Sep 26 – Drive to Isalo

We headed out early as we have another very long drive.  View of the mountains and forest from our parking lot.

But we only went a short distance in the park before we had our first stop to see the Andriamamovoka Waterfall just beside the road.

While there we found a very small, but noisy frog.

From there it was off for driving several hours through the countryside, heading south.  We went from fairly wet with rivers and rice paddies...

into the mountains and eventually into a very dry but beautiful region. 

We saw the ubiquitous zebus around the countryside...

and, of course, the local loaded buses. 

One of the villages we hit was having it's market.  It was pretty busy and apparently we only drove through the overflow section, not the main market.

Along the way we stopped at a silk weaving operation.  

They have the silk worms from China but most of their work is with Madagascar silk worms.  Didn’t know Madagascar had silk worms.  The cocoons and the silk was more brown than the whiter Chinese silk. 

And the ladies spun silk by pulling strands from the cocoons and rolling them against their thighs.  Very hand spun.

We could also a lot of brick making operations along the way.

We also stopped at a paper making operation.  They use the bark from the Avoha bush (native to Madagascar),...

Avoha Sticks in Storage

The bark is soaked in water and then pound it before suspending it water over a screen. 

Once the pulp settles the screen is pulled up out of the water and the pulp is spread across the screen. 

On some of the papers they place flower petals on some of the paper to make colorful cards.  The screens are then dried in the sun.

We eventually drove further into the countryside, placed our lunch orders at a restaurant and then headed to a nearby reserve run by the locals.  They are protecting a small, forested area that is now the home of about 600 ring-tailed lemurs.  Before the set aside the preserve there were only about 150 lemurs in the forest.

We picked up our local guide and then headed on an easy, flat trail to the forest and almost immediately found a family of lemurs.  They are gregarious and outgoing and quite entertaining to watch.

Several lemurs were carrying babies.  What a treat.

We spent quite a while watching and photographing the lemurs. 

Just as we were headed out our spotter saw a large Oustleti Chameleon on a low, exposed branch. 

We then headed back to the restaurant for lunch.  The restaurant has only been open for 35 days.  It was a lovely complex and the food was good.

They artistically pealed the tomato.

Very credible chocolate mousse.

The rest of the day was spent driving on rough roads. 

We were rewarded at the end of the day by a lovely sunset.