Terra Nova Travel

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Manafiafy Lodge, Madagascar

The sister lodge to Mandrare River Camp, Manafiafy Lodge, offers a beach experience along the northeast coast. The fishing village of Manafiafy (or St. Luce) is about a five minute walk from the lodge which also offers an all-inclusive package , but unfortunately without a return flight to Ft. Dauphin (Tôlanaro)! The management are working on the airstrip which is too sandy to permit light aircraft to land. The drive from Ft. Dauphin is again about 3 hours, but the journey to the lodge can be spiced with unforeseen adventures along the route such as a fallen eucalyptus tree blocking the road!! This invasive species imported from Australia in the nineteenth century serves for both fire wood and is used to make furniture. Typically power tools are rare, so man power or it “takes a village” is how they things get done, and yes of course on African time!! While I did view the diurnal collared brown lemur and on my night walk, with the aid of a flashlight, a few interesting animals, orb spiders in their huge nets, warty chameleons , the brown mouse and dwarf lemurs with a flash light, the fauna is not the wow factor of Mandrare. The snorkeling was good and would have been better in calmer seas. The most unique activity was the bayou boat ride in the mangrove swamps. From the boat I viewed the travelers’ palm, papyrus, elephant ear, and the gorgeous Madagascar king fisher as well as villagers fishing with handle held nets in the rich waters. On the road back to Ft. Dauphin we made a road side stop to view the fields of literally hundreds of the famous Madagascar pitcher plants all open and waiting for their next fly snack. The area just outside of Ft. Dauphin has rice plantations and lychee nut orchards with the fruit almost ripe for picking.(by not gleaning!!)

 
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