French Mountain and Amber Mountain

We flew from Ile Sainte Marie to Diego-Suarez, the largest city in the north, via the capital, but luckily had no issues spending the night in Tana, given the demonstrations and replacement of the government that was occurring. After landing in Diego-Suarez, we drove just 7 km east to hike up French Mountain. It was hot and sunny…

… but we were promised 360-degree views, and they were delivered -

The island in the middle of the bay is called Nosy Lonjo (nosy means island) and is a sacred place for the locals. It is forbidden to land there. From different vantage points, you can appreciate the beautiful blue water of the bay -

Also from the top we could see the northernmost point of Madagascar (Cap d’Ambre) and the Emerald Sea -

The Emerald Sea is just off the coastline to the right.

Along the hike to the top, we found a juvenile Panther chameleon with markings that looked like a tiger -

We also saw two different species of baobab — the Suarez, with its branches straight out at 90 degrees and dark bark:

… and the Madagascar baobab with its crown of curving branches -

We then moved on to the Amber Mountain national park, which is known as the home of the smallest tree and ground chameleons in the world. The first species we found was Brookesia Minima, represented by this nice pair -

The male is the smaller darker one in the foreground

Female

Another tiny species is Brookesia Antakarana -

We also found a somewhat larger chameleon, the Blue-nose (but you can only see the color in the right light and angle) -

Some interesting insects also showed up — Shield Bugs…

… and a Longhorn Beetle -

Check out those mandibles! —

You didn’t think I’d let you get away without more lemur pics, did you? Crowned lemurs (not soaking wet). [Apologies for the inferior quality of the shots - they were at the top of the trees with the sun behind them.]

The male is the brownish one in the center of the picture, while the females and baby are gray-ish.

A Malagasy Kingfisher was a gorgeous gem…

… which we found on our way to this rare waterfall -

From our lodge on the slopes of Amber Mountain… Adieu!