From almost the instant we arrived people were telling us about the overnight trip and the “Night Hike”. There were stories of sleeping in an old church and on the beach with hikes to see creatures that only come out a night.
Thursday was the big day. The night hike is a treat for only the “Forest” program, so there are often requests from people in other programs to join. At 2:30 the group corralled in the dining area - about 14 of us in total. Our back packs were loaded with sleeping bags, pillows, mats and flash lights. Unfortunately not everyone had been read the gear list and a few were going to be sleeping on a hard concrete floor.
Our journey began with a 90 minute walk to the church building where we cleared the simply made pews and many cockroaches - Paul gave special attention to the ones crawling up his neck!
We dropped our gear and then walked another 20 minutes to the peak of Nosy Komba. This culminated in an incredible view is the sunset over Nosy Be and some fresh fruit and juice. At the top the air was clear, cool and fresh. In our sweaty clothes it was almost uncomfortably cold! Everyone enjoyed the break from the heat.
We had anticipated some data collection along a marked transect, however, it’s Vanilla season and we didn’t want to disturb the plants so that was cancelled. After dinner at an unbelievably remote “Restaurant” (we believe that it is just someone’s home that has been set up to set 15 ‘Forest’ people every 3 weeks or so!) we headed back got the church to gear up for our night hike.
Pans on, bug spray misted and flashlights in hand we followed Fedy out into the jungle for a slow and quiet walk. Within minutes he had spotted frogs and geckos. Some only about finger nail size! We also saw giant snails, 4 snakes and some cool spiders. (This chameleon is a Brooksia Stumpfii)
After about a hour we returned to our church accommodation hopeful that the cockroaches had not returned. Everyone was very tired and we all fell asleep very quickly. Unfortunately, the air in Gayle’s mat did not stay for more than 10 minutes, so it was an uncomfortable night for her! Needless to say, by morning, the church was a bit of a smelly train wreck.
,We were on the trail down by 6:30 am. The Forest crew has a very light program on Fridays so many people could be found engaged in a much needed nap after breakfast!