Blogs from Africa - page 9

The Kirindy forest reserve is a protected area 40 km South of the Tsiribihina river. Originally set up by the Swiss to protect the primary forest it has since become locally run with the help of various NGO's. Reme guided us on dusk and dawn walks. He effortlessly answered our multiple questions about the lemurs and the birds. He could pick out the animals very quickly in the poor light. Some of the lemurs are so small, weighing as little as 30g. The most common were the grey mouse lemurs who hung around the restaurant at the EcoLodge. They are the size of a small rat but have big gorgeous eyes so are regarded as cute and photogenic! The incredible sighting (for me) was the Scops owl. It was asleep in a tree hollow in plain ... read more

A quote famously said by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher. To be fair our destination wasn't bad. It is just that you really had to want to get there. Our destination was the Parc National de Bemaraha and the gateway village of Bekopaka. The Parc is known for its wildlife but particularly for the once-sacred limestone pinnacles called Tsingy. In the case of the Big Tsingy the pinnacles are like stick bundles 100m high. Below are jungle oases with tarzan vines and caves with a cooling breeze. The access route was via a series of rock steps, ladders and safety lines so you can climb to the top and get a panoramic view across the eroded massif. Biero, our local Sakalava guide, moved with such elegance through the narrow gaps and across the traverses. I ... read more

I had better start writing before I start forgetting. It is probably still too late. We are lying in an oasis of luxury in a new hotel in Miandrivazo heading West. We could be anywhere in the world. The reality is outside. This is the start of a 30 tour of Madagascar. In the end we decided not to travel independently and have used JeanBe Tours. Even though we are only early in our visit we have no problem recommending JeanBe. He has been travelling with us and arranged all. For a short trip like this it makes all the difference. See www.jeanbetours.com The first part of our trip has been a two day drive to the West to the first of the nature areas. It has introduced us to life on the central plateau of ... read more

The following morning, we bid farewell to historic Fes and prepared for a long day of travel towards our next destination, Erfoud. Our route through the montane cedar woods of the middle Atlas Mountains, would take us past Ifrane, a charming ski resort, and continue to Erfoud via Errachidia and the Ziz Valley. The stop at Ifrane was short, with time for a coffee and to try to imagine what our surroundings would look like covered in snow but, not long after leaving the village, we had another amusing stop to visit the local monkeys. Naturally, an enterprising young man was there to provide nuts so we could also feed them, and much merriment ensued when one of the cheeky cuties snatched a bag from someone's hand and ran away with it to sneer and eat ... read more

I have to admit that I probably knew less about Fes than any of the other cities in Morocco, but after having observed the immense 8th century Medina the previous afternoon and our stay at a beautiful Riad within it, I was really excited to explore what Fes was about. The 8th Century Fes el Bali Medina is a UNESCO Heritage site, and makes the others look like a child's maze. The claim is that it has 10,000 streets, by which I mean some being just wide enough to traverse single file and in perpetual gloom because of the high walls. It is so densely populated that the majority of the inhabitants are only familiar with the area that they live or work in and would get lost in any other part of the Medina. The ... read more