Part 2 of our adventure in the East of Madagascar found us travelling once more. On our way from Andisibe to Antananarivo we stopped at the Peyrieras Reptile Reserve. We left early to try and beat the worst of the traffic (on the worst of the roads!) and made it to the reserve just before lunch. The reserve is a rehabilitation centre for lemurs, reptiles and other creatures. Some of them were kept as pets, others rescued from areas where their habitat is under threat.
They have two troupes of semi-tame lemurs - Coquerel's Sifakas and Common brown lemurs. They are so habituated to humans that you can feed them (they love banana!) and stroke them. One mistook Harvey's thumb for a banana and took a nibble! Their hands are suprisingly soft and gentle and their fur is super-soft and fluffy. They are also complete posers - playing for the cameras and loving the attention!
The highlight was a mummy lemur with her baby holding on and
peaking out from the fur of her tummy:
From our close encounters with lemurs we moved on to meet a wide variety of chameleons, geckos, moths, snakes (ground boas and a leaf-nosed snake) and a random crocodile!
After our break meeting the animals at Peyrieras we clamboured back into our Hyundai minivan and continued the endless trek along National Road 2 towards Antananarivo.
The last 12 kms of our bumpy road journey were on the recently tarmacked section of road (apparently the President committed to road improvements in the lead up to the next election, later in 2023!) We finally made it to our hotel for the night. A luxury 4* western style place where they served the most amazing food, beautifully presented and had a wonderful breakfast spread!
We got to enjoy the hotel, hot showers and unlimited wifi for a little longer than originally planned as our internal transfer flight was delayed by 6 hours! So instead of a 6am trip to the airport we left at the much more civilized time of 12.00 noon and made our way to the tiny internal airfield for the next stage of our trip...
It was very busy at the departure gate!
The first time the kids travelled on a "prop job"!
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