Today we transferred from the Palmarium to Andasibe. We wanted to stop in Brickerville to get some more mosquito repellent but our driver didn’t want to drive thru town on market day. We can get some in Andasibe, he said. And to be fair, the pedestrian traffic was thick and confusing.
Andasibe is a very small town despite the fact that it serves two national parks and a nickel and cobalt mine. The pharmacy there ran out of mosquito repellent a week earlier and wasn’t sure when more might arrive. Mosquito repellent is only for tourists, the woman said.
Ah well. At least the hotel has decent internet. We watched Netflix and enjoyed our afternoon.
Our night walk started off disappointingly. We walked along the road and our guide shone a bright light into the bush by the shoulder. It paid off though. He spotted a Goodman’s mouse lemur. In my opinion, you have to have very good eyesight to spot this 10 cm creature. It took us a bit longer to see what he saw, but we did. Like a mouse, it’s tail did not seem hairy and it’s nose seemed pointy. However it behaved like a lemur.
Soon enough we saw a second one. And tons of frogs as well as a sleeping Parson’s chameleon. For something slow to start, it turned out to be a wonderful walk.
A sleeping Parson’s chameleon.
An egret, perched in a tree. During the daytime, we saw egrets walking on the ground. In the early evening, this one perched on a tree branch.
Juliette Knits 