Ile Sainte-Marie,  Madagascar,  Mananara-Nord

Aye Aye!

I recall having a conversation with Alex just over three years ago, before the start of this voyage, basically pleading with him to add Madagascar to our destination list. It’s a country that has always fascinated me and somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, mainly due to its abundance of highly unusual wildlife.

In Mesozoic times, Madagascar was part of a gargantuan supercontinent called Gondwanaland, which included mainland Africa, India, Arabia, South America, Antarctica and Australia. The primates of this era evolved into the most dominant animals on the Earth today – us. Those same ancestral primates on Madagascar, however, followed a completely different evolutionary path and became what are now known as lemurs. Due to the lengthy separation from the rest of the world the wildlife here has evolved into a collection of truly weird and wonderful species that are found nowhere else. You can imagine why, as an ecologist, Madagascar is at the very top of my bucket list!

My first lemur sighting in Madagascar – the white fronted brown lemur (female).

To say it’s been a struggle to get here would be a massive understatement! We had to endure over 30 sea-days in the relentlessly lumpy Indian Ocean. My sea-sickness was like having a huge and chronic hangover, only without the initial fun of actually getting drunk. On top of that we had to divert to Rodrigues to avoid a 90-knot cyclone, which put us even more behind schedule. We’re now well into the cyclone season and are located in a particularly vulnerable part of Madagascar that could get completely battered at any moment should a cyclone decide to form. I should also mention that being one of the poorest countries in the world, Madagascar is known for its super high crime rates and boasts an intimidating list of horrendous infectious diseases. Cholera, tuberculosis, dengue fever, bubonic plague and the worst form of malaria in the world are just a few of the people-killers to be wary of. This is a hell of a lot to contend with all for the sake of some lemurs! At one point I was convinced that Madagascar would remain nothing but a pipe dream for me… but amazingly, we made it! Against all the odds, we’re actually here.

Our first glimpse of Madagascar.

Our priority destination was a town on the east coast called Manara-Nord, where just up the river from the bay is a small privately owned reserve called Aye Aye Island. The Aye Aye is a nocturnal species of endangered lemur and according to my research, this is the most likely place in the whole country to see them (in the wild at least). The island is owned by a hotel called Chez Roger and through them, you can hire a local guide to take you on an evening tour.

A truck arrived at the hotel a few hours before dusk to take us, by road, the first part of the journey. The word ‘road’ is used very loosely in Madagascar and what is considered a road here looks more like the surface of the moon. After about 30 minutes of bouncing and hitting our heads on the truck’s ceiling, we arrived at a small opening to a river, across from which we could see our destination – Aye Aye Island. Our guide, Romanha, hailed down a man passing by in his homemade dugout canoe and paid him to take us across. We boarded the large piece of floating drift wood, but our combined weight caused it to immediately start sinking! We frantically bailed out the rising river water as our guide paddled us to the other side and, thankfully, we made it with all camera equipment dry and intact.

I took this photo overlooking the river to Aye Aye Island while we we’re waiting for a passing canoe.

The island is not exactly an untouched wilderness. It’s a farmed property with cows, chickens, dogs and reams of planted fruit trees. Nevertheless, it’s extremely densely vegetated in places. We spent the hours after dark in a frenzied march, trying in vain to not step in cow pats (Alex racked up five strikes) while following our guide through the bush looking for signs of Aye Ayes.

As we waited for night to fall, we were entertained by a number of young bulls gently sparring with each other.
This is our guide fetching us a huge jack fruit to snack on.

After less than an hour of searching, there it was – just above our heads climbing along a coconut frond. Our reward for travelling all this way! A glimpse by torchlight of one of the world’s rarest lemurs staring inquisitively back at us.

Apologies for the quality of these photos. It’s very difficult to get good shots of these fast moving animals – in the canopy, at night, being illuminated by a super intense beam of light. These were the best I could do.
You can see they are well set up for a nocturnal life style with their large eyes and even larger ears.
You see that long middle finger that looks like it belongs to ET? It taps that finger up to 11 times a second on tree branches and listens for invertebrates living under the bark. It’s thought to be the only species of primate to use echolocation to find its food.

This is a creature that, for many years, has fascinated me far more than any other. I feel a truly dizzying thrill knowing that I am one of the lucky few to have witnessed this animal in the wild. Still, I must admit that an eerie sinister feeling came over me when I first saw it. A feeling I was not expecting. Perhaps it was due to the strange and dark environment, or perhaps because the torchlight made the Aye Aye’s eyes appear hot and fierce, but it’s like this creature really can see over your left shoulder and into the gates of hell. No wonder some of the locals think they are deathly omens.

As creepy as these animals are, this visit has reinforced my belief that they are one of the coolest, most interesting species on the planet! I mean, where else can you see a real-life gremlin?!

Not only have we managed to see one of the world’s weirdest and most remarkable animals, but Madagascar has turned out to be a truly beautiful place in itself. Moreover, our worries about crime have been so far unfounded and most people seem to be incredibly friendly.

This photo was taken on a small nature reserve off the southern coast of Ile Sainte-Marie. This is where we first arrived in Madagascar before heading to Manara-Nord. The young man in the background spent over half an hour doing backflips, just for fun 🙂
The coast of Ile Sainte-Marie.
One of my long-exposure shots taken during our hike to a nearby waterfall.
An evening view of the harbour as we ate our dinner at a local restaurant.

We’re now sailing south, working our way out of the (now non-existent) trade winds and away from the tropics, to Fort Dauphin in southern Madagascar. Hopefully there’ll be more wildlife adventures waiting for us there and, with even more luck, no terminal tropical diseases either!

12 Comments

  • Cat Melvin

    Wow, that sounds incredible!! I remember doing a project on endangered animals in primary school and I chose aye ayes, could never imagine getting to see one in the wild! Must have been incredible!

    Fantastic job on the photos, glad you dodged the storm and keep having lots of fun!

    Cat

    Xx

    • Sarah

      Cat, I think it’s amazing that you did a project on this at PRIMARY school. I didn’t even know the Aye Aye existed until I was in my late teens. Needless to say I’ve been obsessed ever since!

      You know you could always visit Madagascar for your next holiday…. Alex is keen to come back and do an off-road motor bike trip, which I think would be amazing! Of course we couldn’t come again without seeing the Aye AyeS 😃 Perhaps we could make a group trip of it? 😉

  • Grahame Rendell

    Stunning! . . . always wanted to go there but not likely in this lifetime. Congratulations on your combined perseverance.

  • Brooksie Snr

    Delighted that you have achieved your aim! Again, a fascinating account of your continuing adventures! That said – get thee quick now to South Africa!

  • Astrid Black

    Really great photos! But I have to admit that with the crime and disease, I may have to leave Madagascar off my housesitting bucket list. 😊

  • Christine Brooks

    So pleased your dream came true. You’ve waited a long time for this and I’m sure it was worth it! The photos are great. I’m amazed you managed to get any at all.

    Love always xxx

  • Vicky Hamshere

    Fantastic…both photos and your descriptions. We have Madagascar lemurs in the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo, but they manage to elude me, even in that small outdoor enclosure! But they are not Aye Ayes of course!

    Bon voyage to South Africa! Love to you both, Vicky

  • Mari

    Wow, I am so happy that you were able to see the Aye Aye finally. I love that long middle finger and it was great that you were able to capture some photos of them!!!

  • Kenny McDonnell

    Really interesting trip to Madagascar, Sarah! It sounds fantastic. I’m back in Bangkok with your mum and dad, last night we had our Christmas dinner at the same hotel as last year – included Christmas crackers and live music! Soon we fly off to Krabi, we all miss you, Alex and Liam, he’s in Estonia and going to Finland for the New Year

    • Sarah

      Thanks for the update Kenneth. We miss you guys too. We arrived in South Africa at 4am last night! Liam sounds like he is having amazing travel adventures of his own.

      Have a great time in Krabi and hopefully see/speak to you soon xx

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