Day 18 - Sunday 20/09/2105: Tana
After breakfast we returned to Tsaratsaotra, the lake we had visited on Day 2, just after arriving in Madagascar. The few Madagascar Pond Herons are now in full breeding plumage having lost their neck streaks and acquired their head and mantle plumes, blue lores and bill base; unfortunately they were a bit distant for good photography. The Squacco Herons were also very showy. We didn’t find any new species, but did see all 3 morphs of Dimorphic Egret and got good views of several other species. We all enjoyed this excursion...... The same cannot be said for what followed.
After leaving the lake we went to the Tsimbazaza zoological and botanical garden. The main reason for visiting was to see the museum which contains the only complete Elephant Bird skeleton in existence, as well as the remains of several extinct lemurs. However, the museum has been closed for 3 years, so there was little prospect of us actually seeing these exhibits. What we did see was caged animals and birds. Although this allowed to see Fosa, the islands largest predator, and gave us a much better view of Madagascar Partridge than we had managed in the field, most of us felt quite strongly that we should not be supporting caging animals and did not really want to be there. Having said that, it seemed extremely popular with the local people.
After an early departure from the zoo we arrived at a top Tana restaurant, Hotel Vanilla, for our last lunch with the entire group together. This was a Madagascan meal of three courses with the starter and desert divided into 4 quarters and served on a plate with 4 quadrants and the mains divided into 3 parts served in 3 dishes that fitted together to form a circle. The starters were a spinach pancake, cold poatato with smoked fish, a slice of tomato and a chou bun with a peanut sauce filling. The mains were zebu stew, a piece of fish with spinach and chicken with coconut sauce and rice. The deserts were fruit salad, 2 different slabs of something unidentifiable with crème Anglais and 2 slices of orange. All was quite tasty, though with my abdomen still feeling a bit delicate it was probably a bit of a risk to sample 11 different dishes. We also sampled Madagascan red wine and Sam chose the Grand Cru. He bravely managed more than one glass – for me one sip was sufficient to conclude that it was horrible.
We returned to the hotel for a restful afternoon, evening meal (limited to two courses) and bed.
After leaving the lake we went to the Tsimbazaza zoological and botanical garden. The main reason for visiting was to see the museum which contains the only complete Elephant Bird skeleton in existence, as well as the remains of several extinct lemurs. However, the museum has been closed for 3 years, so there was little prospect of us actually seeing these exhibits. What we did see was caged animals and birds. Although this allowed to see Fosa, the islands largest predator, and gave us a much better view of Madagascar Partridge than we had managed in the field, most of us felt quite strongly that we should not be supporting caging animals and did not really want to be there. Having said that, it seemed extremely popular with the local people.
After an early departure from the zoo we arrived at a top Tana restaurant, Hotel Vanilla, for our last lunch with the entire group together. This was a Madagascan meal of three courses with the starter and desert divided into 4 quarters and served on a plate with 4 quadrants and the mains divided into 3 parts served in 3 dishes that fitted together to form a circle. The starters were a spinach pancake, cold poatato with smoked fish, a slice of tomato and a chou bun with a peanut sauce filling. The mains were zebu stew, a piece of fish with spinach and chicken with coconut sauce and rice. The deserts were fruit salad, 2 different slabs of something unidentifiable with crème Anglais and 2 slices of orange. All was quite tasty, though with my abdomen still feeling a bit delicate it was probably a bit of a risk to sample 11 different dishes. We also sampled Madagascan red wine and Sam chose the Grand Cru. He bravely managed more than one glass – for me one sip was sufficient to conclude that it was horrible.
We returned to the hotel for a restful afternoon, evening meal (limited to two courses) and bed.