Anjajavy to Antsiranana, Madagascar

13 - 15 April 08

Joffreville, Montagne d'Ambre and Diego-Suarez

After Moramba Bay we climbed up to FL75 for the rest of the way to Antsiranana. We flew over Nosy Be Island, which clearly had a highly developed tourist industry. We had excellent HF communications with Tana information.

Karl Heinz Horner from Domaine de Fontenay met us at the airport and drove us the 25 km to Joffreville, where the temperature due to the 800 m elevation is about 5 degrees lower than at sea level and much more pleasant. Our beautifully cool, spacious room was in a stone outhouse and we even had an antique marble bath. Karl Heinz and his partner Marie-José de Spéville bought the Domaine de Fontenay with its own nature reserve about six years ago and spent the first two years renovating it. Before that they were living in the Seychelles and brought their 250-year-old pet with them: a giant tortoise named Galileo. Marie-José’s brother Raymond also helps to manage the hotel and is in charge of the tours. They are now ready to sell the property and business (but we’re not sure about the tortoise). Anyone interested?

Late afternoon we went on a nature walk with our guide Simon in the Domaine de Fontenay’s 300 ha nature reserve. We spotted our first crowned lemurs in the garden and then in the reserve a colourful male panther chameleon showing its come-hither colours as a female was nearby.