Isalo National Park

We had a full day scheduled for the park, combining two walks and having a picnic lunch. We were driven a little way from town and started with a 3 km walk to the Piscene Naturale

After climbing up a small ravine to the top of the range the real nature of the park was revealed. It reminded us very much of the Bungle Bungles.

Our guide showed us lots of medicinal plants, including one that cured malaria (we wondered if the Bill Gates foundation knew about this), and another that was so dangerous eating one leaf would kill you in 2 minutes. Its scientific name is menabea venenata. Move over Nembutal.

There was plenty of aloe...

..and flowering pachypodium...some claimed to be hundreds of years old.

..there were some nice dragonflies..

..and our favourite bird, the hoopoe.

We soon reached the pool, the first to arrive and take the plunge.

We then walked about 4 km through the ranges to the viewpoint over the surrounding area...

...and then a little further to another viewpoint over one of the many canyons in the park, including our route down to the river at the bottom.

There is a campsite here, and locals come in and cook lunch for the walkers.

The food was good, but the star attraction was a group of ring tailed lemurs. Lots and lots of photos were taken.

But the unrivalled star attraction was a mother and baby.

After lunch we walked up the canyon..

..found this orchid..

...and this big eye snake in a pandanus..

..and swam in the so called black pool.

On the return walk our one and only chameleon for this park, a small lateralis.

We were back at the hotel after 8 hours on the go. But only for a rehydrate and short rest before we were off again for the sunset at La fenetre d'Isalo. This was our first experience of any number of other tourists, maybe 50 people jostling to get a photo of the setting sun through a natural window. We were quite put off but did get the obligatory photos.