Madagascar 2010 – an island apart (5 Viewers)

[Jon Gallagher]

Hi Rob et al,

Seems like we were doing a similar itinerary just a month later--so could relate to many of the experiences! We additionally had the opportunity to get to Benamevika which brought into play Mad Pochard, Mad Red Owl, and Mad Serpent-eagle. However this aspect of the trip is not for the fainthearted since once you get to Bealanana it is then 36km each way on the back of a motorbike on some very dodgy "roads," and the camp has only a few tarps for cover with no facilities.

Our whole trip was brilliantly organized by Mika Andria who though not a birder handled the logistics with great expertise and travelled with us as a fixer. He comes greatly recommended <[email protected]> Anyone wanting to check for future trips is advised to make arrangements with him early since I'm sure he is going to book up fast. We travelled in two Toyota Land Cruisers and took no internal flights which increased travel time but avoided air scheduling issues and kept costs down. This was just about the best arrangement as far as we were concerned--it was like independent birding without all the hassles!

Have posted a few pix and will get to more later.

Cheers,

Jon

 

[GDK]

Hi Rob,

Im resurrecting your trip report to belatedly say thanks for posting it. I had booked a flight to Madagascar in Oct 2010 for Dec 2010 with a mate who is not a birder but into his reptiles. When your trip report with detailed day by day diary appeared it was therefore an excellent timely introduction to what I may expect! We didnt cover as much as you did, concentrating on Andasibe area and then the tour down the RN7. Ive put some details down on the following thread of where we stayed and how we got about. Not a detailed trip report, but a few hints for people interested. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=190495

As for the country and the birding, very enjoyable. I found birding relatively relaxing as the numbers of species possible is low so quite easy to get your head around them all. The quality of other wildlife was also excellent, with many herps to keep my mate happy despite the numerous pre-dawn starts, and plenty of mammals and inverts too. The only major downside was the scale of loss, with vast tracts of empty countryside, even with a lack of the usual ubiquitous opportunistic species, presumably reflecting the nature of disturbed island communities.

I shall definitely have to return one day to do the north of the country. After our first week we did look into either doing what Jon Gallagher describes above or the Masoala peninsula for the second week of our mini tour but decided on the classic RN7 route to the coast, having a chance at cleaning up on the Ground Rollers was quite motivating!

Cheers,

Gareth

ps Madagascar didnt seem at all under any sort of coup during our visit.