Wild Wednesday's: Memories of Madagascar Part 7

Hello Steemians!

How's everyone doing today? All good we hope! Are you ready for another Wild Wednesday's post?
Today it is me, Becca, writing again, and I will be finishing off my series about my memories in Madagascar while I was volunteering with ReefDoctor.

On the minivan, leaving ReefDoctor with lots of good happy memories

Last week's post I wrote about the tasks we carried out with fish identification for the surveys and the times we spent under the sea. These tasks that involved scuba diving, happened almost on a daily basis, or at least 5 times a week. Towards the end of my time with ReefDoctor, a group of us (6 of us) had saved up on our days off and planned to use them all together, so taking just over a week off from ReefDoctor. We wanted to see another part of Madagascar and decided to go on a hike/trek to a National Park.

At the beginning of our hike through the National Park

Isalo National Park

Isalo National Park is a large natural park with many natural pools, impressive big rock formations and local indigenous wildlife. Something we all wanted to see while we were in Madagascar. The park is inland from Toliara, so it was also nice to not constantly be walking in sand as well.
We got in touch with a local guide through ReefDoctor (as they were the ones who suggested us to go to Isalo in the first place) before we left camp. After an early morning start, we were on our way to Isalo in the local taxi system - a big truck with seating at the back which was packed with people and animals. The minute I sat down I had a little baby girl placed on my lap while her mother sat in the row in front holding all her bags and baskets and chickens. It was a hectic start! From Toliara we got on another packed mini van that drove us to a small town near Isalo National Park, where we would stay the night.

Isalo National Park from one of the view points

The Trek

Our trek was not that long overall, we broke it nicely over the course of 3 days. Starting early one morning and camping two nights in the Park, and then hiking for most of the last day until we got back to the same town we first arrived at.

Meet the wildlife moment. The ring tailed Lemur. The first group we saw on our first day of hiking! They were climbing all over and amongst the giant rocks

Can you spot the Lemur?!

One of the many natural swimming pools in the park. After a long hot morning of hiking, we walked down into this cool paradise, Oasis! We swam and jumped into the water to refresh ourselves before hiking back up the "valley"

We were hiking on the top of these "hills", where it was hot and dry, but often we would walk down into the green parts of the "valley" where we would find small Oasis of cool refreshing pools

I was the only one brave enough to swim in this natural pool, called the Black Pool. It was so deep hence why it looks black, and it was freezing cold

In between hills. See how steep they are! Once you get down you have to get back out!

Hiking our way out from the Oasis after a refreshing dip in the pool

Look who we found. The Brown Lemur. He was chilling out near our first night camp spot. So beautiful!

Our last night camp spot. On our last day of hiking, we finished our trip at this small village just near or on the border to the park. We were welcomed that night by food and dances and music from the villagers which was quite spectacular. You should have seen how they made their musical instruments! I was unfortunately quite ill on my last night here in the village, hence no photos, and went to bed early due to no energy to stay up

I really hope you have enjoyed reading about my trip in Madagascar and what I got up to while I was there. I loved every bit of it and would love to go back one day. I know that ReefDoctor has gone through a lot of changes since I was there 8 years ago. I believe it is a good thing to get involved in projects like the ones they do and you get to be completely immersed in the local culture and experience a whole lot of new things. It was a great opportunity and I definitely recommend doing something like this when you can!

Stay Classy Steemians!

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Wild Wednesday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Wednesday to inform their followers and readers about nature and conservation.

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