A one night stay in Nairobi before flying to the island of Madagascar. The trip to the hotel in Nairobi brought back memories of the time I lived in England; road signs, roundabouts (traffic circles), the British accents, are all reminders that Kenya was once a British protectorate. Given that there are only 2 flights to Madagascar each week, I was at their mercy for scheduling. 2 flights and a 3-4 hour drive in a four wheel drive finally brought me to Berenty Reserve, the home of the lemurs in the southernmost part of the island. It was established to prevent the lemurs from becoming extinct. I was lucky that Dr. Allison Jolly, a world authority on lemurs, was there with her merry band of graduate students.
I was also very lucky to run into a great British couple who (1) knew everything about birds and lemurs (2) knew everything about plants (3) told great jokes to the amazement of our superb guide Mbolo and shy driver Jose', (4), were terrific photographers, and (5) spoke English. The last became very important in a country where the primary language is Malagasy, secondary language is French, and almost no one speaks English. I hung on to this poor British couple like velcroe. I'm sure they were happy to finally rid themselves of the annoying American......Staying at the Berenty Reserve is a little like an Outward Bound experience. No TV, radio, stereo, newspapers, reading materials of any kind, air conditioning, fan, outlets, and no electricity between 10 pm and 7 am. Any civilization beyond the reserve is at least an hour's drive away. My mantra became "good cause, good cause." It was all worth it the first morning when the sun was rising and all the lemurs came out to catch the morning rays after a cool night. They all sat on their haunches with arms outstretched facing the sun like little buddahs. The lemurs left no doubt that this was their place and we were just visitors...They truly are little people in hairsuits......After 4 days of becoming one with the lemurs it was time to return to Nairobe and become one with the giraffes at Giraffe Manor.....Happy Trails, Marion
