Our desert retreat!

I thought that in the depths of winter you may like to see some flowers! These were outside overhanging my patio at the hotel I stayed in in the desert in Madagascar. It was a wonderful place called Relais de la Reine which means 'the throne of the queen', a French built and owned place set in the desert which reminded me of the American mid west. There are birds there, like the Bensons Rock Thrush, which are only found in this desert and nowhere else in the world. The place is full of birds, butterflies and lizards. We had three days there, the rooms were beautiful, I even had my own patio to sit on overlooking the gardens and pool. Below are some of the photos I took in the grounds.

This was my room with mosquito net which the maid used to let down in the evening while we were at dinner.


The bougainvillea which grew next to my room.



A cute lizard which was on the eaves of my cabin.


One of his friends!

I don't know what these flowers are but thought they were pretty!

These wooden statues were in the gardens outside the restaurant.

Views from the restaurant.


The patio outside the restaurant where you could eat if you didn't mind sharing your meal with flies!


The gardens were beautiful, they looked so natural in this setting.

The pink is bougainvillea, the purple is a jacaranda tree.



The steps leading to the restaurant.

I loved the wooden statues, they'd look nice on my balcony!




The blue sky would look nice over my balcony too! Lol!

Looking down at our cabins, how I wish I was back there in the desert heat!

My patio on the right with the bougainvillea overhanging it.

It was very lush considering we were in the desert!

I showed you this locust before, we found him by the roadside with a female friend.

His lady friend, I've neven such colours on an insect before, they were beautiful, they almost looked hand painted!

This next one is one of the biggest butterflies I've ever seen. They were all over the hotel grounds and were the size of a starling! When I was on my patio I kept seeing shadows going across the grass and thought it was a bird till I looked up and saw these butterflies going overhead. At the airport you have to walk out onto the tarmac to get on the plane. As we passed the back of the plane this huge butterfly came fluttering towards the engine. As it got near to the plane the engines blew it backwards at about sixty miles an hour! It just did somersaults for fifty yards then came flying back, it seemed to be having great fun!

This is the end of my postings on Madagascar and as you can see we did stay in some wonderful hotels and beach huts. It was a great trip and I loved seeing the lemurs in the wild, all the birds and chameleons too. If ever you get the chance to go I can highly recommend it, the scenery's stunning, the people are friendly and the wildlife is second to none. I hope you liiked the photos as much as I liked taking them!

I'll leave you with my favourite sunset photo, I'm keeping this journal for travel photos so probably won't post here again till I come back from the Caribbean in April.

Have a good weekend, stay warm and have a great Christmas and a very happy new year. I'll be posting on my old private journal so if you need access let me know and I'll add you.