Masoala

Almost all of Madagascar's lowland rainforest, which once flanked the island's eastern coasts right down to the sea, has been lost to the chainsaw. Only one substantial area remains, on the Masoala Peninsula in the remote north-east of the country. The journey here is well worth the effort - while birds are indeed thin on the ground, the stunning rainforest trails and the chance of extremely rare endemics makes up for the lengthy quiet periods. And then there's the fact that you're staying in an idyllic camp on the beach! The weather was variable on Masoala, as you might expect, with some cool days, rain, and hot/humid afternoons too.

We spent five days here on Masoala Peninsular, where we stayed at Masoala Forest Lodge, which was a beautifully remote, yet luxurious tented camp right on the beach. After a short flight and taxi ride in ancient cars, we set off from Maroantsetra by boat for a two hour ride to the lodge. The scenery here is quite spectacular with jungle right down to the beach, and friendly dogs such as Whiskey to accompany you.

Each walk to the forest involved a fairly lengthy beach walk, small boat ferries or sometimes wading thigh deep through inlets before you reach the forest itself. The trails here were a little more demanding than most of those we had experienced in Madagascar, which the two of us (if not, perhaps, the rest of the group) found refreshing, after the relatively easy sluggish pace on trails earlier in the trip.

The birding here was really hard, as the density of birds was very low. We often walked for hours without seeing anything. However, what we did see was usually very good. Seraphim, our local guide, showed us Helmet Vanga on the nest, which was extremely exciting, but a little disappointing in that we couldn't see the whole bird properly. Later on, during a more energetic walk to the top of the ridge, we did have much better close views of this bird feeding actively.

Another great moment was finding a Scaly Ground-roller roosting at night, allowing excellent photos. We also finally connected with Short-legged Ground-roller - two of them - which again behaved extremely well, sitting and calling for quite a while. Other birds seen in our time here included Red-breasted Coua, which is quite a smart coua, and good for Julia as she'd missed the one in Perinet. Also we had Tylas, Red-tailed, Blue and White-headed Vangas, Madagascar Pygmy Kingfisher, and Long-billed and Spectacled Greenbuls. Also present were some of the usual flock birds - Crested Drongo, Common Newtonia, and Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher, White-eye and Bulbul. However, there was no sign of the mythical Bernier's Vanga or the Dusky Tetraka, in spite of assiduous searching. Offshore we were lucky enough to pick out a Common Noddy amongst the many Greater Crested Terns, and had several Madagascar Pratincoles in flight and perched on the rocks close to the beach.

The special mammal we were anxious to see was the Red-ruffed Lemur, which we saw calling on the first evening and subsequently on several occasions. We also found an as yet unidentified Sportive Lemur (possibly Seal's?), an Eastern Woolly Lemur with a baby on its back, and White-fronted Brown Lemur in the forest. Also we saw another kind of rat by night - Eastern Tuft-tailed Rat - and several cool land crabs and a bright orange unidentified frog. Right by the dining room there was a spectacular Panther Chameleon, which we saw actually catching and eating an insect. Here were also several Madagascar Plated Lizards, Short-horned Chameleon, and some large bright red millipedes in the forest. There were rumours of a family of Lowland Streaked Tenrecs in the camp, but only one person in our group caught a glimpse of one of these.

Our return boat ride was unsurprisingly not without incident. The motor broke down and so we were using a small outboard motor, which meant we were making very little headway and rolling in a nausea-inducing fashion. There are only two flights a week off Masoala, and if we missed it we would have a difficult two-day drive! Luckily we were eventually rescued in a tiny boat, and had an extremely wet journey at breakneck speed back to the airport, where we just managed to catch our flight after some restorative chocolate and caffeine. We even managed to add a trip tick in the shape of a Reed Cormorant close to the jetty. Another memorable boat trip...