Arrival in Fort Dauphin is very pretty, the mountains are magnificent and the little local houses almost French medieval/ colonial in look.

The airport is a nightmare. Everyone disembarks, and even the Antananarivo transit passengers clear emigration and customs and are issued with visas and it is a lengthy process. This is also not helped by the number of workers that travel to the area that have no clue of visa/ emigration procedures. After an hour and a half in the queue, you are issued with a visa that takes a complete page of your passport and then collect cases and most people were searched by customs.

The trip to Nahampoana Reserve takes about 20 minutes, with the road off the main road lined by villages and local homes, This is important to note, because all through the reserve, there is the constant sound of village life and unfortunately, the local radio station. Tuesday night is movie night, so our night walk was accompanied by movie sound track that echoes round the reserve.

The walks are all pretty short but the great thing is that you are guaranteed of seeing all 4 lemur species. he Verreaux’s Sifaka live in the trees about 30m from the rooms and dining area, and are very cute and come really close for photos. I think that the guides feed all the lemurs, so they all come looking for bananas. This is great for photos, but is not a natural forest. The second lemur that we encountered on our walk was the Red-fronted Brown Lemur, and they even came as close as to look in the back packs. There were about 6 of them. There was quite a big pack of Ringtail Lemurs and they are definitely fed, as they knew the drill when we found a banana peel and were quite happy to come right up even walking on me to see if there was any banana left in the peel.

Nahampoana Reserve
This reserve is situated 7 km to the north of Fort Dauphin (about 15 minutes by road). This 67 ha park has four species of habituated lemurs, Ring-tailed, Red-fronted Brown, Bamboo as well as the dancing lemur, Verreaux’s Sifaka; Radiated Tortoise (Geochelone radiata); chameleons and some birds. This reserve is a botanical garden where you will also see some of the natural vegetation of the dry south-west and the Intermediate Zone. Examples of these include the Octopus tree (Didierea madagascariensis), species of Euphorbia, the Madagascar Triangulate Palm (Neodypsis decaryii), the Traveller’s Palm (Ravinalia madagascariensis) and species of Pachypodium.  In the forest there are waterfalls and natural swimming pools offering quiet and secluded picnic sites. One can also do a short excursion by pirogue through the mangroves.
    
Nahampoana Guest House**
This guest house has five spacious chalets with en-suite bathrooms and large balconies facing the reserve.  Day and night walks can be arranged with your guide who has good knowledge of some of the endemic and non endemic flora and fauna in the park.  The guest house is run on solar power and there are no plug points in the rooms.  The restaurant offers all meals. Continental breakfasts and local Malagasy dishes are served.

The night walk was also lovely. We heard all the night birds, including owl and saw 2 sleeping chameleon. But the highlight was seeing 2 x red mouse lemur, one very close up. They are lovely and tiny and have huge eyes. For photo opportunities or clients that really want lemurs up close with little effort – this is it!  

Nahampoana Guest House is not for the faint hearted! The rooms are very basic. The buildings creak and groan and crack the whole night and if it rains, as it did several times during the night, it sounds like you are in the shower. There is also stuff falling out of the trees on the roof all night.

The dinner was delicious, with a limited amount of beverages, but we had a tomato and green pepper in vinegar starter, with some bread, a superb tuna steak, with vegetable, French fries and rice, and fruit for dessert. My personal opinion, is that a fussy traveller, should maybe have a day trip to Nahampoana, with lunch included, and maybe a ride on the river, but then spend the night in a hotel in town.

However, saying that, we visited Lavasoa Guest house, which is on the side of the cliff facing Surfer’s Beach. It consists of 6 small chalets, two that have a loft area with 3 x single beds. They do not have a restaurant and clients have to eat at Chez George Local Restaurant, which is a good 10 min walk. The view from this little guest house is amazing, it would have been wonderful to see it in the day light BUT at the back, is a local community and the site offices for the American School where research takes place and the kids come and do field work. At first glance, it doesn’t look great, but the houses are nice, and the walks from here to the beach must be spectacular. I recommend at least a day in Fort Dauphin to do some exploring. The guest house does not have any of the amenities of the hotels. No phone, safe, fridge, pool, etc etc.

We popped in here briefly after meeting Edward and found this to be a very pleasant hotel, the staff who were not expecting us, were very gracious and although the hotel was full, managed to find us a room to look at. The rooms are quite large and have a double/ twin beds and en suite bathroom, telephone, and I think a TV. The reception area is large and the garden in the middle of the hotel is lovely. My only concern would be that the hotel is on the main road and we drove past it 3 times in our stay, and each time there were multitudes of people and trucks and 4 x 4 in the area, so I would imagine that during the day and early evening, it would be quite noisy.

Sunny Hotel
We stopped in at the Sunny Hotel as Edward hadn’t seen it either, and apart from the obligatory Toyota sales desk, the hotel was more than adequate. The reception area was clean and the restaurant although closed for the morning was fully set and the tables were clean and nicely set. There are twin/ double and triple rooms. All en suite with a safe, tea/ coffee facilities. Satellite TV, telephone and room service. I know these are not our favourite, but I wouldn’t have a problem putting a client there. The hotel is not in a very nice area, and I wouldn’t walk round in that area, so for sightseeing etc, clients will have to take a taxi.

FORT DAUPHIN SUMMARY

• Clients must be advised to get small Euro notes, big notes in Fort Dauphin is a waste of time, no one will change them or has change for them. So getting local currency on arrival is essential
• Due to the time spent in the queue for visas, if the clients are arriving in Fort Dauphin, it may be a suggestion to get the visa prior to arrival, just to avoid standing behind the masses of workers coming in for the mine.
• The beaches are lovely, and if the new hotel that is being built on the site of the Lutheran Church by Air Fort Services is any good, then clients can actually just visit the south and have a good experience of the country. Tuesday arrival, maybe 2 days in FTU, with excursions, 3 days at MCC and 1 night TNR and back to JNB – perfect itinerary.

MCC Report Back
We were met by Edward at La Croix Du Sud Hotel on Wednesday Morning. He accompanied us on a quick visit to La Croix Du Sud and also stopped for us to have a quick look at Sunny Hotel.

Edward is a mine of knowledge about Madagascar, he obviously researched his camp location very well and therefore is very interesting to chat to as he has visited many of the remote beautiful areas in Madagascar. He is constantly on the go, he does the transfers, assisting with airport check in and arrivals, accompanies guests on the excursions, sits with the guests at dinner, co ordinates the meals, up keeps the camp, deals with the stresses of the local population and bureaucracy. Edward is a perfect host and I really hope that MCC does extremely well.

TRANSFERS:
The main way to travel internally in Madagascar is by plane and then 4x4 vehicle. Access to all MCC camps is by 4x4 vehicle only - the definition of ‘off the beaten track’! Around Antananarivo and other areas with paved roads we also use minibuses as well as 4x4’s.
The roads are horrendous, when we told Edd that we had been told that they were not that bad, he burst out laughing. Apparently the south has had very unseasonal rain, and this has also affected the roads quite badly. With them not having chance to dry out, the mud is just becoming more and more churned up, resulting in some very uncomfortable transfers. Edd mentioned that the Polish owner of the land that the camp is situated on, is looking at doing light aircraft transfers one way for clients and I think this will be a winner. My body was very sore after 3 days of being pounded over the roads.

PICK UP AND LAC ANONY
En route to Lac Anony, we came to a barrier on a road that had been erected by a local sisal plantation  owner. He had given instructions for the road to be closed as the rain had made the roads bad and he didn’t want vehicles making it worse, so we had to then make our way on other roads through the sisal plantations till we could get through to the lake.
Lac Anony is beautiful, we dropped off the staff member who set up lunch for us and we took a quick drive along the lake shore to the dunes, we were lucky enough to get to see the flamingos on the lake – also very un-seasonal. The dunes are magnificent and the view at the back of the dunes is just breath taking, miles and miles of completely un-spoilt beach with beautiful water and waves.
Lunch was delightful, crumbed chicken, potatoes and salad and a variety of alcoholic and soft beverages. Bananas rounded off the meal.
We then left again in order to see the large baobabs near the camp in the pink sunset, we were semi successful, as only the top of the trees still glowed pink by the time we got there. This was my first sighting of the spiny forests and they are amazing, like nothing I have ever seen before. I loved them. We saw a flock of grey headed love birds in the forest and yellow billed kites and some or other grey and blue bird.

Arrival in camp was lovely, the pathways were all lined by lanterns and we were taken to our tents, and they really are great. Huge tents with a beautiful bed, small desk, carved kist and small hanging wardrobe. The bathroom needs a little bit of re – looking, there could be a hook or two for clothes and maybe towels to be loser to the shower, and there is not enough room on the basin area for toiletries, jugs and the other bits and pieces, so a small cabinet of sorts may also be a good idea.
Dinner was superb, we had the aubergine starter and 3 zebu steak main course, Janet had Dorado fish and run pancakes for dessert – it was all I could do to keep my eyes open for the last course.
The bed is extremely comfortable and makes getting up in the cold mornings difficult, but the idea of sunrise over the river was a good enough reason to have an early cup of coffee and wander down to the river bank. The river reverberates in the still morning with the sound of the local tribes singing on their way to work, it was very special to experience this.

Day 2 started off with delicious croissants and Pain au Chocolate made on site – YUMMY, then we loaded up the cameras and kit bags for the Sacred Forest excursion

The car trip was about 20 minutes to a village where we were told that due to the river being so low, we would have to wade across, so after removing shoes and rolling up pants, we headed across, with a few incidents of sinking thigh deep into the sand! On the other side, we were given small towels to dry our feet and then we headed off into the Sacred Forest. The Fadys were explained to us and off we went.

The spiny forest is amazing, I have never seen plants like that in my life. The visit to the forest was a bit short and I think that the point of the whole experience was missed, with the guide who was not that experienced. Shortly after we had re-crossed and put back shoes and socks, a yell from the side that we had just left alerted us to the presence of Verreaux’ Sifaka. Alison and the guides were energetic enough to so the show thing twice more and go back, but Janet and I decided to brave the sun on the river bank.

Once Alison had got her shot of the sifaka on the octopus tree, we travelled to another village where it was the Thursday market. This is not for Sissies! There were thousands of people selling chickens and turkeys and guinea fowl and goats and zebu in whole live form and not. I tried to avoid the latter as much as possible and stuck to Gino’s side like glue! Blankets, sarongs, pots and pans, plastic containers, herbs, spices, cassava, sweet potatoes, medication, clothes…. The list goes on and on. It was very loud and colourful. Then back to the camp for lunch.

What a treat, Prawn and chicken kebabs, lamb chops, sausages, the most divine quiche and salads, and to round off, banana stuffed with chocolate – sublime. Our bodies wanted to bed down for the afternoon, but the “forces” loaded us back in the car and this time in the other direction to the Gallery Forest. Incredible that two such diverse vegetation areas can be so close to each other. We were joined by 2 local guides who were well into their celebration of someone’s wedding, but despite this, were able to locate 4 sifaka on the highest trees in the forest. While peering up into the trees, one of the local guides found the rum too much for him and keeled over backwards, where he lay till his buddy came and hauled him to his feet and sent him on his way. Hope he made it back to the village!  

We watched the sifaka till virtually sunset, and then en route to the river found a grumpy chameleon, that must have thought that it was famous with the number of camera flashes set off in his eyes, anyway, some lovely photos later, off with the shoes and over the river, thigh deep again and back to the car and camp. We watched some local dancers and as these are ancient stories and you can see that from the actions, it would have been nice if one of the guides could have explained the stories to us.

Dinner was another masterpiece – however the nights are so cold in the open sided dining tent in winter, that the food is cold almost as soon as it gets to the table. Piping hot plates would have helped as would a couple of throws/ blankets to wrap round us as we ate. It would also have added to the experience.

13 June
A very early wake up, pack up and transfer to the airport. Flight out.