Five by Five

I have no idea where this originally comes from, but Faith used to say this on Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. (Yes, I’m a fan. Let’s move on.) I just spent 5 nights at a Dive Resort in northern Madagascar and am now heading to Paris where I will spend 5 nights, the last 5 nights of my trip. It seems like 5’s keep coming up, so why not present 5 lists of 5 things. If you like lizards and counting, you’ll like this post. If not, check out my posts for people who don’t like lizards and counting at www.whodoesntlikelizardsandcounting.com. Feel free to add your own lists or critique mine in the comments section at the bottom of the post.

Five Things I Love About Travelling

1) Seeing something new everyday

2) Learning from people from other countries

3) Not being in the U.S.

4) Geckos and frogs in my room (Is it cheating to put two faunal groups under one number?)

5) Having my camera with me every day like a trusty friend

Five Things I Miss About Home (Not including people)

1) Zoe

2) Surfing

3) Streaming

4) Mexican Food

5) The Beach at Crystal Cove

Five Things I Like

1) Chocolate Mousse

2) Warm water diving

3) Bat-eared Foxes

4) Science

5) Things that don’t remind me of anything

Five Songs I Like To Hear While Travelling

1) Heroes – David Bowie

2) Southern Cross – Crosby, Stills, and Nash

3) Africa – Toto

4) Sara – Bob Dylan

5) Anything by Lizzy Hale (Sometimes you have to break the rules)

Five Places I’d Be Happy To Return To

1) Western Australia

2) Northeast New Zealand

3) Flores, Indonesia

4) British Columbia, Canada

5) Bonaire, Netherlands

Five Things I Wish Everyone Could See

1) Mother elephants protecting their young

2) A healthy coral reef

3) The Indian Ocean

4) An octopus

5) The world the way I do 😊

Were you keeping count? Like I said, sometimes you have to break the rules.

If you want this view, you have to wake up at 3 AM after 3 days of mountainous hiking, which follows 6 weeks of doing no exercise while riding around in a safari vehicle and eating 3 course meals and two tea time snacks everyday. Then you have to fly to northern Madagascar, and hike in the heat within an hour of getting off the plane, without knowing what you're in for, or eating a proper tensies meal...

oh... AND, you have to climb these stairs. I didn't count, but the guides gleefully informed me there are 626 stairs... AND, if you are under the incorrect assumption that the climb started here and ends at the top of these stairs, you would be sadly disappointed... AND, if you justified these conditions to yourself by thinking "at least, I'll see a lot of cool new animal species along the way," you'd be deluding yourself ...

... UNLESS, your idea of a lot of cool new animal species is a single day gecko playing hide and seek on the viewing platform at the very top, a day gecko species which you could easily see in your room or on your porch at the bottom of the hill while sipping on an iced Amarula after a good meal and a good nap...

If you're a bitter vindictive person like me, you'll triple dog dare that gecko to put his tongue on the frozen pole on the viewing platform at the top of the mountain, AND you'll take great pleasure, when another Day Gecko discovers the hard way, he can’t resist a triple dog dare.

For your viewing pleasure, we now cut to a brief spider interlude.

This leaf insect would like to file a lawsuit against the Thylacinewanderings blog for not placing the following text before the spider picture: "Please be advised, viewers of the insect kind might find some content disturbing."

The publishers of this blog apologize to their insect viewers. The producers responsible for the spider picture have been canned... what's that? ...

... oh... the producers responsible for the canning of the producers have now been canned... what? ... oh...hmmm... this program will now switch to pre-recorded alternative programming while it seeks new producers.

Red Tsingy.

View from Black Lemur Camp. This was a super peaceful place.

Mouse lemur.

Sportive lemur.

Female Black Lemur.

Male Crowned-lemur.

Female Sanford's Brown Lemur.

The producers of this blog have now reached a settlement with the insects. Neither party admits fault. The details are sealed under court order. We will now return to our regular program: The Lizards of Northern Madagascar. "Please be advised, viewers of the insect kind might find some content disturbing."

"I'd like to apologize to the insects personally. Perhaps, I can have them over for a meal."

Sleeping Chameleons always look very peaceful.

Sometimes, they wake up and eyeball you a bit annoyed.

This is the lizard that inspired my last blog.

This guy, also, likes things that do not remind him of anything.

Fish-scale Gecko. They can slough off most of their scales to distract potential predators.

This gecko reminds me of a dog keen to play :-)