Day 25

We wake up early today. We are 20km from Joffreville and haven't seen anybody since we left the trailhead 2 days ago
Julio manages to find a couple more lead tail geckos and two different kinds of the smallest chameleons. He keeps amazing me. At his advantage, he grew up playing with them, setting up chameleon fights and now makes a living finding them!
Even when we hike back to Joffreville he keeps finding some.
Last night in Madagascar. I stay at a lodge built up a tree.
Tomorrow I'll fly back to Tana and then to Paris at 1am. Not fun. I'll miss this place.
Goodbye.
. We know the way back and move at a faster pace. It's roughly 4h from our camp to the trailhead. There's a small and basic lodge here. We order lunch for later and go tour the waterfalls nearby.

Day 24

We wake up in a cloud. Everything is much wetter up here, just 500m above the trailhead. Julio has a hard time starting the fire but manages to start it. We take our time and enjoy our breakfast with a splendid view as the clouds dissipate; rice left over from yesterday with coffee and some bread with jam.
Our goal today is first to find the Grand Lake and then try to find the path to the summit. We pack and go. After a couple of hours the trail ends at the lake. Easy. The view is very similar to yesterday's, it looks like a crater lake surrounded by the rain forest. Leeches are a bit more annoying and we set up the tent where they seem less active, closer to the lake and away from the vegetation. Now it's time to find the path to the summit. After some scouting we find it. It's only 200m up but what a trail! So many hanging mosses, ferns, and orchids, everything just got greener and greener, with many contortioned trees. It looks like Harry Potter's forest! Suddenly a crowned Ubu startles us just a few meters in front of us. It's huge! Like a big goose. It's mostly white with many colors near its head. Julio got scared!
The summit, 1475m, welcomes us with just a few clouds. Guides have cut a bit the vegetation for the view. We see Mozambique Canal, and Ankanara's mountains to the south.
We also take advantage of this little clearing to dry our feet and remove the few leeches still on.
Nap under the sun, feels good!
So far we haven't seen that many chameleons, I hope we'll see some tonight. Julio keeps smiling...
No wonder he was smiling! Within just 50m we find tens of them!! Small ones, big ones, green, orange, blue, even a tree frog 4m up above our heads, wow!!!! Never seen this much in the wild! It's like a reptilian zoo!! Well, with some leeches also... Still, I keep looking for new looking reptiles and Julio (he's really good at finding them) finds the cherry on the cake: a short tailed gecko. This one is active at night and nicely crawls to our stick so we can take it down and get some pics.
Again, what a day!

Day 23

It's 8am and my guide is on time at Suarez Hotel. The pilots are leaving at the same time. They go to the airport, I go to Joffreville. A Renault 4L takes us there, amazing how this little car from the 70's is still the most used car around!
Before leaving Diego we go to the local market for supplies to get malagasy style camping food: rice, dry and salted fish, 1 can of sardines, 1 box of Vache Qui Rit, and soup ramen!
From Diego to Joffreville the landscape goes from dry yellow to lushy green.
Then, we hike 6km to the trailhead. Thanks to Julio, my guide, we spot countless chameleons, geckos, snakes and spiders! Wow!

Julio also tells me he hasn't gone much further than the close by cascades so he isn't sure about what we will find. I tell him to grab a machete and I have my GPS phone with Google terrain map downloaded, we'll be fine!

After a few hours I understand we must make it to one of the lakes closer to the summit: there's no running water or spring on our way. My pump filter is put to good use on the only puddle we find, filled up by drops falling from moss.

Day light goes fast and by 4pm it's getting darker and we start rushing to find a camp next to the closest lake. By miracle Julio finds a path leaving the main track and then asks me: how far are we from the lake? Just 300m on a straight line I reply. Let's go!
We can't see the lake, just forest, and we speed up our pace hoping we're going to find a place to camp. After a few minutes we see the lake below our crest and quickly after we reach it.

After so many hours spent under the green canopy we are struck by the beauty of this place.

We still have to find a spot for camping though and are surprised by the tall grass or hanging grass carpet I should say. We expected a nice grassy area but are stuck with a knee deep and unstable mattress of grass. Now we're tired and desperate to find something. We end up by going back to the edge of the grassy area hoping to find firm ground. Then we see a small wooden hut and decide to check it. It's probably a fisher's shack. Ground is firm around it so we decide to stay.
Time to filter water, boil some rice with the dry fish, eat and go sleep!
What a day!

Day 22

Muriel and I tried to meet on the emerald sea but their tour didn't come close enough to Babaomby. I went quite a bit upwind and enjoyed one more time this windsurfing paradise.
By 4pm I take the boat back to Diego Suarez and meet with Muriel and the other pilots. I am offered to fly with them for the rest of their excursion. Cool! Nevertheless I speak to the hotel manager and find a guide for trekking at Amber Mountain. After some thought I choose the second option. I'm going to switch from blue to green!