Madagascar - Lemurs, Turns, and More

Continuing on my trip our next country was Madagascar. Madagascar was the beach part of our vacation to get some sun and warmth after our early and cold mornings on Safari, and it definitely was all of that and more. We stayed at a beautiful resort for a couple of days and enjoyed swimming and relaxing. It wouldn’t be a trip to Madagascar without seeing what they’re famous for, Lemurs. The island we were staying on had 4 of their own lemurs through a conservation project, so we got to go find them in the jungle. With help from a team that maintains and monitors the lemurs we were able to track them down and take a couple of photos before they leaped off. Even though they weren’t the most famous species of lemurs, think the movie Madagascar, they were just as cute.

Some of the lemurs we found

Other than searching for lemurs we also had an interesting experience while having lunch on a different island for a little adventure. We took a boat to a nearby island and had a picnic lunch which was super fun. The boat driver and our guide for the island then asked us if we wanted to see the bird nests on the other side of the island. He explained that there were a ton of terns. Initially, I thought he said there were turtles on the island and I got excited, so you can imagine my surprise when we walked over the hill and there was a swarm of terns, which are a type of small bird. They’re just about the furthest away you can get from sea turtles. And when I say swarm, I mean a swarm there were thousands of terns on the ground, in the sky, they were everywhere. 

This photo doesn’t really do the swam of terns justice but hopefully you can get a sense of the scale

My family and I proceeded to walk towards and then through the swarm of terns in the sky. It turns out we learned that this was a breeding ground for the terns, so not only did we have to watch out for attacks from the terns above but also the angry mother terns who were sitting on their eggs, or the unfortunate event of stepping on an egg, which were littered all over the “path” we were walking on. To make sure we didn’t get pecked to death, the guide suggested we place a fist on the top of our heads and hold it there while we were walking. This way, if the terns did decide to dive bomb you, they would peck your hand and not your head. As we walked we were constantly stepping over the spotted eggs in the middle of the path and being shrieked at by the birds on the ground. They weren’t happy we were there at all.

We continued this treacherous trek quite a long way until we got to the major point where the terns were sitting on their eggs. It was impressive and amazing to see that many birds and eggs in one place, just with a backdrop of constant fear of being pecked. I wish I had more photos of this experience but really I was just focused on keeping my hand on top of my head and carefully avoiding the eggs. I felt particularly bad for my brother who gave his shoes to my grandfather who had forgotten his shoes on the beach and had to walk through this barefoot. Ultimately, we came out of this experience fine, no-one got pecked, although we did get pooped on a couple of times, and with a great story to talk about for years to come. 

The rest of our time in Madagascar was not as chaotic as our tern adventure but still fun. On our last day there we rode quad bikes to the lighthouse on the island and climbed all the way to the top. This gave us some great views of the entire island and was spectacular. It was quite windy when we decided to go, but we still had loads of fun and enjoyed our time at the beach. 

The view from the top of the lighthouse

Well, that concludes my time in Madagascar. Until next time!