John's Second Aerogramme from Lake Ranobe, Madagascar

Lake Ranobe base camp. Monday, 12 May 2003.

Dearest Everyone,

The sun is setting over the reedy lake, as the evening sounds of birds, dinner preparations (rice and beans) and the 5:30pm radio call to Tulear Headquarters all mingle in a familiar afternoon harmony.

We have been back at base camp for about a week since a fantastic and very basic satellite camp to the forested grassland inland where we GPS mapped the extent of the spiny forest and did some ace bird walks (my highlights were a tree covered in a flock of green and grey “love birds”, the giant green Madagascan pigeon and many raptors).

On our return to base camp (after a long but rewarding hike home) there were two aerogrammes waiting for me from Yuki. Thanks for the lovely letters! Yuki had drawn picture of me and the baobabs, it was so friendly. My beard was very accurate, my hair is still fairly short though, and the baobabs really are that fat!

As for the lemurs I’ve seen, well, I actually saw nearly all the ones Yuki mentioned when I visited the zoo in Tana. A man there snuck me and the two girls I was with around the back and one-by-one took out the brown, crowned, red-bellied, black and brood-nosed lemurs out of their cages for us to touch, photograph and feed blades of grass. We don’t think he was really meant to let the public in there, so we’re very lucky- I’ve probably touched more lemur types than most people in the world! But here out in the wild of the spiny forest, there are only mouse-lemurs, and we’ll be doing lots of work with the incredibly cute big-golden-eyed babies of the bush. When I walk to the toilet at night their eyes peep out at me in the reflection of my head torch.

And yes, I have seen heaps of chameleons. They ‘dance’ a special ‘chameleon dance’ in their perches in the trees, a slow “left legs together, right legs together” that is meant to make them look like sticks in the breeze. We have only seen one species so far: the 3 to 12inch Furcifer vericosa.

...I am thinking about staying in Madagascar longer. It would depend on whether I am able to extend my visa, if I can change my plane tickets to return in late September, whether I can afford to stay another 3 months, and of course if Yuki is happy for me to stay longer. Perhaps Yuki would be interested in coming to Madagascar and sharing some rugged explorer-style travels. I am loving sleeping under the stars, washing in a lake and picking chameleons from the trees. I feel that now I’ve got here, that I’d like to see some more of Madagascar, that it cost me so much to get here and if I left now, that it would be some time before I could make it back. I am just beginning to be able to converse in Malagasy and build my legs up enough to carry a heavy backpack.

Thanks, Yuki, for sending me the words to ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ [by Joni Mitchell]. I can play it on guitar now and I hum it to myself when I cut lemur transects through the spiny forest, or go birding, butterfly or reptile catching.

...We have found a colony of endemic, vulnerable bats in the school building in the village, and have been trekking up there for 6-hour night shifts, trapping, recording, marking and releasing the delicate little mouse-sized ‘Peter’s Goblin-faced’ bats.

Yesterday was the mid-phase review day (yep, it’s over half way!). We walked to the coastal village of Ambeliamelika, 1 hour’s walk away and the closest village with a shop, to have some science-work discussions before a delicious dinner (ZEBU! FISH! FRESH SALAD! Not rice and beans!!!), far too much Malagasy rum, and a local Malagasy-style disco party. We were driven back to camp in a roll-started Toyota Ute.

The Tree Boa photographed by John, shown here engulfing a mouse, was later adopted as a camp pet and named 'Boris the Boa'.

I was having a cup of instant miso soup by the campfire when I heard a rustle and a squeak near the food tent. There, in a cane basket, a Tree Boa had just caught a mouse! It was the first boa seen this phase! We watched as the mouse was held in the diamond-studded coils of the 50cm long snake, then (completely ignoring us and my camera flashing macro photos constantly) it slowly opened its tiny jaws extraordinarily wide and gently eased the mouse down its throat! When it was finished, it looked exactly like this and I picked it up and let it coil and slither it’s way up my arms before putting it in a “casual collection” bag for a sleep while it waited for us to ID, mark and record it before releasing it again in a few days.

Tomorrow the British Ambassador in Madagascar is visiting us. We’ll wear our best clothes . We’ll also get the post and re-supply! Woo-hoo!! I’ll send this letter out with him.

I have taken many amazing photos, some have been sent to London and put on the website (www.frontier.ac.uk) a few weeks ago, but due to a technical issue, I’ve not seen them yet. I’ve taken some really good ones apparently, publish quality I think.

I have started typing a narrative on the chunky laptop here, and maybe I can write a book .

Please send my love to everyone – thanks to Mum for her weekly letter-book (I love it) and to Virgil for his letter on an aerogramme I received recently, good luck with Uni and travel scholarships… can you send me some family news? What’s everyone doing? Print some Virgil’s Diary articles and post them to me? It took 3 weeks for Yuki’s two aerogrammes to arrive, so don’t send me any parcels to Frontier because they may miss me by now, and Frontier staff happily EAT parcel contents belonging to missing RA’s (Research Assistant’s) usually!

Please wish Bianca, Evan, Vicky (and anyone else whose birthdays are in June) a Happy Birthday!

I hope you are all happy, fit, healthy and not too cold as winter comes.

With all my love,

John.

P.S. Just got some lovely letters: Thanks so much to Mum, Mum & Dad (thanks dad –I’ll look out for that special acacia), Maria (good luck with Uni), Virgil (your life sounds lovely, thanks Widge), Yuki, Widge & Maria (congratulations on the Venezuela talk Maria, good luck with the Michael Pryles website work Widge, thanks for the news about Miho & Neha’s plans to come to Madagascar Yuki).

And... the British Ambassador brought news that there is a parcel!! Waiting for me in Tulear post office, so I’ll get that in a few days!!! Whoo-hoo! Love from John.