Beach to Rain Forest

So with Liam just recovered from Malaria we head back to Tana and book ourselves on the next flight to the beach. We head up to Ile Saint Marie off the North East coast of the island. Just to get even further away from civilisation we take a small canoe over to the tiny Noisy Nato (no cars, just beach, bungalows and forest).

We spent a couple of nights on the west of the island, generally just lounging on picture perfect beaches and eating great seafood. Then we discover a great little place run by a friendly South African and check into some gorgeous bungalows. The highlight of this place is the friendly lemurs that live in the trees above and who come down to the deck for some belly rubbing from the tourists!

Our enthusiastic host Okie serves us a delicious crab dinner on night one, plus an assortment of local shots (this was also the night that Chelsea won the Premiership so cause for celebration). And on night two sets up a projector on the deck for an outdoor viewing of the animation Madagascar - gotta love it.

Just in case we weren't relaxed enough we booked in a day at Betsy Spa and are treated to massages and a seafood lunch whilst listening to the Indian Ocean. The perfect way to recover from Malaria (and nursing someone with malaria).

Reluctantly leaving paradise we headed for the national park of Andasibe-Matadia, a big rain forest reserve on the east of the island. Here we did some great walking including a night hike by torchlight.

Back to Tana for our final day where we hit the local markets, where we discovered I had a pretty good talent for haggling the price.

And then it was time to leave this beautiful island. But it's au revoir not goodbye as there's so much more to see and do I'm sure we'll be back one day.