We passed through endless savannah on our moring walk to the park from Ranohira, passing herds of zebu and small huts, with the beautiful sandstone plateau rising out of the plain on our left, becoming ever more imposing as we approached. Our day's walking would take us to Canyon des Makis (Maki being the local name for lemurs), the spectacular sheer cliffs and huge boulders inside sheltering green, lush vegetation and giving us some fun scrambling activity for an hour or so. We stopped at the beautiful 'King's Pool' for a dip, and after a picnic made our way through the forest to the Canyon des Rattes before setting up camp for the night under huge mango trees.
The next morning, waking to the red blaze of the sun on the towering cliffs before us, we set off toward the rock face, and ascended up onto the plateau, iguanas watching us from their sunny perches on rocks, a family of ring-tailed lemurs out for their morning breakfast in the small pocket of forest on the way up. The sandstone mountains were spectacular, stretching off into the distance as far as the eye could see, an ever-present guardian of the vast grassland plains below. We spent the day hiking this hot, dry landscape, past burnt trees - remnants of a fire through here two years ago - and through shoulder-high grass, obscured canyons stretching away in the distance, their iron-red colour blazing in the hot sun. The rock formations of this ancient landscape were spectacular; as I sat on what seemed like the edge of the world, I mused at how much they reminded me of the Kimberley.
Our campsite on the second night was down in a cool valley directly facing a sheer cliff, shaded by huge pandanus that fed greedily on a beautiful pool and spring-fed waterfall. Not a bad place for our evening bath and another simple but delicious meal after a hot day's walking.
We hiked across the plateau the next morning to the Piscine Naturelle, and it was here that we encountered our first large group of tourists in the park, taking a dip in the picturesque pool, surrounded by pandanus and fed by another beautiful waterfall. While there unfortunately wasn't much water flowing and there seemed to be a lot of sand, it was a beautiful place to swim - especially when the other trekkers left and we had the place to ourselves... temporarily at least. After not wanting to ever leave, we finally trekked back across the hot, sandy plateau to a lookout over the savannah plains called The Crest. We circled the diverging canyons of the Circuit de Namaza before descending down into them to camp for the night.
The Namaza campsite was clearly on the day tripper agenda and we passed quite a few other visitors. But the presence of regular food also ensured the presence of makis! We were able to watch a large family of eight ring-tailed and six brown lemurs in their acrobatic pursuits of leaves and fruit for quite a while. One cheeky golden female even stole some of our bananas. Little bugger. Couldn't help but forgive such a beautiful creature though.
Our night at the campsite was spoiled somewhat by the presence of the girlfriend of our cook Petray, who didn't seem to mind sharing her with Bosco in the tent next door. Weird! At least we had some local punch to soften the blow - and this time we actually got to drink it, unlike the previous bottle which mysteriously disappeared down Bosco's throat the night before.
Our last morning's hike took us through the gorge to the two natural pools along the river, Piscine Noir and Piscine Bleu, where we had a very refreshing (ok, it was bloody cold!) swim - mostly because the sun was too lazy to get up yet. A visit to the beautiful, delicate and aptly-named Cascade des Nymphes also took us through more beautiful canyon scenery before the long walk back across the savannah in the hot sun, trailing after Petray, his girlfriend and Bosco, who set a cracking pace despite carrying all of the cooking equipment and tents. We hadn't really wanted to end this trek, but we had to eventually.
I now have a new favourite place in the world - Parc National d'Isalo.
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