Free Range Baobab Trees and Lemurs

 

We were really disappointed that we couldn't cruise in Madagascar. It is hard closed for covid season. Of course the only reason we wanted to go to Madagascar was to see the Baobab trees and the Lemurs. It turns out that Mayotte has Baobabs and is one of the few places besides (maybe only) Madagascar that has Lemurs. Mayotte sits about 160 miles west of the Madagascar coast. Above is the first Baobab we spotted, sitting in the center of a traffic circle.

To go on our Lemur hunt we put a bunch of bananas in the backpack and Chris, Bill and I took the ferry to the main island.

We walked from the ferry to Pointe Mahabou Park. We circumnavigated the park trails twice with sign of the illusive little lemurs. After we had given up and decided we got skunked we started walking out. One of the park employees who we had asked earlier if there were any lemurs about came over to Chris excitedly saying Madame, Madame. He pointed us to a tree nearby and said "Maki!", which means lemur here. Off we went to visit a small, shy group in a nearby mango tree. If you look closely the lemur on the right, grabbing the banana we placed on the tree, you'll see a tiny baby on her back.

Here's a closer picture of the baby, hanging on to mama.

The very friendly and helpful yacht club.

We had an interesting interaction with the local police today. To clear out of the country we needed to go to the airport to get our Immigration and Customs' stamps. As we walked in through the main doors of the terminal a guy in plain clothes walked up to Bill and asked if he spoke French, which he does. A long, fairly friendly conversation ensued. We walked over to the table in front of immigration to get our papers ready. We could see Bill showing the guy his phone and talking on. Eventually Chris went over to Bill to grab his passport so we could start the clear out process. A few days ago Bill went for a long walk and ended up near the military base on the island. No one was around. There is a wall and with a number of radio dishes behind it. There is also a sign that says Interdit photos. This was Bill's clue to take out his phone and take a photo. The person who stopped Bill as he walked into the airport was a plain clothes policeman. He asked Bill if he had taken a photo at the military base, then told him to take his phone out and delete the picture. So ---- how did they ID Bill right at the entrance?

Tomorrow we are heading off to continue down the Mozambique Channel toward Richards Bay, South Africa. Weather forecasting on this run is notoriously unreliable past about three days, so we will probably have to make a few weather stops on the way down. 

Paul