I took a gazillion photos at our second port of call in Madagascar, but I'm going to focus on my friendly little primates. The Nahampoana Reserve has 4 types of lemurs living on their grounds. I only saw 3 types and one of them (brown lemurs) I was only able to get butt shots. But the other two types made up for the rest of them. If I have this correct, the first ones here are sifakas lemurs (black face ringed with white fur) and the second are the ring-tail. So darn cute.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Sainte Marie Island – Madagascar
Coming back to Africa is always a treat, and to finally make it to Madagascar is special. On the first day we anchored off of Sainte Marie Island and its main town of Ambodifotatra. From there I did an excursion that took us to the small island Ile Aux Nattes. Our primary base was the only resort on the island – a small, simple place with individual huts. From there we walked much of the island through small villages and up to the highest point with the island’s lighthouse. There are no cars on the island making walking the dirt streets easy.
Two lemurs
came to visit while we were there. They
didn’t stay around for too long, but long enough to get a few photos while they
were atop one of the huts.
And as always, there were cute children...
Sunday, March 22, 2015
The French Island of Reunion
Reunion is
another tropical paradise, but quite different from Mauritius. Mauritius is an independent island nation with
a strong Indian influence. It’s quite
flat with miles of sugarcane fields and pretty beaches. In contrast, Reunion is French territory and is
very mountainous with villages dotting the lush slopes. Many of the miles of beaches are beautiful,
but not prized as swimming beaches due to the hot black sand laced with broken coral.
The French influence is evident everywhere.
I did a 4-wheel drive excursion into the mountains to check out the
tropical scenery.
Just a sample of the many flowers to be found up in the mountains.
We had lunch
at the home of a family who cater to small groups, cook over a
wood-burning stove and use veggies and herbs from their own garden. They specialize in maintaining knowledge
of the healing properties of the region’s plants, even working with scientists
to figure out why one of the leaves works to lower cholesterol. Chopped up plants, bark and whatever where laid
out drying to be used eventually in teas or other preparations. Lunch was fabulous.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
The Island of Mauritius
It
was a long way across the Indian Ocean to find land again and what we found was
quite lovely. On Mauritius three of us
hired a cab driver for the day and he proved to be a good tour guide as
well. We spent some time in the city of
Port Louis before venturing out to see smaller towns, beaches, and sugar cane
fields.
Providing some shade at a strip mall.
From the dock we took a water taxi to town.
Providing some shade at a strip mall.
Scenes from a
fish market.
Sunset on Mauritius
Saturday, March 14, 2015
More from Down Under
The second
week in Australia brought us to Adelaide, Albany and Perth – although I never
actually saw Perth.
Adelaide was
a lovely town to walk around along with its ocean-front sister town of Glenelg just
a short tram ride away. Lots of walking
around the two towns. I only took a few photos that day, this one is from Glenelg.
In Albany I
did an excursion out to the Valley of the Giants. The tingle trees that grow here are massive,
on the scale of our red wood trees, and grow only in Australia. There were paths to walk around (and through
a few) of these ancient trees as well as a treetop walkway. Afterwards we fit in a bit of wine tasting
to round out the day.
Perth was
our last stop… actually Freemantle, where the port is located. The first day was spent in Freemantle, a great
town to walk around with everything within easy reach from the ship. A fun little town with good shopping, restaurants
and beaches. The second day was off on an excursion into
the country to Yanchep National Park to see koalas (in their enclosure),
kangaroos and various birds.
At home we
have pigeons and seagulls stealing our food.
Here the thieving birds were more interesting.
We also went
down into the Crystal Caves and out to some big sand dunes. Busy day.
Moving on to
Mauritius next. In the meantime, the
annual World Cruise Olympics are starting up.
Should be entertaining over these upcoming sea days.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
My Last Continent: Australia
We’ve been
in Australia for a week now. The day in
Sydney was spent with friends walking around the city. I never did go into the Opera
House, but yup, it was there and it was pretty.
The next day I was out in ‘the bush’ to see kangaroos and koalas in the wild. What a great experience. We saw lots of kangaroos – pretty much stalked them as a group (about 20 of us). If you stay together they see you as one entity and get use to you so you can get pretty close. If you separate, then they start to feel threatened as it must seem that they’re being surrounded.
In Melbourne
I did a night excursion to see the ‘penguin parade’ on Phillip Island. The smallest penguins in the world, aptly
named Little Penguins, gather in protective groups to return from the sea to
their nests at sunset every night. Very cute little
guys and fun to watch. Photos are no
longer allowed (to avoid folks who couldn’t/wouldn’t shut off their flash), so
this photo I stole from the internet.
The next day I was out in ‘the bush’ to see kangaroos and koalas in the wild. What a great experience. We saw lots of kangaroos – pretty much stalked them as a group (about 20 of us). If you stay together they see you as one entity and get use to you so you can get pretty close. If you separate, then they start to feel threatened as it must seem that they’re being surrounded.
We also saw
two koalas. One was curled up in a ball
sleeping (they sleep for about 20hrs per day), but the other was awake and
active. And so darn cute. Even with this cute guy high up in a tree I
would have had great photos had I remembered to bring my long lens. As it was, I just had a wide angle lens, so
these photos are cropped. Not a
brilliant move on my part. But regardless, it was such fun to watch him climb
up higher in the tree to reach leaves, smell them to be sure it was something
he wanted to eat and then munch on them.
Today we
were in Adelaide. Again, I just roamed
the city with friends and had a great time.
Now its 2 days of cruising again before our last 3 days in
Australia. Time is going by much too
fast!
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