Greetings from Madagascan rain forest

Well not a bad start yesterday, we had a very leisurely trip to reunion airport and dropped the car off then had a wait for the flight, we tried watching Corrie , reception was fine but it was a bit noisy but got the gist. The flight was fine and the hotel in tana was only a short drive from the airport, it was a bit of ashick to see where we were staying it looked a bit basic but actually it was very clean. It had everything we could have needed, was friendly and helpful and arranged a great zebu dinner and ice-cream to follow with real Madagascar vanilla. We all slept wiel, it was  like a gites with three rooms one as a lounge and the others we used as bedrooms, we got coronation Street with sound plus emmerdale all in the mills of Madagascar with a better with to than reunion. The driver was a bit late picking us up but we had a good breakfast and enjoyed watching the hoopoes in the garden amongst many other birds. We were soon battling through what seemed horrendous traffic for a sunday, lots of trucks on the road. Nothing terribly ancient the usual mixed batch of hand-me-downs from Europe, lots of dafs, nerds, Renault plus a spattering of others .some go back a few marques but quite thick on the ground. Route taxis seem to provide a crowded if fairly consistent route network, I saw one old saviem bus in super condition. Too dangerous in tana to take pictures from the car with the window open. Generally a bit like Bangladesh all human life is in front of you  on the pavement etc and all oblivions very visible. We have Terry our driver, very cautious driver, riads generally up to UK standards with a few rough bits but better than expected but it is the main road in the country, we bit about seventy mph at one stage, it's an ex Korean four by four, decide! Which is about a pound a litre which must be horrendoulyh expensive but then few own any sort of motor vehicle, thecamion orlorry is king. So much to see as we swept through the red eigth continent wait is sometimes called.. then we finally arrived mid afternoon at famous forest lodge which has its own areas of reservations and resident lemurs and crocs. We are going tometto some f the residents tomorrow morning. It's a bit of a nightmare for Mandy getting around the steps to our lodge which is nicely appointed but could be a bit bigger but I guess the verandah is where we will spend a lot of time. Some Brits here one night on a tour. I'm hoping to spend the rest of tomorrow filming the trucks on the main road, Terry will learn the basics in sure. Well back track to the last town one day as there was a junction and we lost a bit of traffic there. We are really on the fringes of the forest, there is lots to see, looking forwards to daybreak and the sounds of the forest animals and birds. Well do the nocturnes walk tomorrow evening.