Air Perhaps

We left the Ankarafantsika Forest and drove north to the port town of Majunga on the west coast. This set us up for a morning departure on a river boat into the Betsiboka Delta and the mangrove islands. This habitat holds many waders, especially since we hit it perfectly at low tide. Also, here was our main target, the rare Madagascar Teal. A real treat was the hundreds of Lesser Flamingo.

These guys' boat is beached in low tide. They had to "swim" the mud 

Humblot's (Madagascar) Heron

Lesser Flamingo

Madagascar Sacred Ibis

Madagascar Teal

We flew out that evening for the capitol city and a next morning air departure for Masoala National Park. This area of the country is remote and hard to reach. The runway is short and only allows for a small plane, something apparently in short supply with Air Madagascar. Air Madagascar is the only in-country airline. The locals call it “Air Perhaps” and we were destined to find out why. After a short hop to an intermediate stop in Toamasina, we arrived to watch the gate agent shake her head when our guide asked about our flight. The small plane was broken and we weren’t going anywhere. Apparently, the plane had been broken for three days, and they knew when we left Antananarivo that we weren’t going to get off the ground on the last leg. Arghhh! Our guide and ground agent spent much of the day working on a plan, including trying to find a charter plane. It just didn’t work out and after hours sitting around a tiny 1950’s era airport we departed on an evening flight back to Tana. A day wasted and right back where we started that morning – with no definitive plan for what to do for five days.

The following morning our ground agent had a plan and we were off for a new destination – the world famous Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. A mid-afternoon flight took us to Morandava, a short drive brought us to the amazing Baobab Alley. We hit it right at sunset which made for some amazing photo ops. Wow!

The next morning we started the epic drive north to Tsingy, but that’s another story…