Memories of Madagascar
Slowly, I unpeeled the banana. For a moment, there was silence. Then a rustling in the bushes beside me as two unblinking black eyes stared out at me and the fruit. Then another pair and another, until the bravest lemur emerged from the leaves and warily stretched out to take his prize.
Reassured, his companions followed him, leaping gracefully across the branches until finally the lure of the banana was just too much. As I turned, I caught a glimpse of a furry brown body launching through the air towards me.
Landing sure-footed on my arm, he grabbed the fruit, and scuttled up my shoulders to his vantage point to eat – my head.
One soft furry tail wrapped around my neck like a living scarf, gently flicking to tickle my chin as he nibbled the banana clutched in his paw, before exploring my sunglasses with his delicately inquisitive leathery fingers.
Nearby his larger cousins waited their turn, a black and white ruffed lemur hanging nonchalantly by one foot from a tree and a Verreaux’s sifaka demonstrating how the species got the nickname ‘dancing lemur’ with his curiously elegant prancing, looking exactly as if he were poised to break into a whirl of pirouettes.
Before my trip to Madagascar in May 2011, I’d hoped to see lemurs, never expecting to get quite this close.
And while this was only the beginning of the amazing experiences in store on the Indian Ocean island, it’s one of my favourite holiday memories.
After all, it’s hard to top being used as a human climbing frame.
For more lemurs, I had chance to get close to them closer to home at Woburn Safari park
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Images copyright MummyTravels
