Isalo
We left Isalo Ranch in the morning after breakfast, headed for Zombitse National Park. The right side of the road boardered Isalo National Park, and we saw sighs saying it was Fady to start a fire or burn. Lova said it is more effective to say it is fady / taboo than to say it is forbidden. The wrath of the ancestors is worse than the wrath of the law.
We passed some Bismark Palms which appeared partly burned. They are fire resistant and regenerate after the fire passes. They are also called the "Satan Palm" because they are black after burning and live through fire.
We passed through Lakaka, a gem mining town located around an old river bed; sapphires were discovered there in the 1990s. The old river bed extends up into Isalo National Park. It is forbidden to dig / mine in the Park, but people still bribe park rangers and mine there illegally.
Along the way, we saw many people mining for precious stones and metals.
Where there is no source for water, people fill bags with potential productive sand and carry it or pay for a ride to where there is a river with water and wash it there.
We came to a place in a town where a cyclone had taken out the highway at an old river bed. Some water runs there now and people are using it to wash for sapphires.
We went through a settlement of short, tiny houses. Apparently there was a rumor of sapphires in the area; people used all their money to travel there, but found no gems. They had no money to return "home," so now they are ekeing out a living, trying to plant something that they can eat that will grow in the extremely dry climate.
When we got to Zombitse Ecolodge, we checked in and then headed to the park for a walk instead of waiting for the afternoon. Lova was afraid it would rain again. He asked if it had rained and they said it had rained in the park but not at the lodge.
Our park service guide, "Toussain," pronounced "two-sign," was great. So was our spotter, "Zafy." Zafy did not speak very good English, one of the requirements for passing the official guide test, so he could only work as a spotter. But he was an excellent spotter. We saw a good variety of things.
The walking Pandanus was cool; aptly named. But the baobabs we saw standing alone in the scorched former forest on the way from the ecolodge to Zombitse were depressing. We were also disappointed to see some parabolic solar ovens just lying around unused.
At Zombitse on our walk, Zafy would go ahead looking for things; if he found something extra special, he would come back and tell Toussain and they would lead us to it. After being gone for some time he returned, excited. We followed trails quite a ways until we came to where there were three Fossa up in trees. It was about two weeks into the breeding season. The male Fosa brings food to the female; if she approves, they will breed. Lova said he once overheard a guide with poor English tell people "Food means sex; no food means no sex." and then, "During old times we called this prostitution." So there you have it. I'm fixing dinner tonight.
We enjoyed watching an ant haul off a caterpillar twice its size.
During our hike there were what looked like Tse-Tse flies all over the back of Dona's dark pants, but they didn't to bite through the material.
We returned to Zombitse Ecolodge for lunch. Our room had no electricity for charging things, so I checked at the lobby / dining area, but their generator was out. We could still charge in the vehicle so we were ok. I was surprised they didn't seem to have any solar panels.
At 14:50 in the afternoon a thundershower came in, and for a good hour we had thunder and lightning banging away pretty steadily within 1 - 5 km. There was water everywhere; it was the first rain in months.
Our bungalow had a thatched roof, but it stayed dry inside. The porch, however, leaked and driped all over after ten minutes or so. Looking out as the rain was pouring down, places where there was leaf-litter seemed to soak it up; where there was no leaf-litter, where the ground had been swept and people had walked and packed it down, water was running in rivers.
A lone Ring-tailed Lemur, "Maki", whose parents had died needed a companion and was happy to latch onto Dona.
Aloe vahombe is an endemic plant; it is sometimes planted on tombs.
We took a night walk at Zombitse Ecolodge around the grounds. We saw lots of Grey Mouse Lemurs.
We found a Hissing Cockroach and I managed to make it hiss.
After returning from our night walk, we discovered that we had no water in our room, and so the toilet didn't work. We managed to deal with it, using water in our reserves. Dona had a bad night, with some diarrhea; but we perservered and headed out for an early morning bird walk. It was productive and enjoyable. The circuit we walked was "Circuit Lobo" / "Circuit Ritikala".
Toussain and Zafy were really good at verbal/mouth calls; they had no need for electronic aids such as cell-phone apps. Watching and listening to them was really impressive; what a superb skill!
