Awake... What time is it? Only 2107... Whatto do now? It’s raining! Well, they call it a rainforest… Are my tent holdingdry? A buzzing! Mosquitoes, inside the tent! Die, die, kill them, kill it! Lucky,no stings.

When youonly have been awake for a few seconds the mind wanders and it’s hard to focus,but I’ll try to explain.

First ofall, it’s difficult to be me in Mada. Dawn is around 0530, and dusk’s around 6p.m. And there is not much to do after in Africaafter dusk. For me, who like to sleep ‘till midday and rarely goes to bedbefore midnight, this is poses a serious treat of not getting anything done. Idon’t have time to spend most of the day sleeping when I’m on a tight schedule.But I’m trying it: to go to sleep at around 7 or 8 p.m. and get up around 10hours later.

I left Tanafour days ago. Actually even the smaller towns and villages are behind me now.I put up camp in the forest near a national park called Mantadia. My tent, whichI have never used before (and I’m not really that much of a scout), and myhammock, between two trees inhabited by a lemur family of, at least, ten lemurs,was my home for the next three days. For the first day I didn’t do much, exceptlying in my hammock eating bananas and watching the lemurs eat, play and sleep.Feeling myself like a National Geographic documentary.

My planedfailed though. I was only able to sleep for two hours on this, the first nightin the rainforest, and I began wondering weather I’d catch enough sleep beforea guide picks me up at 0630 the next morning, to trek deeper into the forest.

At least Iwas able to spend a half hour checking that my tent kept dry and another halfhour on hunting the mosquitoes I let into the tent. Remember that everymosquito possesses a small, but dangerous risk of malaria.

Dawn comes,and the rains stops, but every thing is still wet and the fog is hanging lowaround the trees. I was actually able to get around five hours of sleep beforeI meet up with my guide, Nestor. We start our in the near village of Andasibe,getting coffee and supplies for the day (read: bananas and bisques). I rent abike to get me around.

For an houror so, we’re biking through the landscape, until we arrive at our destination ofParc National de Mantadia. Most of the way we bike on narrow paths narrowed bymeter high green plants on the sides, passing local women and children carryingbaskets on they head filled with fruits, vegetables and close, on their way tothe village marked. We even had to make river crossings a few times. Some on “bridges”there were no more than three wooden planks nailed together. It’s had enough tokeep your balance on a 15 meter “bridge” like that, without carrying a bike on youshoulder.

At the parkwe had 8 kmof trails to trek. Across streams, passing numerous waterfalls, though parts oftrail were there was no trails at all, and a machete would be handy. Up steephills and down slippery slopes. Ignoring the terrain my guide kept calling forlemurs with sound not unlike to their cries – succeeding three or four times,where curries lemurs looked down at us from the treetops. Beside the lemurs weencountered geckos, colourful frogs and strange plants and birds for every fewmeters we walked. At all times covered in the green blanked of rainforest.

Five hourslater, we returned of, the now more familiarly route that we came, crossing thesame rivers and meeting even more waving children along the way. Finally Icould pass the last duty of the day: relaxing, feet’s up, lying in the hammockfor a few hours, waiting for dusk to come.

That eveningI woke about 2100 again, this time because a wild pig attacked my tent. They arenot dangerous, just searching for roots and fruits to eat at night. None theless, capable at providing quite a panic doing the dark hours.

Bonus info:When you sing “I like to move it, move it” to the lemurs, they don’t startdancing like in the movie :(

No. of baths Ask have had since the 16/7: 1 (hopefully my current hotel will get the water back tonight so I can double the number)