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Published: November 20th 2008
SALAAM! My friends and countrymen;
We awoke in the misty fog rainforest of Ranamafano- not a sound was heard but the slight trickle of the water starved river outside of our bungalow. We hitched a ride to the entrance of the National Park and bought an expensive ticket in and guide to go along. Believe me my penny pinching friends if there was a way to avoid the fees and sneak in like any good young adventurer should do, we would have. But this place was on lock down. We joined two Italian doctors to split the cost of the guide. And might I add using a guide was not my first choice for exploring the jungle; being a true believer in the thriftiness of Mcgyver and stealth like movements of Rambo I would have rather explored on our own. But to the village the guides bring in huge income and the support was good to give. We set out on our six hour tour through the bush! We poked and prodded looking at all the flora of the jungle, we ate all sorts of amazing wild herbs, smelled some sweet flowers and leaves. We saw our first lemur high up in the canopy, supposedly it had just dropped its baby two stories to the forest floor so it wasnt being to photogenic. We met some Seattlites who turned out to be complete nerds and very rude. The only thing I could get from them was that they didnt like pro football after I pointed to my Seahawks bandanna and Exclaimed, I too am from Seattle see! After our lemur siting our guide switched on predator mode and we left the trail and moved through the underbrush to find more critters. After a brisk uphill climb I lifted my pant leg and discovered I was being eaten alive; LEECHES blasted leeches were crawling all over me and draining my precious life blood. From here on out it was a constant battle of catching the leeches before they caught you. Luckily the little buggers are only about an inch long and carry no disease. But they are aggresive and bite onto everything very quickly, they are easy to pull off once attached. They arent like the swamp leeches Steve Zissou encountered in THE LIFE AQUATIC, these hide under leaves and on land instead of swamps. Ari lifted her pant leg to find blood draining down the back of her calf and soaked through her pant leg. Dont think that wearing gators protects you either, they are relentless climbers and will climb up your clothes in a matter of seconds. I pulled one off my neck, the Italian girl had one in her hair. We saw our first large group of lemurs who turned out to be more interested in us then we to them. They leaped from tree to tree and came within a couple of feet sniffling and snorting to get a better curious look at us. They were very friendly and were much more responsive to the camera. Later on we encountered an extremely rare lemur the Black Sifaka, they to were very curious of us. Our guide said that we were very lucky, usually the lemurs are not so friendly. We continued the hike and I found a little snake I let wrap around my hand and Ari found more leeches, we also came to a beautiful waterfall with frogs covering the banks of the pond. We found a little ground chameleon making his slow way across the forest floor, the poor bloke cant climb so he relies on fast color change to camoflage himself. After six hours spent in the wild it was good to come out, as well all the blood letting was making me weak, but it did relieve my minor aches and pains. Our guide turned out to be worth his cost and was the Marco Polo explorer I hoped for. He taught us a lot. We got a small dorm room next to the park entrance for just a couple bucks and sat down to a nice dinner. The dinner was rudly distrubed by a cloud of knats. And I dont mean disturbed like we swatted them from our faces but we had to evacuate the premises and seek shelter in our room. Our dinner was brought to us and a table put together next to our bed. The knats were in the numbers of trillions, blanketing the walls and filling every void of body crevice. We slept sound!
dont mind spelling and grammar the computer is in french so it says I am spelling everything wrong!
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Sydney
non-member comment
thinkin of ya
I can't believe how far behind in my reading I have become! You guys are quick! Sounds like you are having the spontaneous, crazy adventures I would only expect from you two. And I can't wait to see the pictures of these places!