24th - Into the oven

With an early start at 0730 we stocked up on water and drove half an hour before we started the day’s walk.

With high temperatures and not a cloud we walked 4 hours where we got to see the area and rocky environment we were located in. I was surprised how few birds we saw, mainly just a few insects and chameleons.

Saw this wasp-like creature grab hold of a grasshopper and try and fly away with it.

Every time it passed by a leaf of grass the grasshopper grabbed on to it which resulted in a short struggle before the wasp could continue flying. In the end the wasp obviously won.

It is exactly what it looks like; the right tree has a branch circling around the left trunk.

The lack of wildlife changed when we finished lunch which we had after the first part of the tour. We had lunch at a campsite which have had groups of lemurs living from the trash and leftovers of the visitors which made them less scared of humans that usual – and these were wild animals, not like the ones found on Lemur Island. We were visited by a white lemur which they apparently only had one of left in the park. On top of that multiple striped tail lemurs appeared; being wild animals they kept their distance but being close to humans they were obviously not very shy.

White sifaka.

Ring-tailed lemurs.

Note the hand to the right - that was how not shy the animals were.

After this we started the second part of today’s plan; making our way to a natural pool where we would have the opportunity to swim. The way there was through a narrow gorge with equally narrow paths to be walked trying to keep our feet dry. Being there it was nice and serene and the water was great after getting used to it. Coming back to the bus (which was a 10 minutes’ walk after returning to the campsite) we returned to the hotel at 1630, effectively making it the shortest day yet.

Walking to the pool.

The pool

Tomorrow we are leaving at the same time as today but we can look forward to a 7-8 hours’ drive to the last hotel in Ifaty at the coast before returning to Tana after 3 nights.