Bloody long walk...

The decision was made so we had to start organising to get out of there. This isn’t too easy as the car that brought us to the area wasn’t supposed to come back till in a few days and there is no network coverage anywhere outside the bigger towns. We thought we could try to get two charettes, one for the luggage and one for us to sit on. Unfortunately we didn’t find two, so that we ended up only getting a charette for the luggage. Our plan was to pack everything up and leave the camp at 9 pm to avoid the heat of the day. A major problem was that we had only 1.5 L of water each as all the people in the camp had suddenly started drinking the filtered water as well so that there wasn’t enough for us. Well we had no other choice but to be fine with it. We all had a backpack with some of our stuff, a bottle of water and a headtorch. The charette was going first and we walked after it as the driver knew the way perfectly and it wasn’t too easy for us as it was extremly dark as there was almost no moon to be seen. We walked and walked and walked… it is a very rough path and difficult to walk at the best of times and very difficult when you can hardly see anything. We did have the headtorches on but the charette was causing so much dust in the air that is wasn’t easy to see anything. After five hours of walking we made the first real break of five minutes. We ate a Bolo which is a biscuit that has never ever tasted as good as it did on that trip. I was walking right behind the charette on the left hand side and noticed that some kind of cloth that was stuck inside the wheel was coming undone. I told Jacques to tell the driver but he said that it wasn’t a worry. Admittedly I was a little worried about it and kept watching it. Just a short time later it fell out and I told the driver but he said again that it was no worry… Bullshit! After about 200 m I stopped him as the wheel nearly came undone and if it had fallen of I guess the whole charette would have been broken. I believe the wheel was simply too big for the axis and they tried to make up for it by sticking the rice bag in there, which obviously didn’t work. We lifted up the charette with all the luggage and he put the wheel back on with the help of a big, bent nail he believed it being enough to hold the wheel in place, so we kept going. As time showed it wasn’t holding the wheel in place at all and everything came undone again and again. The second wheel was kept in place with an old thong (Australian not American word) but we didn’t have anything like that. After a few hours of constantly trying to fix the wheel in different ways we managed to attach it with a lot of string. It really is a miracle that worked and that we managed the trip without anything else breaking. One thing that we wondered before we started for our trip we were actually able to answer afterwards. Yes you are able to fall asleep while walking, it just isn’t really possible to stay on the path once you are sleeping. I also managed it a few times to wake up just as I walked off to the side and into a bush… lucky it wasn’t one of those huge cactuses. I was so bloody tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I already didn’t have much sleep the previous nights and was buggered before we even started walking. For the last little bit of the way I climbed up on the charette which wasn’t really any better as it is not comfy at all and I was just trying to hold on to the charette and not fall off. It would have been extremly dangerous to fall off and possibly get under the wheels. Anyway I managed to stay awake more or less and the sun was starting to rise anyway so it was a lot easier to focus again. Getting closer to the town we got on a road and there was suddenly heaps of people on charettes. They were all transporting things for the market in the town we tried to reach. This lead to a few more “scary” moments as the driver got off the charette a few times and left me all alone. Unfortunately one of the zebus was a lot stronger than the other one and always pulled to his side so that we were constantly running through the bush and I had to duck and avoid braches and cactuses. Also the zebus always went to other charettes and started eating the sugar cane from the back. I tried to pretend I didn’t see it as I didn’t have a clue as to how to stop them from doing it. Arriving in the town we were a real attraction as I believe they have never seen any Vhazhas sitting on charettes (the others had also managed to get a lift on other charettes). We arrived at 8 am in the morning, after a over 40 kays walk. We were soooooooo bloody buggered. After our arrival we immediately organised a taxi-brousse that would take us to Fort Dauphin and then had a coke in a little hotely. It was the best coke I have ever had in my life !!! The trip with the taxi-brousse was quite rough but relaxing against the long walk. We sat in the back of the ute and had to hold on well as you really fly well with every hole the car takes. To get the car started everyone had to get out, push and then jump on. When the car stopped you needed big stones to keep it in place. Travelling in Madagascar is a real adventure. It was so good to get back to Fort Dauphin and after a few hours of waiting we got managed to find a hotel that had room free.

Good bye

As a good bye the people (guard, guides, cook etc) played music, danced and sang happily... they got paid, so I guess that made them them quite happy. It didn't take long until they were joined by other family members and people from the area. They got heaps of empty bottles from us, which they are always happy to take.

Stolen traps and other problems

From the beginning on we had a major problem, well Jacques had the problem. Someone was stealing his traps which he used to catch Microcebus and one trap is worth about 30 € which is a lot of money and even more for Malagasy relations. Whoever stole them couldn’t really use them for anything and we do not know why they stole them. Often you have such problems if you don’t talk with everyone in the area but we did. First thing we did was talking to the people in the village of Ihazofotsy as well as with the people from the houses in the surrounding area. Usually that is enough for them to accept the work and leave you alone. Our guides and guards were very upset about the stealings and they went to all the people and asked them about the traps, but only managed to retrieve two which were hidden somewhere in the bush. This and the problem that Jacques got a middle-ear-infection caused us to give up the camp in the area. We couldn’t possibly afford to loose anymore equipment. Fortunately the reptile work was done by the time we made the decision to give the camp up. This was obviously very bad for the people who worked for us as if the traps hadn’t been stolen they would have earned a lot more money. We knew it wasn’t any of them or of the village of Ihazofotsy but it was impossible to stay.

Night transects

We also did some night transects but is wasn’t really worth it as we had already found all the nocturnal reptiles as Fia Dana is a genius when it comes to finding them. We walk on a path and suddenly he points at a tree 10 m into the bush and when you go there there is a nocturnal gecko in one of the holes! Just kiddingly we asked Tahiana if he would be doing night transects as well… like for the plants that hide throughout the day ^^. Unfortunately he didn’t quite get it was a joke and seriously answered that it is something he doesn’t do as he doesn’t focus on plants that offer food to nocturnal butterflies. Well…

Reptiles in Madagascar - Bad luck?!

In the evenings we showed the reptile book to the people and ask them if they know the different reptiles, if they have seen them in the area and if so, if they can give us some hint as to where to find them. We were especially keen to find a boa, but when we opened the page with the snake pictures they jumped back in horror. They are extremly scared of snakes and boas in particular. I do not know why and did not manage to find out, but they are scared of a fair few things. They also believe that chameleon bring bad luck which explains why they looked at me as if I completely lost it whenever I found a chameleon and showed it to everyone with a huuuuuuuuge smile on my face. I always took heaps of photos and was so happy to have found them. To me chameleons are one of the coolest creatures on earth. Another animal they are scared of are Aye-Ayes. In some areas of Madagascar they have to move and burn down the village if an Aye-Aye has walked into the village. I just wish they would leave the animals alone, but unfortunately especially in the cities they kill all snakes and chameleons. :(

Hand shakes

When you shake someones hands in Madagascar you shall never really shake it and not squish the hand of your opponent either. Just very carefully take the hand of the other person and hold your right arm with your left hand. Generally you have to watch the people closely so that you know how to greet them. Some also use both hands to shake yours so you have to do the same. If someone hands something to you, you also have to hold your right arm with your left hand when you take it so that you do not offend them.

Vhazha

In Madagascar the white people and also the richer people from Tana for example are called Vhazha. They also call you Vhazha and often add something that describes you a little better. Oliver was Vhazha Grand Model as he is really big, Ole was called Vhazha Chocolat, well actually he was called Vhazha Petit Model but he didn’t like it so he changed it to Vhazha Chocolat as he was so tanned LOL. I myself was called Vhazha Kung Fu as they were very impressed with my skills when Jacques and I showed each other parts of our Kung Fu styles. Later they simply called me Bluey really because they thought the name is so unusual that they didn’t need to call me Vhazha. Fia Dana was very surprised when he saw my name written as he spelled it “Blouis”. He thought it was way cool.

Guard dog

We also had a guard dog. A dirty looking little dog came into the camp and decided to stay. He got the rest of the food (well from me anyway as Malagsy people never leave food) and what was leftovers from cooking. What we didn’t like at all is the way they are treating dogs in Madagascar. They only kick them and never give them a feed… they have to survive by themselves. Looking at our guard dog you just wanted to grab him and stick them in a washing machine, but he was cute and after a few pats (he has probably never been petted ever in his life) he was all happy and even wiggling his tail. I just feel sorry for him now that we are gone and can’t look after him. He always dug himself a little hole at the side of my tent and guarded it… he barked at everyone coming close to our camp. Sometimes we thought that he died, cause he laid on the ground without moving at all, even when the Malagasy people where throwing little sticks at him. Fortunately he was fine, well as fine as he could be.

I know... too many pictures... but I really liked the dog.

Why is the rum always gone ;)

As for a shower we had a bucket each in which we filled water from the river. It was treated with “Sur eau” which is something like Mikropur and disinfects the water. After long day out in the bush it is a great feeling to have a “shower”. The only thing that I hated doing is filling the bucket up again as in Madagascar there is Bilhaziosis and I am not too keen in getting it. When you are sitting in the bush sweating and only having chlorine water you really are craving for a nice ice-cold coke… towards the end I would have probably killed for it ^^. In the evening we often had a little bit of rum. It is amazing how cheap good rum is there, I paid about 1.60 € for 1 L of Rum.

Gourmet

You have to get used to the food a little, but it tastes really good. It is always about the same with slight variations…. Rice and beans…and beans and rice…and surprisingly rice and beans again LOL Rice for breaky, rice for lunch and rice for tea! YUMM! As for drinking you had rice water haha, which is the rice that is burnt on the bottom of the pot filled up with water and cooked for a few hours. It tastes like … well… burnt rice really. You also had the choice of drinking filtered water from the river which I admittedly prefered unless I wanted something warm to drink. I also tried the tea that they make and was amazed how extremly dark they manage to get the tea without getting any taste what-so-ever into it. I haven’t got a bloody clue how they do it. As a change from rice and beans we also had a potato, carrot and cabbage mix which was quite nice as well. Believe me you are more than thankful when you get out of the camp and are able to eat something else for a change… variety really keeps a meal nice. Once we bought some fish of the people from a village in the area. They were fried for a long time (everything is either fried or cooked for a few hours) and eaten whole afterwards. It is not actually to die for… rather to die from! LOL. Nah it’s not so bad really once you ignore it is a whole fish you are eating there with bones and all. I was not able to eat the head but… I just couldn’t do it. We also bought meat for the camp which they do NOT cook in the beginning and then store it. They only cook as much as they are using for the next meal… the rest is hanging on a rope between two trees. It’s a sight you really have to get used to. When the meat went completely green they cut it into little piece and fried it till it was all crispy. I personally didn’t eat the meat after the first day and I found it having a strange smell and taste… which I guess all meat gets from just hanging raw in the sun with lots of flies on it… after it was laying on the back of a ute in a plastic bag, in the sun for a day.

People in the camp

The camp life was great! Work like this gives you the unique possibility to get a better insight on the people who actually live in the area. As tourists you would usually only see them, but aren’t able to really meet them. It was very interesting for both sides I believe. Part of the time I felt a little bit like in a Zoo as the people always tried to touch me and be close to me. I always just put it off as being because they haven’t seen any white people or hardly any before. In addition I don’t think they have ever seen anyone as blond as I am which explains why they constantly touched my hair. Later I found out that they say that my hair is the “Hair of the Gods” which I found very cute… if they knew what a bi… bugger it is to try and comb my hair, which always knots up as it is so fine, they wouldn’t think that anymore LOL. We weren’t really able to talk with the people as they only spoke a few words of french (not that my french is any good ^^) and we only spoke a few words of Malagash, but we had a lot of fun anyway. They warmed up quickly and even though they always put on very serious faces for photos in the beginning they beat us in pulling awful faces in the end.

Mouse lemurs

Fortunately Jacques was with us so that I was able to get a closeup look at Mouse lemurs. They are very cute and amazing animals. During the night they are very easy to spot as they are very curious, so when you walk through the bush with your headtorch on looking around they will always look at you and with their reflecting orange eyes they are very easy to spot. Jacques task was to set out traps and catch them to get their measures (eg body length, ear length, tail length, tail circumstance, body mass etc). One of the reasons is to determine in which area what type of mouse lemurs live, so that he also took genetic samples. For the actual measurement they are sleeping so that they don’t stress out too much. Jacques also has to take detailed photos of every single specimen. One of the shots that he takes looks a bit like the criminal pics from their arrest, as the lemurs get a paper to hold with their number and where they where found. This triggered us to let them hold some other papers as well. It is a bit mean to use them like that but I guess it doesn’t make a big difference to them what paper they hold. Aren’t they just so very cute? I find them adorable and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to have a close look and feel of these magnificant animals so I took the opportunity and helped Jacques with his work whenever I wasn’t busy with searching for reptiles. One of the absolute highlights for me was that in the morning we often saw Kattas (or ring-tailed lemurs). I always wanted to see them in the wild and I was extremely happy when they crossed our way to the transects. Unfortunately they aren’t as curious as Mouse lemurs and always ran of quickly so that I was never able to take a good picture… just blurry and far away as I was always in awe when I saw them and couldn’t get my camera out fast enough.

Reptiles bring bad luck :(

Our focus was on all reptiles of course as that was our primary task… in one of the transects Fia Dana suddenly yelled Bibi Lava. He saw a snake and as we hadn’t seen any snakes at that point yet I was pretty happy and went to see it. Unfortunately he didn’t catch the snake as he, like pretty much every Madagsy, is afraid of snakes. I was a little sad and thought it’d for sure be lost as it was in a huge pile of old branches stuff, but in the next second I saw a movement and grabbed for it. Fortunately there are no venomous snakes in Madagascar so I was safe to just grab it. Fia Dana looked at me as if I completely lost it… how could I possibly touch a snake. Let me explain a little closer.
In the evenings we showed our reptile identification book to the people and asked them if they knew the different reptiles, if they have seen them in the area and if so, if they can give us some hint as to where to find them. We were especially keen to find a boa, but when we opened the page with the snake pictures they jumped back in horror. They are extremly scared of snakes and boas in particular. I do not know why and did not manage to find out, but they are scared of a fair few things. They also believe that chameleons bring bad luck which explains why they looked at me as if I had gone completely crazy whenever I found a chameleon and showed it to everyone with a huuuuuuuuge smile on my face. I always took heaps of photos and was so happy to have found them. To me chameleons are one of the coolest creatures on earth. Another animal they are scared of are Aye-Ayes. In some areas of Madagascar they have to move and burn down the village if an Aye-Aye has walked into the village. I just wish they would leave the animals alone, but unfortunately especially in the cities they kill all snakes and chameleons. :(

Reptile work

We found heaps of different lizards, snakes, chameleons, geckos (diurnal as well as nocturnal) and all different critters. Of course you were also able to see some really magnificant birds of which I unfortunately didn’t take many pics really as I am very focused on mammals and reptiles. One day we found something really cute in a transect … we only saw something jump and race around like crazy… it was moving so quickly, that you couldn’t tell at all what it was. Then Fia Dana went WHAMO hitting with his flat hand on the ground and there he caught the thing. AMAZING! How the hey did he do it? It was a cute little Pygmy musk. Cute little critter, I’m amazed that Fia Dana managed to catch it at that speed. I know I have posted the pic before, but it’s just too cute.

Hissing cockroach

Just to give you an impression as to how they hiss...

Penguin? In the spiny forest of Madagascar?

The area of Ihazofotsy offers different landscapes… mainly dry forest which is spiny forest. In addition there is some kind of a “close-to-river-vegetation”, which I called that way as there is supposed to be gallery forest, which unfortunately in this area is not existant anymore. We had four main transects in which we worked. One was just across the river on the northern side of the river, one east of the camp, one in the west and another one a few kilometers in the southwest. One day we were in transect B and Oliver suddenly yelled out and we thought he must have found something cool, but as he is also interested in insects and stuff which we don’t find just as exciting we asked: “What did you find…. Anything interesting?”. “You won’t believe it!” “What? Is it something we haven’t found before? A boa or a radiated tortoise?” “Better! Much better… you won’t believe it!” “Well what is I then…?” “You can’t believe this! You can’t believe I found this here!” “A Penguin? ^^” “Nearly! I’d say better than a penguin!” This certainly had our attention by then so we went to have a look and what we saw was something like shown in the picture… … … … … Ole and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. I’m sure this is somehow exciting as he says things like that shouldn’t be able to survive in the dry forest but seriously… like a penguin? A penguin would have been way cool and not just being a penguin in a dry forest, but thinking of the film “Madagascar” it would have been hilarious. But instead we got that thing whatever it is exactly. The one on the photo is actually a second one that I found later. Took a photo just in case it really is something great to find but honestly I couldn’t really be bothered too much by a slimey looking thing like that. lol

Working in the transects

On the first day we walked around the area to figure what types of forests are available and where we were going to set up our transects. Jacques was responsible for the mouse lemurs whereas Tahiana recorded the plants. Our job were the reptiles. A transects is 1 km long and is divided into plots of 25 m each. The plots are marked with a bit of red cloth. For the actual work you walk/crawl/climb along the transect and search on every tree, in and under every dead wood/stone, substrate etc. for reptiles of all kinds. Once you have gotten used to the reptiles, you don’t have to catch them any more for identification but just note how many of what kind you find in the respective areas. It is not the easiest work as we worked in the dry forest… and the dry forest is spiny forest and if they say spiny they bloody well mean it !!! OUCH! It hurts crawling through those bushes. You have to be a little careful while searching for the reptiles as there are heaps of other critters you don’t really want to come across, such as centerpeds, scorpions or even a black widow. With scorpions it really is the way you imagine it. You flip over a stone and you got one. Very interesting creatures to be found all over the place. Have a look at the pictures and you get an idea (more pics will follow in other posts, so just a few to start). I will also try to show you a video of a hissing cockroach, they are kind of cute I think. Personally, I hate catching those geckos that loose their scales. I know it is a defense mechanism and it’s not supposed to hurt but who really knows?! Luckily we didn’t catch one that lost all the scales as a naked gecko is really a horrible thing to see!

Arriving at the camp

The normal precedure in Madagascar is that if you go and set up a camp somewhere you have to go to all the surrounding villages and houses to tell them what you are doing and show your respect. Often you are invited to join them for some Manjoc even though they are so poor and don’t really have enough food for themselves. Unfortunately they simply unloaded all of our stuff before we got to the place we wanted to camp at and then started an endless discussion about wanting more money to bring the stuff all the way. They really try to rip you off all the time and get the most money out of you. That is quite annoying and costs a lot of time… so it was getting dark and that doesn’t really make it any easier to find a place for the camp and set up all the tents. We walked and climbed through the bush and after a while found a place for the camp and started preparing everything. The others didn’t get there till a few hours afterwards (so much to the 3 kays). We employed a guard, two guides and a cook (you have to do that to show them that they can actally earn money with a National Park and it is a lot safer if you got peple from the area in your camp). After that exhausting day we were just so glad to have warm meal and then go to bed…. Oh and some rum ^^.

On the way to the camp

From there we went on to the next village to pick up one of the workers from ANGAP who is our guide for the field work. His name is Fia Dana and when he got onto the car there wasn’t really a lot of room to move or have blood circulation in your legs. Try sit in the back seat of a ute with four people … stuff a few backpacks, food, drinks and other supplies in there… get on a decent 4wd road and then see if you feel your legs afterwards. From that village on the street got worse and worse and it really wasn’t too much fun sitting squished in the back seat. Unfortunately the driver didn’t completely seem to know the way and took the wrong road (which we found out on the way back from the camp). The road was getting worse and the trees, bushes and cactuses moving closer in on the road. In the end it was so bad that the car was simply stuck between two walls of cactuses. I haven’t got a clue why the driver went in there and kept going. The screeching noise of the cactuses and spiny branches pushing against the car was awful. The car looked so bad afterwards… no brand new car anymore… rather a completely destroyed paintjob I’d say. After a while the driver decided that it didn’t make any sense to keep going (what a genius). He then noticed that we couldn’t get out of the car and with that not unload the luggage (double genius) so he had to back up until the door would open enough to get out. While we unpacked the stuff we were searching for a charette (a cart pulled by zebus) for further transportation to the area we wanted to set up the camp. Fortunately we found one and loaded most of our stuff onto the charette. Ole, Jacques and I went with the charette to talk with the people from the villages and search for a camp site. One thing is for sure. If they tell you it’s just 3 kays from here it is at least double that… in our case it was about 10 kays… bllllooooooody hell^^! On the way we had to pick up all our potatoes and carry them ourselves as the cart was loosing them all (like Haensel and Gretel ^^).