Day 64 Kirindy Forest and an adventurous ride

Kirindy Forest is home to the Fossa. The Fossa is the largest predator in Madagascar. It looks like a big dog, just with a much longer tail. These animals are crepuscular and can be found both on the ground and in trees. Our guide said that the Fossa is about as dangerous as the leopard. Therefore, one should be careful not to get too close to it, as it is a predator.

When we arrived at the camp last night, we checked into our room before taking a short refreshment break and going on a night walk at dusk to find this Fossa and nocturnal lemurs. But as soon as we were in our room, our guide called out to us in excitement. We were told to come quickly and bring our cameras. A young Fossa was peacefully sleeping on a small clearing in the forest, not 100 meters away from our camp.

The owner of the camp said that we were lucky, as several groups left this morning without seeing a Fossa.

On the night walk, we were able to focus our attention on the lemurs. We found, well to be honest our guide found, I would have just walked past them, 3 small mouse lemurs trying to escape the light.

During the approximately 2-hour walk through the forest, we encountered 2 other species of lemurs. However, I was only able to take a photo of one species.

The other animals hid very well in the trees and could only be heard and smelled.

This morning, we had the day walk in Kirindy Forest on the agenda. There is another species of lemur living in this forest that we have not yet seen. The Sifaka. So we set out to find it. But first, we found the lemur that we had only heard last night sleeping on a tree.

A short time later, we also found the Sifaka high up in a tree.

Watching these animals is a lot of fun. After the 1 ½ hour morning walk, we got in our car, as we still had a 7-hour drive to Andsirabe ahead of us. From there, we will head east tomorrow.

The first few hours passed fairly uneventfully, apart from the scenery. But then it happened. Suddenly, the brakes of our car stopped working properly. Our driver could only regulate the speed using the engine brake and the handbrake. When we stopped in the next village, it turned out that it was once again our front right wheel that was causing problems. More specifically, the brake pads were completely worn out. Now, metal was pressing against metal when braking, and we were losing a lot of brake fluid. In this village, there was no workshop, and the local mechanic who was called for help was drunk. In Madagascar, Whit Monday is celebrated extensively. So we couldn't fix the problem. After a good hour, we decided to drive to the next larger village and look for a workshop there. But the next village was about 40 km away. In addition, we were back in the highlands, and the landscape and therefore the course of the road was slightly hilly. So we drove these 40 km without proper brakes, in second gear, and regulated the speed with the engine brake. But the next problem was already looming, as the fuel gauge was getting closer and closer to "empty". But we made it through the 40 km. Relieved, we watched as a mechanic installed new brake pads on the front right wheel and refilled the brake fluid. 30 minutes later, we continued our journey with functioning brakes. We still had 3 hours of driving ahead of us.

If anyone thinks that this is the end of the story, they are mistaken, because 1 hour before we arrived, something else happened. And it was...

No, not our front right wheel. This time it had nothing to do with our car. A roadblock held us up. The police officer said that at this time (9:00 PM), it was too dangerous for a single vehicle. We had to wait until there were about 7 vehicles, and then they would escort us. But first, it was the turn of the vehicles coming from the other direction. However, they also had to wait until enough vehicles were there. Our driver's interventions and even offering money did not help. Eventually, the police officers disappeared with the vehicles in the other direction. After waiting for 3 hours, yes, it was already midnight by then, the police officers came back and allowed us and the 10 other cars waiting to continue driving. However, we were not escorted, as the police officers were no longer willing to do so. So we arrived at our hotel shortly after 1 AM, enjoyed our cold pizza (which we had ordered for 10 PM, our planned arrival time), and crawled into our warm bed.

Another memorable day in Madagascar came to an end.