September 2, 2007
On our first day at any new national park in Madagascar, Leah and I spend time slowly walking around, checking on hiking options, restaurants and food stands (if available), prices and generally just scout around, somewhat aimlessly. To the Malagasy our slow pace seems odd or amusing, but usually our slow style of travel works out well. And so it was at Ankarafantsika National Park:
Shortly after stumbling out of a taxi-brousse after a mentally battering 24 hours of travel, we set up our tent, looked around the park office for a while and set up our camp stove at a picnic table next to two huge and very different types of trees wound together. One of the trees was covered in short, brown, conical spikes; a tree, which a few days later, I dubbed a chocolate chip tree. Between the two trees hung five little white-bellied bats. After less than an hour, while enjoying lunch, a lemur (specifically, a sifaka) dropped onto the lower branches of the tree, apparently just so we could watch him eat some leaves and take lots of pictures. Then we saw the whole troupe, six sifaka including a month-old baby.
Most of our six days there it was like that. We would be sitting in camp reading, writing, or not really doing anything and the wildlife would drop in, walk by or fly through. We saw the lemurs everyday. And, watched lizards, insects and the birds. The variety of birds was stunning. It was several days into our time there I learned the slogan of the park is the "kingdom of the birds", and that somewhere around half of all the species of birds found in Madagascar can by found in this one park. (Although, only one species is endemic.) My favorite were the sickle-billed vanga. In groups of 20 or more would call, "ga,ga,ga" or petulantly cry, "wa-ann!" Leah's favorite were the hoopoe with mattock-shaped heads that would pick at the ground. And, in one circumstance they fanned out their "mattocks" and jumped around excitedly in a disagreement with a gang of grey-headed lovebirds. I was told they were fighting over food, but I knew it was a 50's-style-Hollywood turf war.
Of course, we didn't spend the whole time in camp. We drove in a park truck through a broad savanna to a multi-colored desert canyon; took a night walk, where we found an amazing little owl calling to his mate; and walked a botanical circuit that included an area covered with plants that produces strychnine.
Possibly, because it was closer to tourist season, or because the park was just off the main road from Tana, we met more Westerns than usual. We chatted with a Canadian masters' student, who was researching lemurs. Enjoyed talking with a northern Italian, who should be a professional photographer. And, on our last couple of days there, we struck up a conversation with a group of teens from Majunga, who were studying the park as part of a month-long summer program.
Oddly, due to our slow pace, other people seemed to come and go frequently. I wanted to say to them, "Don't forget to see the bats in the tree" or "Did you see the black collared lizards?" or "Did you find the bird watching tower?" But usually, before I could talk to them they had taken their one hour guided walk and were long gone. Oh well, I guess that can't really miss what they don't discover.
