Antananarivo, Madagascar 
August 25, 2015

We reluctantly headed back off home with our one hour trip back across the lake and down the man-made canal, three and half hours to lunch, half an hour to the reptile park and finally arriving back in Tana about 6:30pm.

Lunch was at the Grace Resort, set up by a little Christian lady who had a vision to leave Tana and go to the forest. A lovely lunch (not too much) with Indri calling in the background.

The reptile park (Peyreiras Nature Farm or Mandraka Reptile Farm) was set up many years ago as a butterfly and moth centre but is now rather run down and mainly displaying Geckos, Chameleons, Snakes, Frogs and Crocodiles. Also had three Tenrec which are funny little hedgehog-shrew animals. There are 34 species of Tenrec of which 31 are endemic to Madagascar. Those on display here are the Common Tenrec. The farm had a number of Leaf-tailed Gecko species, with their intricate patterns and shapes to aid camouflage. There were also at least a dozen species of Chameleon, some of which we had seen in the wild. We took lots of photos. One Chameleon was encouraged to take insects from the end of a stick held up to him by a keeper. For such a lethargic-looking reptile, the rapid flash of its extremely long sticky tongue was startling. 

We had our last dinner together tonight at Chalet de Roses where we all shared a highlight of the trip. Lots of nice things said about Lala, who was rather touched and found it difficult to respond.