Perinet

per1.jpgFrom Nosy Be we flew back to Antananarivo. Madagascar Airline cancels and changes regularly its schedules. Before we left the flight back had changed already, now again. First it was prolonged with one day, now even with 2 days more. But to be 3 days in Antananarivo, such a big city, what can you do? At 4 hours driving from Antananarivo you have the Perinet Reserve, known for its Indri Indri, the largest lemur of Madagascar. Also the rest of the group wanted to go to this reserve, so we rented a van with a driver and drove to Perinet, also called Andasibe. Here you will find the Analamazaotra Reserve. Just before Perinet we had visited a chameleon farm, besides chameleons, they also had many geckos and mantellas, also the aurantiaca. This is also the area of the mantella aurantiaca, but for the mantella aurantiaca it was not the right season, they held their winter rest. per3.jpgThis area was quite chilly, we did not need our sweater during the rest of the journey, but here you needed it badly. When we arrived at our lodge at the border of the Analamazaotra Reserve we heard already the Indri Indri calling, or actually you better can say we heard his ‘siren’, you can hear it from far away. 
As it was getting almost dark and the Reserve would be closed, we had to wait for the next day to look for the Indri Indri. 
Perinet is located much higher than the other national parks, it was quite chilly here, we did not need our sweater during the rest of the journey, but here you needed it badly. 
The Indri Indri was very impressive, really a large lemur and his siren is from close by really ear-splitting, you can hear it kilometres away. The most lemurs grunt a little like pigs, per2.jpgbut the Indri Indri calls a little like a pig is getting slaughtered and then a bit more ear-splitting. You must not stand under the trees where they are sitting, they shit and pee at anything coming in their neighbourhood, 2 of our fellow-travellers was the dupe. You also saw here several large Parson's chameleons, really large chameleons, one of the largest ones. Unfortunately Perinet was the end of our travel, a beautiful and impressive trip, with so many animals, much more than we had hoped to see.