I arrived in Madagascar late in the evening on November 7th, and spent the night in ‘tana. In the following two days, I visited the research coordination office to plan the logistics of my trip and arranged for my ride down to Ranomafana in southeastern Madagascar, where I would be meeting up with the rest of my team. Four hours into the 11 hour trip to Ranomafana, the car broke down near the town of Antsirabe, turning the 11-hour drive into a 15-hour drive. I finally made it to Ranomafana at 1:30 a.m. that night!
The next leg of the trip involved getting to the town of Ihosy, which is about a six hour drive from Ranomafana. On our way, we stopped to admire some baobab trees and other dry forest plants which are unusual to find so far to the east so close to the rainforest. We made it out to Ihosy in time for dinner and spent the night at a local hotel. The following morning we had to stop at the local office of the Ministry of Environment to have our permits approved by the local officer and to pick up armed guards (known as “gendarmes”) to accompany our expedition for safety.
We then drove another five hours to the trailhead, where we would start our three hour hike up a mountain. However, by the time we made it to the trailhead, it was already 5:30 p.m., which was too late for us to be hiking up with all our gear since the sun sets around 6:30 p.m.
