13th December : Meet the pink parker

The grumpy taxi driver delivered us to the 67 Hectare Nahampoana reserve. Fortunately, due to language barriers, he was forced to take out his bad mood on the chocolate coloured puddles rather than us. We are greeted by a lanky gentleman who turns out to be our guide. He is wearing a girl's pink parker coat, complete with furry hood. I tried to hide my incredulous look as the sweat poured down my face. I enjoyed the reserve, it was more like a big botanical garden with lemurs and crocs and some interesting non-native plants than a conventional nature reserve. Defeated in my attempts to photograph the shy bamboo lemurs, I was happy to watch a group of ring tailed lemurs munching on the lychees. I must also confess to have been very impressed with the rather colourful crab spider.