My days at the island nation of Madagascar were getting to be fun. It had been countrywide journeys to cross the length and breadth and to get as good as possible a feel of this place.

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The afternoons were getting warmer and I didn’t feel the need to take my jacket out as I venture into the wild.

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As one of the last things to do here before I head further deeper into the African land and we headed off into the thick of the Isalo National park .

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The entry fee is 65000 Ariary, about $22 or about 1460 Indian Rupees for a day and you need to pay another 120000 Ariary to get a guide, which is mandatory and who would take you around and inside the park.

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Some visitors tour the vast expanse of the park over a week or so. We, my guide and I began our little trek began through thick woods and wild rocks.

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we marched on crossing water falls and small streams and before soon I was engrossed in these purple flowers with huge bees buzzing on them.

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That was it and I was amazed at the scene and begun taking close up shots of the bees and the flowers with my camera.

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A little distance away was a jungle camp with people having lunch with tents put up in tents right in the middle of the jungle park.

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I decided to rest for a while but not before I got a glimpse of the Lemurs and I took lot of pictures of all the three distinct types of Lemurs including the one with the long ringed tails.

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After a quick meal of Chicken and rice I had what was probably the best dessert I have had in a while pineapple in caramel sauce and boy was it mind blowing or what?!!

Caramel Pineapple
Caramel Pineapple

After that snack I was up and ready to take on more of the the jungle again. I went down in between the steams to capture the play of nature in my camera.

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It is much cooler in the jungle with the thick foliage and cool streams and water ways, one feels so one with nature here and a kind of soothing feeling sets in.

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At times like this one just wants to sit back and contemplate life a bit.

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After a full tour of the park which took about two hours we headed back home, but not before I spotted a brown and green snake in the bushes on our path.

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I got a few close shots but must have scared the snake as he rustled past through the bushes.

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As if on cue my guide picked up a stick and tried to pull the snake closer so that I could get a better shot of him. The snake fought back and jumped to the other side before slipping away from us.

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Now we were dangerously close to the snake he could have attacked us , but i managed to get a couple of shots of the slippery bugger.

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I am getting a hang of taking close up and portrait shots now and getting to grips with my larger lens on the camera.

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I knew I wanted more and there was more to be had, deeper Africa to be probed and wilder sights to be seen. I knew I was heading forward onward to Kenya now, the wild life explorer in me having woken up !!

 

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