a visa on arrival, this was complete crap as we didn’t! Result. Also, there are no airport departure fees from Madagascar either.
Flights:
Flew with Kenya Airways and they were pretty good overall. Late departing Heathrow and Nairobi on the outbound sector but in-flight service was fine, food was ok and flight times were 7.5hrs to Nairobi, a 2hr stop-over and then a 3.5hr flight into Tana. On the return journey we had an 8hr layover at Nairobi, landing at 1600 so we had a couple of hours of light to bird from the terminal, netting ourselves 2 lifers and 21 species overall!
Guides:
In most national parks it’s mandatory to have a guide so finding a good one is helpful! Also, be aware that they seem to think differently to us, so tell them everything you want to see, be it avian, mammalian or reptilian...that way you won’t miss things they don’t think to mention!! As it turned out we had mixed feelings about our experiences with certain guides. Around Ankarafantsika we mainly used a young guy called Lento and he was pretty good...knew all the roosts for owls, knew where the asity nest was etc. In Zombitse we used Lucien and again, he got us all the specialities but again, tell him exactly what you want to see! Around Ranomafana we had Loret – bit of an offish guy, but again, bloody good at finding the site’s specialities. Around Ifaty and Mangily we had Raletsy who is Mosa’s younger brother – nice guy who worked hard to get us all the bits but did become a tad pushy in wanting to come over to Nosy Ve with us which was totally unnecessary. At the Pochard site and Sakalava Rail site there seems to be only one decent guide at each so that’s that really.
Now back to Perinet and Mantadia. We used Luc, the younger brother of the famous Patrice. Now, at the outset of the trip Kev and myself had told Gaby that Helmet Vanga was probably the bird we wanted to see the most so were intent on sorting out a trip up to the Masoala Peninsula to secure it. The guys came back with some excellent news: Luc had a nest-site and sightings in Iaroka Forest, near to Andasibe....result!! He was adamant we could get them but it involved a long hike into the forest and the need to camp in there overnight. No probs, sounds cool!! I’ll go into details shortly, but suffice to say it was complete bullshit I think. He plain lied as the answers to questions became more and more vague as we walked in. Then, seeing as we wasted two days doing this magical mystery tour we missed a couple of key species and had to re-jiggle the itinerary to pop back for a couple of days at the end of the trip (which actually worked out great for Dawn and Kelvin as they caught up with the cool bits we saw without them) and had to use Luc again.
He then pissed Gaby off by saying we could see all the targets we needed if we went to Mantadia straight away upon our mid-morning arrival, even though Scaly Ground-Roller is better early morning....lo and behold we didn’t see it (“oh it’s easier in the mornings” were his exact words as we walked out!), thus necessitating another trip there the following morning which is a pain in the arse as it may only be 17km from Andasibe but it takes well over an hour to get there due to the road condition. Then we fell out over money as he said we owed him 2 days guiding fees (our trip money had run out by the penultimate day!) but we argued that we only used him for two days because he lied again about seeing the birds in one day! So he never got a tip, as the original tip we gave him on the first day was just topped up to cover one day’s guiding. (We were told the average daily wage in Madagascar is 10,000 Ariary – Luc was charging 150,000 per day....uh huh). He just came across as underhand and slimy – annoyingly he was good at finding stuff. Also we stayed at his place the first time we visited and this was only place for the entire trip where we encountered theft. B put some washing in and lost a T-shirt, Chris lost his ’scope! It was only upon our return and an off-the-cuff enquiry to Luc about said ‘scope that he said yes, it was here and he was holding onto it for us. The fact we weren’t returning as far as he knew says it all really. As to it being left behind, there’s no way as we were sharing a room and we check everywhere – even under the beds!! Chris just assumed it was in the boot of the car under all the bags and crap. So, just watch things if you stay there!
Driving:
We had one Landcruiser for the first fortnight which was ok....one up front, two in middle and one in the boot. It broke down a couple of times but Gaby got it fixed and needed pushing occasionally when it wouldn’t start properly All adds to the fun! Distances are pretty huge, ie to drive from Tana to the Pochard site takes 2.5 DAYS!! Now, Gaby is a great guy and did all he could to make things go as smoothly as possible but the only thing that got to me was his driving: off road he was great, but put him on a straight bit of un-potholed tarmac and he drives at 60....that’s KPH not mph!! Jeez.......so if he’d drive a tad quicker it would be better for him and his clients! Now, for the second week we had another, newer Landcruiser driven by the suave Omega – now he drove quickly...but was unfortunately told off by Gabster for doing so......groan! So the battle for the seats in the nicer car began! Obviously we could have flown these larger distances but the prices that Air Madagascar charge will put your trip price up quite a bit (as they have no competition) and they aren’t the most reliable air-carrier in the world so give yourselves a bit of free-time if you plan to use a few flights in your itineraries.
Getting to the rail site involves the ferry-crossing from Mahajanga to Katsepy and then a 5hr-ish drive to Lake Kinkony via a smaller hand-pulled ferry-crossing. Now Gabs f*cked up the return sailing times and we got back there late – you can only get 2 trucks on the ferry and there were three in front of us. So, to cut a long story short, he had to hire the whole ferry to come back and get him (costing 400,000MGA – which is why our trip money ran out!!).
Accommodation:
On the whole it was fine. Most places had ‘proper’ toilets and showers – or at least a bucket for a nice refreshing tip and pour system. Mozzie nets were in most places but a few had none whatsoever so may be worth taking your own if you’re prone to bites. We stayed in varying degrees of niceness – from the shabby place in Maevatanana to the rather nice Grenat Hotel bungalows at Ranomafana. I was outvoted on camping at Ankarafantsika so we ended up staying in the village at another shabby place but it was ok....campsite would’ve been better as it had nicer facilities!!
On the second visit to Andasibe Dawn and I chose to stay in the nicer Feo-ny’ Ala hotel rather than Luc’s place and the food here is pretty good too with a 3-course meal and drinks costing about a £10. Electricity could be a bit hit and miss in some places (ie Ranomafana) and some of the out-of-the-way places only had generators until about 10pm but this was usually enough to quick-charge things – so have a headtorch handy – and Madagascar uses twin-pin plugs. Also, due to the general paucity of plug sockets in some of the rooms it may be worth buying a multi-adaptor from one of the many markets – well worth it!
Camping is mandatory at the Pochard site which isn’t a problem but be aware that temperatures fall to about 3oC overnight......so bring a sleeping-bag if only for this place - we froze our bollocks off! Some forewarning would’ve been appreciated.....
The only place I wouldn’t recommend is the hotel in Sakahara, near to Zombitse. Because Gaby thought we didn’t like camping (no, Gabs it’s just we nearly caught hypothermia the last time) he took us to this dump instead of sleeping in the park. The place is situated in a gem town and is a shit-hole: toilets didn’t flush, sinks looked like nothing else, no nets, noisy.....and it also sells mango chocolate bars – avoid at all costs! YUK!
Miscellaneous:
We all took anti-malarials and as usual I used Doxycycline which I ordered through Chemist Direct and got a much better price than by going to the docs! I got a bout of food-poisoning from a steak sauce in Tana on the second visit and had a very unpleasant 24hrs.....luckily (well, sort of) it was the day before Dawn arrived (hi honey!) so I didn’t miss any birding time. Everyone had a short bout of minor stomach upsets or squits but nothing worse, although Dawn ended up in hospital upon our arrival back in the UK with a ‘chest infection’. Two days later she was released without really knowing what it was.
And lastly, a word on using computers in Madagascar – on stupid French keyboards you have to use the shift key to type numbers!! Makes accessing hotmail so much easier when you know this.....
Species missed:
Obviously by not getting to the Masoala we didn’t get Helmet or Bernier’s Vanga. The Serpent-Eagle at the Pochard site has lost its radio tag so it’s near impossible to get here now – again, more possible in the Masoala. We totally missed the Cuckoo-Hawk also...just unlucky. As to the Bernier’s Teal and the Ibis, well, that was poor planning. Didn’t realise you had to do a boat trip for the teal from Mahajanga. We had a chance to do one but the price was very steep (twice as much as hiring the whole ferry!) but apparently it is an expensive trip anyway. We bumped into people that had seen the ibis (albeit distantly) from the ferry port at Mahajanga and at Lake Kinkony. I’ve also since read that the teal is gettable near Kirindy. If any of us could’ve spoken French then we may have been able to sort out a boat trip ourselves whilst waiting for Gaby and the ferry – but we can’t therefore we didn’t – bummer. Oh well, next time!
Didn’t go to any sites for Amber Mountain Rock-Thrush or Red-tailed Newtonia, never saw the western form of Tylas (possible future split) and obviously never saw the fabled Dusky Tetraka. The recently described Tsingy Wood-Rail wasn’t on the itinerary either as we were going nowhere near Beanka. The only other screw-up was for Slender-billed Flufftail. The favoured site is the marshes at Mananara Lodge, Anjozorobe which is c4hrs north of Tana, so we never made it back up for it, although stupidly we must have driven past it on the way back south.....bit of an oversight by all of us, including Gaby. Other annoying things were the two sifaka species south of Katsepy that would’ve been nice to’ve known about, let alone seen. I will inform Gaby of these things so he can offer future clients a more ordered itinerary and complete species list.
Itinerary:
7th - Nairobi airport, Tana
8th - Tana - Andasibe, Perinet, Mantadia area
9th - Andasibe, Iaroka Forest
10th - Iaroka Forest, Andasibe
11th - Andasibe - Tana - Maevatanana
12th - Maevatanana - Antsohihy
13th - Antsohihy – Bealanana (Pochard site)
14th - Bealanana - Antsohihy
15th - Antsohihy - Ankarafantsika
16th - Ankarafantsika, Ampijoroa
17th - Ankarafantsika, Ampijoroa - Mahajanga
18th - Mahajanga to Katsepy ferry - Lake Kinkony (rail site) - Makary
19th - Makary - Katsepy to Mahajanga ferry
20th - Mahajanga - Ankarafantsika - Tana
21st - Tana, Tsarasaotro Park - Antsirabe
22nd - Antsirabe - Ranomafana
23rd - Ranomafana
24th - Ranomafana – Anja Private Reserve - Isalo NP - Sakahara
25th - Sakahara - Zombitse NP - La Table - Tulear
26th - Tulear - Lake Belalanda - Tsongertelo - Ifaty - Mangily
27th - Mangily, Lake Belalanda, La Table, Tulear
28th - Tulear - Nosy Ve - Anakao - Tulear
29th - Tulear - Ambalamafana
30th - Ambalamafana - Moramanga
31st - Moramanga - Andasibe - Mantadia
1st Nov - Andasibe, Mantadia, Perinet
2nd - Andasibe - Tana, Tsarasaotro Park
3rd - Tana, Nairobi airport
7th October:
After meeting up at Heathrow with Kev and an uneventful flight to Nairobi we found ourselves birding from the airport building. Species seen included African Pied Wag, Cattle Egret, Sacred Ibis, Pied Crow, Speckled Pigeon, Little Swift, Black-headed Heron and good old House Sparrows! Back out onto the tarmac and after an hour waiting for clearance we were off again (hint: sitting on aircraft right leaving Nairobi gives great views of Mt Kilimanjaro as you fly over it!). Coming in across the Betsiboka River and down the centre of Madagascar it was not the picturesque island I’d imagined. In fact, looking down upon the ruined landscape below is how I imagine the aftermath of Nagasaki looked. Deforestation is rampant in Madagascar, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.....
After the 3.5hr flight we touched down into Antananarivo airport and soon had our first lifers as we disembarked: Mascarene Martins aplenty over the buildings. Clearing customs was easy and soon we were shaking hands with Gaby at arrivals. He took us out to the vehicle and then to the other side of the car-park to change our money as it was apparently a better rate here....wrong! It was actually better in the airport itself. I changed up €300 but came back with c€140 of it. A nice Madagascar Kes flew over the car as we left and made our way to the hotel. We dumped our gear and birded the back quickly, netting a smart Mad Stonechat, Mad Red Fody, Common Myna and the ubiquitous Mad Bulbul. Gaby took us to a lovely lake in the centre of Tana – and it wasn’t Tsarasaotro Park as we thought!
Instead it was like being in Goa again – watch where you walk and don’t stand behind the wall...yuck! Anyway, faecal matters aside, we picked up Malagasy Kingfisher, Mad White-eye, Common Sand, umbrella-fishing Black Egrets, Squacco Herons and Mad Green Sunbird. Driving through the numerous rice-paddies gave us huge numbers of Squacco Herons and Cattle Egrets especially, with smaller number of Great White and Dimorphic Egrets too. A quick stop by the roadside got us displaying Mad Cisticolas whilst back at the hotel we had Mad Hoopoe and Mad Black Swifts. A group of 8 Red-billed Teal flew over in the evening and around the hotel walls were plenty of African House Geckos.
He did a sterling job and after many emails back and forth between ourselves we had gotten a rough itinerary sorted, but more importantly, had a price quoted for us: for the full 4 weeks we would pay €1550 each....that’s right, roughly £1315!! (Kelvin & Dawn would pay €975 for the two weeks). That included driver fees, guide fees, park fees, car & fuel, full board and accommodation and ferry crossings. The only other extras we’d incur were drinks other than water, private purchases and the boat trip out to Nosy Ve (c£30 each). Flights cost us £740 so, for a little over two grand, we had a month in Madagascar planned – saving at the very least £3500 over any tour company.
LOGISTICS:
Money:
Currency is the Malagasy Ariary (MGA) and the rough conversion rate was £1=3200MGA, so we just worked things out as £3=10,000MGA. Also in some places the prices are still worked out in the old currency, Malagasy francs. This figure just needs to be divided by 5 to get the Ariary price - not as complicated as it sounds! As it turned out we paid for a few meals ourselves as we found better alternatives but then Gaby got us our own rooms where possible so it was all swings and roundabouts really. Steak (good old Zebu) and chips was on average £4 and beer and soft-drinks were about 70p a bottle (an ice-cold THB Fresh is lovely on a hot day!!).
Visas:
Despite being told by the woman on the desk at Heathrow that we needed to purchase a visa on arrival, this was complete crap as we didn’t! Result. Also, there are no airport departure fees from Madagascar either.
Flights:
Flew with Kenya Airways and they were pretty good overall. Late departing Heathrow and Nairobi on the outbound sector but in-flight service was fine, food was ok and flight times were 7.5hrs to Nairobi, a 2hr stop-over and then a 3.5hr flight into Tana. On the return journey we had an 8hr layover at Nairobi, landing at 1600 so we had a couple of hours of light to bird from the terminal, netting ourselves 2 lifers and 21 species overall!
Guides:
In most national parks it’s mandatory to have a guide so finding a good one is helpful! Also, be aware that they seem to think differently to us, so tell them everything you want to see, be it avian, mammalian or reptilian...that way you won’t miss things they don’t think to mention!! As it turned out we had mixed feelings about our experiences with certain guides. Around Ankarafantsika we mainly used a young guy called Lento and he was pretty good...knew all the roosts for owls, knew where the asity nest was etc. In Zombitse we used Lucien and again, he got us all the specialities but again, tell him exactly what you want to see! Around Ranomafana we had Loret – bit of an offish guy, but again, bloody good at finding the site’s specialities. Around Ifaty and Mangily we had Raletsy who is Mosa’s younger brother – nice guy who worked hard to get us all the bits but did become a tad pushy in wanting to come over to Nosy Ve with us which was totally unnecessary. At the Pochard site and Sakalava Rail site there seems to be only one decent guide at each so that’s that really.
Now back to Perinet and Mantadia. We used Luc, the younger brother of the famous Patrice. Now, at the outset of the trip Kev and myself had told Gaby that Helmet Vanga was probably the bird we wanted to see the most so were intent on sorting out a trip up to the Masoala Peninsula to secure it. The guys came back with some excellent news: Luc had a nest-site and sightings in Iaroka Forest, near to Andasibe....result!! He was adamant we could get them but it involved a long hike into the forest and the need to camp in there overnight. No probs, sounds cool!! I’ll go into details shortly, but suffice to say it was complete bullshit I think. He plain lied as the answers to questions became more and more vague as we walked in. Then, seeing as we wasted two days doing this magical mystery tour we missed a couple of key species and had to re-jiggle the itinerary to pop back for a couple of days at the end of the trip (which actually worked out great for Dawn and Kelvin as they caught up with the cool bits we saw without them) and had to use Luc again.
He then pissed Gaby off by saying we could see all the targets we needed if we went to Mantadia straight away upon our mid-morning arrival, even though Scaly Ground-Roller is better early morning....lo and behold we didn’t see it (“oh it’s easier in the mornings” were his exact words as we walked out!), thus necessitating another trip there the following morning which is a pain in the arse as it may only be 17km from Andasibe but it takes well over an hour to get there due to the road condition. Then we fell out over money as he said we owed him 2 days guiding fees (our trip money had run out by the penultimate day!) but we argued that we only used him for two days because he lied again about seeing the birds in one day! So he never got a tip, as the original tip we gave him on the first day was just topped up to cover one day’s guiding. (We were told the average daily wage in Madagascar is 10,000 Ariary – Luc was charging 150,000 per day....uh huh). He just came across as underhand and slimy – annoyingly he was good at finding stuff. Also we stayed at his place the first time we visited and this was only place for the entire trip where we encountered theft. B put some washing in and lost a T-shirt, Chris lost his ’scope! It was only upon our return and an off-the-cuff enquiry to Luc about said ‘scope that he said yes, it was here and he was holding onto it for us. The fact we weren’t returning as far as he knew says it all really. As to it being left behind, there’s no way as we were sharing a room and we check everywhere – even under the beds!! Chris just assumed it was in the boot of the car under all the bags and crap. So, just watch things if you stay there!
Driving:
We had one Landcruiser for the first fortnight which was ok....one up front, two in middle and one in the boot. It broke down a couple of times but Gaby got it fixed and needed pushing occasionally when it wouldn’t start properly All adds to the fun! Distances are pretty huge, ie to drive from Tana to the Pochard site takes 2.5 DAYS!! Now, Gaby is a great guy and did all he could to make things go as smoothly as possible but the only thing that got to me was his driving: off road he was great, but put him on a straight bit of un-potholed tarmac and he drives at 60....that’s KPH not mph!! Jeez.......so if he’d drive a tad quicker it would be better for him and his clients! Now, for the second week we had another, newer Landcruiser driven by the suave Omega – now he drove quickly...but was unfortunately told off by Gabster for doing so......groan! So the battle for the seats in the nicer car began! Obviously we could have flown these larger distances but the prices that Air Madagascar charge will put your trip price up quite a bit (as they have no competition) and they aren’t the most reliable air-carrier in the world so give yourselves a bit of free-time if you plan to use a few flights in your itineraries.
Getting to the rail site involves the ferry-crossing from Mahajanga to Katsepy and then a 5hr-ish drive to Lake Kinkony via a smaller hand-pulled ferry-crossing. Now Gabs f*cked up the return sailing times and we got back there late – you can only get 2 trucks on the ferry and there were three in front of us. So, to cut a long story short, he had to hire the whole ferry to come back and get him (costing 400,000MGA – which is why our trip money ran out!!).
Accommodation:
On the whole it was fine. Most places had ‘proper’ toilets and showers – or at least a bucket for a nice refreshing tip and pour system. Mozzie nets were in most places but a few had none whatsoever so may be worth taking your own if you’re prone to bites. We stayed in varying degrees of niceness – from the shabby place in Maevatanana to the rather nice Grenat Hotel bungalows at Ranomafana. I was outvoted on camping at Ankarafantsika so we ended up staying in the village at another shabby place but it was ok....campsite would’ve been better as it had nicer facilities!!
On the second visit to Andasibe Dawn and I chose to stay in the nicer Feo-ny’ Ala hotel rather than Luc’s place and the food here is pretty good too with a 3-course meal and drinks costing about a £10. Electricity could be a bit hit and miss in some places (ie Ranomafana) and some of the out-of-the-way places only had generators until about 10pm but this was usually enough to quick-charge things – so have a headtorch handy – and Madagascar uses twin-pin plugs. Also, due to the general paucity of plug sockets in some of the rooms it may be worth buying a multi-adaptor from one of the many markets – well worth it!
Camping is mandatory at the Pochard site which isn’t a problem but be aware that temperatures fall to about 3oC overnight......so bring a sleeping-bag if only for this place - we froze our bollocks off! Some forewarning would’ve been appreciated.....
The only place I wouldn’t recommend is the hotel in Sakahara, near to Zombitse. Because Gaby thought we didn’t like camping (no, Gabs it’s just we nearly caught hypothermia the last time) he took us to this dump instead of sleeping in the park. The place is situated in a gem town and is a shit-hole: toilets didn’t flush, sinks looked like nothing else, no nets, noisy.....and it also sells mango chocolate bars – avoid at all costs! YUK!
Miscellaneous:
We all took anti-malarials and as usual I used Doxycycline which I ordered through Chemist Direct and got a much better price than by going to the docs! I got a bout of food-poisoning from a steak sauce in Tana on the second visit and had a very unpleasant 24hrs.....luckily (well, sort of) it was the day before Dawn arrived (hi honey!) so I didn’t miss any birding time. Everyone had a short bout of minor stomach upsets or squits but nothing worse, although Dawn ended up in hospital upon our arrival back in the UK with a ‘chest infection’. Two days later she was released without really knowing what it was.
And lastly, a word on using computers in Madagascar – on stupid French keyboards you have to use the shift key to type numbers!! Makes accessing hotmail so much easier when you know this.....
Species missed:
Obviously by not getting to the Masoala we didn’t get Helmet or Bernier’s Vanga. The Serpent-Eagle at the Pochard site has lost its radio tag so it’s near impossible to get here now – again, more possible in the Masoala. We totally missed the Cuckoo-Hawk also...just unlucky. As to the Bernier’s Teal and the Ibis, well, that was poor planning. Didn’t realise you had to do a boat trip for the teal from Mahajanga. We had a chance to do one but the price was very steep (twice as much as hiring the whole ferry!) but apparently it is an expensive trip anyway. We bumped into people that had seen the ibis (albeit distantly) from the ferry port at Mahajanga and at Lake Kinkony. I’ve also since read that the teal is gettable near Kirindy. If any of us could’ve spoken French then we may have been able to sort out a boat trip ourselves whilst waiting for Gaby and the ferry – but we can’t therefore we didn’t – bummer. Oh well, next time!
Didn’t go to any sites for Amber Mountain Rock-Thrush or Red-tailed Newtonia, never saw the western form of Tylas (possible future split) and obviously never saw the fabled Dusky Tetraka. The recently described Tsingy Wood-Rail wasn’t on the itinerary either as we were going nowhere near Beanka. The only other screw-up was for Slender-billed Flufftail. The favoured site is the marshes at Mananara Lodge, Anjozorobe which is c4hrs north of Tana, so we never made it back up for it, although stupidly we must have driven past it on the way back south.....bit of an oversight by all of us, including Gaby. Other annoying things were the two sifaka species south of Katsepy that would’ve been nice to’ve known about, let alone seen. I will inform Gaby of these things so he can offer future clients a more ordered itinerary and complete species list.
Itinerary:
7th - Nairobi airport, Tana
8th - Tana - Andasibe, Perinet, Mantadia area
9th - Andasibe, Iaroka Forest
10th - Iaroka Forest, Andasibe
11th - Andasibe - Tana - Maevatanana
12th - Maevatanana - Antsohihy
13th - Antsohihy – Bealanana (Pochard site)
14th - Bealanana - Antsohihy
15th - Antsohihy - Ankarafantsika
16th - Ankarafantsika, Ampijoroa
17th - Ankarafantsika, Ampijoroa - Mahajanga
18th - Mahajanga to Katsepy ferry - Lake Kinkony (rail site) - Makary
19th - Makary - Katsepy to Mahajanga ferry
20th - Mahajanga - Ankarafantsika - Tana
21st - Tana, Tsarasaotro Park - Antsirabe
22nd - Antsirabe - Ranomafana
23rd - Ranomafana
24th - Ranomafana – Anja Private Reserve - Isalo NP - Sakahara
25th - Sakahara - Zombitse NP - La Table - Tulear
26th - Tulear - Lake Belalanda - Tsongertelo - Ifaty - Mangily
27th - Mangily, Lake Belalanda, La Table, Tulear
28th - Tulear - Nosy Ve - Anakao - Tulear
29th - Tulear - Ambalamafana
30th - Ambalamafana - Moramanga
31st - Moramanga - Andasibe - Mantadia
1st Nov - Andasibe, Mantadia, Perinet
2nd - Andasibe - Tana, Tsarasaotro Park
3rd - Tana, Nairobi airport
7th October:
After meeting up at Heathrow with Kev and an uneventful flight to Nairobi we found ourselves birding from the airport building. Species seen included African Pied Wag, Cattle Egret, Sacred Ibis, Pied Crow, Speckled Pigeon, Little Swift, Black-headed Heron and good old House Sparrows! Back out onto the tarmac and after an hour waiting for clearance we were off again (hint: sitting on aircraft right leaving Nairobi gives great views of Mt Kilimanjaro as you fly over it!). Coming in across the Betsiboka River and down the centre of Madagascar it was not the picturesque island I’d imagined. In fact, looking down upon the ruined landscape below is how I imagine the aftermath of Nagasaki looked. Deforestation is rampant in Madagascar, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.....
After the 3.5hr flight we touched down into Antananarivo airport and soon had our first lifers as we disembarked: Mascarene Martins aplenty over the buildings. Clearing customs was easy and soon we were shaking hands with Gaby at arrivals. He took us out to the vehicle and then to the other side of the car-park to change our money as it was apparently a better rate here....wrong! It was actually better in the airport itself. I changed up €300 but came back with c€140 of it. A nice Madagascar Kes flew over the car as we left and made our way to the hotel. We dumped our gear and birded the back quickly, netting a smart Mad Stonechat, Mad Red Fody, Common Myna and the ubiquitous Mad Bulbul. Gaby took us to a lovely lake in the centre of Tana – and it wasn’t Tsarasaotro Park as we thought!
Instead it was like being in Goa again – watch where you walk and don’t stand behind the wall...yuck! Anyway, faecal matters aside, we picked up Malagasy Kingfisher, Mad White-eye, Common Sand, umbrella-fishing Black Egrets, Squacco Herons and Mad Green Sunbird. Driving through the numerous rice-paddies gave us huge numbers of Squacco Herons and Cattle Egrets especially, with smaller number of Great White and Dimorphic Egrets too. A quick stop by the roadside got us displaying Mad Cisticolas whilst back at the hotel we had Mad Hoopoe and Mad Black Swifts. A group of 8 Red-billed Teal flew over in the evening and around the hotel walls were plenty of African House Geckos.
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