Almost time to leave Madagascar. There is so much more info in my written daily accounts since we didn't have internet (or electricity) most times, I went into much more detail there.

Amigo's Gold Beer is awful.Yuck. Stick with THB (Three Horse Beer).

There is a BBC film crew here. Mark knows one of them. Andrew Graham Miller. The invited us to one of their shooting locations this afternoon where they said the dancing Sifakas come by in a big group.

It's close to 100 degrees here.

They also invited us to celebrate one the crew member's birthday. Apparently they knew about this special Madagascar drink and the lodge had some.  It's white rum, ginger, vanilla and honey and they put it in a large glass jar and sits in the sun for a couple of months to ferment. I had a small glass of it. It tastes great, but it's strong.

Heading back to Tana in the morning then to South Africa for another overnight and then home.

My flight goes from South Africa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to the Ivory Coast to Newark, NJ to PDX.  So glad I have business class tickets!

No internet yesterday.

We took a boat to the reserve to see some aye-aye lemurs. The oddest creatures. They look like a cross between uncle fester, the golem and yoda. We also saw a golden orb spider - gorgeous.  The water in the Indian Ocean is bath water temperature here around the island. It's crystal clear and shallow for a long way out. The sand is full of graphite and your feet get black as you walk in it.

We are off to the capital again to spend the night before flying out on a domestic flight to Fort Dauphin then a drive to Berenty. Interesting sight on our way to the airport at 4:45am. At the stalls selling meat, they were just hanging it all up and at each of the stalls was a stray street dog sitting and waiting patiently. As the meat was trimmed before hanging for display, the vendor passed the scraps to the dogs.

A few random bits of info -- the cars here have all been exported from other countries when they no longer met the emissions standards. The government corruption here is awful. Much foreign aid has been sent, but not used for the purpose it was sent for. The road we drove on is only 90km, but took us a bit over 4 hours to drive. Luckily out guide/driver knows which bridges are unsafe to use and it's better to ford the river.

Up early and saying goodbye to the rainforest today. We have a three-four hour drive followed by two hours on a boat to get to our island.  We'll pass by a couple of the same towns as we did on the way in before we get to the turn off. I hope we can stop and buy more custard apples and ladyfinger bananas. I'll pass on the whole dried eels though. People held up chickens and ducks by the legs offering them for sale.

Driving here is crazy - no traffic signs or lights at all.

No internet for the next few days.

Not much downtime. A walk in Antisibe national park yesterday with Indri-indri and a night walk with a ton of things. I only have about 10 minutes of generator so I'll keep this moving.  We went to lemur island yesterday at the reserve where they are habituated lemurs that have been rescued from places. They were funny and jumped all over me to get at a banana. Tomorrow we are leaving for Palmarium Island for few nights.

Might not have a lot of electricity while here. Arrived in Madagascar yesterday. It's so much different. The poverty is staggering - our guide said that education is not compulsory for anyone. (you need a guide and driver here since the infrastructure is so horrible). Everyone is on the street trying to sell something. We are in the capital -- Antananarivo (Tana) for just a bit and then off to explore.  Watching what is being sold as we drive by. Fly covered carp looks like it's been dead for a while. Glad that it's not my dinner.

It took a few hours to drive to our lodge. The roads are awful and 4 wheel drive is necessary. My head is so full of information.  It was sad to see kids playing with empty juice boxes attached to sticks with twine, but they were running and racing and having fun.

After getting out of the city, the forests are slash burned. They've been replanted with eucalyptus but the native animals haven't returned because their native foods are gone. The native forests were Palissandre, Rosewood and Ebony. Now they plant fast growing trees to cut them to make charcoal. Over 90% of the population do not have electricity and they cook with charcoal.  On the other hand, the country has banned plastic bags and straws.

Stopped for lunch at a local restaurant that our guide said was safe to eat at (yay!). I ordered coconut curry fish forgetting that I was going to be served a whole fish.

An amazing morning game drive with Mark and Holly. We ran across mating lions, a pair of male cheetahs and lots of rhinos. We are heading out to Richard's Bay airport and flying to Joberg and staying the night to meet up with Nicolene and Andrew then heading to Madagascar.

We came across Rhinos without Borders today. They had darted a rhino and were taking bloodwork etc and notching the ears and adding a tracker. They also de-horn them to keep them safe from poachers.  Had to jump up and slide the outer door shut.  A vervet money was trying to get in. We also ran across two male lions with a zebra carcass. Lots of white rhinos. Lions have very bad breath. We were about 15 feet from grumpy cat when he roared -- ugh - dead zebra breath.

I stayed at the Gecko Inn in Richard's Bay. Very cute place and extremely nice staff. Incredible thunder and lightening storm tonight. I sat outside under cover and watched. Waiting for my ride to Phinda.

The driver was early so I arrived at Phinda early.  It was a little over 2 hours from Richard's Bay to the lodge. My driver was Zulu. He slowed down to point things out along the way and totally knew everyone. We stopped and waved to people, rolled down the window to say hello to people cooking food or selling things on the side of the road. Everyone waved to him. He brought along some snacks for me. I dove into the Biltong -- beef and springbok. He also brought some corn nuts (not packaged) and dried pineapple.  He insisted that I fill my pockets with the biltong -- made me laugh!

Later - the first game drive was cut short due to the thunder and lightening, but still got to see some great stuff.  Nyala, elephans, giraffe, leopard, impalas, wahlbergs eagle -- and move. I have the list in my notebook.  Had dinner with Chad, my ranger.

This is my first day being unemployed in my adult life. Ok, I guess retired isn't really the same thing as unemployed since I have money. So, here I am sitting in the United Club lounge at the PDX airport. First flight is to SFO, then Frankfurt, Germany, Johannesburg, South Africa, then to Richard's Bay, South Africa. I stay over night in that little town then I am picked up by the transfer car to bring me to Phinda Forest Lodge for 4 days before meeting up with Holly and Mark and Nicolene and Andrew to head to Madagascar.

Arrived in Frankfurt - nothing like Polaris class lay flat seats.  Time to find some good German beer and wait for my next flight.

It's been awhile

I have not posted in this blog in years and there have been many travels, many caches.  Alaska, Costa Rica, Peru, Brazil, several trips to Africa.... Today was my last day at work for a while. I left my position after 18 years. I am leaving next month for Madagascar for a month so I might have more time to use this blog again.....