Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Day 18 - Madagascar Adventures - A Nature Reserve

Blogging Circle of Friends: DAY 3502 May 18, 2023

After breakfast, we're going on a guided tour
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Then we're going to spend the night in the jungle
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We're going to be here for the two days exploring, snorkeling and even paddling a traditional Malagasy canoe in Lokobe National Park.

I am so glad I took yesterday to relax when we arrived. Yesterday I was in need of quiet and rejuvination... taking the opportunity to virtually have a quiet day helped with my real life. Thank you for that.

Today I am up for the excitement of adventure and exploration. Being able to keep up with y'all makes me smile.

After a healthy breakfast we gathered together and were transported into wonderous beauty of the Lokobe National Park.

It is truly a naturalistic experience inside one of the last primitive forests of Madagascar. Lokobe in the Malagasy language means 'many colors' and they are precisely those that the tour will allow you to admire.
We got to see centuries-old plants, cute lemurs, giant turtles, reptiles and so much more ...... in an uncontaminated wonderland. I am feeling truly grateful for this experience - even if it is virtual.

Our first stop is at Ambatozavary, Madagascar
This is a small fishing village that will grant us passage to the nature reserve. We got to take a pirogue, a typical boat, to reach the Lokobe nature reserve. It took about an hour.

Then we stopped at Ampasipohy, Ampasipohy, Nosy Be, Antsiranana Province where we were able to change our clother and shoes before entering the national park.

Next we stopped at Lokobe Nature Special Reserve, Nosy Be Madagascar. It is the last protected primary forest of Nosy Be. It is home to numerous varieties of endemic medicinal plants and thousand-year-old trees which delight the scientists of the region. No wonder they wanted us to change our clothes and keep the outer world from encroaching or bringing in an contaminates.
It is a preserved universe where numerous lemurs (Macaco and Lepilemur), reptiles, chameleons, tropical insects and snakes live.

I got to see some HUGE snakes! I even got my picture taken with the guide and the snake coiled around our shoulders. Pretty cool. There were chameleons the size of my head. The turtles were bigger than me!

We got an hour and half here to explore to our hearts content. It was amazing. Magical even.

Then we returned to Ampasipohy, Ampasipohy, Nosy Be, Antsiranana Province, the fishing village where a typical Malagasy lunch was served. So yummy.

Afterward we got to relax on the beach.

This was a heavenly day.

Then we went back over to experience the night... A night jungle trek like no other. Fantastic atmosphere, extraordinary creatures. A dense, humid, sultry dark black jungle, broken only by the light of our headlamps and torches, and here and there we came across special animals, either resting or hunting at night. Night lemurs, special dwarf and other chameleons, night geckos, giant snakes, etc...

And, if that's not enough, sleeping in the middle of a national park in a well-kept jungle, woken up by the cries of lemur families and falling asleep among the sounds of the jungle. It was magical and surreal.

We also got a chance to relax on a completely private sandy beach, snorkel on the coral reefs and even try paddling a traditional Malagasy canoe. And of course, I did it all!

For those of us who are part fish, this was amazing! Thanks Lyn's a Witchy Woman for including this bit of paradise in our adventures.