Wake up was much earlier than I planned at 330 am and I was WIDE awake (you know that sense of urgent energy that won’t let you even lay still? I had even packed the night before to prevent this.). This equaled more French television and a workout in my generous open space in my room. When I could do no more pushups or triceps dips and had again proven that I still can’t do pistol squats I decided to go to the lobby and see what wifi would bring me.
Su had talked to them and they started breakfast early for me. It was as I now expected very French in persuasion and good. I had boiled eggs, Malagasy rice porridge, yogurt and pain au chocolat (who knew when I would eat again). I finished breakfast at 620 and Su said we could go ahead and go. The park didn’t open until 7 and we were only 10 minutes away but I figured he knew what was going on. We picked up the guide (who I now want to call Keri (because it had those sounds, but still totally incorrect) and then went to the park. They let us in about 10 minutes early. We were the first.
Being first in the park has its pluses and minuses. Plus: There was no one else there. Minus: No one else has found the animals yet so we had to find them on our own.
The first animal we saw was a leaf bug. These guys look like deteriorating q-tips (So cool but also creepy). Next was ants (who bite) and termites (who don’t).
She told me one of the last Frenchman she had on her tour and told her that you could eat termites. He had then grabbed some and eaten them right there in front of her. Ummm... She said she was still surprised that this had happened.
I was the first to spot a lemur! (Woo hoo!! Win!!) and then I found a large group of brown lemurs. I swear I heard a growl/grunt (she said they don't do that). I also heard the lemur exasperated eating noise where we would later find diadem sifika (a grunt combined with chewing). The brown lemurs were everywhere. They were very active and fun to watch. She had to ask me if I was done (I wasn't but onward to the Indri).
At this point the supersized mosquitoes from the night before discovered me, and I did the only thing I could do (since they were completely ignoring my deet and biting me through my clothes), I started spastically moving while I slathered myself in Saje peppermint oil hoping that would deter at least 50% of them from biting me. As it turns out it worked in the spots I put it on, which encouraged them to find the few spots I had not. I guess you have to give them credit for determination. I was trying to casually put on the oil without calling attention to myself. Unfortunately this attempt at being slick resulted in me dropping everything on the trail. She laughed, asked if I needed help and assured me these were not malaria carrying mosquitos (I decided to trust her because the plague and parasites are enough to be actively avoiding. No need to add malaria to the list of possibilities).
I had selected the Indri 2 trail because it has the best chance for seeing Indri but for the whole walk the forest had been noticeably quiet. She started what must be her, “Not everyone sees an Indri” speech. Gone was her confidence of the night before. She said they were lazy and sleeping in. She began to call. As we walked deeper into the forest, her speech became more and more pessimistic. “Next time.” “You will have to come back.” And then out of nowhere, “Finally”.
We had happened upon an Indri lemur sleeping alone with no family around. This was odd. About that time I stepped on a branch while she made an Indri call. One of the two or both woke him up. He decided to move and we followed. Off the trail through the woods, we quickly followed. As quickly and gracefully as he moved through the trees is as awkwardly as we chased. He led us to the rest of his family of 4 who were as she predicted lazily eating. Her next moved shocked me, she took out her phone and played their call.
They responded immediately and they were LOUD (They can be heard up to 3 km away). The Indri are the world's largest living lemur and can jump up to 10 meters between trees. They also have stumps for tails instead of the lemur's usual long tails. They are threatened both by habitat loss (from slash and burn agriculture) and hunting even though Keri says this is very taboo. She told me a story about how the Indri are the father of mankind and also protect children.
After spending some time watching them we headed back and on the way saw sifikas and more brown lemurs and Indris (even closer up). I met two men, one who had just come from the Congo who had seen the mountain gorillas.
We finished the tour with a beautiful large blue bird, numerous plants, and big python who seemed immensely pleased as he sunned himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment