Madagascan Adventures (Part Five)

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Madagascan Adventure (Part One) can be found hereMadagascan Adventure (Part Two) can be found hereMadagascan Adventure (Part Three) can be found hereMadagascan Adventure (Part Four) can be found here_STO9964.jpg

Avenue of Baobabs

With one more major sight to see, we packed our bags and jumped in the 4WD to make the trip from Tsingy to Morondava and the Avenue of Baobabs. A long drive between two of the biggest tourist attractions in Madagascar. A long drive on the worst roads we'd been on since arriving.

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Our friends vehicle got bogged and blocked the rest of the traffic

After the rains we'd seen over the last couple of days, the roads had become muddy and slow going. Our friends vehicle got bogged at one point, holding up some of the "traffic". After an amount of time that I cannot remember, we arrived at at the sacred Baobab and the twisted love Baobab.

A sacred Boaboab over 800 years old and the Twisted Baobab

The tops and details of the trunks

The Avenue of Baobabs itself is literally just a regular road that looks amazing to anyone that is not from there. We drove through it on our way to Morondava as locals went about their day and returned later for sunset. It really is a photogenic location, so I'll just spam a bunch of photos to let the place speak for itself...

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The sun set on the adventure portion of our time in Madagascar. An intense and memorable week had come to an end on a peaceful dirt road near the central western coast. In the morning we would be making our way back to Tana and to be honest I can't even remember if we did the drive in one day or two. Looking back at my photos, there are some countryside shots in the rain but only few of those. We would be parting ways with our friends in Antananarivo, and my wife and I would be seeing some wildlife in the east.

Wildlife in the East

Travel fatigue was definitely setting in at this point. The knowledge that you only have a couple of days left before going home puts home in the forefront of your mind. The intensity of the past week had had a physical impact on our mood and enthusiasm. But when you start to see lemurs, all other concerns get pushed aside.

Bamboo Lemur

These cute little primates are so fascinating and interesting to watch. We first stopped at a lemur sanctuary with many different types of lemurs such as Sifaka, Brown, Bamboo and Ring Tail. One of the interesting things about them is their weight. They are way lighter than they appear.

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Maria easily supporting a Brown lemur on her outstretched arm

Sifaka "Bruce Lemur" and the Ring Tail lemurs licking my bag

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A ring tail lemur watching us go by

We then sought the wild Indri lemurs in the forests. We had a couple of days set aside for this as it isn't always possible to find them. The guides work together to locate them. Whether you see them or not, there is no way you can miss hearing them. They can be heard kilometres away with their loud calls that to be sounded like a whale in a forest.


The sounds of the Indri as we walked through the forest. Can you spot the lemur?

Difficult to spot, the Indri lemur leaps from tree to tree

Bird watching is popular in this area too and we saw lots of other tourists with binoculars and score cards for the various bird types. Not very many had cameras which I found odd. They seemed content to tick a box that they'd seen the bird rather than actually capture a photo as well. The birds were pointed out to us but I didn't have the same enthusiasm as the bird watchers. I did like the wildlife we saw though.

Bird in basket
That's no lichen, that's a lizard

Danger noodle

To lick or not to lick this frog...

Conclusion

And with that our trip to Madagascar came to an end. We drove back to the funky hotel in Tana for our last night before flying home. We have travelled all over the world and seen so many strange and wonderful sights. Yet Madagascar has had a profound and lasting impression like no where else. The landscape, the wildlife, the people. All amazing in their own way and all I'd love to see more of. Our guides especially were the nicest people and genuinely wanted us to see the beauty of their country that they see everyday. I felt a sadness to know that they would most likely never be able to afford to leave and see my country of Australia with it's own unique landscape and wildlife.

Back at the Hotel

I gave the bird my business card. Still no call or email

After a hesitant start to the trip with a new pregnancy, a plague outbreak and cancelled flights, we finished as different people from the month before. We were ready to start our new life as parents knowing our travels would never be the same again with kids. We hoped that one day we could visit places with our children and let them see that the world is larger than the city they live in, and smaller than it seems.

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Thank you so much for following my Madagascan Adventures. It has been a pleasure writing these blogs and reliving this time of my life. I really appreciate you taking the time to read along and check out my photos.

-The End

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-kieranstone.com
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47 comments
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Thanks for sharing @kieranstone. I have never seen a real Baobab in reality, but they seem really impressive even from the photos.
I am sure that when your kids will grow up a little bit, you will be able to go on trips with them and show them the world.

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Thank you for reading about my adventure!

We've taken our eldest daughter driving through NZ, and would have gone to Europe if it wasn't for the pandemic. Maybe soon...

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Yeah let's hope everything will return to normality

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Brother, your posts are very cool. Congratulations. Keep going. I love to see and read about everything you post. Look at these trees, they're too beautiful. I invite you to know the neighborhood of Grajaú in Rio de Janeiro through the last post. And I invite you to come to Rio de Janeiro. When you want, just call me. Hugs from Brazil !

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Thanks for checking out my adventure and thank you for the wonderful invite!

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Your post is excellent with pictures of baobab trees and life in nature.

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wow, it shows that it was an incredible trip. I loved the path outlined by the legendary Baobabs trees. And the muddy road reminded me of some land we had in a mountainous town where you passed through places like that. Thank you for sharing your African adventure @kieranstone

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Thanks so much for joining me on the journey :)

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What an amazingly martian-like landscape. Thank you for posting!

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Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1458.

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Congratulations @kieranstone! Your post has been a top performer on the Hive blockchain and you have been rewarded with the following badge:

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wtf @smooth?? Why the massive downvote?

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I don't consider that massive. It is less than each of two individual upvotes and there are plenty of other large upvotes as well. I'm expressing my view on the level of rewards.

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You don't consider it massive. But it is to smaller accounts. It is way MORE than hundreds of smaller votes. There are different perspectives on this.

I understand what you are trying to do and some historical steem/hive issues with other accounts. But it's done at the expense of smaller Hive users.

Yes you have your right or whatever to downvote things that aren't good for the platform. But your personal vendetta (and yes that's all anyone will see it as, regardless of what motive you understand) will only ever be seen as you taking rewards from others.

I know I'm still net up, as with all the other posts you downvote. And I know that my post has done well compared to others. But there is no way Hive will achieve a wider adoption of users and grow if this kind of stuff goes on. If it needs explaining to everyone that got so excited at a big vote, only to have it cancelled by someone else's downvote.

Did you even read my post? Or the previous posts that lead to this final one? Or are you just downvoting smaller accounts because of internal politics?

Regardless of WHO upvoted my post. If you read it, and the previous parts, and still think it's worth downvoting, then fine. I won't agree with you, but I'll accept it.

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The twisted love Baobab is so cute! But could be a twisted twin Baobab 😉 In any of these scenarios it is a beautiful tree. I would love to see Baobab in person one day.

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They are beautiful to see in person. I hope you get your opportunity!

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Kung fu lemur is my favourite XD

Unfamiliar places always look more interesting than your everyday though right :)

Wish we'd been able to travel with children x_x

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I captured that shot of the lemur at just the right time 😁

Travelling with children is more difficult, but it feels like an investment in their future

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It absolutely is. Our problems were lack of resources and three children who don't like crowds ^_^; barring silliness like that travelling would definitely be amazing for them :)

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This is just wonderful. Thank you for sharing the amazing pictures!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read it!

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Wow..these Baobabs look so far away from any sightseeing attractions you can see in my country. Such a refreshing way to reconnect with nature 🥰

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They are unique in their own way. But I often forget that my home is strange and wonderful to people from other parts of the world

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That Baobab road is wonderful ... I did not know that such a place existed on earth ... it looks like a landscape from another planet. Thanks for sharing

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Reminds me of the Madagascar movie......yeah, that lemur thing was so much fun to imitate and watch. Stay blesed!

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Very interesting read and great series of photo's. Madagascar must be amazing! It's one of those destinations that's high on my wish list. I hope one day I'll manage to get there too. Thanks for sharing!

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This is such a fantastic post. I absolutely love Madagascar, can't wait to one day go back there. You got fabulous photos! What a magical place, it made me so nostalgic. I did a post a while back on my trip from 2007. You can check it out here if you're interested.

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You make me want to pick a camera up again!

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