The Guide
ANTANANARIVO AND AROUND
There’s no other capital in the world like ANTANANARIVO (Tananarive to the French, “Tana” colloquially to everyone). With its lakes, canals and jagged hills, its necklace of emerald rice paddies, and its crumpled central lattice of still partly cobbled streets and red-tiled pastel-coloured balconied houses, this is a city that imprints its character immediately on every first-time visitor. Even the sprawling shanties seem somehow prettier than the average urban slum: packed together between the glimmering rice fields, the shanty houses are still largely built in the traditional manner, using fired-clay bricks, and blush radiantly pink in the afternoon sun.
Tana is likely to be your point of arrival and departure on the island, if you’re not using a charter flight to Nosy Be. As the hub of Madagascar’s road and air route networks, long-stay backpackers and NGOs revisit over and over again, and even short-term visitors are likely to find it on their itineraries three or four times. Whatever kind of visitor you are, there’s a good range of affordable accommodation and, not surprisingly, the island’s best array of eating, drinking and entertainment possibilities. It also has some fascinating cultural attractions and excursions – notably the nineteenth-century royal palace, which stands on high cliffs overlooking the city centre, and the older sacred capital of Ambohimanga outside it – though nothing so compelling that you’d want to set aside much more than a day each time before getting on the next plane or bus out again.
The city occupies the flat banks of the Ikopa River and spreads up the ancient granite and gneiss ridges that tower up from the plains; the highest points of these ridges are dominated by Tana’s most historic buildings. At between 1300 and 1400m above sea level, Tana in the daytime ranges from very warm in the rainy season between October and March (see box) to comfortably mild in the dry July/August midwinter period, when temperatures drop at night to 10˚C or below – although it never freezes.
SECURITY
Antananarivo has its share of desperately poor people and petty gangsters, any of whom will happily pick your pockets, con you or intimidate you into handing over money or valuables. The worst areas are the relatively touristy city centre districts, especially around av de l’Indépendance, and the markets and bus stations, where local people are just as vulnerable. Be very careful when first finding your feet: violent muggings are rare but not unknown.
ANTANANARIVO ORIENTATION
Getting your bearings in Tana’s winding and sometimes hilly streets can seem tricky at first, but the city soon resolves into several easily assimilated neighbourhoods – Ivato, Analakely, Antsahavola, Isoraka, Antaninarenina and the Rova district – that are likely to be your main stomping grounds.
The airport is in the northern suburb of Ivato, 5km north of the RN4 road to northwest Madagascar. This main highway enters the suburbs in the northwest and bypasses the city centre on the west side to join with the RN7 in the south of the city. There’s a similar bypass around the southeast side of the city linking the RN7 with the RN2.
Branching off the RN4 by the US Embassy is the heavily trafficked rue Dr Joseph Raseta/rue Ampanjaka Toera that leads in 8km straight to the heart of the central district of Analakely, where the old Gare Soarano railway station faces the lower, northern end of the Avenue de l’Indépendance. As you drive or walk south up this broad avenue, you’ll see it’s more of an elongated square than a street, with its lawns and trees, colonial, arcaded store fronts and offices including the Hôtel de Ville or city hall – and its fair share of hawkers and hustlers. This area, effectively the city centre, offers rich pickings for pickpockets and muggers preying on first-time visitors: beware.
On either side of Analakely, the city rises in tiers of colourfully jumbled buildings accessed by steep streets and old pedestrian staircases. Three of the key neighbourhoods from your point of view are likely to be the increasingly gentrified Antsahavola, west of the Avenue de l’Indépendance; its prosperous neighbour Isoraka, a little higher up and to the southwest; and Antaninarenina, a little to the southeast and focused on the Jardin Antaninarenina and the place de l’Indépendance, where you’ll find Tana’s main tourist office. Isoraka was the colonial residential quarter and retains a mix of old houses and conversions, with shops, restaurants, bars and the odd gallery. The neighbourhood slopes steeply down again on its southern side to the national stadium and the landmark of artificial Lac Anosy (formerly a swamp), with its central island Monuments Aux Morts commemorating the dead of World War I and its encirclement of jacaranda-lined boulevards and modern offices.
If you continue up av de l’Indépendance you pass the famous old Hôtel Glacier and enter the narrower rue du 26 Juin 1960 to reach the base of the cliffs at place 19 Mai 1929, from where a road tunnel leads west through the ridge to Lac Anosy and another road climbs up the steep ridge to the historical neighbourhood of the Rova, the site of the Merina Royal Palace, which lies south of the city centre and stretches along the north–south ridge.
Brief history
The first significant settlement on the site now known as Antananarivo was established around 1650 on the hilltop called Analamanga (a name recently adopted for the region surrounding the modern capital). As the Merina peoples gradually coalesced into a single kingdom, there were repeated attempts to capture this prized site. King Andrianampoinimerina was eventually successful in 1793, moving his court to the highest point in the area, overlooking the extensive rice paddies in the lakes and marshes below. He called the place Antananarivo, meaning “City of a Thousand” (referring to 1000 soldiers). From this strategic bastion, the nineteenth-century Merina dynasty ruled the kingdom and eventually most of the island, until the French captured the city in October 1895. Following the bloody Menalamba (“red shawl”) rebellion, just two months later, against what was by then a decadent, Western-backed royal court, the French abolished the monarchy, sent the reigning queen, Ranavalona III (reigned 1883–97), into exile in Algeria and established a colony based here that lasted until independence in 1960. The city has since been the focal point for most of modern Madagascar’s successive coups and republics and is a barometer for the health of Malagasy society. Today, despite the fast-expanding population of well over one million, the mood in Tana is the most positive it has been for years, following the democratic election of a credible government in 2014.
The historical district
The historical neighbourhood that occupies the long, high ridge on the south side of Tana contains most of the city’s significant monumental buildings and is Madagascar’s pre-eminent monumental site. Although the Rova is most visitors’ priority, it’s best to visit the Musée Andafiavaratra first, before walking on to the royal palace area, which will then be easier to comprehend. The area is about a 2km walk from Analakely or Isoraka, and you should allow at least half an hour to take account of the steep climb.
Musée Andafiavaratra
Rue Ramboatiana • Daily 9am–5pm (Fri till 1pm) • 10,000ar, with optional guide (tip) • No photography
The Palais Andafiavaratra – the palace of Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony, who effectively ruled the Merina empire from 1864 to 1896 while kings and queens came and went – is a pompous colossus of a building, with a turret at each corner, built by the missionary architect William Pool in 1872. The upper storeys are closed to the public, but the ground floor now serves as the Musée Andafiavaratra, also known as the Prime Minister’s Palace Museum, which mostly displays items rescued from the 1995 fire that destroyed most of the Rova’s buildings. The collection will eventually transfer to the Musée Rova Manjakamiadana when the royal palace restoration is complete, which could take years.
The Merina monarchy room
Devoted entirely to the Merina monarchy, the first room chronicles the dynasty in portraits, photos, gifts and regal ephemera – plus an assortment of royal treaties. Take a moment to pause in front of the fascinating painting of Malagasy ambassadors visiting Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1837. Portrait copies of all the old Merina kings and queens line the walls, including the traditionally robed, spear-wielding founder of Tana, Andrianampoinimerina (r. 1787–1810), his son King Radama I (r. 1810–28), and his first wife, the “Cruel Queen” Ranavalona I (r. 1828–61), who became notorious for ejecting the missionaries and condemning Christians to be hurled from the nearby cliffs. She was succeeded by her son, the Napoleonically attired Radama II, whose short and injudiciously non-traditional reign (r.1861–63) ended in his assassination at the hands of associates of the future prime minister, Rainilaiarivony, who had been Ranavalona’s private secretary. Radama II was succeeded by his wife, Queen Rasoherina (r. 1863–68), who married Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony and was the first constitutional, rather than absolute, monarch in Madagascar. Her mementoes include a clock showing the hour and date of her death. Queen Ranavalona II (r. 1868–83) also took Rainilaiarivony as consort and invited the Protestants back to Madagascar to help with industrialization. In the latter part of the century there were regular royal visits to Europe (see the press photo of Malagasy ambassadors apparently on a trade mission to Berlin with Queen Victoria in 1883).
Main hall and side rooms
The palace’s main hall and side rooms include a collection consisting largely of photos, documents and paintings (or copies of paintings). One of the most impressive exhibits is the striking fossil skeleton of a Majungasaurus, a fearsome dinosaur from the Berivotra fossil fields near Majunga. Also worthy of scrutiny are the fascinating nineteenth-century photos of Tana scenes, captured by William Ellis (note the photo of the 15,000-strong crowd assembled by the royal palace on the accession of Queen Rasoherina in 1863) and a series of ethnic paintings of tribal representatives. Look out, too, for the very fine portrait copy, with wonderful eyes, of the evidently charismatic Queen Ranavalona III, the last queen of Madagascar, again with Rainilaiarivony as her consort. Kept in a dark room to one side, the bizarre, glass-encased model monkey orchestra seems somehow entirely in keeping with the rest of the eclectic show.
Ancien Palais de Justice and the terracotta frieze
Rue Ramboatiana
Complete with Ionic columns, the Ancien Palais de Justice (Old Palace of Justice), or Fitsarana, was built by Ranavalona II in 1881. It escaped the Rova fire and its smart appearance is down to a recent scrub. Look down over the city to the west: the simple, wooden house among the pastel-painted brick buildings on the hillside is also original, dating remarkably from 1817.
A little further up the street, the 20m-long terracotta frieze portrays the history of Madagascar. Created in 1940 by the headmaster of the École Bonza, Charles-Hubert Rabemanantsoa, it’s rich with fascinating scenes, including the notorious traditional trial of “poison judgement” in which the accused were made to drink a poisonous brew and judged not guilty only if they vomited it.
The Rova
Rue Ramboatiana • Daily 9am–5pm • 10,000ar; official guide 5000–10,000ar • Taxi brousse 103, 134, 190 from Analakely, walk (allow 30min from av de l’Indépendance) or charter a cab for 2hr
If you get a good guide and understand French (some guides also speak English), the tour of the Rova – meaning “hill fort” – can be fascinating. Even without the history it’s a worthwhile visit: in every direction, this 10,000 square-metre compound offers stupendous panoramic views – to the north and west over the heart of the city and south and eastwards over the pastel-coloured suburbs, rice paddies and mountain ridges beyond.
You enter the Rova (“No fire, No smoking, No dogs, No pigs”) through its northern gateway, a stone arch topped by a French bronze eagle and a stone phallus.
Palais de la Reine
Soaring above its hilltop foundations, the Palais de la Reine (Queen’s Palace) you see across the square today is a reconstruction – the original was destroyed by fire in 1995, and its restoration, built over the ruins, was still unfinished at the time of writing. The original palace, made of wood and known as Manjakamiadana (literally “A good site for reigning”) was built for Queen Ranavalona I in 1841 on the site of former royal palaces. Its designer, the French Catholic engineer Jean-Baptiste Laborde, used his technical skills to overcome the queen’s suspicion of Europeans. In 1867, the Scottish missionary James Cameron clad the palace in stone for Queen Rasoherina, and it was this structure, still wood-framed, that was razed to the ground in the 1995 fire, along with most of the other buildings in the densely built Rova compound. At the time of writing, you couldn’t enter the palace, but once the restoration is completed, it will house the museum collections currently displayed in the Musée Andafiavaratra.
Royal tomb houses and Tranovola
On the northeast side of the Rova are the royal tomb houses of Queen Rasoherina and King Radama I. The remains of other kings and queens of the Merina dynasty were also interred in these tombs; severely damaged in the fire, they have since been restored.
To the south is the site of the Tranovola house. This handsome building, lost in the fire, was a graceful avant-garde blend of Creole and Merina designs, constructed under Radama I and one of the first of a new multistorey, pillar-and-veranda architectural style that spread through the highlands after the 1830s and is still in vogue today.
The Mahitsy
Behind the Tranovola site stands a reconstruction of the home of Andrianampoinimerina (or at least of his first wife) – the wooden Mahitsielafanjaka or Mahitsy, with its stone statue of a Sakalava royal eunuch standing guard at the rear. Walk inside, and you’ll see how beneath its steeply pitched roof a spy ladder enabled a servant to hide in the eaves and check who was visiting. Built in accordance with traditional building rules, the northwest corner is the kitchen area, with its hearth stones (and hence associated with fire), while the other corners are linked to water in the southeast, wind in the southwest, and spirituality and the ancestors in the northeast, where the queen’s high bed platform is located.
Walking south, you cross the rubble-strewn site of the Manampisoa or Lapasoa (meaning “Beautiful Palace”), built in the form of a cross for Queen Rasoherina, and judging by the guides’ old photos, a very pretty residence.
The Fiangonana
At the south end of the Rova stands the Fiangonana or royal chapel, Madagascar’s first Protestant church, built in Italian style in 1869, by William Pool of the London Missionary Society (not the bushy-faced librarian, W.F. Poole, in some of the guides’ photo packs). The restored interior has been beautifully done out in rosewood, and most of the fine stained-glass windows were replaced in 2006: the originals are inscribed “LMS + R”, with the R denoting Ranavalona II, Reigne or Royal.
If you look down from the south wall of the Rova compound, you’ll see a corrugated-iron-roofed building below, which was the first colonial post office, while the stone-roofed building to the southeast was the first medical school in Tana.
Masoandro
In the southeast corner of the Rova are the foundations of the old Masoandro or Sun Palace, commissioned by Ranavalona III but never finished. The small, delicately naturalistic 1895 statue of her, sitting on the ground with characteristic Hauts Plateaux hairstyle, was carved in the year she was exiled from here to Algiers, only to be returned to the royal tombs after her death.
< Back to Antananarivo and around
Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie
rue Doctor Villette • Tues–Sat
8–11.30am & 4–5pm; guided tour (tip expected) •
020 22 210 47
Managed by Antananarivo University’s Institut de Civilisations, the Museum of Art and Archaeology houses a diverse collection of artworks, crafts, musical instruments and ethnographic materials relating to Madagascar’s peoples and their traditional customs and lifestyles.
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Pirate Museum
103 rue de Liège • Mon–Fri
8am–5pm • 10,000ar • 020 22 625 27, 
pirates-madagascar.ch
An unlikely museum in an unlikely location, the Pirate Museum is a labour of love by a Swiss tour operator. The mounted display boards in French are nicely done, and there’s a limited range of piratical artefacts.
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Parc Botanique et Zoologique Tsimbazaza
Rue Fernand Kasanga, Tsimbazaza • Daily
9am–5pm • 10,000ar • 020 223 11 49
The Parc Botanique et Zoologique Tsimbazaza is a traditional zoo dating from 1925, on the south side of the city. If you’re not keen on zoos, you certainly won’t like this one: rather cramped cages house a variety of lemurs, though there’s a reasonably good reptile and amphibian house, as well as a small museum with some fossil reconstructions. There are also a number of species that may be hard to catch sight of in the wild, including aye-ayes in a nocturnal house. The park itself, which surrounds a lake and is full of trees, is quite pleasant and safe for a stroll.
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Parc de Tsarasaotra
Alarobia, 5km north of the city centre • 15,000ar by
arrangement with Boogie
Pilgrim • 020 22 248 37, bit.ly/Tsarasotra
The privately owned Parc de Tsarasaotra is a hot tip for birdwatchers. The only private Ramsar wetland site in the world, it harbours a number of unusual species, including the white-throated rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri). the Hottentot teal (Anas hottentota) and the rare Meller’s duck (Anas melleri).
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Lemurs’ Park
RN1 Route d’Ampefy, 18km west of the RN4 •
Daily 9am–5pm • 20,000ar • 033 14 791 13,
lemurspark.com • A
transport service runs from town (call and they will collect you; from
30,000ar/person depending on group size)
If you can’t make a trip to one of the truly wild national parks, then the Lemurs’ Park, a private reserve for semi-wild prosimians – many of them released from captivity – is the next best thing. These bamboo groves along the banks of the Katsaoka River maintain several species, including a group of fruit-eating variegated black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata variegata), and the park has a proven record in breeding the rare and beautiful Coquerel’s sifaka (Propithecus coquereli).
< Back to Antananarivo and around
Ambohimanga Rova
Just off the RN3, 23km north of the city centre •
Daily 9am–5pm • 10,000ar; guided tour 10,000–20,000ar
tip • www.ambohimanga-rova.com • Take a taxi brousse from
Ambodivona (1200ar) or private cab for a half-day (around 70,000ar); allow
1–2hr each way for the journey depending on traffic and 2hr at the
site
Tana is surrounded by the “twelve sacred hills of Imerina”, the hilltop villages of the old Merina clans before they became a single kingdom. Some of these sites have been obscured by modern developments, but one, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ambohimanga Rova, is a significant and fascinating historical site and well worth a half-day trip (or longer). Although less well-known than the Rova in Antananarivo, it is in many ways more impressive, as it preserves intact some of the original eighteenth-century structures and brickwork of King Andrianampoinimerina, and there are tremendous views of the surrounding countryside and the northern suburbs of Tana.
Ambohimanga, now heavily forested, was originally one of four embattled Merina regional capitals, embroiled in a war of succession that lasted most of the eighteenth century. Only with Andrianampoinimerina’s military success in capturing the Rova in Tana from this stronghold was the empire united and most of Madagascar subdued under Merina rule. To this day, Ambohimanga is the Merina’s spiritual capital, but the physical integrity of the site, subject to rain erosion and cyclone damage (Cyclone Giovanna caused great destruction here in 2012, uprooting trees and lifting roofs) is under constant threat.
The hilltop site itself is an oval rova (hill fort), about 1km in length and 500m across, with the old earthworks and wall foundations of three distinct historical eras still discernible among the trees. Three of the original fourteen gateways are intact, and preserved alongside them the gigantic stone discs that at one time were rolled into place to seal the compound. The biggest of these, at the main Ambatomitsangana gate in the southwest, weighs about twelve tonnes.
Inside the rova, the oldest of the three compounds is Bevato, dating from the early eighteenth century. Higher up, the compound of Mahandrihono contains a number of restored houses, tombs and brightly painted royal pavilions. Above the other two compounds, Nanjakana, now largely overgrown, was the last to be constructed at the end of the eighteenth century.
< Back to Antananarivo and around
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ANTANANARIVO AND AROUND
BY AIR
Ivato International Airport Tana’s airport for all international and domestic flights
is Ivato ( antananarivoairport.com), in the suburb of the same name,
15km northwest of the city centre. The airport is straightforward,
with international arrivals and departures on the left and domestic
on the right, connected by a short corridor.
ARRIVAL
Facilities Most international car rental agencies are represented in the car park (700ar) behind arrivals and departures. Facilities are limited: the international terminal arrivals and departures hall has a single bookshop/news stand, a couple of gift shops (pretty chocolate bars, spices, rum), plus a 24hr Air Mad office, mobile phone booths for Orange, Airtel and Telma, ATMs (BOA and BNI) and two foreign exchange bureaux (Socimad Forex at the end of the hall offers 5–10 percent better rates than the more visible Best Change next to the bookshop). Unofficial porters and loafing beggars can be a nuisance: they’re rarely challenged by the police and if they happen to perform any service at all for you – like pushing your trolley for 5 seconds before you retrieve it – they will pester you for small change.
Transport into the city There’s an airport authority shuttle service to central
Tana that stops at several hotels and terminates at the central
station, Gare Soarano (14,000ar/person; 034 05 565
47, adema.mg), regularly announced on the PA. You can also
take a public taxi-be bus from right
outside the car park (500ar, extra for luggage), again
terminating (eventually) at Gare Soarano. Private taxi drivers
charge around 30,000ar depending on your destination and the
time of day. Beware of touts who try to broker a deal for you:
always deal direct with the driver. Allow up to an hour or more
to reach central Tana, depending on traffic.
DEPARTURES
Air Madagascar Ivato’s airport desks are open 24hr. The main town
office at 31 av de l’Indépendance (Mon–Fri
7.30am–5pm, Sat 8–11am; 020 22 222
22). There’s also an office at the Tana City
mall at Alarobia (Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun
9am–1pm; 034 02 222 10), which is much
more efficient if you visit in person.
International departures Airside, there’s a clutch of expensive duty-free shops and one reasonable snack bar. They only accept hard currency. Toilets are in the basement and there are two showers here (ask the toilet attendant for the key).
Domestic departures Like international, domestic departures require a 2hr check-in, even when reconfirmed. The check-in desks for hold luggage are on the right. Once you’re in departures, you’ll find the domestic terminal has clean loos, right next to a small snack bar with free filtered water dispensed from the counter.
Destinations Antalaha (Antsirabato; 1 weekly, 2hr); Diego Suarez (Arrachart; at least daily, 1hr 30min); Fort Dauphin (Tôlanaro; at least 4 weekly, 1hr 15min); Île Sainte Marie (Sainte Marie; at least daily, 1hr); Majunga (Amborovy; at least 5 weekly, 1hr 15min); Maroantsetra (weekly, 1hr 40min); Morondava (at least 5 weekly; 1hr 30min); Nosy Be (Fascène; at least 2 weekly, 1hr 15min); Sambava (at least 2 weekly; 1hr 15min); Tamatave (Toamasina; at least daily, 1hr); Tuléar (Toliara; 2 weekly, 1hr 40min).
BY TAXI BROUSSE
There are three obvious road routes out of Antananarivo: the RN2 that runs east to Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia and then zigzags down the steep scarp to the Indian Ocean; the RN4 that swoops off the highlands down to the hot northwest and far north; and the country’s most important artery, the RN7, which toils southwards through the Hauts Plateaux and eventually reaches the far south.
There are three main national taxi brousse stations (gares routières), each in different parts of the city. All are most easily reached by hailing a cab or asking your hotel to call one.
Gare routière d’Ambodivona About 2km northeast of the city centre: for the RN2 and RN4, with frequent departures to Tamatave (8–12hr; 20,000–25,000ar) and Majunga (12hr; 30,000ar).
Gare routière d’Ampasampito 2km east of the city centre, along the RN2: frequent departures to Moramanga (3hr; 8000ar).
Gare routière de Fasan’ny Karana Southwest of the city centre: for the RN7 and destinations in southern and western Madagascar, with frequent departures to Antsirabe (4hr; 10,000ar), Fianarantsoa (8–12hr; 30,000ar), Morondava (12–20hr; 30,000ar) and Tuléar (18–24hr; 50,000ar), and several daily departures for Fort Dauphin (2.5–4 days; 80,000ar).
BY LUXURY MINIBUS
To Majunga and Morondava Thirteen-seater minibuses operated by Loïc Tour Service
( 034 20 009 89, bit.ly/LoïcTourService) depart from the Hotel de Tana–Solimotel, rue Pasteur
Rahajason, Anosy, for Morondava on Tues & Fri at 6.30am
(12hr; 70,000ar); breakfast is included before departure.
TPC-Transport Première Classe ( 033 15 488 48,
malagasycar.com)
runs regular services to Majunga and Morondava, departing from
Hôtel Le Grand Mellis, 3 rue
Indira Gandhi, Analakely.
To Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia and
Tamatave The comfortable TLM shuttle ( 34 02 340 02, travelinemadagascar.com) runs daily services to Parc
National d’Andasibe-Mantadia and Tamatave from its
headquarters at the Palm Hotel, rue
Ratianarivo, Isoraka (76,000ar to Tamatave).
BY TRAIN
There are no longer any regular train services from Antananarivo,
though a service using the famously eccentric old Michelines (pneumatic-tired diesel coaches on rails) is
still in theory on offer for charter as far as Parc National
d’Andasibe-Mantadia from the Gare Soarano ( 020 22 345
99, madarail.mg).
GETTING AROUND
Getting around Tana may be a slow business but at least you don’t have a multiplicity of options to choose from: there are no pousse-pousses or Bajaj here, so if you don’t have your own vehicle, you either use the taxis be, take a private taxi or walk.
By taxi-be If you’re in town for some length of time, you’ll probably want to start learning some taxi-be routes. Route maps are available, in theory, but hard to obtain: there are large-scale editions on the wall of the main tourist office which you can usefully photograph.
By taxi Cab drivers charge whatever they think they can get away with, so always agree the fare very clearly in advance, perhaps writing it down just to be sure: sensible fares start at 4000–5000ar for the very shortest hop and range up to 20,000ar for a cross-town journey. Rates are higher after dark. The daily rate, with you paying fuel, is around 100,000ar depending on the hours required.
INFORMATION
Tourist office ORTANA, Jardin d’Antaninarenina (daily 9am–5pm;
034 20 270 51, tourisme-antananarivo.com), offers guided walking tours of
the city on the second and fourth Sat of every month (prices vary), or
you can book a tour at any time (1–3hr; 5000–20,000ar per
person depending on the tour length and the size of your group).
There’s also a Syndicat d’Initiative nearby (behind the
Buffet du Jardin) with plenty of
information leaflets.
TOUR OPERATORS AND TRAVEL AGENTS
Asisten Travel 2nd Floor, Tour Forello, Tanjombato 020
22 577 55, asisten-travel.com. Highly recommended,
Malagasy-owned operator offering tailor-made trips throughout Madagascar
and specializing in the English-language market.
Boogie Pilgrim Tana Waterfront, Ambodivona 020 22 248
37, boogiepilgrim-madagascar.com. Dependable,
German-owned tour operator and lodge owner.
Cactus Tours Rue Raseta, Ivato 034 15 057 57,
cactus-madagascar.com. Well-established,
fair-dealing tour operator specializing in the English-language
market.
Mad Cameleon Lot II, K6 Ankadivato, rue Rasamoelina
020 22 630 86, madcameleon.com. River-trip specialist, operating
mostly on the Manambolo and also offering trips to the Tsingy de Bemaraha.
Papavelo Mada Trekking Lot 102 B Antanetibé, Antehiroka
020 22 00 765, papavelotrekking.com. French-run specialist in
walking, mountain biking and unusual transport tours around the island,
inside and outside the national parks.
Zà Tours Rue Ratstimbazafy, north of Lac Masay 020
22 424 22, zatours-madagascar.com. Highly regarded tour
operator with long experience.
ACCOMMODATION
If you’re making a quick stopover in Tana and have an early flight, it makes sense to stay in Ivato, close to the airport. If you plan to spend a day or two in the city and want to do some sightseeing, then basing yourself in or near Isoraka is a good plan. You can walk to the palace and other historical buildings from here in 45min.
NEAR THE AIRPORT
Au Bois Vert Ankadindravola, on the east side of Lac
Ambohibo, 3.5km from the airport 032 05 593 70,
auboisvert.com; map. Comfortable,
welcoming, professional and close to the airport (free transfers
included), though quite price for Tana. David Attenborough stayed
here while filming for the BBC and word of mouth has carried it ever
since – justifiably, as the beautifully decorated,
rustic-chic rooms with chunky furniture and granite features are
delightful. Pool and wi-fi. €70
Le Mahavelo Fitroafana Lot III, Ivato, on the west side
of Lac Ambohibo, 3.5km from the airport 32 07 720
68, hotel-antananarivo.com; map. Highly
recommended small family-run hotel in a very pleasant garden setting
with good food (breakfast €3, main meals €10) and
simple but nicely decorated en-suite rooms. €35
Manoir Rouge-Chez Patrick Lot 023 K IV Ivato, 1.5km from the airport
032 05 260 97, manoirrouge.com;
map. A convivial travellers’ rendezvous,
this long-established, French-owned backpackers-cum-pension has a hotchpotch of rooms in three buildings,
with hot water usually available. Rooms in the main old house have
wooden floors and simple furnishings (€20) – though
check before taking a room as bed comfort and linen freshness
aren’t consistent. Dorm beds and camping are good value, and
as well as en-suite rooms there are some with shared facilities.
Downstairs, there’s a spacious TV lounge/dining room
(good-value meals and self-service breakfast) and a pleasant garden
with scattered tables. Baggage store, house safe, mountain bike and
motorbike rental. Free airport pick-ups. Camping €5, dorm €8, room €14
Raphia Ivato West side of Lac Ambohibo, 3.5km from the
airport 034 59 45 484, hotelsraphia.com;
map. Well-managed small hotel, with clean and
brightly decorated en-suite rooms. Part of a Malagasy group, it has
reliable services and is close to a small leisure centre (pool and
tennis). A/c, wi-fi. 60,000ar
Relais des Plateaux Lot 66 bis Antanetibe, Airport road, Ivato
(750m from the RN4, 4.5km from the airport) 032 05 678
93, relais-des-plateaux.com; map. A
mainstay for business visitors and a popular choice for higher-end
tour groups, the Relais is a stylish
option close to the airport (free transfers included).
English-speaking staff, diligent management and a recommended
restaurant make this very well set up for swift connections.
Spacious and comfortable rooms have a/c, wi-fi, safe, minibar and
good water pressure. Heated pool. Wi-fi. B&B €141
ANTANANARIVO
Antshow Rue Ramilijaona, Ambatolava (250m south of
Fenomana Catholic Church) 20 22 565 47, facebook.com/antshow.mada; map. Unlike
any other place to stay in Tana, Antshow
is the home, recording studios and guesthouse of international
singer Hanitra Rasoanaivo. A modern take on traditional Malagasy
architecture, the house has four large and comfy en-suite rooms.
Meals are available. €40
Belvédère Av Victoire Rasoamanarivo, Isoraka
034 79 866 38, hotel-antananarivo-belvedere.com; map. Newer-style Italian-owned hotel with a
fine terrace overlooking the busy central districts west of Lac
Anosy and stylish and well-finished en-suite rooms. Great value.
€32
Lokanga Boutique Hotel 115 rue Ramboatiana 020 22 235
49, lokanga-hotel.mg; map. For
easy visits to the Rova just 400m away, this six-room conversion
(2011) is ideal so long as you accept the limitations that come with
an old building – steep steps and some wonky fixtures and
fittings. There are panoramic views northwest across the city and
each of the antique-furnished, en-suite rooms has a different theme.
Good French-Malagasy restaurant (breakfast €10, meals
€18). €140
Madagascar Underground 18 rue Rainitovo, Antsahavola 034 29
909 07, madagascarunderground.com; map. A recently opened backpackers run by a
French-Australian couple, MU has already
become legendary among budget Mada travellers for its warm welcome,
top-notch hospitality, clued-up travel advice and Mexican food (all
dishes 12,000ar) – not to mention music, movies and
margaritas. Wi-fi. Breakfast included. Dorm 30,000ar
Le Pavillon de l’Emyrne 12 rue Stanislas Rakotonirina, Isoraka
020 22 259 45, pavillondelemyrne.com; map.
Well located (with dining options all around) and with a nice little
garden, this French-owned pension is one
of the most consistently good small hotels in central Tana. No a/c
or nets. Daily free massages are on offer and staff will walk you to
your destination in the neighbourhood. Breakfast (included) only.
Wi-fi. €75
Résidence Lapasoa 15 rue de la Réunion, Isoraka
032 07 611 40, lapasoa.com; map. Stylish old house conversion with
spacious but quite simple – even slightly monasterial
– rooms, with no nets or a/c. The showers could do with a
makeover and the towels with replacing. More positively, it’s
super-friendly, in a fine central location and has the very good
KUDéTA restaurant (breakfast
€5) on the ground floor. Wi-fi. €45
Sakamanga 7 bis rue Ratianarivo, Ampasamadinika
020 22 358 09, sakamanga.com; map. With its abundance of ethnic ephemera
in the lobby and passages, delightful courtyard-pool-terrace and
warren of rooms (ranging from cosy, comfortable en-suites to
palatial quarters that are still affordable at €78), the
Sakamanga is central Tana’s
best address. The excellent resto
(breakfast, 19,000ar) gives KUDéTA
a run for its money. Wi-fi. €19
EATING
For self-caterers there are branches of the Jumbo Score supermarket at Ankorondrano, Digue, Tanjombato and Antsahabe (all branches Mon–Sat 8.30am–7.30pm, Sun 8.30am–1pm).
Le Buffet du Jardin Jardin d’Antaninarenina 020 22 338
87; map. Surprisingly good
bistro-snack bar, with a sports screen and plenty of outdoor seating to
take advantage of the pleasant location. Pizza, pasta dishes and grills,
mostly around 12,000ar. Mon–Thurs
& Sun 7am–midnight, Fri & Sat open
24hr.
Café de la Gare Gare Soarano, Analakely 032 07 090
50, cafetana.com; map. Attractive
bar-brasserie next to the old station building, with a terrace by the
tracks, garden area and loos in a converted wagon. While it’s
very much an “escape from Tana” expat hangout, the food
(grills, salads, pasta) is generally reliable and some items –
burgers, home-made ice cream – make it a real draw. Three courses
around 50,000ar, happy hour 6.30–8pm. Daily 8.30am–11pm.
Grill du Rova Rue Ramboatiana 020 22 627 24;
map. Considering its premium location, just
below the royal palace compound, this spot is great value, whether you
eat (main dishes around 12,000–15,000ar) or just stop for a
sundowner and take in the stupendous sunset views. Live music Wed eve
and Sun lunch. Daily 11am–10pm (closed
Sun eve).
KUDéTA 15 rue de la Réunion, Isoraka 032
07 611 40, facebook.com/kudetamadagascar; map. Beneath (and co-owned by) Résidence Lapasoa, this is one of Tana’s
best restaurants and café-bars, with wonderfully creative dishes
rooted in French and Malagasy cuisine: for example a starter of blinis
volailles offset by a deliciously tart
salad of peas (14,000ar), followed by zebu
bourguignon with olives and tagliatelle (18,000ar) and
finished with a platter of assorted indulgent chocolate desserts
(14,000ar). Good wine list (though none from Madagascar – with
reason, says the owner). Occasional live music. Wi-fi. Book ahead.
Daily 7am–10pm.
Le Saka 7 bis rue Ratianarivo, Ampasamadinika 020
22 358 09, sakamanga.com; map. Consistently
one of the nicest places to dine in Tana, the main upstairs restaurant
at the Sakamanga hotel ticks most boxes, with
plenty of atmosphere and delicious, confidently prepared French and
Malagasy dishes (salade niçoise 7500ar;
grilled grouper 20,000ar; zebu tartare 12,000ar; romazava 11,000ar). It’s always busy (reserve a
table) and service can be a bit sluggish. Wi-fi. Daily noon–9pm.
La Varangue 17 rue Prince Ratsimamanga 020 22 273
97, hotel-restaurant-lavarangue-tananarive.com; map. With a three-course lunch menu at 70,000ar
and dinner hitting 90,000ar, this very French, fancy and traditional
(without being unduly pretentious) place is Tana’s priciest
address, though it’s usually very good indeed and not expensive
in international terms. Mon–Sat
noon–2pm & 7–9pm.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Le Cabaret du Glacier 46 av de l’Indépendance, Analakely
020 22 202 60, hotel-glacier.com;
map. Renowned more as a night-time haunt
than for its rooms, the colonial-era Hôtel
Glacier has a café-pâtisserie and ice-cream parlour
downstairs that becomes a frequent live music venue after 8pm, with
excellent salegy bands. The atmosphere can be
raunchy, but don’t let the swarms of prostitutes put you off
enjoying the music. There’s a restaurant doing decent food
(dishes around 12,000ar) next to the casino upstairs. Daily 7am–4am.
Caveau Night-Club Rue Rabehevitra, Antaninarenina 020 22
343 93; map. This place, down a
flight of stairs off the street, is the oldest club in Tana, having
first opened in 1949. Locals and adventurous tourists mingle happily
(and sweatily) in a series of throbbing and smoky dance suites.
Occasional entry fee. Daily
9pm–3am.
Chefs Avenue Lounge Gare Soarano 034 20 660 39, cafedelagare.mg; map. Cocktails, tapas and a DJ spinning world
music, lounge, bossa nova and deep house in a chilled, rather sanitized
atmosphere above the Café de la Gare
restaurant. Live music on the first Sat of every month and movies on
Sun. Entry fee varies. Wed & Thurs
7pm–midnight, Fri & Sat 7pm–2am.
Jao’s Pub Antsahamamy, southeast of the city centre
034 41 213 33, facebook.com/jaospub; map. Owned by salegy superstar Jaojoby, who lives here, this
pub-club-cabaret can be very lively when it gets going. Entry fee.
Hours variable.
KUDéTA Urban Club Carlton Hotel, rue Stibbe 020 22 281
54, kudeta.mg;
map. A strange location (the characterless
former Hilton) for one of the city’s
slickest and least hustly clubs (the door policy here is well enforced)
owned by the KUDéTA restaurant people,
frequented by a cool vazaha and gasy crowd. Happy hour 6–8pm. Entry fee
varies. Mon–Sat 6pm–2am.
Le Six 13 rue Ratsmilaho, Antaninarenina 034 42
666 66, le-six.e-monsite.com; map.
Relatively sophisticated European-style club with a lounge, dancing,
pizza and an open terrace at the rear. Ladies and students get free
entry before 11pm. 5000ar. Fri, Sat and public
hols 9pm–late.
La Suite 101 26 rue Ratsimilaho 032 11 080 80,
lasuite101.com;
map. Stylish nightclub with regular events
and live music and a stricter door policy than most. It doesn’t
seem to make much difference, though: single men still get hit on,
couples and mixed groups are left alone. Entry fee varies. Daily 9pm–3am.
SHOPPING
BOOKS AND MAPS
Espace Loisirs 11 rue Ratsimilaho, Antaninarenina
020 22 214 75; map.
A reasonable selection of Mada-related reading material, maps and
guides, mostly in French. Mon–Fri
8.30am–noon & 2–6pm, Sat
2.30–5pm.
CAMPING AND OUTDOORS
CS Events Route du Mausolée, Andrianarivo
032 02 143 79, csevents-madagascar.com; map. The only
proper outdoors shop in the country, with a good range of kit.
Mon–Fri 8am–12.30pm
& 1.30–6pm, Sat 8am–1pm.
GALLERIES
Hay Kanto Multiplex Androhibe 034 47 879
97, haykanto.org; map. A showcase for
Malagasy artists which puts its profits into helping children create
their own art. Call for opening
times.
Is’Art Galerie rue Vittori Françoise, Ampasanimalo
033 25 148 71, isart-galerie.mg;
map. Presents diverse works by Malagasy
and visiting artists. Mon–Fri
9am–6pm, Sat 9am–noon.
MARKETS
The best traditional markets in the city centre are the Marché Pochard by place Ambiky, across from the old railway station; the Marché Zoma at the south end of av de l’Indépendance; and Marché Petite Vitesse, southwest of the station in Tsaralalana. You’ll find a variety of food, household goods and crafts in all of them, but Marché Pochard has the edge for souvenirs and handicrafts.
SHOPPING MALLS
Tana City (Immeuble LaCity 3000) Alarobia, 2.5km north of the city centre, near the suburb of Ivandry; map. Madagascar’s first real mall, a big set-up with dozens of shops and restaurants.
Tana Waterfront Ambodivona, 1km north of the city centre; map. On the banks of a small lake reclaimed from rice paddies, Tana Waterfront has a small supermarket and a modest selection of high-end gift, food and cosmetic stores.
DIRECTORY
Banks and exchange Banks are scattered across Tana and most of them have ATMs (or GAB in French) in a booth outside, usually open
24/7. Should you need to do anything apart from withdraw cash note that
the four main groups and their main branches are: Bank of Africa (BOA),
2 place de l’Indépendance ( 020 22 391 00,
boa.mg); Banque Malgache de
l’Océan Indien (BMOI) 25 bis, place de
l’Indépendance ( 020 22 346 09, www.bmoinet.net);
BFV-Société Générale (BFV-SG), 33 av de
l’Indépendance ( 020 22 276 77, bfvsg.mg); BNI Madagascar, 74 rue
du 26 juin 1960 ( 020 22 228 00, bni.mg).
Embassies and consulates Canada Immeuble Fitaratra, Ankorondrano 020 22 397 37,
canadainternational.gc.ca; South Africa, Lot IVO 68 bis rue
Ravoninahitriniarivo, Ankorondrano 020 22 433 50; UK, 9th
Floor, Tour Zital, rue Ravoninahitriniarivo, Ankorondrano 020 22
330 53, bit.ly/UKEmbTana; US, Lot 207 A, Point Liberty Andranoro,
Antehiroka 020 23 480 00, www.antananarivo.usembassy.gov. EU citizens are represented
by the French and German embassies: France, 3 rue Jean-Jaurès,
Ambatomena 020 22 398 50 or 032 07 800 13,
ambafrance-mada.org; Germany, 101 rue Pastora Rabeony Hans,
Ambodirotra 020 22 238 02, antananarivo.diplo.de. Australia is represented by the
Australian High Commission in Port Louis, Mauritius +230 5
202 0160, bit.ly/AusHCMauritius. New Zealand has no diplomatic
relations with Madagascar.
Hospitals and clinics Go first to your embassy if you have one, as they may be able to
recommend medical practitioners. Otherwise, choose Espace
Médical, near Tana Waterfront ( 020 22 625 66 or
034 02 00 911, espacemedical.mg), who
offer high-quality emergency evacuation and medical care, or
Polyclinique d’Ilafy, rue Naka Rabemanantsoa, on the north side
of Lac Behorrika, 150m northeast of the Marché Pochard
( 020 22 425 66 or 20 22 425 69, polycliniqueilafy.com).
Internet Most hotels and many restaurants and bars offer free wi-fi, and hotels
often have “business centres” (a computer in a room) for
the use of guests. There are cyber-cafés scattered across the city (often
incorporating simple printing and business support services), typically
costing 3000–6000ar/hr, but their speeds can be maddeningly slow.
Outcool Web Bar, rue Ratianarivo, just uphill from the Sakamanga hotel in Isoraka (daily 10am–11pm;
033 12 126 24, bit.ly/OutcoolWebBar)
is a convenient and enjoyable internet café, with a bar, food,
music and decent speeds.
Police There are police stations and police posts across the city. You would
probably only want to visit in order to report a robbery for insurance
purposes. The main numbers are 020 22 227 35/36,
020 22 357 09/10 and 020 22 281
70.
Post office Positra Malagasy, place de l’Indépendance, Analakely, next to Hôtel Colbert (Mon–Fri 8am–4pm, Sat 8am–noon).
CENTRAL MADAGASCAR
The highlands of central Madagascar – often called the Hauts Plateaux, although they are mostly anything but flat – stretch from north of Antananarivo far towards the south of the island. The region, which ranges in altitude from 800m to more than 2000m above sea level, includes dramatic granite mountain ranges, lava ridges and outcrops. While there’s very little indigenous natural forest left, the human landscape is captivatingly beautiful, with deep valleys filled for hundreds of years by terraced rice fields and characteristic rows of traditionally built houses, and the interest never wanes as you travel through the region.
Covered in this section are the most compelling parts of the island’s centre: the busy provincial agricultural town of Antsirabe; the historical city of Fianarantsoa; the rainforest gem of the Parc National de Ranomafana; and the ring-tailed lemur reserve at Anja near Ambalavao – all of which can easily be reached along the RN7.
GETTING AROUND: CENTRAL MADAGASCAR
By road Although central Madagascar, between the capital and Fianarantsoa, may seem a relatively compact area, the RN7 can be busy and its countless twists and turns make the going slow. If using taxis brousse, don’t count on getting further than Antsirabe in one day, even with an early start, and Fianarantsoa or Ranomafana in two days.
By train This is the one part of the country where limited rail travel is still possible, with regular services between Fianarantsoa and Manakara.
PEOPLES OF THE HIGHLANDS: VAZIMBA, MERINA AND BETSILEO
The earliest inhabitants of the mountains of central Madagascar, perhaps as long as two thousand years ago, are believed to have been the Vazimba who, it’s speculated, either originated in East Africa (where the Swahili still have stories about a mysterious, nomadic people of that name) or came from the ancestral wellspring of the Malagasy language, which has been confirmed as southeastern Borneo on the other side of the Indian Ocean. Whether the Vazimba were African or Indonesian migrants, they certainly arrived from somewhere else and lived by hunter-gathering, and later by subsistence farming and herding, treading relatively lightly on the Madagascan environment for several hundred years, before the hierarchical and militaristic Merina subjugated and absorbed them. Since there is no archeological evidence for any human habitation in the highlands before about 1200 AD, the pseudohistorical of the Vazimba may have its origin with the people who now call themselves Merina in the telling of their own story. There is also a small contemporary ethnic group of southwest Madagascar who call themselves Vazimba and who may be descended from refugees from the highlands.
The Merina, Madagascar’s largest ethnic group – traditionally rice farmers and traders – arrived in successive waves of migration from the Indonesian archipelago, following ancient trade routes linking the coasts of the Indian Ocean. Their own history describes the conquering and assimilation of the Vazimba, and they traditionally hold this ancestral people in great respect. By the late eighteenth century the Merina were united under a single monarch and they steadily expanded their empire to control and partly enslave most of the peoples of the island through the course of the nineteenth century, only to become themselves subjects of the French after 1895. Stratified, class-conscious and land-owning, nineteenth-century Merina society was a useful tool of French imperialism. However the French tended to sideline the large Merina population with elite or royal ancestry (many communities had their kings, queens, princes and princesses) and tended to favour the so-called hova, or commoners, whose own most powerful families had acted as civil servants in the royal governments and as Merina prime ministers.
Further south, notably focused around Fianarantsoa, are the Betsileo, who also had a very stratified society and their own royalty (confusingly, also known as hova). They were effectively absorbed into the Merina empire in the early nineteenth century (Fianar became the Merina’s second capital in 1830), and with their rice-growing expertise helped drive the highland economy. Today, the Betsileo maintain their distinct identity partly through a long tradition of crafts and musical instruments and music-making.
Ambatolampy to Antsirabe
The first large town south of Tana, AMBATOLAMPY was a traditional Merina iron-smelting and forging town and is still associated with metalwork and crafts – and nowadays souvenirs. For much of the way north and south of the town, clusters of crafts sellers gather every few hundred metres along the roadside, with each metier concentrated along a particular stretch: basketry and raffia-ware, brightly painted metal toys, even statues of the Virgin Mary. The stalls of musical instruments are particularly appealing (more so if you’re about to fly home), with nicely made local violins, banjos and other instruments on offer for around 20,000–40,000ar.
South of Ambatolampy, the twisting RN7 highway follows the meandering Onive (“In the Middle”) River, showing off picturesque rural scenes in every direction: verdant lime-green, jade and emerald-tinted rice paddies at every stage of growth; steep, hard, red hillsides brimming with iron oxide; and rows of neat, multi-hued houses, their upper-floor window frames blackened by wood smoke from years of kitchen fires. On the highway, as well as the usual mix of heavy trucks and crammed taxis brousses, children and whole families push laden trolleys (varamba) and ride them helter-skelter downhill. Up to the west, you can see the looming mountains of the Massif de l’Ankaratra, an ancient volcanic range whose peaks occasionally get snow, and which still bubble with a little activity in Antsirabe’s hot springs.
Antsirabe and around
Founded in 1869 by Norwegian missionaries attracted by the curative powers of its thermal springs, ANTSIRABE (whose name means “Where there is much salt”, in reference to its mineral-rich waters) is Madagascar’s third-largest town, and one of its most prosperous. Relatively clean and quiet (at least in comparison with the urban free-for-all of Tana) this is a town where many Tananariviens aspire to live, and where a few have holiday pads. Located on a broad, open plain of rich cultivation, it stretches some 10km from north to south, between distant, flanking hillsides. The RN7 passes right through the middle of town, where traffic slows to a crawl, checked by more than three-thousand pousse-pousse operators, trotting through the crowds.
In practical terms, Antsirabe, 170km south of Tana and 250km north of Fianarantsoa, makes a natural and pleasant stopover, and it works as an alternative travel hub to Tana, too. The thermal baths are currently closed, but there’s no shortage of good hotels and restaurants and a number of interesting crafts and jewellery shops. It’s also a key junction town for trips into the remoter reaches of western Madagascar.
The huge Marché Sabotsy takes place (despite its name) not just on Saturdays but daily, at a vast, purpose-built site on the western outskirts of town, while for the many crafts and artisanal outlets, it’s best just to wander; for gemstones, have a browse among the vendors’ stalls opposite the Le Trianon hotel.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ANTSIRABE AND AROUND
There are no longer any rail or air services to Antsirabe.
By taxi brousse The main gare routière and taxi brousse area for Tana is the Stationnement Nord, by the old hippodrome in Miramasoandro. For Fianarantsoa and other points south, head to the Stationnement Sud, 1km south of the Grande Avenue, and for Morondava and points west to the Stationnement Ouest, just past the Marché Sabotsy.
Destinations Antananarivo (frequent; 4hr; 10,000ar); Fianarantsoa (frequent; 4–8hr; 20,000ar); Morondava (several morning departures; 8–16hr; 20,000ar).
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist office ORTVA, av Foch (Office Régional du Tourisme de
Vakinankaratra), rte d’Andranobe ( antsirabe-tourisme.com).
Tour operators Madagascar Green Tours, 45 rue Ernest Antsenakely, near the
Pousse-Pousse restaurant ( 032
04 364 27, madagascar-green-tours.com), is a highly rated local tour
operator, offering highlands and western Madagascar tours. Rando
Raid, between Hôtel des Thermes and
the cathedral ( 032 04 900 21, randoraidmadagascar.com), offers exciting trips by
mountain bike, on horseback and by boat.
GETTING AROUND
By pousse-pousse Expect to pay 2000ar and up for a regular pousse-pousse or cyclo-pousse ride, and 3000ar for a Bajaj. Be sure to agree the price before setting off.
By taxi Town taxi journeys start at 3000ar.
ACCOMMODATION
Les Chambres du Voyageur Off the Rte Circulaire (RN7) 032 40
866 22, chambres-voyageur.mg. Neat, stylish and
comfortable, with a lake and pretty, bird-filled gardens, this is
one of Antsirabe’s best options, with four doubles, four
twins and two family rooms, all well furnished and equipped. The
dining room serves breakfast (10,000ar) and dinner to order (menu du jour 30,000ar). 100,000ar
Chez Billy Just off rue Daniel Rakotomdrainibe
032 45 740 71, chez-billy.com. In the heart of town, this
longstanding Malagasy-Alsacienne-owned backpackers, with private
rooms and a couple of small dorms, is a solid standby and really
good value if you’re counting the pennies. All the rooms have
power points, and there’s a roof terrace, which while not
having a view, is nice in the evening. They organize travel and put
on occasional live music in the atmospheric bar-resto on the ground floor. Dorm 10,000ar, double 26,000ar
Couleur Café Rte d’Ambositra (RN7), just south of
the railway station 032 02 200 65, couleurcafeantsirabe.com. Opened in 2012,
this is the best place in town, spot-on in every way, with attentive
management and bright, slightly quirkily furnished bungalows dotted
through the lovely gardens. They have a craft and gift shop selling
their own essential oils and a wood-fired bread oven; breakfast
(included) is usually served outside. Free laundry and wi-fi.
125,000ar
Flower Palace Hotel In the Score supermarket building, cnr
Grand Avenue and rue Clemenceau 033 25 013 14,
bit.ly/FlowerPalaceHotel. The odd location
aside, this place is a decent punt – professionally managed,
with clean, stylish rooms with safe and a/c. The restaurant serves
breakfasts (included: brunch on Sun, otherwise a buffet) and
surprisingly good meals. Free massage and wi-fi. 128,000ar
Soa Guest House Mahafaly, Vatofotsy (3km north of the town
centre) 033 15 279 90, soaguesthouse.com. Delightfully informal,
well-managed homestay, owned by an artist and full of paintings and
crafts. Staff provide meals to order (breakfast 9500ar, lunch and
dinner 20,000ar). Reserve ahead. 70,000ar
Hôtel des Thermes bottom of Grande Avenue 034 65 487
61, bit.ly/HoteldesThermes. Overlooking the now
abandoned buildings of the thermal baths, and once quite grand
– Morocco’s King Mohammed V lived here in exile in
1955 – the Hôtel des Thermes
looks like it had a makeover by its government owners in the 1970s
and hasn’t been much troubled since. All the vast,
high-ceilinged rooms are basically triples and come with room safes
and dodgy plumbing. Some have lovely balconies. Pool. Breakfast
included. 112,000ar
Le Trianon Av Foch 034 05 051 40, hotel-letrianon-antsirabe.com. Like an old
French provincial hotel, complete with tricolours and a terrace at
the front, this charming French-owned house has creaking rooms and
fascinating old colonial posters and reproductions on the walls.
Only the slightly worn beds, towels and linens stop it from being
retro-chic. Room safes, wi-fi and a period dining room (breakfast
10,000ar, dinner 25,000ar). 87,500a
Vatolahy Rte d’Andranobe 020 44 937
77, vatolahyhotel.e-monsite.com. Perfectly
decent, modern rooms and really good value – especially if
you want to go clubbing just 100m away at the Tahiti. Breakfast 5000–13,000ar. 80,000ar
EATING
Some of the best places to eat in Antsirabe are the hotels – standouts are Couleur Café and Flower Palace – but there are also some good independent restaurants. Score supermarket (Mon–Sat 8.30am–7.30pm, Sun 8.30am–1pm) is well stocked.
Colvert Hôtel Vatolahy, rte
d’Andranobe 020 44 937 77, vatolahyhotel.e-monsite.com. Recently opened
at the front of the hotel, the Colvert
(“Mallard”) has a bar and pool table and does
breakfasts and ample lunches and dinners. The limited menu has an
emphasis on duck and foie gras (duck
à l’orange 13,000ar, pineapple pork 11,000ar). Daily 7am–late.
L’Insolite Rte d’Ambositra (RN7), just south of
Couleur Café 032 02 158 14, bit.ly/InsoliteAntsirabe. Unusual by name,
and with an interesting cheese-centric menu, this cosmopolitan
bar-resto offers “tapas”
(snacks 5000–8000ar) and mains (mostly around 12,000ar)
including creations like hot goat cheese with honey and smoked zebu
and Réunion-style dumplings. Tues–Sun 10am–late.
Pousse-Pousse Rue Radama 032 60 569
40. Popular little eatery with red pousse-pousse seats for booths. It’s a
bit touristy, but so charmingly done – and consistently good,
clean and well priced – that’s not surprising. Great
burgers, chips, salads and other simple fare (mostly around 10,000ar
a plate). Wi-fi. Daily except Wed
11am–10pm.
Le Venise Rue Clemenceau 033 25 678
86. Nicely set up restaurant with a bar and
pool table, as well as the option of eating on the front terrace
overlooking the street. The house specialities are home-reared duck
and zebu in all its varieties (mains around 15,000ar). Venise can be very good, and service very
quick, but overall it’s somewhat inconsistent. Daily 10am–late.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Etoile des Neiges Off rue Benyowsky 020 44 483
60. Watering hole and club, with rooms – and food, and
karaoke. Entrance fee varies. Daily
5pm–late.
Tahiti Night Club Hôtel Diamant, route
d’Andranobe, near the Vatolahy hotel 020 44 488
40, bit.ly/TahitiAntsirabe. Something of an
Antsirabe institution, and inevitably a pick-up joint, but always
fun. The DJ plays whatever clients want. Regular priced drinks
– plus brochettes, nems, sambos and frites. 3000ar entrance. Daily 9pm–4am.
Parc National de Ranomafana
Daily 7am–5pm • Park Category A, 25,000ar;
guidage rates from 40,000ar for 1–4 people
(depending on trail), including a spotter • Park booklet sometimes
available (5000ar) at entrance • 034 49 401 02, parcs-madagascar.com
The Parc National de Ranomafana (meaning “warm water”, after the area’s hot springs) is, after Andasibe-Mantadia, the easiest major rainforest national park to reach from Tana. Sprawled across the ridges and valleys of the upper Namorona River basin, and centred around the small town of Ranomafana, its thick tangle of trees and plants is bathed by a constant flow of moist air drifting up from the Indian Ocean, helping to make this 435-square-kilometre park one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. More than 1025 species of trees and other plants have been recorded here to date, spread across several distinct domains from lowland rainforest, through mid-altitude to highland rainforest, ranging in altitude from 500m to 1300m.
Ranomafana’s faunal assets are equally impressive: more than 130 species of reptiles and amphibians, 114 species of birds (roughly half the island’s total) and no fewer than twelve species of lemur are found here, and the park is grouped with other eastern rainforest parks to form UNESCO’s Rainforests of the Atsinanana World Heritage Site in Danger.
The best times to visit are April to May and August to December, though if you want to kayak or raft on the river (which can be organized with a highland tour operator), you should visit roughly from December to April. Although on average it rains here two hundred days every year, the heaviest rainfall comes in the hot season (Dec–March); temperatures cool down in the drier austral winter, and many nocturnal species hibernate in June and July. August, when it begins to get warmer again, sees the start of the spring breeding season, which runs until November. Note that on rainy days, which occur even in the so-called dry season, lemurs and many other animals can be quite elusive while they take shelter.
RANOMAFANA VIEWPOINTS
There are various viewpoints around the Varibolo area: a particularly good one is on the road through the park, by the entrance to the hydroelectric plant just 400m west of the Domaine de Nature hotel. There’s also a fine observation platform in the middle of the Varibolo area, known as Bellevue, with seating and some species identification charts.
Trails
There are four main districts at Ranomafana, with trails of varying lengths cut through them: on the north side the districts of Vohiparara and the much larger Soarano; and on the south side the popular Varibolo area and further south the much bigger Varijatsy.
Most visitors head down into the Namorona valley from the park visitor centre along the old Talatakely trail, crossing the new steel and concrete “Pont Aureus” footbridge, and walk some of the Varibolo footpaths. There are many kilometres of trails here, ranging from slightly arduous to quite hard-core – but such is the richness and diversity of the wildlife around you that as long as you’re reasonably fit and have suitable footwear, you’re not likely to notice how strenuous the experience is until the next day. If you are planning several days here, go easy to begin with. As ever, it’s worth making an early start by getting permission from the park warden in town and buying your ticket the day before.
Night walks, since the ban on them by the park authorities, are confined to stumbling along the grassy verge of the RN25 with your guide and a flashlight, mostly in search of chameleons and frogs. Unfortunately, this is a relatively busy road and mouse lemurs and trucks don’t mix well.
Centre ValBio
Namorona valley, 6km west of Ranomafana town •
034 13 581 71, bit.ly/CentreValBio
Stony Brook University New York’s extraordinary Centre ValBio, the park’s showpiece research base which opened in 2011, has a radical but sensitive design, bringing visitors into close proximity with the forest, without having destroyed any of the environment in the course of its building. Founded by the renowned primatologist Patricia Wright, it promotes research into the rainforest ecosystem and works with the community on sustainable development. You can visit and get a tour of the facilities, but you need to call or visit in advance to book.
Centre Thermal
Ranomafana town • Daily 6am–5pm • 1000ar
At the old thermal baths, on the south bank of the Namorona River, there’s a public outdoor swimming pool heated by the hot springs which is popular with locals. You might also investigate the hot baths and treatment centre, though they are often closed.
Flora
As soon as you cross the rushing Namorona River, you are very much in the park. But it’s worth pointing out that some areas were cultivated only as long ago as the 1980s and much of the vegetation is recent secondary growth. One attractive but invasive exotic tree, the strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum) is everywhere and if you’re here during the May/June fruiting season you’re likely to see lemurs right away: the fragrant guava fruit are a popular seasonal staple for lively red-bellied and red-fronted brown lemurs (Eulemur rubriventer and E. rufus) and for the handsome southern black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata editorum) which have been studied extensively and are quite easy to see. These lemurs also eat the fruit of indigenous wild coffee and its many relatives (Coffea, known as kafeala in Malagasy), though not the beans inside.
Giant tree ferns are common at Ranomafana (their trunks traditionally used for building) as are many species of orchids. The other key plant in the park is bamboo, or rather eleven species of bamboo, all endemic to Madagascar, including the giant bamboo (Cathariostachis madagascariensis), one of the biggest species in the world.
Fauna
Lemurs and other mammals
The twelve species of lemurs at Ranomafana have made it a key location for primatologists, who have one of the country’s foremost research stations at the park. Although the local Tanala people have long practised tavy – slash-and-burn agriculture – in the region (and successfully avoided falling under Merina rule, only losing their independence to the French), lemur-hunting wasn’t a major activity in this area, even before the park was created in 1991.
There are three species of bamboo lemur alone. Giant bamboo makes up much of the diet of the distinctive golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus, known as bokombolomena or varibolomena in Malagasy), first described as recently as 1986. Around 65 individuals in around fifteen different groups live in Ranomafana, to which they are almost entirely restricted. They feed from 6am to 9am, which is the most likely time to see them, moving deliberately through the forest, with occasional bursts of leaping between the vertical bamboo stems. Curiously, golden bamboos are highly tolerant of cyanide, a normally highly toxic chemical that builds up in the bamboo. The guides can usually find the golden bamboo lemurs, but you’re much less likely to be gifted with the sight of the exceedingly rare, back-from-the-brink-of-extinction greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus or varibolomavo in Malagasy), which is much larger and has ear tufts.
One unusual diurnal lemur you do have a good chance of seeing is the large and gregarious Milne-Edwards’ sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi), a dark-coated, fluffy-headed denizen of the canopy, often seen clumped together in a jumble of limbs and tails high in the branches. This lemur, of which at least 4000 of Madagascar’s total population of perhaps 9000 live in Ranomafana, has been studied intensively by the ValBio researchers, and several Milne-Edwards’ groups are habituated to unfamiliar visitors.
Mammal life isn’t confined to lemurs: the long-legged and rather beguiling eastern red forest rat (Nesomys rufus) often makes an appearance on the trails, keeping two wary eyes open for a local predator, the handsomely marked fanaloka (Fossa fossana), which despite its scientific name is more like a genet or civet – and very partial to rat.
Birds
Key Madagascan endemics of the forest include a tiny terrestrial rail, the local and elusive slender-billed flufftail (Sarothrura watersi); the brilliantly plumaged pitta-like ground roller (Atelornis pittoides); the exceedingly secretive and rare brown mesite (Mesitornis unicolor); the shrike-like Pollen’s vanga (Xenopirostris polleni); and the short-legged ground roller (Brachypteracias leptosomus), which you may spot – or more likely your guide may spot – perched on a low branch in the understorey, obligingly motionless for low-light photography. Also look out for the velvet asity (Philepitta castanea): the male of the species turns out smartly for the breeding season in shiny navy-blue-green, with fleshy turquoise trimmings, like a little turkey wattle, on his head.
Reptiles and amphibians
Herpetology enthusiasts will be enraptured by Ranomafana. Tree frogs perch, gulping, on branches above streams (the larger, creamy blue-throated specimens are called white-lipped bright-eyed frogs, Boophis albilabris). The undergrowth abounds with leaf-tailed geckos, including the unnerving and ragged-looking satanic leaf-tail (Uroplatus phantasticus), and its cousins the mossy leaf-tail (U. sikorae) and giant leaf-tail (U. fimbriatus). Roadside night walks reveal sleeping adult chameleons on every other branch and vulnerable hatchlings no bigger than a safety pin, clinging to the tips of leaves, eyes shut tight, instinctively poised to detect an approaching snake. Ranomafana’s standout chameleons are the handsome double-nosed O’Shaughnessy’s chameleon (Calumma oshaughnessyi) and the diminutive short-nosed chameleon (Calumma nasutum), with its comical, blue-tinted, Pinocchio-like proboscis.
Invertebrates
As ever, the forest is full of invertebrates, from mundanely unpleasant leeches (prevalent in the rains: keep your trouser legs tucked into your boots) to some of the world’s most inexplicably evolved insects – like the preposterous giraffe-necked weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa), a brilliant red bug as big as your thumb tip that is particularly common here. The males use their outlandishly long, black necks to fight for mating rights, like anglepoise lamps jousting, while the sturdy and more sensibly necked females make leaf nests from which a single grub will emerge.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL DE RANOMAFANA
By private vehicle It’s easiest to get to Ranomafana with your own vehicle: the commonest paths into the forest from near the park office are 6km up the valley from Ranomafana town itself, and the area’s various hotels are spread along this road – the RN25 linking the RN7 highway with Mananjary on the coast.
By taxi brousse If you have time, it’s not too difficult to reach the park by taxi brousse on a Mananjary-bound vehicle from Fianarantsoa (50km; 2hr; 6000ar). Just be sure to get dropped off in the right place, depending on what you want to do first: at the park office for immediate ticket-buying and park entry: at one of the campsites or hotels along the road; or in Ranomafana town lower down the valley.
ACCOMMODATION
There’s a variety of hotels and more basic lodging and camping
options in the Ranomafana area, but nothing truly top-notch and all
tending to be more expensive than you might be used to in other parts of
Madagascar. Closest to the main park entrance are the options at Ambodiamontana, a cluster of half a dozen
huts by the road. Ask about electricity and check that your room has a
fan and mosquito nets. The colonial-era Hôtel
Thermal, near the river in Ranomafana town, is being completely rebuilt by Zomatel ( zomatel-madagascar.com) to take advantage of the hot
springs.
HOTELS
Centrest Séjour Ranomafana town 034 16 524
33,
centrestsejour@gmail.com. A neat
colony of shiny bungalows, with smart bathrooms and polished
tile floors, plus a rather pricey restaurant (breakfast
9000–13,000ar, basic menu du
jour 30,000ar, most Malagasy dishes around
12,000ar). Free wi-fi. Cash only. 132,000ar
Le Grenat Ranomafana town 034 12 780
84, legrenatran@gmail.com, bit.ly/LeGrenat. The appropriately
pink-and-red painted “Garnet” is a professionally
run set-up, a cut above the cheapest places in town, with
pleasantly clean and light en-suite rooms above the riverbank
(beds with nets, little terraces overlooking the river) and
electricity in theory 24/7. Wi-fi. 75,000ar
Karibotel Western outskirts of Ranomafana town
033 15 629 51, bit.ly/Karibotel. Opened in 2014, though
not yet complete, this has great views (and the steep steps
associated with them) and may become one of the best in town.
The multicoloured bungalows feature wooden verandas and smart
furnishings. Check if their pool is open, a/c installed and
fans, nets and 24/7 electricity operational before checking in.
Decent food in the restaurant. Breakfast included. 105,000ar
Hôtel Manja 500m east of Ranomafana town centre
033 09 010 22, hotelmanja.com. Long-established,
good-value, down-to-earth lodge with great views from the upper
rooms if you don’t mind the stiff climb. The dark
restaurant-bar is a popular local meeting place, with one of the
best dining terraces in town overlooking the river, but food can
be hit and miss. 50,000ar
Setam Lodge 5km west of Ranomafana town 034
31 434 75, setam-madagascar.com. Easily the best
hotel in the area, which is perhaps not saying much, this has a
good “in the forest” feel, with trees flanking
both sides of its niche in the valley. While it’s part of
a large tourism business, and the rooms (though decent) are
beginning to feel their age and staff aren’t always on
the ball, the restaurant is a little more sophisticated than
other places and the food (breakfast 10,000–17,000ar,
menu du jour 40,000ar) is
generally good. Electricity 24/7, fans, nets. 140,000ar
CAMPSITES
Rianala Gîte &
Camping Ambodiamontana 033 14 905
69,
rianalagite@gmail.com. Clean dorms
with bunks and fresh bedding, as well as some private rooms with
shared facilities, and a small dining terrace overlooking the
valley. Down near the riverbank there’s a campsite with
showers, toilets and kitchen shelters. Camping 5000ar, dorm 12,000ar, double 40,000ar
Varibolo Restaurant Camping Ambodiamontana 034 06 298
45,
khenrandriamamonjy@gmail.com.
Campsite and shady terrace café-restaurant, with pitches
under thatched shelters and simple facilities. Camping 4000ar
EATING
Ranomafana has no supermarket, and there’s nowhere to buy food essentials apart from basic produce stalls and small general stores. Sunday is market day, from around 8am to 3pm.
Restaurant Diavolana (Chez Tantely et
Claire) Ranomafana 034 85 889 47,
diavolanaran@gmail.com. Charming,
centrally located, owner-run restaurant (diavolana means moonlight) with a tiny street-front
garden and tables laid with tablecloths and place settings. Great
welcome, great value, and just right for a post-hike meal (for
example, tiny steak brochettes 400ar each,
crayfish 6000ar, veggie soups 3500ar). Mon–Sat 7am–8pm (or until the last clients
leave), Sun noon–8pm.
Rianala Gîte & Camping Ambodiamontana 033 14 905
69. Rianala is a roadhouse as well as a hostel
and campsite, with a menu du jour
(19,000ar) and breakfast (4000–14,000ar). Open 24hr.
Varibolo Resto Ambodiamontana 034 06 298
45. Pleasant, small shady restaurant above the
river, with a good choice of dishes at competitive prices (American
breakfast 10,000ar, pancakes 5000ar, grills 10,000ar, menu du jour 15,000ar). Daily 7am–9pm.
Fianarantsoa
Madagascar’s third-biggest town, with a population of at least 160,000, FIANARANTSOA – often shortened to Fianar – was founded in 1830 as the Merina empire’s southern capital, although the location was originally a Betsileo village. In many ways like a smaller version of Antananarivo, Fianar has distinct districts at different altitudes: down at 900m, the lower town or Basse Ville, where you arrive, is full of hustle, diesel fumes and trade; in the architecturally fascinating old town of Haute Ville, 300m higher up, the streets are pedestrian only; in between, the more humdrum mid-town Nouvelle Ville neighbourhood is largely devoted to administration and banks and is crisscrossed by broad streets. This is where the tourist office and main market are located.
In practical terms, Fianar is more of a stopover than a travel hub. If you’re heading south, this is where the dry country begins; if you’re going north, it’s where the central highlands atmosphere is fully established. Hardy souls braving the Fianar–Côte Est railway will note that it’s also on the edge of the rainforest escarpment dropping down to Manakara and the Indian Ocean.
THE FIANAR–CÔTE EST RAILWAY
One of the last two remaining services of the once important Madagascar railways, the Fianar–Côte Est, first opened in 1936, runs a steadily reducing passenger service (now twice weekly) in each direction between Fianarantsoa and Manakara on the coast. In theory trains depart from Fianar at 7am on Tuesday and Saturday and from Manakara at 6.45am on Wednesday and Sunday. In practice, the only sure way of knowing when the train is departing is to be on it when it leaves. You may get information about the current state of readiness at the station at either end, but their guess will more than likely be just as good as yours. Seats in the decrepit first-class compartment (second class is not recommended) cost 25,000ar, with a compulsory 15,000ar reservation fee, and can be bought at the station ticket offices. If the train is delayed and you have to cancel, you can get a full refund: but get a proper written receipt to that effect when paying.
In theory, the train should arrive on the evening of the same day. In practice, it rarely reaches the other end until late at night or early the next morning (the scheduled departures from Manakara are optimistic given the usual arrival time from Fianar). Go prepared with food and drinks, mosquito repellent, and a well-charged flashlight or head torch. You can buy snacks along the way (indeed sampling the various items for sale at every one of the sixteen remote village stops en route is one of the highlights) but many villages are far from the roads and have little infrastructure, so don’t expect to find cold drinks.
The 170km route takes you through dense rainforest past waterfalls, and the photographic opportunities in the villages can be excellent if you’re well positioned. However, frequent breakdowns, unexplained stops, lack of lighting, inadequate toilets, and the fact that more passengers seem to get on than get off at every stop, means that even if you managed to depart in the morning more or less on time, by late afternoon you’re likely to be facing a long and dauntingly uncomfortable night.
Brief history
The name Fianarantsoa means “Where the best is learned” or “Place of good learning” depending on your translator: either way, it has long been associated with education, and particularly with the kind of academic and moral improvement that the Merina elites believed they could impart to their local Betsileo subjects. Missionaries from Britain, France and Norway found receptive audiences here when they arrived in the nineteenth century and the town is still studded with churches: there are six in the old town alone. The French used it as their base of operations for the whole south of the island after 1895.
Haute Ville
Even if you’re only pausing in Fianar for a break and a bite to eat, the alleys and houses of the Haute Ville – also known as the old town, or Tanana Ambony – make for a captivating, and surprisingly panoramic, walk. Vehicles have to be parked in front of the Ambozontany Cathedral at the foot of the main staircase-lane that runs up the old town hill. To avoid hassle, and to be informed along the way, it’s a good idea to take a good guide. It’s only a ten-minute walk up to the crown of the hill, where multiple beautiful old houses are in various states of repair, some actively being restored and lived in, others invaded by weeds (in 2008 a private American non-profit, the World Monuments Fund, included the old town of Fianar as one of the 100 most threatened historical sites in the world). Many of the houses have brick columns supporting their first-floor ornamental balconies (or lavarangana).
A thirty-minute promenade along the cobbled pathway takes you right around the hilltop. Look west and you’ll see Lac Anosy (copied from the lake of the same name in Tana by Queen Ranavalona I, who moved her court to Fianar in 1830), a popular late afternoon strolling area for locals. Past the 1859 Antranobiriky church at the summit you’ll reach a dusty school playground, where a plaque commemorates this as the site of the nineteenth-century Merina rova. A low fence of brightly painted stakes still symbolically protects the site along its western boundary.
Jardin du Point de Vue
If you have longer in town, and your own vehicle, there are several easily accessible viewpoints and heights. Up at the Jardin du Point de Vue (“Viewpoint Garden”), a colossal Madonna and Child gazes over the city. The statue was built in the 1950s after a landslide miraculously came to a halt at this point without crushing any houses or causing any injuries. Guides will point out the nearby start of the old royal road to Antananarivo, now an earth track used by zebu carts.
Looking out over the town, notice the Savika Arena, like an amphitheatre. The Betsileo sport of savika pits unarmed youths against zebu bullocks – the idea being not to kill the zebu but to pull its tail. Hotel receptions can tell you when savika bouts are taking place. Higher up is Kianjasoa, the old Betsileo hill fort, the highest point in town at 1374m.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: FIANARANTSOA
Until recently, Air Madagascar ran daily flights between Antananarivo and Fianarantsoa, though these are currently suspended.
By taxi brousse The main gares routières are in the Basse Ville, in two separate areas – the Gare Routière du Sud at Akazondrano for the south, and the Gare Routière du Nord just across from the railway station for northbound vehicles.
Destinations Antananarivo (frequent; 8–12hr; 30,000ar); Antsirabe (frequent; 4–8hr; 20,000ar); Tuléar (regular; 10–12hr; 20,000ar); Manakara, via Ranomafana (regular; 6–8hr; 12,000ar); Ranomafana (regular; 2hr; 5000ar).
By train The station is in the town centre in Basse Ville in the middle of town.
INFORMATION
Tourist offices The OPTF (Office Provincial du Tourisme de Fianarantsoa) behind
the town hall, rue de Verdun (Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat
8–11am; 020 75 904 67, tourisme-fianara.com) has an interesting set of displays
devoted to Fianar’s history. There’s also an old town
information office and souvenir shop at the top of the old town
hill, next to the Peniela Maison
d’Hôtes (daily 8am–5pm).
Guides Tsara Guest House can provide guides; 20,000ar for 1–2hr is about right.
ACCOMMODATION
If you’re staying in Fianar, it makes sense to lodge somewhere that retains some of the town’s history.
Peniela Maison
d’Hôtes Rue du Rova, next to the Antranobiriky
church 034 45 431 57,
peniela.house@yahoo.fr. A delightful
old rectory, in the best location in town, dating from the
mid-nineteenth century and restored with funds from the German
Embassy. There’s a clutch of atmospheric en-suite rooms, and
reliable power and hot water, but no restaurant. 80,000ar
Tsara Guest House Rue Ichouard Smadja 032 05 516
12, tsaraguest.com. Partly occupying a restored
church, this is the nicest small hotel in Fianar, with eight rooms
in the old house (two en-suite, six with shared facilities) and
eight in the new part (all en-suite) with wooden floors and a pretty
garden and courtyard at the rear. There’s a lovely
restaurant, though it’s pricey in local terms (starters like
Betsileo cheese and spinach, 13,500ar; and mains such as duck breast
in wild pepper sauce, 19,500ar). Splash out on an en-suite room with
a balcony if you can afford it (160,000ar), though rooms with shared
facilities are much cheaper. 48,000ar
EATING
Snack Imanoela Rue du Rova 033 11 891
23. Pretty and popular snack bar in an old
house, with a cool, wood-floored interior and a pretty, sun-drenched
terrace at the rear. Tasty wholemeal sandwiches (6000ar), guacamole
and toast (5000ar), brownie and ice cream (6000ar), coffee and cold
drinks. Mon–Sat
9am–6.30pm.
La Surprise Betsileo Rue Pasteur Ramasitera 034 01 998
04. Happily living up to its name, this
outstanding little restaurant cooks really good food – mostly
French, with great chicken, seafood and good puds at realistic
prices. Expect to pay around 40,000ar for a three-course à la
carte meal, with wine extra. Daily
11am–9pm.
COFFEE, TEA AND WINE
The well-watered central highlands region, with its marked seasons, provides ideal conditions for many crops.
COFFEE
On the region’s eastern slopes, in areas cleared of mid-altitude rainforest, between 20,000 and 30,000 tonnes a year of coffee – mainly robusta and a little arabica – is grown on farms and small plantations. Ambatomenaloha, southwest of Antsirabe and Anjoma Itsara, northwest of Fianarantsoa, are centres of small-scale arabica production, but in many parts coffee trees are harvested like a wild crop, and their beans roasted for home use. As well as the commercial varieties, Madagascar has more than 50 species of wild coffee, many with very low caffeine and some not yet named. There’s a coffee research station at Kianjavato, midway between Ranomafana National Park and the coast, where you can see many of them.
TEA
The Sahambavy tea plantation, some 22km east of Fianarantsoa along the Fianar–Côte East railway line (but a 40km drive along a circuitous route), was started from scratch in the 1970s, using Kenyan tea bush cuttings. It produces around 500 tonnes a year on its five square kilometres, representing nearly all of Madagascar’s tea production. Tea bushes thrive particularly well in areas with high rainfall and acidic soils, so rainforest clearings are ideal. Factory and field visits are possible.
WINE
Wine is perhaps the most surprising of Madagascar’s stimulant crops. Wine grapes, planted originally by French Jesuit priests, are important in the district around Fianarantsoa and Ambalavao, where the country’s best-known vineyards – Lazan’i Betsileo, Soavita, Clos Malaza and Domaine de Lovasoa – are all found. Together with several other small producers, they make about 10 million litres a year for the local market. Unfortunately, little if any Malagasy wine even reaches supermarket plonk standards and few of the best restaurants and hotel dining rooms serve it. The problem seems to be that the growing season is dry, while the ripening season coincides with the hot, wet austral summer. The harvest takes place in February, by which time the grapes have spent many weeks being gently steamed. One new producer may be onto something: Clos Nomena at Ambalavao has been experimenting since 2001 with noble grape varieties from France, rather than the usual international hybrids. Since 2011 they have been producing the first vintage wines in Madagascar – much more expensive, but worth seeking out.
Ambalavao and around
Vehicles arriving from the north plunge down the road to AMBALAVAO, with the valley spread out beyond and the peaks of the Massif d’Iandrambaky poking up dramatically on the horizon. The town makes a good base from which to stock up if you’re heading into the Parc National d’Andringitra. Otherwise, you don’t need to stop here for long, but the town’s crafts workshops are accessible and worthwhile, and its famous old Betsileo houses, with their ornate verandas known as lavarangana, are very photogenic. Ambalavao grew as a mixed Merina and Betsileo centre of trading and crafts, powering the Merina empire’s economy with zebus, silk and of course rice – and then under French colonial rule with tea and wine.
The normally sluggish Mananatanana River, a meandering headwater of the great Mangoky that flows west into the Mozambique Channel, occasionally bursts its banks in the rainy season, and the bridge 5km west of Ambalavao is sometimes damaged or even destroyed, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded on both banks, and Madagascar effectively cut in half: there is no practical way round.
Markets
There’s a Wednesday crafts market in the town centre. The famous zebu market (the country’s second biggest after Tsiroanomandidy) starts before dawn on Wednesday and continuing until Thursday morning. Cattle from the south are trucked or walked here to be sold and then transported – or walked – to Fianar and points north.
Réserve Villageoise Anja
On the south side of the RN7 • Daily 7am–5pm
• Entry 10,000ar, guidage 12,000–48,000ar, depending on the
trail • 033 09 590 62, anjareserve.angelfire.com
The Réserve Villageoise Anja, 11km west of Ambalavao, is a community-run forest reserve, incorporating the towering granite sugar loafs of the Massif d’Iandrambaky (“Three Brothers”), a swathe of boulder-strewn forest and the margins of a small dam lake. The mountains are sacred to the local Betsileo, who still visit burial sites in the rocks and for whom hunting lemurs is fady. Anja’s groups of ring-tailed lemurs have thrived and expanded in this northernmost extent of their range in eastern Madagascar – and the people of the local community, who have partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to maintain the reserve, benefit directly from tourists passing up or down the RN7.
You will certainly see ring-tails here; but to get the most out of a visit, it’s a good idea to organize payment and guides the evening before, spend a night in Ambalavao, and visit as early as possible after dawn. Ring-tails waking after a cold night in the trees are a delightful sight as they adopt their characteristic “sun worship” squatting poise, with arms outstretched to absorb the rays and ready their metabolisms for a morning of eating fruit, bark, sap and leaves. They’re particularly entertaining once they’ve warmed up, and especially if they have babies, which are characteristically the subject of great interest among other females. The young are born here a little earlier than usual for ring-tails, typically in early August, and twins are relatively common. The guides at Anja are good at locating the most photogenic subjects – and the best vantage points. If your timing is lucky, a mid-morning return to the road via the lake yields the sight of dozens of ring-tails scampering down to the shore to drink.
Ring-tails aside, Anja is productive for birders, who can look out for red-billed teals (Anas erythrorhyncha) on the lake and the dramatic Madagascar harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus) circling for an opportunity to take a lemur.
As well as the shorter, wildlife-watching hikes (from 1 to 3hr), if you have suitable footwear you can do a much longer trek, including some scrambling, to reach one or more of the summits of the three domes: at around 1300m, they’re some 400m above the plain below.
There is a campsite at the reserve (2000ar per person), plus a snack bar and restaurant.
RING-TAILED LEMURS
The unmistakeable ring-tailed lemur, which has become Madagascar’s trademark, is an unusual species in its own genus, Lemur. Lemur catta (or maki in Malagasy) – named catta for their cat-like mewing – is the most terrestrial of all lemurs: they spend many hours foraging on the ground, playing among the rocks and in some areas even sleeping in caves. This is a lemur of the dry regions of southwest Madagascar, with scattered populations found across a swathe of the island between Morondava and Andohahela National Park. Although ring-tails were traditionally hunted in some areas, they have clung on in districts with sacred associations, where hunting them is fady. Strictly diurnal, and omnivorous in diet, they appreciate the leaves and fruit of tamarind trees more than anything else, but they’re also partial to grubs and will happily raid crops if the opportunity arises.
Ring-tailed lemurs live in highly territorial, mixed male-female groups of around twenty individuals. Their world is dominated by scent: they mark their group ranges by rubbing branches with their genital regions and males have an arm spur to scratch branches, which they then anoint with scent glands located on their forearms and shoulders. Rival males also rub scent onto their tails and wave them at each other in “stink fights”. As with a number of lemur species, ring-tail society is dominated by females and the males compete annually for mating privileges in violent “jump fights” in which rivals slash each other with their canine teeth. Females are in oestrus for just a few hours on one day of the year, and mating occurs over the course of a couple of weeks at the end of the rainy season.
Ring-tail babies are born four and a half months later, and grow up fast, shifting from belly-clinging to back-riding in a couple of weeks. Roughly half of them perish in their first year, being taken by snakes, fossas and birds of prey – and in a bad year, falling victim to drought. Ring-tails are prone to rapid swings in population, but they are resilient animals and their status is relatively secure.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: AMBALAVAO AND AROUND
By taxi brousse Taxis brousses drop and pick up in the town centre, opposite the Aux Bougainvillées hotel.
Destination Fianarantsoa (frequent; 1–1hr 30min).
Services There’s an ATM at the BOA bank.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Aux Bougainvillées Ambalavao town centre 020 75 340
01, auxbougainvillees.sitew.com. The oldest
hotel in town isn’t going to win any awards, and has
perennial problems providing guests with electricity, hot water and
adequate mosquito nets, but the food is usually good. 50,000ar
Tsienimparihy Hotel 1km northeast of Ambalavao on the west side
of the RN7 020 33 02 607 22,
hoteltsienimparihy@yahoo.fr.
Recommended for the fragrant output from its bakery and patisserie,
the fairly recent addition (not its older town-centre sister)
outside town deserves to be better known, as the neatly thatched
en-suite bungalows are good value. 40,000ar
La Varangue Betsileo Iarintsena, 7km west of Ambalavao 032
63 376 48, varangue-betsileo.com. Owner-run by a witty
and voluble husband-and-wife team, originally from France, this is
one of the best small guesthouses in the region, with light and
comfortable en-suite rooms, a beautiful small swimming pool,
wholesome French cooking (menu du jour
30,000ar) and stunning views. 100,000ar
SHOPPING
Nath Océane On the RN7, 700m northeast of Ambalavao
centre 032 04 421 27, nathoceane.com. Silk and embroidery workshop,
T-shirterie and souvenirs. Daily times
vary.
Papier Antaimoro Aux Bougainvillées hotel, town centre
020 75 340 01, auxbougainvillees.sitew.com. The
highlands’ paper industry, originally a by-product of the
silk industry using the bark of mulberry trees, now also uses
papyrus; dried flowers are incorporated into Antaimoro’s distinctive handmade greeting card designs. Their name refers to the coastal ethnic group with scholarly Arabic ancestry, who brought the
first books to Madagascar. Mon–Fri
8am–5pm.
Soalandy Atelier On the RN7 on the outskirts of Ambalavao 1km
northeast of the centre 033 14 987 45,
soalandyambalavao@yahoo.fr. One of
Ambalavao’s most welcoming workshops, Soalandy
(“Beautiful silkworm”) manufactures silk thread, dyes
and weaves it and sells finished scarves and shawls
(35,000–50,000ar). Short, informal tours are free. Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat
8am–noon.
SILK
Madagascar is home to some of the world’s most spectacular silkmoths, perhaps most dramatically the resplendent-looking, yellow and purple comet moth (Argema mittrei), with its 20cm wingspan and dramatic “tails”. Like all butterflies and moths, silkworms – the caterpillars of silkmoths – turn into chrysalises, with one striking difference: before pupating and dissolving into a soup of DNA to metamorphose into an adult flying beauty, the silkworm secretes silk to form a cocoon to protect the chrysalis. It’s the silk from the cocoon, boiled and separated, spun into thread and woven, that produces silk cloth.
Central Madagascar’s tapia forests are the natural habitat of one of the most productive of these moths, the borocera (Borocera cajani or landibe in Malagasy), whose silk was traditionally used to make burial shrouds – a use of cocoon silk laden with symbolism. Tapia is the Malagasy name for Uapaca bojeri, a highly fire-resistant, olive-like tree related to the southern African sugar plum. In November and December, millions of cocoons are collected from the tapia forests in a harvest tradition hundreds of years old. These forests yield not only the raw material for silk production but also a useful protein supplement in the form of the chrysalises, a popular snack.
Despite being highly fire-resistant, the tapia forests are fast diminishing, and the cocoon supply decreases year on year. In recent years, several local organizations have partnered with NGOs – including Feedback Madagascar and Ny Tanintsika at Soatanana and SAGE at Ambohimanjaka, both west of the RN7 near Ambositra – to plant thousands of tapia saplings to help boost silkworm numbers, develop techniques for farming silkworms and market the finished silk overseas.
Many workshops dye their silk with natural colourings, including turmeric, beetroot, rice mud, bark, and the green leaves of passion fruit vines. Some production is left au naturel, to show off the burnished bronze colour of wild silk. You’ll also come across the less expensive white or pale-golden-cream-coloured silk produced by the domestic silkmoth (Bombyx mori), which is farmed on mulberry leaves.
One silk product that may never become an object of commerce is
spider silk cloth. In the nineteenth
century, a few items were made from the strong, lustrous,
super-light silk of Malagasy golden orb
spiders (Nephilia
madagascariensis), using an ingenious device that
harnessed a captive spider while its silk was wound onto a reel. In
2012 a British silk specialist and a fashion entrepreneur ( godleypeers.com)
revived the technique, going on to present an exquisitely
embroidered golden cape to the Victoria & Albert Museum in
London and an equally fabulous shawl to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York. Each garment was made from the silk of
more than a million female golden orb spiders that were trapped and
released by a team of eighty local helpers over the course of three
years.
NORTHEASTERN MADAGASCAR
The rainforests of northeastern Madagascar are some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Deluged in parts by as much as 6000mm of rain in the course of a year, these hilly landscapes support a riotous display of jungle trees, lianas and other flora, and extraordinarily rich wildlife, from minuscule chameleons to weighty indri lemurs. In the wettest areas, the air is almost always damp, while steep and slippery trails can make access to some parks challenging. The region gets rainfall throughout the year, but the driest time to visit is mid-September to late November. In higher areas, the nights can be cool during July and August.
While the northeast’s natural vegetation is dense forest, the vast majority of trees had been cut by the time of independence, and today rice and sugar-cane fields, and plantations of vanilla and fruit trees, account for much of the more level ground. The sizeable pockets of forest that remain are major strongholds of Madagascar’s natural heritage, now flagged by UNESCO as the “Rainforests of the Atsinanana” group of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
Just a three-hour drive east of Antananarivo, one of the country’s most accessible and rewarding parks is Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia, which has a less extreme rainfall pattern than much of the region and some relatively easy trails. Four hours’ drive further east is Tamatave (less commonly known as Toamasina), a major Indian Ocean port and springboard for the remote far northeast. The idyllic Île Sainte Marie, with its outstanding beaches and diving and snorkelling opportunities, is reasonably accessible from here.
Back on the mainland, if you plunge on northwards the rewards mount along with the difficulty of travel (most visitors fly), as the tough and unpredictable coastal road, the RN5, takes you to the privately owned Aye-Aye Island near Mananara and eventually the remote town of Maroantsetra. From here you can reach the fabled island of Nosy Mangabe and the cloud-shrouded flanks of the Parc National de Masoala, home of Madagascar’s most stunning rainforests.
Beyond the Masoala peninsula lies Madagascar’s prime vanilla-exporting region of Sava, named after its four main towns, Sambava, Antalaha, Vohemar and Andapa. The last of these is the highland base for the rugged Parc National de Marojejy and Réserve Spéciale de Anjanaharibe-Sud.
THE BETSIMISARAKA
The predominant ethnic group of the northeast is the Betsimisaraka, an ethno-linguistic coalition of peoples whose name means “Many peoples who cannot be separated”. Prior to the eighteenth century, these various distinct groups would periodically drift into conflict with each other. In 1712, they were forcibly united under a king, Ratsimilaho – according to legend, the son of a local queen and an English pirate, Thomas Tew – to repel the territorial and trading threat from the highland Merina, the only people on the island to outnumber them. Ratsimilaho is said to have visited England and briefly gone to school there, and many of his closest Betsimisaraka allies were mixed-race Zanamalata (“Children of mulattoes”). When he died in around 1750, his eastern union disintegrated and the Merina were able to subdue the Betsimisaraka. Ratsimilaho’s daughter, meanwhile, had married a French officer, giving the French their first toehold on the east coast.
GETTING AROUND: NORTHEASTERN MADAGASCAR
By plane There is at least one flight per day between Antananarivo and Tamatave, with some onward connections to Île Sainte Marie, Maroantsetra, Antalaha and Sambava. Varying seasonally and depending on demand, there are less frequent non-stop flights between Antananarivo and Île Sainte Marie, Maroantsetra, Antalaha and Sambava. In theory there’s also a weekly flight from Tamatave to Mananara.
By road Although winding and hilly, the surfaced RN2 road from Antananarivo to Tamatave (356km) is one of the best in the country. The surfaced and relatively flat “Vanilla Road” (RN5A) running along the northeast coast between Antalaha and Vohemar (229km) is also mostly in good condition. North of Tamatave, the RN5 as far as Soanierana-Ivongo (156km) is surfaced, but for the continuation to Maroantsetra (240km) allow a full two days at any time of year to negotiate the mud and the many ad hoc river crossings. Note: there is no drivable connecting road – only jungle footpaths – between Maroantsetra and the RN5A northeast coast road.
By train There is a weekly passenger service in both directions between Moramanga and Tamatave, via Andasibe, and a second service in both directions between Moramanga and Ambila-Lemaitso, 100km south of Tamatave.
By boat Ferry services, using small in-shore motorboats, run between Soanierana-Ivongo and Île Sainte Marie and between Soanierana, Mananara and Maroantsetra. They time their journeys with the tides and often cancel in rough seas. There are several vessels, of which the 50-seater Melissa Express is the newest, safest and most reliable.
Moramanga
After a series of step-like ridges on the winding descent from Antananarivo, you’ll reach the small town of MORAMANGA (“cheap mangoes”), which is the capital of the Bezanozano people, who live between the Betsimisaraka on the coast and the highland Merina. The closest transport hub and supply base for the Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia, the town is famous as the starting point of the insurrection against the French on March 29, 1947, when militants stormed a police camp with spears. A reprisal massacre of political activists left more than 100 dead. There’s a monument near the railway station commemorating their deaths, a mausoleum on the outskirts of town and a newly refurbished Police Museum at Tristani Police Camp, which is still mostly a collection of old weapons and odds and ends.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MORAMANGA
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse jostle in the town centre, between the RN2 and the train station. Frequent services run to Antananarivo (3hr; 8000ar).
By train The public train service between Moramanga and the coast runs twice weekly. The Tamatave service departs Moramanga on Mon at 7am (10–12hr; 10,000ar) and the Ambila-Lemaitso service on Thurs at 3pm (7–10hr; 10,000ar).
ACCOMMODATION
Bezanozano Hotel RN2 north side, town centre 033 28
761 66, bezanozanohotel.com. With a 25m outdoor pool
and comfy rooms with modern furnishings, satellite TV and a/c (no
nets), this is the fanciest place in town. 80,000ar
Diamant RN2 south side, town centre 033 37
672 12 or 020 56 823 76.
With its shiny floors and walls, rooms with fans and nets, shared
balconies and shared bathrooms, this is a good, well cared-for
option. The restaurant does breakfasts from 4000ar and main dishes
from around 10,000ar. 35,000ar
Mada Hotel Opposite the station on the north side of
town 033 23 717 01. Basic, adequate
accommodation, with nets, fans and hot water. No restaurant. 20,000ar
EATING
Bezanozano Restaurant Bezanozano Hotel, RN2 north side, town
centre (by the hotel’s secure parking) 033 28 761
66, bezanozanohotel.com. Reliable restaurant and
bar that’s always busy with passing travellers. Pasta dishes
6000–8000ar, paella 8000ar, sides 1000ar. Daily 7am–9pm.
Au Coq d’Or On a side street just off the RN2, town
centre 020 56 820 45. Always crowded,
this popular patisserie and restaurant serves gasy and Chinese food. Try their signature poulet au Coca Cola. Mains around
10,000–12,000ar. Mon & Sun
8am–2.30pm, Tues–Sat 8am–7.30pm.
Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia and around
If the Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia is your first encounter with wild lemurs, as it is for many visitors, it is hard to prepare for the grace, proximity and sheer variety of these remarkable primates. The otherworldly chorus of a family of indris (Indri indri, babakoto in Malagasy) – the most famous of the park’s denizens – reverberating through the misty, early morning forest, is an unforgettable sound.
Andasibe National Park comprises a group of small, mid-altitude forest tracts. Two hundred species of orchids bloom magnificently here (from December to March) and the forests are home to six species of diurnal and six nocturnal lemurs, some 110 species of birds, more than seventy species of reptiles and at least a hundred species of frogs – a figure that makes this the most frog-rich area on earth. In addition, there are thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates, from huge silkmoths to weird giraffe-necked weevils.
The parks have easy access and a good range of places to stay – one of which, Vakôna Forest Lodge, has a small private lemur reserve of its own. Of the protected areas, only one, the Station Forestière Analamazaotra, allows night walks, but you can also do nocturnal wildlife viewing in the trees along the quiet tarmac road between the RN2 and Andasibe village, a stretch that can yield very good sightings, including of mouse lemurs and boas.
Réserve Spéciale d’Analamazaotra
Park Category A,
25,000ar; includes PN Mantadia; guide 20,000–40,000ar
(depending on route) for 1–6 visitors • parcs-madagascar.com
When people talk about Andasibe, it is the 8-square-kilometre patch of mixed primary and secondary forest that makes up Réserve Spéciale d’Analamazaotra that they’re usually referring to. Ranging in altitude from 900m to 1250m, Analamazaotra is your first port of call to see and, hopefully, hear one of the several groups of indris that range across the forest.
Trails
Starting from the visitor centre, the main trail passes a set of former fishponds that were swamped by a cyclone and never rebuilt, then splits into several trails that climb into the forest: Circuit Indri 1, which passes through the territory of habituated indris and other lemurs around the sickle-shaped Lac Vert or Green Lake (2km, 2hr); Circuit Indri 2, which continues past Circuit Indri 1 and includes more primary forest with big trees (3.5km, 4hr); Circuit Anivokely, with steeper trails and denser vegetation (2km, 2hr); and Circuit Aventure, which includes trails 1 and 2 and also visits wilder areas (6km, 6hr).
Wildlife
For the best chance of having time on your own with a group of indri, get here as early as possible: the paths can get busy with groups of visitors by 8.30am, especially in high season, and indris feed early, usually settling down for a siesta during the middle hours of the day. You may well hear their wailing, done to mark territories, before seeing the family, though they call much less frequently in the cooler season from July to September. The indri is an unmistakeable lemur, resembling a black and white teddy bear with Mickey Mouse ears and piercing green eyes. While feeding, they can sit or lounge without moving for long periods, but despite having only a stump of a tail (this is the only tailless lemur) they bound very rapidly through the trees when they decide to move, using their long, powerful hind legs to catapult from trunk to trunk, arms outstretched.
As well as indris, you will commonly see diademed sifakas (Propithecus diadema diadema), translocated in 2007 from the forests around the huge Ambatovy nickel and cobalt mine north of Moramanga. Some of them wear radio collars. Almost as bulky as indris, but with long tails, these handsome lemurs (called simpona in Malagasy) have a colour scheme of white, black, silver, gold and chestnut, with black feet, hands and faces, and are content to feed, groom and socialize just a few metres above your head. The reserve’s grey bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur griseus griseus) and brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus) are both easily seen, but are shyer.
Likely bird sightings in the Andasibe parks area include the red-breasted coua, the blue coua and the Madagascar crested ibis. Chameleons, especially the big Parson’s chameleon (Calumma parsonii), and the diminutive horned pygmy (Brookesia superciliaris) and Thiel’s pygmy (Brookesia thieli) chameleons that move through the leaf litter on the forest floor, are relatively common, but collection for the exotic pet trade has seriously depleted their numbers.
Station Forestière Analamazaotra
Daily 6am–10pm • Day walks, including
entrance fee 25,000–50,000ar per person; 90min night walk 15,000ar
per person • mitsinjo.org
The local NGO Association Mitsinjo (the name means “Look ahead to care for the future”) has its offices on the west side of the tarmac road, just 150m south of the Analamazaotra visitor centre. With support from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, they run reforestation programmes (they’ve planted more than 250,000 native saplings), and manage the 2.5-square-kilometre Station Forestière Analamazaotra which, as well as harbouring the same species as the Réserve Spéciale, offers very rewarding night walks. After dark, expect to see Goodman’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus lehilahytsara), tenrecs (endemic mammals resembling hedgehogs and shrews), various snakes, sleeping chameleons, numerous insects and countless species of frogs. There are some easy main trails, but the smaller paths are harder going. A good torch is essential.
Parc National Mantadia
Park Category A,
25,000ar; includes RS d’Analamazaotra; guide
20,000–60,000ar (depending on route) for 1–6 visitors •
parcs-madagascar.com
Parc National Mantadia, a 98-square-kilometre tract of mostly primary forest north of Andasibe village, has the same altitude range as the Réserve Spéciale d’Analamazaotra but is much less visited, and has only limited and much more challenging trails, making sightings more exciting as a result. Lively and inquisitive southern black-and-white ruffed lemurs, or vary in Malagasy (Varecia variegata editorum), are a key species here: they’re sometimes seen near the road around PK15, where a forested hill rises to the west.
Four park trails pitch up the east–west ridges: the Circuit Rianasoa (1.5km, 2hr) ends by a natural swimming hole beneath a waterfall; Circuit de la Chute Sacrée (2km, 2hr) takes in ritual sites of the Bezanozano people; Circuit Belakato (3.5km, 3hr) is a fairly tough hike but gives the best lemur-viewing chances; and the so-called Circuit Trekking (10km, all day) is a demanding route that combines the higher reaches of the other three trails.
If you’re birding – and lucky – the very rare Madagascar serpent eagle (Eutriorchis astur) and strikingly blue-billed helmet vanga (Euryceros prevosti) can both be seen in Mantadia, as can the various species of pretty ground rollers: you’re much less likely to see any of these in Analamazaotra.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL D’ANDASIBE-MANTADIA AND AROUND
There are no commercial airports near Andasibe-Mantadia: the closest is Tana airport itself.
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse ply the RN2 between Antananarivo and Tamatave 6–12 times daily, stopping at Andasibe junction (Tana 5–8hr; 12,000ar; Tamatave 3–4hr; 8000ar). Local taxis brousse run between the junction and Andasibe village (1–2 hourly; 15min; 500ar). The TLM shuttle will also drop at the Andasibe junction.
By train The twice-weekly public train between Moramanga and the coast stops at Andasibe station, about 1hr from Moramanga. The private Micheline service from Tana to Andasibe operates on demand.
INFORMATION
National Park visitor centre The national park visitor centre and ticket office at Analamazaotra (daily 6am–6pm), 1.8km from the RN2 junction, has some simple graphics explaining the park’s natural history and a board displaying the IDs of the 60-odd licensed guides, with their specialities.
ACCOMMODATION
For supplies there are basic shops at the RN2 junction and you can get simple meals at the gargote (simple local restaurant) frequented by park guides, just outside the visitor centre.
Analamazaotra Camping Site At the visitor centre, 1.8km from the RN2 junction. Tent pitches with thatched roofs, shared showers, toilets, use of an outdoor kitchen and limited electricity. 10,000ar
Andasibe Hotel Just west of Andasibe village, 4.5km from
the RN2 junction and 2.7km past the visitor centre 034 05
326 27, andasibehotel-resto.com. Opened in 2011 and
smaller and slightly cheaper than the Vakôna, this has the edge as the best hotel in
the area, though it has fewer extras. There’s a pool and a
good restaurant. 175,000ar
Andasibe Mikalo Hotel 3km from the RN2 junction and 1.3km past the
visitor centre 033 11 817 85, mikaloandasibehotel.com. On the hillside
just above Andasibe village, the wooden chalets here are quite
stylish and presentable, with neatly tiled bathrooms, mosquito nets
and verandas. The restaurant has a good reputation, with mains from
15,000ar. 74,000ar
Feon’ny Ala 400m from the RN2 junction and 1.5km from
the visitor centre 020 56 832 02 or 032 05
832 02. The “Voice of the
Forest” (after which a new species of frog, Boophis feonnyala, was named in 2002) has simple
wooden bungalows, some with good views. Rooms are either en suite
(60,000ar) or with shared bathrooms. The terrace restaurant faces
the forest across Lac Rouge and serves French and Malagasy dishes in
the 8000–15,000ar range. 26,000ar
Orchidée On the east side of Andasibe village
020 36 832 05 or 034 36 024
49,
hotelorchideeandasibe@yahoo.fr. Sweet
old village house with a simple restaurant at the front and rooms in
a separate block at the back. To reach it, cross the railway tracks,
turn right on the other side of the bridge, then it’s 500m on
the left. 40,000ar
Vakôna Forest Lodge North of Andasibe village, 10km from the RN2
junction 033 02 010 01 or 034 15 705
80, hotelvakona.com. Smart lodge that’s
often full, deep in the forest in landscaped grounds, with a pool,
horseriding (40,000ar/hr) and a private lemur reserve of islands
accessed by pirogue, with semi-tame lemurs (15,000ar, or 10,000ar if
you’re staying). The small bungalows, with safes and nets,
range up the slopes. Mains in the à la carte restaurant from
16,000ar. Wi-fi. 200,000ar
Brickaville to Tamatave
From the Andasibe turning, the often steep road winds down to the coastal plain at Antsampanana, where it splits south to follow the Canal des Pangalanes and beyond, and north to BRICKAVILLE. During the political crisis of 2002, the major bridge across the Rianila River here was cut by Ratsiraka’s supporters when they fled to Tamatave, and in May 2003 Cyclone Manou damaged many of Brickaville’s buildings. It remains a busy centre, however, surrounded by orange groves and sugar fields.
Down at sea level, a very pretty stretch of road runs north towards Tamatave, alongside a tributary of the Rianila, the Rongaronga, with lofty groves of bamboo overhanging the road. Closer to Tamatave, you pass major oil palm plantations.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: BRICKAVILLE
Capricorne 300m west of the bridge, on the right
033 03 622 99 or 032 42 832
09. This popular restaurant is often busy at
lunchtime with passing travellers (most dishes 7000ar, including
zebu steak and chips, or spicy prawns and rice). There’s a
variety of en-suite rooms ranging from basic and dark, with shared
bathrooms and no nets, to a/c en-suite comforts (60,000ar). 15,000ar
Tamatave and around
The port of TAMATAVE, sometimes referred to by its Malagasy name Toamasina, is Madagascar’s second city, with a population of around 200,000, including one of the country’s largest Chinese communities. Sprawling across a sandy peninsula, it has one of the few large harbours – protected by a reef – on the notoriously cyclone-prone east coast. The French, who wanted a good link with their island of Réunion, chose it as a port for Antananarivo: they built the rail link from here up the escarpment to the capital in 1913.
Although it may appear a relaxed town, the people of Tamatave have a historically uneasy relationship with Tana and the Merina.
The city centre
Tamatave’s old city centre is a kilometre-square grid of avenues and cross streets just behind the port. It’s quite an attractive place, the streets – colonnaded in places – shaded with big trees and palms and jostled by droves of pousse-pousses. There are few specific sites, but at Place Bien Aimé, in the old Ampasimazava neighbourhood near the port, a grove of giant banyan trees – a species of huge fig imported from India more than a century ago – creates a shady square, often used for games of pétanque.
Tamatave’s working fishing beach lies along the south side of the peninsula and the town’s pleasure beach – always busy with locals on weekends in dry weather – lies on the north side, facing the berths of the shipping harbour. Take advice from locals before swimming here: sharks have long frequented these inshore waters, attracted by waste from Tamatave’s slaughterhouse, and throughout much of the last century there were regular attacks on swimmers.
Boulevard Joffre is Tamatave’s main commercial street, running from its quiet southern end near the port to the busy red-light district in the north, just a block back from the town beach. The two main city markets are the original bazary be or grand marché, just off boulevard Joffre, which is relatively touristy and has lots of raffia items, including hats and baskets, and the now much bigger bazary kely (“small market”) near the station, which has become Tamatave’s main general produce market. Beyond bazary kely, dense suburbs are encircled by the Canal des Pangalanes, which exits into the sea in the north of town.
THE CANAL DES PANGALANES
The Canal des Pangalanes is an artificial waterway that connects meandering rivers and lagoons along the sandy plain of the east coast of Madagascar between Tamatave in the north and Farafangana in the south. In places it runs just a few hundred metres from the surf-dashed ocean beach. Built by the French at the turn of the last century as a sheltered cargo and passenger route along a dangerous coastline, the canal stretched at one time more than 600km from Foulpointe to Vangaindrano. Today, much of the canal is silted up, but the 100km section between Tamatave and Ambila-Lemaitso, where there is a railway station, is navigable and runs through Lac Ampitabe, which has several lakefront hotels.
TRIPS
Elidolys Mada 33 bd Joffre 033 21 153 27 or
020 53 329 75, elidolysmada.com. Organizes cruises and
excursions. The gare fluviale for canal
trips is on the southwest side of town
Parc Ivoloina
Off the RN5, 7km north of Tamatave airport • Daily
9am–5pm • 20,000ar; optional guide 10,000ar • 32
05 103 07, seemadagascar.org • Taxis brousse leave frequently to
Antsampanana, on the south side of the bridge over the Ivoloina River
(1500ar), from which it’s a 2km walk to the park entrance and a
further 1km to the centre of the park; alternatively, you can hire a cab for
the visit (70,000ar, including waiting time)
One of Madagascar’s best small zoos, Parc Ivoloina is a 2.8-square-kilometre forestry station that incorporates 9km of hiking trails and a lemur research and captive-breeding centre, and combines local education and tourist visits with animal husbandry, research training and international cooperation on endangered species conservation.
Wild-roaming lemurs include grey bamboo, black-and-white ruffed (Varecia v. variegata), white-fronted brown (Eulemur fulvus albifrons), red-bellied (Eulemur rubriventer) and crowned (Eulemur coronatus) lemurs. Although you won’t always see these species as you circumnavigate the park’s lake, which is set amid the forest, there’s a good chance that you’ll spot nocturnal lemurs, such as the aye-aye, on a pre-arranged night visit. Also in the zoo area are six other species of lemurs, tortoises, snakes, chameleons and frogs.
The park has a restaurant and souvenir shop overlooking Lac Fulgence.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: TAMATAVE AND AROUND
BY PLANE
Tamatave airport The airport, 5km north of the city centre, has limited
facilities including a first-floor terrace and snack bar. Taxis
to/from town cost 15,000ar. Air Madagascar’s office is at
av de l’Indépendance ( 020 53 323 56
or 033 11 222 02; Mon–Fri 8–11.45am
& 2–5.45pm, Sat 8–11.45am). In addition to
regular flights, there’s theoretically also a flight
every Wed to/from Mananara (55min), though in recent years it
has rarely operated.
Destinations Antalaha (2 weekly; 1hr–1hr 25min); Antananarivo (1 or more daily; 45min–1hr); Île Sainte Marie (several weekly; 25–30min); Maroantsetra (2 weekly; 1hr 15min).
BY ROAD
The gare routière is at bd d’Andevoranto.
To Antananarivo Taxis brousse ply the RN2 to Tana (6–12 daily;
8–12hr; 20,000–25,000ar). The more comfortable TLM
shuttle runs twice-weekly services ( 34 02 340 02,
travelinemadagascar.com; 76,000ar).
To Maroantsetra Several local transport outfits cover the route between Tamatave and Maroantsetra, which takes a minimum of two days. They use either minibuses or Toyota Hilux pick-up vans transporting goods as well as passengers. The fare to Maroantsetra is around 120,000ar per person, with a scheduled night in Mananara. In practice, the trip often takes 3 to 4 days or longer and needs to be treated as an expedition, not a journey by public transport. If you want any comfort and control over this trip, you’ll need to charter a vehicle to yourself, at a cost of 1–1.5 million ariary, including fuel. If you go for this option, be sure to agree in writing to the stops and diversions you expect along the way (see Getting around).
To Mananara Tamatave to Mananara should cost 90,000ar, but it may take you some days to get a passenger space in an onward vehicle to Maroantsetra, a journey that will cost you a lot more than the 30,000ar difference.
BY TRAIN
A weekly train service runs between Tamatave and Moramanga, via Andasibe, leaving Tamatave on Tues at 8.20am (10–12hr; 10,000ar).
BY BOAT
Be aware that boat services in this area are frequently curtailed or delayed in poor weather. Daily services start with a minibus connection between Tamatave and the river port at Soanierana-Ivongo, 156km to the north.
To Île Sainte Marie You’ll be collected from your hotel in Tamatave around
5.30am, departing Tamatave at 6am. Ferries leave Soanierana at
10am, arriving in Île Sainte Marie around
11am–noon. Cap Sainte Marie, near the gare routière in the Tanambao V
neighbourhood ( 032 05 218 08, cap-sainte-marie.com; 100,000ar one way, 175,000
round trip); Melissa Express, bd Jean Ralaimongo, near the
Cité Valpinson neighbourhood ( 033 18 732
72, on.fb.me/19IynnM; 80,000ar/160,000ar); Sainte Marie
Tours/Traveline Madagascar, 40 bd Joffre (TLM; 034 02
340 03, travelinemadagascar.com) (70,000ar one way, 140,000ar
round trip).
To Mananara and Maroantsetra Melissa Express operates services to Mananara (6–10hr sea voyage; 131,000ar one way) and Maroantsetra (8–14hr sea voyage; 181,000ar one way), including the shuttle to Soanierana.
GETTING AROUND
Taxis in town cost 3000–5000ar per hop and pousse-pousses 2000–3000 per hop.
INFORMATION
Tourist office 83 bd Joffre ( 020 53 349 06 or 034 45 450
85, tourisme-tamatave.com; Mon–Fri 8am–noon
& 2–5.30pm, Sat 8–11am).
Madagascar National Parks office Salazamay, near the airport ( 020 53 318 39).
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation is ranged along the main street, bd Joffre, with several other, more resort-like hotels north of the centre, beyond the airport.
Concordia Restaurant and Hôtel Bd Ratsimilaho, 200m east of the airport
junction (RN5) 020 53 317 42. Handy for
the airport (800m north of here), but not ideal for the town centre
unless you have transport, the Concordia
offers great value for money in its well-looked-after thatched
bungalows (bigger ones around 40,000ar), with mosquito nets and fans
and a variety of bed options. The restaurant has a long list of
Malagasy dishes from around 7000ar. 25,000ar
Darafify Hotel and Restaurant Rue d’Ivoloina, 600m north of bd
Ratsimilaho 034 60 468 82, on.fb.me/1ECfcKc. One of the town’s
oldest establishments, between the beach and the airport –
handy for both, but more than 4km from downtown. There are bungalows
at various prices and a popular restaurant (closed Tues). 50,000ar
Génération Hôtel 129 bd Joffre 020 53 321 05,
generationhotel-tamatave.com. Another of
Tamatave’s longest-established addresses, with rooms with
safes, mosquito nets, TV and a/c (best ones 82,000ar).
There’s wi-fi and a decent restaurant, too, with mains from
7000ar (daily 6am–10pm). 52,000ar
Hôtel Joffre 18 bd Joffre 020 53 323 90,
hoteljoffre-tamatave.com. Dependable,
tourist-class hotel with a well-earned reputation for its
comfortable, decent-sized rooms, good showers and toilets, and
effective a/c. There’s a restaurant downstairs and a pavement
café-bar. Wi-fi. 110,000ar
Neptune Hotel Bd Ratsimilaho, overlooking the beach
020 53 322 26, hotel-neptune-tamatave.com. Large and fancy
seafront place with more modest rooms (though with a/c, safe, key
card and large balconies) than its outward appearance promises.
Nightclub, casino, restaurant, snack bar and large pool. Wi-fi.
167,000ar
Palm Resort Hotel Rue d’Ivoloina 032 07 620
07, on.fb.me/1I3Z05p. Six stylish, modern
villas, each with 2 double rooms and a suite, rented in their
entirety (495,000ar) or as separate rooms, with breakfast in the
restaurant included. Private pool for each villa. 176,000ar
Parc Ivoloina Off the RN5, 7km north of Tamatave airport
32 05 103 07, parcivoloina.org. As well as tent pitches, there
are simple rooms to rent at this popular zoo park outside town, with
cold running water and use of a shared kitchen. Camping 4000ar, room 30,000ar
EATING
Adam & Eve Snack Bar Bd Joffre, corner of rue de Commerce
032 11 579 61. Long-established
magnet for locals and visitors looking for good-value Western-style
calories, including paninis, samosas, burgers, shakes and daily
specials. Most dishes 5000–10,000ar. Mon–Sat all day until early evening.
Bateau Ivre Bd Ratsimilaho, on the beachfront 020
53 302 94 or 034 05 302 94, batoivrewaterfront-toamasina.com. This large
restaurant complex – a Tamatave institution – does
great seafood, grills and Malagasy specialities in a spacious,
breezy location overlooking the pool (which is free to use if you
eat), accompanied nightly by live music of variable quality. Mains
from around 15,000ar. Wi-fi. Worth booking in advance. Daily 8am–11pm.
DIRECTORY
Consul The British Honorary Consul is Michel Gonthier, c/o La Ligne
Scandinave, 2 rue Lieutenant Bérard ( 053 32 520
69).
North to Maroantsetra
The RN5 north out of Tamatave starts off surfaced and in reasonable condition, fringed by magnificent beaches, passing the Parc Ivoloina and then the old settlements of Foulepointe and Fénérive Est. The 240km coastal section between Soanierana-Ivongo and Maroantsetra, however, is one of the toughest roads in the country – a barely drivable earth and rock track that deteriorates in condition as you crawl north, as does the viability of the twelve ad hoc river crossings that have to be negotiated along the way. The worst stretches and the dodgiest makeshift ferries (some of them simple bamboo rafts) tend to vary from year to year depending on the damage inflicted by the most recent cyclones. The 50km stretch between Antanambe and Mananara is usually considered the hardest, and often takes a full day, most of that at walking speed.
Soanierana-Ivongo
SOANIERANA-IVONGO, where the tarmac ends on the way north, like so many of Madagascar’s coastal towns occupies a spit of land between the ocean and the mouth of a river – in this case the River Marimbona, which starts life high up on the Marovoalavo plateau on Madagascar’s spine. The little town’s port is along the riverside, and the small ferries plying the 30km sea channel to Île Sainte Marie have to brave the rough seas between the river mouth and the ocean. There are few facilities in town, but you’ll find basic accommodation and restaurants if you need them.
Parc National de Mananara Nord and around
Park Category B, 10,000ar • parcs-madagascar.com
The author and naturalist Gerald Durrell put the town of MANANARA on the map in 1992 in The Aye-Aye and I, his account of capturing two male and four female aye-ayes for a breeding programme at Jersey zoo.
The Parc National de Mananara Nord is aye-aye country, but you need to stop at Antanambe (where one of the park offices is located) and hike far into the hills, or take a taxi brousse from Mananara to Sandrakatsy, and then hike for several hours, to find good aye-aye habitat in more or less undisturbed rainforest. Offshore lies the marine parcel of the park, with superb coral around the islet of Nosy Hely.
Aye-Aye Island
20,000ar including transport
For the best chance – though as ever no absolute guarantee – of seeing wild aye-ayes, stop in Mananara town for a day or two, stay at Chez Roger, and spend an evening visiting Île Mon Désir, or Aye-Aye Island, a 30-hectare island in the Mananara River, just 5km upstream from the town centre, that was formerly a plantation but is now covered in secondary forest. It belongs to Roger, the owner of the hotel, who introduced aye-ayes here in the 1990s. They continue to thrive and breed.
THE AYE-AYE
It was Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky come to life, whiffling through its tulgey wood
First described at the end of the eighteenth century, but only recognized as a primate a century later, the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is one of the world’s most bizarre and distinctive mammals. This cat-sized beast is the largest nocturnal lemur – but with its enormous mobile radar-like ears, coarse fur, long bushy tail, clawed hands and feet, and unnervingly huge, continuously growing incisors, it was long thought to be a kind of large squirrel. How the aye-aye (the origin of the name is unknown, but it’s rendered haye-haye in Malagasy) relates to other lemurs is still the subject of great conjecture among zoologists: current thinking places it quite apart from all other lemurs, though it’s presumed to share a common ancestor.
Constantly on the move after dark, aye-ayes forage through the trees and on the ground for hundreds of metres every night. Partly filling the natural niche occupied by woodpeckers in most parts of the world, they locate insect larvae by tapping and listening, then – using their disturbingly thin, flexible third finger – hook grubs from the holes they gnaw in branches and tree trunks. The aye-aye isn’t strictly an insectivore, however: the same finger is used as a spoon to scoop the juice and flesh from coconuts (the aye-aye having first sliced into them with those sharp teeth), to scrape nectar from flowers, and to pick its teeth. Ramy nuts (Canarium madagascariense), tree bark, fungi, birds’ eggs, and (where available) sugar cane, lychees and mangos all form part of its omnivorous diet.
Persecuted for damaging crops, and also because of the widespread belief that they portend evil – in many areas local fady tradition holds that they should be killed on sight, and their corpses strung up in places where strangers will see them and thus carry away the bad luck – the aye-aye was thought to be extinct in the 1930s, and was only rediscovered in 1957. Ironically, they’re now known to be the most widespread of all lemurs, living in most of the forested parts of Madagascar. Being widespread, however, does not make for a secure future, and the aye-aye’s low population density makes it susceptible to ongoing environmental destruction. So, too, do its unusual breeding habits: the smaller males gather to fight over mating rights (if there are too few males they may not be sufficiently stimulated to tackle the female, who is herself only receptive for a short time once a year), and the successful suitor then remains locked onto his mate for up to an hour. Females give birth to a single, helpless infant every two to three years. It’s a precarious procreation process for one of the world’s most vulnerable and least understood higher mammals. Only through captive breeding programmes – increasingly successful – does the aye-aye’s future look anything but dicey.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: NORTH TO MAROANTSETRA
By plane In theory there is an Air Madagascar flight every Wed morning (55min) between Tamatave and Mananara’s Ambitsika airport, just 700m from the town centre. In practice it rarely operates.
By boat Melissa Express operates services to/from Tamatave, and has office contacts in Soanierana-Ivongo
( 033 18 732 64) and Mananara ( 032 88 426
00 or 034 79 497 12).
By taxi brousse Transport between Tamatave and Maroantsetra takes two full days, with a scheduled night in Mananara. Mananara to Tamatave should cost 90,000ar, but vehicles arriving from Maorantsetra are usually full.
ACCOMMODATION
Chez Roger Town centre, Mananara 032 52 329 87.
En-suite rooms in the main building and simple but adequate
bungalows with bathrooms, plus an attached restaurant (good meals
around 10,000ar). The main reason to stay here is to do a night
visit to the owner’s private Aye-Aye Island, which
can be easily arranged.
30,000ar
Île Sainte Marie
Although it’s an island off an island, and geographically remote, Île Sainte Marie – rarely known by its Malagasy name of Nosy Boraha – is one of the most cosmopolitan parts of Madagascar, having long been a base for foreign traders. Various European pirates left their mark here in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – the French used it as a toehold from which they went on to colonize the whole of Madagascar – and it’s a favourite retreat for Malagasy and French holiday-makers and now South African visitors.
Sainte Marie is not really a lemur area, local species having long ago been eaten by their human primate cousins, but the island offers a winning combination of ravishing tropical landscapes, crystal-clear seas for snorkelling and diving, including some enticing wreck dives, and from June to August some of the best humpback whale-watching in the world.
Sainte Marie is exposed to the westerly trade winds of the Indian Ocean, and cyclones frequently cause extensive damage and even loss of life, which explains why most of the island’s hotels are situated on its more sheltered western side. The weather can play havoc with travel schedules, especially in the first few months of the year. In theory there are almost daily flights and boats every morning to the big island, but bad weather and rough seas often put paid to them. If you’re planning a visit here, be sure to build some wriggle room into your itinerary: it’s not unusual to be stranded here for days.
From the airport, whose runway spans the breadth of the island’s southern tip, a tarmac road runs north to Ambodifotatra, Sainte Marie’s capital, through overhanging forest and palms, and partly along the seashore. Located along the road are most of Sainte Marie’s hotels, interspersed with local houses and a scattering of simple shops and restaurants, some for budget tourists.
Ambodifotatra
AMBODIFOTATRA, Sainte Marie’s capital, is a one-street town of largely wooden buildings, close to the seashore. Although there are no specific attractions beyond the curiosity of Madagascar’s oldest church, the red-roofed Catholic church of Notre Dame de l’Assomption, which overlooks the creek on the south side of town, Ambodifotatra is a welcoming enough place to hang out – and if you’re on a low budget probably the best base on the island.
North of Ambodifotatra
On the north side of Ambodifotatra, the town peters out into palms and bush and the surfaced road snakes north along the west coast, passing several idyllic beaches – Anjaha, 4km north of town, with its long crescent of palm-backed sand, is particularly lovely. There are scattered family compounds on this northern part of the island, but aside from a handful of small beachfront hotels, no other services. The road has recently been surfaced almost as far as the northern tip of the island, giving you access to the piscine naturelle at Ambodiatafana, a lovely lagoon, and a good swimming spot.
Pirate cemetery
12,000ar per person including guide • To reach it, turn left at the south end of the causeway (digue) leading from Ambodifotatra, and you’ll see a simple ticket office; buy a ticket and walk about 500m to a point where you have to take a pirogue (no charge) for a 1min punt through the mangroves; it’s then a short walk up the hill to the cemetery
South of Ambodifotatra, the so-called pirate cemetery, or Cimétiere des Pirates, is a simple resting place encircled by traveller’s palms, located on a bluff above a creek. The whole plot is steadily eroding into the sea, but there are still some fascinating gravestones: the famous tomb featuring a very cheery skull and crossbones (“Born in Ducey, Manche, 10th April 1788… Pray for him”) is a relatively modern cement refurbishment, but most are old and crumbling.
MADAGASACAR’S PIRATES
As the European spice trade opened with southeast Asia and Indonesia in the late seventeenth century, English ships laden with cash and trade goods rounded the Cape to brave the southern Indian Ocean. Many were wrecked on the reefs of Madagascar, where survivors sometimes parlayed the cargo into settlements with local chiefs and permanent residence and marriage. By 1690, deliberate wrecking and piracy had become a major local industry, centred around the island of Sainte Marie and the comparatively safe anchorages in the Baie d’Antongil.
Although the most infamous of these was William Kidd, his pirate career was short-lived – and, curiously enough, began with his commission by the British crown as a pirate-catcher. Kidd’s nemesis, Robert Culliford, was a more colourful and piratical character, reputedly bisexual, and exceptionally ruthless. Sainte Marie’s most successful pirate was Thomas Tew, who captured a Mughal ship loaded with some £200 million (at today’s value) in gold and silver. (Such booty was by no means uncommon: the vicious pirate Christopher Condent captured more than £120 million at today’s value in a single attack on an Arab vessel.) It is believed that Tew went on to marry a local chief’s daughter and had a son, Ratsimilaho, who founded the Betsimisaraka confederation. Much less sure is whether he was one of the key citizens of the supposed “pirate colony” of Libertalia, believed to have been based around the Île aux Forbans in the bay south of Ambodifotatra, and to have experimented with a radical new social order, in which plunder was distributed fairly among its members, and racial equality was asserted.
Park Endemika
Mon–Sat 8am–noon & 2–5pm • 15,000ar, including guide
Some 2.5km north of the airport, the Park Endemika is a small outdoor zoo set in a swampy, natural forest, featuring a collection of reptiles, frogs and lemurs. Most of the animals are in enclosures that you can enter, and the photo opportunities are good: you probably won’t have another chance to see the extraordinary leaf-nosed snake (Langaha madagascariensis) or to catch images of chameleons feeding from the guide’s hand.
Île aux Nattes
Transport is either via pre-arranged hotel motorboat, or by local dugout pirogue (2000ar per person) from the terminus of the main island road (a sandy track on the beach, known simply as “point”), just 200m from Île aux Nattes
If Île Sainte Marie’s usually empty airport runway and far from busy tarmac road feel far too hectic for your liking, then Île aux Nattes (also known as Nosy Nato, the “island of palm mats”) might be more to your taste. Just 2km long and 1km wide, it’s a roadless, traffic-free, rural idyll, where uniformed children go to school in canoes, coconut trees rustle in the constant breeze and almost every view takes in the shallow, azure sea, teeming with marine life.
Once installed at your chosen lodging, you can do what most people do here – nothing more strenuous than turning the next page or taking another sip – or you can stroll around the island’s perimeter, passing its clutch of low-key hotels, through fields and gardens and across streams and beaches. Some hotels and guesthouses have bicycles to rent. The best snorkelling spots right off the beach are on the west coast from the northern tip to about as far south as Sambatra Beach Lodge. Further south the beach is narrower and the water deeper.
As for its fauna and flora, Île aux Nattes boasts the world’s only black orchid, the rather sinister-looking Cymbidiella falcigera, but no chameleons (one explanation is that superstitious locals exterminated them), while the island’s lemurs are mostly semi-tame hotel introductions. In season, humpback whales pass just beyond the reef on the west coast.
THE HUMPBACKS OF SAINTE MARIE
Between June and September the seas of eastern Madagascar, and particularly the Baie d’Antongil, are witness to an annual invasion of cavorting humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Leaving their summer feeding grounds in the krill-rich waters of Antarctica, they stream north to the sheltered shallows of Antongil Bay and the west coast of Île Ste Marie where they calve and mate.
Always one of the most entertaining of the baleen whales (toothless filter feeders), with their outlandishly long flippers, humpbacks – which can grow to 15m in length and weigh more than 30 tonnes – spend much of their time in this area simply enjoying themselves – slapping their fins, breaching and singing to each other as they welcome the newborns. After the males have competed for their selected females with bouts of mock fighting and wave-making, the couples pair up to mate. The babies, which suckle their mothers like other mammals, are born eleven months after conception.
WHALE-WATCHING
The western coast of Île Sainte Marie is one of the best
places in the world for shore-based whale-watching, as humpbacks of
all sizes can often be seen as little as 100m from the beach,
heading north in the early part of the season and back south again
later on. Many hotels also offer boat
trips to watch the whales and usually follow the
internationally observed conventions of whale-watching, designed to
keep humans safe and cetaceans safe from harassment. Typical trips
last a couple of hours and cost 60,000ar. In the north, La Crique and Atafana are recommended bases (both very close to the
Madagascar mainland) and in the south, Libertalia, Princesse Bora
and Sambaftra Beach Lodge. For news and
information on marine mammals and baleen whales in the Indian Ocean,
visit megaptera.org.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ÎLE SAINTE MARIE
By plane The tiny airport terminal building, in the far south of the
island, has an Air Madagascar operations office (they also do
last-minute sales here) and a simple snack bar run by a helpful
couple, with whom you may be able to leave luggage. Taxis from the
airport to town cost 10,000ar. The main Air Madagascar office is at
rue Dominique Dadare, 50m to the right off the main street in
Ambodifotatra, just north of Hortensia
( 020 57 400 46 or 032 07 222 08;
Mon–Fri 7.30am–noon & 2.30–7.30pm; Sat
8–10.30am). There are no direct flights to points north of
Île Sainte Marie: you have to fly back to the mainland.
Flight frequencies vary with the season.
Destinations Antananarivo (at least daily; 1hr); Tamatave (several weekly; 25–30min).
By boat Sainte Marie’s main port is the little harbour at
Barrachois, in the middle of Ambodifotatra. Ferry companies include
Cap-Sainte-Marie at Barrachois port ( 020 57 404 06 or
032 05 118 08, cap-sainte-marie.com); Melissa Express in Ambodifotatra
( 033 18 732 69, on.fb.me/19IynnM);
and Sainte Marie Tours ( 034 55 597 43, travelinemadagascar.com). Subject to good weather, daily
departures to Soanierana-Ivongo are at 6am. Ferries also operate to the Madagascar mainland, just 7km
across the channel, from the small village of Lokintsy, near La Crique hotel.
GETTING AROUND
Bike and quad rental La Marina, across the street from Air Madagascar ( 032 04
328 11 or 034 13 653 64) is a reliable
outlet for quad bikes (250,000ar/day) and scooters (40,000ar/day)
both popular ways of getting around the island.
By tuk-tuk and taxi Tuk-tuks and a few taxis potter up and down the tarmac road. You can hail one anywhere, especially in town. Also in Ambodifotatra you’ll find pousse-pousses.
ACCOMMODATION
There’s a one-off tourist tax of 10,000ar per person to stay on Sainte Marie, usually paid at your first hotel.
AMBODIFOTATRA
La Bigorne Main street 032 76 653 08
or 032 04 619 20. Small,
long-established place that does great food (seafood
10,000–30,000ar) and has a few rooms. 35,000ar
Hortensia Main street 020 57 403
69. A good choice if you’re staying
in town, this has decent, well-looked-after rooms with nets over
the beds and a very nice seafront dining room (breakfast 5000ar,
steak-frites 12,000ar, lobster
meal 24,000ar) with a shady garden terrace right above the
waves. 21,000ar
La Marina Near Air Madagascar 032 04 328
11 or 034 13 653 64. Two
self-contained apartments (sleeping 2–4), with good-sized
living areas and reasonably equipped kitchens. €35
NORTH OF AMBODIFOTATRA
Atafana 10km north of Ambodifotatra, down a 300m
track from the road 032 70 252 50, atafana.net. Nine bungalows with hot water,
24-hour electricity and fans – simple but very pleasant,
right on the beach, and all very Malagasy. In season, whales
pass just a few hundred metres from the shore here. Breakfast
10,000ar and meals from 12,000ar. 80,000ar
La Crique 15km north of Ambodifotatra 034
03 117 25 05, lacrique-saintemarie.com. One of the
longest-established hotels on the island, opened in 1972,
La Crique has one of Sainte
Marie’s finest beaches, a perfect cove of palm-shaded
sand. The owner-managed set-up has ten simple but comfortable
en-suite bungalows, with thoughtful skylights above the
bathrooms and all with charging points (generator on
9am–2pm & 9.30–10.30pm, and mains
electricity should arrive during 2015), and there are also
bungalows with shared facilities for low-budget travellers. The
location, charming staff and excellent cooking (great seafood
dishes on a 35,000ar menu) are what bring back the repeat guests
decade after decade. Wi-fi (when the generator is on). €36
Le Rocher 11km north of Ambodifotatra 032
61 479 69, lerocher.emilienne.free.fr. Also known
as Chez Emilienne, this simple local
place offers en-suite rooms with hot water and 24hr electricity
but no fans. There’s a 10,000ar menu du
jour. 30,000ar
Sainte Marie Lodge 22km north of Ambodifotatra 034
19 059 52, hotel-saintemarielodge-madagascar.com.
The former Eden Be Lodge was reopened
by its owner-managers in 2014 as a rather high-end boutique
hotel, partly hosted by them. Beautifully conceived, in an airy
and light plantation style, each room has a fridge and safe.
Good food, mostly French with gasy
touches. Half board €110
Les Tipaniers 35km north of Ambodifotatra 020
57 907 07 or 033 25 172 14, tipaniers.com. With its stunning location
– admittedly a good hour from the airport –
impeccable attention to detail, smart bungalows and superb food,
this rates as one of the nicest hotels in Madagascar.
There’s crystal-clear snorkelling straight off the beach
and magical forest all around. 115,000ar
SOUTH OF AMBODIFOTATRA
Adonys Eden Lodge 2.5km from the airport, on the east
coast 032 64 019 46, adonysedenlodge.net. This stylish
oceanfront hotel is one of the few openly gay-friendly places to
stay in Madagascar. Impressive and sturdy ocean-facing rooms
incorporate lounges and lavish bathrooms. Half board €180
Ecolodge Ravoraha 400m from the airport building
032 40 513 90, ravoraha.com. Tucked between village
compounds, this attentively managed and very pleasant beach
hotel has great-value bungalows with nets, fans and safes, and
excellent bathrooms (€36), as well as four simple,
cheaper rooms above the main building sharing bathrooms. No
pool, but good sea depth, even at low tide. Wi-fi. Often full.
B&B €22
Lakana 5km south of the causeway 032 02
132 84, sainte-marie-hotel.com. Set in a broad
bay, this lodge has fourteen falafa
bungalows accessed by a wooden jetty right above the calm waters
of the lagoon. There’s no a/c or fans, but each has its
own shower (on land); toilets, also on land, are shared. There
are also en-suite bungalows on land with fans. 24hr electricity.
Security can be an issue. 126,000ar
Libertalia 500m south of the causeway 032 02
923 03, lelibertalia.com. Named after the
mythical seventeenth-century free pirate state, this is a very well done, low-key
rustic-chic hotel in a convenient location. Learner dives are
run at the splendid rocky outcrop just offshore, linked by a
jetty. Rooms are good value and well furnished, with nets, fans
and safes. Wi-fi. 135,000ar
Princesse Bora 1km from the airport building 032
07 090 48, www.princesse-bora.com. Sainte
Marie’s best – and one of Madagascar’s
finest – beach hotels. Set among lush gardens, bungalows
have fans, 24hr electricity and hot water (deluxe ones also have
a/c). There are two pools – one freshwater, the other
salt-water (and swimmable at all tides) – as well as an
impressive wine cellar and some very characterful and
interesting public areas. The island’s top dive school
– keen, professional and fun – is located here and
waterskiing, wake-boarding and deep-sea fishing are also on
offer. Wi-fi. Half board €195
ÎLE AUX NATTES
Analatsara West coast 032 02 127 70,
analatsara.com. Owned and run by a
French publisher, this all-inclusive, boutique beach lodge is
one of the best places on Île aux Nattes, with an
untranslatable French ambiance
(“Analatsara est une parenthèse suspendu dans le
temps”). The six individual bungalows feature 24hr solar
and generator electricity, proper mattresses, safes and fans.
There’s often a party atmosphere, but the whole place is
family-friendly. Tame lemurs frolic, classical music drifts
through the palms and the wine flows. Wi-fi. Half board €116
Baboo Village Northeast coast 032 04 791
26, baboo-village.com. Highly regarded
east-coast lodge – sister hotel to Les
Trois Métis in Tana – with an
attractive jetty and sea deck, and nicely finished bungalows
either over the water or in the gardens behind. B&B
€92
La Petite Traversée Northeast coast 034 91 606
48, madxperience.com. Popular with South
Africans and other anglophones, this chummy beach lodge oozes
the personality of its affably eccentric Afrikaner
owner-manager: there are tame lemurs, AC/DC on the stereo and
evenings of board games and poker and discussions about the
meaning of life, the universe and everything. Good mattresses on
the beds, but the rooms and bathrooms can be dark –
choose carefully. Dishes (most often pizza) around 15,000ar,
three-course dinner with a choice 30,000ar. Generator
8–10am & 5–10pm. Periodic wi-fi. B&B
€80
Sambatra Beach Lodge Northwest coast 033 76 834
99, www.sambatrabeachlodge.com. The former
Chez Regine has been completely
rebuilt by its new South African owners and now has six stylish
but rustic en-suite falafa beachfront
bungalows and a bar under the coconut palms. There’s a
football pitch next door (informal matches Wed & Sun).
40,000ar
EATING, DRINKING AND ENTERTAINMENT
For self-caterers, the supermarket on the main street in Ambodifotatra has a limited range of food and other goods (Mon–Sat 7.30am–noon & 2.30–6pm, Sun 7.30–11am).
AMBODIFOTATRA
Banane Main street 032 02 280
26. Once a must-go bar-resto-chambres, this centrally located
establishment is now somewhat in decline. On offer are a pool
table, cards, drinks and snacks (from 3000ar). Daily (hours vary).
Belle-vue Disco & Cabaret Just south of the Ambodifotatra causeway
034 70 644 28. Dutch-Malagasy
enterprise that’s really a restaurant (look out for
tenrec and fruit bat on the menu) and traditional live music
venue. Good food in the 20,000–30,000ar bracket. Daily (hours vary).
Choco Pain Main street. Good-value boulangerie-pâtisserie, with croissants and pains au chocolate 1300ar, country bread 3000ar and baguettes 500ar. Daily 5am–1pm & 3–7.30pm (closed Wed, half-day Sun).
Coral Bleu Main street 034 48 530
26. Very pretty little restaurant,
specializing in gasy dishes
(“Bien Manger À Petit Prix”) with such
delights as coconut octopus (5000ar) and zebu stew with cassava
leaves (6000ar). Daily 8am–late
(closed Wed).
L’Idylle Beach Main street 032 48 684
81, idyllebeach.com. Chic and fun, this is
the most stylish place in town for a meal (around 20,000ar),
cocktail on the veranda (5000ar and up) or a comfortable
overnight stay (135,000ar). Daily (hours
vary).
La Paillotte Main street 032 40 500
06. Big-screen sports bar with a pool table
and pizzas from 9000–13,000ar, salads around 16,000ar and
THB beers at 5000ar. Gets crowded at
weekends and holiday times. Daily
8am–9pm or later when busy.
Pizza Mama Santa Opposite Hortensia, Main street
032 50 109 51. Popular pizza
parlour (10,000–14,000ar) and a good place for breakfast
(4000–8000ar). Daily
7am–9pm.
Maroantsetra
Almost cut off from the rest of Madagascar, with forested hills rising sheer in the distance, the back-of-beyond town of MAROANTSETRA seems a suitable introduction to the wild and wet Masoala region, which protects the Baie d’Antongil from the rough seas of the Indian Ocean. The town’s rainfall averages around 4000m, with downpours almost every day of the year.
Spanning the delta of the Antainambalana River, this friendly settlement of sandy streets and wooden houses sprawls northwards from its beach on the Baie d’Antongil into a hinterland of rice paddies and bush near the airport. Most of Maroantsetra’s simple hotels, eating houses, shops and offices line the one main street, which leads from the airport into town. A crisscross of sandy lanes to the east of town runs out to the riverbank which serves as a cargo port.
There are no compelling reasons to stay long in Maroantsetra: the beach is a shadeless, working fishing strand rather than a place to relax, and most of your time in town is likely to be spent organizing a visit to Nosy Mangabe and Masoala. While you’re here, look out for some of the herpetofauna of the region, including brilliant scarlet tomato frogs (Dyscophus antongilii), easily found in the puddles and streams around the town’s vegetable gardens, and panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis), the males of which are spectacularly emblazoned in ginger, green and ice-blue.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MAROANTSETRA
By plane Maroantsetra airport is 8km from the town centre. Taxis meet arriving flights and cost 15,000ar to anywhere in town. Air Madagascar’s office is in the Ramanandraibe Exportation building at the north end of the main street.
Destinations Antalaha (2 weekly; 30min); Antananarivo (weekly; 1hr 40min); Sambava (weekly; 30min); Tamatave (2 weekly; 1hr 15min).
By taxi brousse The following companies brave the notorious RN5 to Tamatave (2 days
minimum;) and
have offices in Maroantsetra: Kofifen ( 033 11 640 95
or 032 57 161 14); Kofiman ( 032 79 008
66 or 033 79 648 86 or 034 12 675
87); Cotransu ( 033 79 647 67).
By boat Melissa Express, in the Botika Orange (Orange Mobile office) on the main street
( 032 02 581 85), runs a weekly ferry service
to Soanierana-Ivongo via Mananara, with a shuttle
connection to Tamatave.
For speedboat travel to Nosy Mangabe and the Parc National de
Masoala, see Arrival and
departure.
GETTING AROUND
By taxi The town doesn’t have pousse-pousses or tuk-tuks. There are a few taxis and any hotel or restaurant will call one for you (3000–15,000ar depending on distance).
Bicycle rental Coco Beach Hotel and one or two other outlets rent out bikes for 10,000ar per day.
INFORMATION
Madagascar National Parks office In the town centre ( 032 02 675 72). There are
several guides in Maroantsetra, who run trips to Nosy Mangabe and
the Parc National de Masoala.
Services The BOA in the town centre has an ATM. Larger shops in town will also exchange cash euros for ariary, usually at around 5 percent less than the bank.
ACCOMMODATION
Most of Maroantsetra’s hotels are located near the beach south of town, across the narrow bridge over the creek.
Coco Beach On the south bank of the Antainabalana
creek, 300m from the town bridge 033 12 089 26 or
032 04 807 58. Prettily located,
this would-be resort hotel in a coconut grove has bungalows with
showers and shared toilets at the cheapest end of the scale, as well
as larger a/c bungalows (60,000ar). There’s a restaurant and
bar but it’s all a bit quiet and there’s not much
security. Camping 6000ar, rooms
26,000ar
Masoala Resort On the beach, 1km from the town bridge
033 15 051 52, masoalaresort.com. There’s a variety
of rooms here, with fans or a/c, but the mishmash of fussy styles
and the general feeling of neglect make it hard to recommend. Locals
liven up the bar-restaurant at weekends (extensive menu, most dishes
around 20,000ar). Wi-fi throughout. 110,000ar
La Pagode Main street. It doesn’t look much from the street, but the tidy bungalows – en suite and with mosquito nets – ranged along either side of the yard at the back are well kept and good value (10,000ar extra for hot water). The attached restaurant (daily 6am–7pm) is reliable. 30,000ar
Relais du Masoala Behind the beach, 1.8km from the town bridge
032 40 213 81, relaisdumasoala.com. Maroantsetra’s
top address, in attractive, spacious gardens with a pool. The
stylish bungalows (sleeping up to four people) have 24hr
electricity, fans (no a/c), and mosquito nets on frames.
There’s a pretty lily-covered creek between the hotel and the
seashore, but no shade on the beach – nor much reason to
spend time there. 206,000ar
EATING AND DRINKING
Avia Mona Tucked away off the main street 032
74 009 94. Very popular gasy restaurant, whose dishes, including steak-frites,
mine sao and crevettes romazava, are nearly all 5000ar. Daily 7am–8pm.
Chez Tantine Main street 034 12 366
33. One of Maroantsetra’s best-known
institutions, with a long menu of Chinese and Malagasy dishes,
including deep-fried eel and rice (4000ar) and duck in sauce with
rice (3500ar). Daily
7am–8pm.
Rive Droite By the bridge 034 05 555
13. This place, on the left bank of the creek as it happens, is one of the
town’s most prominent watering holes and evening hangouts, in
a good location on piles over the water. It’s occasionally
mildly sleazy – not everyone is here to watch the sun go down
over a beer – but friendly enough. Snack meals (from 5000ar),
TV and banter. Daily (hours vary).
Réserve Spéciale de Nosy Mangabe
Park Category B, 10,000ar;
same ticket for PN de Masoala • parcs-madagascar.com
It’s hard to imagine an isle that could better bring to life the Treasure Island of legend than Nosy Mangabe. As you approach it from Maroantsetra, its steep flanks, festooned with rainforest trees from sea to summit, look all but impenetrable; low clouds drift through the dense canopy of forest giants and flocks of white egrets crowd their branches.
The island, thought to be one of the earliest human settlements in Madagascar, was colonized some 1200 years ago, and has a long history as a secure bolthole in a region of rough seas – though it no longer has any permanent inhabitants. European slave traders and pirates made it a base in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and most of its trees were felled for fuel and boat-building. Later the forest recovered and the island is once again thickly covered in lowland rainforest. Cultural artefacts remain here, in the shape of Betsimisaraka tombs and seventeenth-century Dutch rock engravings.
NOSY MANGABE’S HISTORICAL SITES
Nosy Mangabe’s only landing beach is on the west shore, where a glorious 500-metre crescent of sand is backed by a fringe of gently sloping forest, fishermen’s huts at the southern end, and the national parks office and some basic visitor facilities at the northern end. The walk behind the beach continues past the visitor centre to a picturesque bridge over a stream and a waterfall where you can swim, and then continues north to the Dutch engravings at the Plage des Hollandais (around 7km) – a crop of names carved into giant rocks on the sand, also easily reach by sea. The inscriptions date from between 1601 and 1657 and archeologists have established that, far being a collection of “Thomas was here” graffiti, they are the remnants of an informal postal service, whose carvers used this spot to leave letters, wrapped in tar cloth envelopes, to be picked up by ships passing in the opposite direction.
As you head inland, a steep circular trail leads up to the summit of the island and back again to the fishing huts (about 6km) via some old Betsimisaraka tombs and the lighthouse. There’s a map at the visitor centre covered with alluring pictograms of the animals you’ll see en route.
Wildlife
Just five square kilometres in extent, rising steeply to a summit of 264m, Nosy Mangabe’s big draw is its remarkable forest and wildlife. On such a small island, so magnificently endowed with natural riches, every step you take is a delight. It’s an easy stroll along the main path through the woods behind the beach, which is broad and level, and the best one to explore if you’re short on time. Walking here can be very slow progress, as you stop every couple of metres to look at something on either side or overhead.
Lemurs
The island is home to five species of lemurs. Three of these are nocturnal: a still unidentified mouse lemur, the greater dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus major) and – notoriously – the aye-aye. Aye-ayes were brought from the mainland to Nosy Mangabe in 1966 when they were thought to be on the verge of extinction. They flourished here and were seen quite often for several decades. Since the turn of the century, however, sightings have been very rare, and with night walks forbidden (after two visitors made off with suitcases loaded with fauna), your only opportunity will be a highly unlikely sighting by day or a chance encounter at dawn. You will see their untidy nests though, and large of flakes of bark at the base of afzelia trees: Nosy Mangabe is the only area where aye-ayes are known to eat bark.
While you probably won’t see an aye-aye, both species of diurnal lemurs are likely to visit you around the visitor centre: the male white-fronted brown (Eulemur albifrons) is noticeable for his white beard, cheeks and crown; the plain brown female looks like a different species. The rare local variety of the black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata subcincta) is unmistakeable and particularly inquisitive. Nosy Mangabe is one of their last secure habitats.
Lizards and insects
On walks through the woods, your guide will be eager to find you a leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus fimbriatus), an extraordinarily well-camouflaged lizard whose markings and scaly flaps blend perfectly with tree bark. If you’ve done your homework you may see the adult geckos independently of your guide: resting on trees alongside the path and measuring up to about 25cm in length, they spend the daylight hours asleep, head downwards, clinging tightly to small tree trunks. Even when spotted, they tend not to flee, but rear up, open their mouths threateningly, wag their tails and issue a high-pitched squeal. One explanation for why these lizards are so common is the strange absence of couas from the island’s bird list; blue couas in particular are very partial to soft, hatchling geckos.
Other lizards to look out for are the emerald-green, skink-like arboreal Zonosaurus boettgeri and its humbler forest-floor-based cousin Z. madagascariensis. Also down in the leaf litter you’ll find tiny Brookesia chameleons: B.superciliaris, with its comically raised “eyebrows” is aptly named. In the bushes, look out for bigger chameleons too, and for some huge caterpillars: one species, bright red, with large “eyes” on its side seems bent on convincing predators it’s another predator.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: RÉSERVE SPÉCIALE DE NOSY MANGABE
By boat The only way onto Nosy Mangabe is by boat.
Tourist information There’s a visitor centre and Madagascar parks office by the landing beach where you pay your park fees (or they check if they’ve been paid already) and they’ll help you with information and any practical assistance you might need. Guides can be arranged in Maroantsetra.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Nosy Mangabe camping There’s no accommodation on the island, but there are tent shelters dotted around the landing beach, and shelters with tables and chairs, as well as a basic shared kitchen, showers and toilets. Clean, drinkable spring water is available but you need to bring all your other food and drink requirements. Camping 5000ar
Parc National de Masoala
Park Category B, 10,000ar;
same ticket for RS Nosy Mangabe • parcs-madagascar.com
You might want to make the Parc National de Masoala one of your main goals in Madagascar: there is nowhere else like it in the country, or indeed perhaps on earth. Along its western side, the park is dominated by steep, north–south mountain ridges, and in places the rainforest rises almost straight up from the shore to misty heights more than 1000m above sea level in the space of a few kilometres. The park’s western districts have the highest rainfall in Madagascar, recording an average of 6000m, or more than six times the UK’s rainfall.
Masoala National Park was founded in 1997 with close support from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and Zurich Zoo, and at 2400 square kilometres is Madagascar’s biggest and most remote protected area, covering much of the Masoala peninsula. Heavily encroached by illegal logging, it still contains vast swathes of primary rainforest tumbling down the steep hillsides and right over golden beaches along the shore of the Baie d’Antongil. There’s a dazzling super-abundance of flora and fauna here, including more than a hundred species of palms, 76 frogs, 72 reptiles, 85 birds and ten species of lemur.
March, April and August are the wettest months and September to November the least rainy. The best time to visit Masoala is roughly from the end of August to December, ideally October or November. It still rains frequently during these months but the dry spells are much longer and the sea calmer. Access is difficult and needs some planning and flexibility: only one road even comes close to the park, and most visitors arrive by boat from Maroantsetra, either independently, or having booked one of the lodges that provide boat transfers. The rewards are a true sense of adventure and exploration in an exceptionally beautiful environment, with almost limitless opportunities to see some of the world’s most outstanding animals and plants in their natural habitat.
Along the coast
Most people arrive by boat along the beach near the tiny hamlet of Ambodiforaha, where there’s a cluster of tourist lodges stretching for a few kilometres along the shore. From behind the lodges, there are several routes into the park, including the Circuit Varignena, which starts at an almost imperceptible break in the wall of jungle just past the northernmost lodge, the Petit Relais de Masoala. It’s also a fine 3km walk along the coast from the Petit Relais to Tampolo Point. At low tide you can walk much of the way on the beach itself, where natural beachcombings (no oil or plastic bottles here), ranging from contorted bamboo roots to delicate flower blooms, add to the pleasure, though there’s also a trail through the forest just a few steps above the high-tide mark which provides welcome shade when it’s sunny. Along the way there are several streams, some easily fordable, others requiring use of the community-operated pirogue-ferries that stand by to carry passengers from dawn to dusk (no charge).
South of Tampolo Point, a 7km string of beaches borders the Tampolo Marine Park, a superb area to snorkel, but only accessible by chartering a boat for the day from one of the lodges.
Hiking in the interior
The only access to the interior of the Masoala rainforest is on foot, and this is hard-core hiking county: the paths up through the forest are often steep and narrow, covered in mossy boulders and slippery roots. There are rushing, picture-postcard streams to cross, decked with dripping foliage. The atmosphere is so humid that, despite temperatures in the high 20s, your breath mists in front of your face and steams up spectacles and camera lenses. It’s exactly like being in a tropical butterfly house. Water drips constantly from the foliage above, and every few hours there’s another downpour, interrupting the sun’s efforts to illuminate the understorey – and making photography, in the half light, very challenging. Biting flies (though happily few mosquitoes or leeches) add to the ambience. All the while, however, your discomfort is allayed by the continual distraction of a multitude of life forms, from leaping lemurs to birds in the undergrowth, frogs in tree ferns, chameleons and snakes in the vines overhead and a profusion of insects and other invertebrates all around you.
Flora
The forest giants whose buttress-roots you scramble over include 30m Canarium trees (ramy in Malagasy, the traditional source of timber for dug-out canoes) and endangered Dalbergia rosewoods (D. maritima and D. baronii), while the lower storeys of the forest are a complex ecosystem, with more than a hundred species of palm and 155 types of fern, as well as many orchids and other epiphytes and climbing lianas. A new species of locally endemic carnivorous pitcher plant – the dangerous-looking Nepenthes masoalensis – was recently discovered here, and hitherto unknown plants and animals from Masoala are described every year.
Wildlife
Larger animals to look out for include: the easily seen and very distinctive red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra), a very vocal fruit-eating lemur which is endemic to the Masoala peninsula; the white-fronted brown lemur (Eulemur albifrons); and the very rare brown-tailed mongoose (Salanoia concolor), a fluffy-tailed diurnal hunter of the forest floor. Walking after dark, you may well see the eyes of a Masoala fork-marked lemur (Phaner furcifer) or, if you’re very lucky, the locally endemic Masoala woolly lemur (Avahi mooreorum) or Masoala sportive lemur (Lepilemur scottorum), both of which were discovered as recently as 2008. More than a dozen species of bats take to the night skies, including the huge Madagascar flying fox (Pteropus rufus) – often seen before sunset, flying off to feeding areas.
Birds of Masoala include the highly endangered Madagascar serpent eagle (Eutriorchis astur) and the rarely seen Bernier’s vanga (Oriolia bernieri), helmet vanga (Euryceros prevostii) and scaly ground roller (Geobiastes squamigerus).
As many as half of Madagascar’s estimated 400 species of frogs are thought to live only in Masoala, many of them completely unstudied, so that next to nothing is known about their breeding habits. Stand by any stream for a minute or two and you’re likely to spot several attractive species – hopping over your boot, gulping on a rock or on a shiny leaf, or kicking through the water.
Insects are legion, but the lepidoptera stand out: of more than 130 species of butterflies and moths, Masoala has at least five known only from the peninsula. The stunningly coloured, fast-flying sunset moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus) can often be seen flitting through the tree blossoms over Ambodiforaha beach.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL DE MASOALA
From Maroantsetra The easiest part of the national park to visit is the Tampolo area
on the west coast of the peninsula, usually accessed by sea (roughly
1hr 30min–2hr by boat from Maroantsetra). In Maroantsetra, La
Vivanette, on the north bank of the creek, by the bridge next to the
Rive Droite ( 032 02 039
10 or 034 10 986 12), offers speedboat
rental in the Baie d’Antongil: from 120,000ar round trip to
Nosy Mangabe and 470,000ar round trip to Masoala’s
central-west coast (both rates for 1 or 2 people). There’s a
30,000ar supplement for each night you’re away and
you’ll need to negotiate if you intend to include Nosy
Mangabe and Masoala on the same trip.
From Antalaha The alternative access to the park is from the northeast, leaving the surfaced road at Antalaha, and following the earth road south to Ambohitralanana, some 5km inland from Cap Est, Madagascar’s easternmost point. From Ambohitralanana you go inland by pirogue up the Onive (or Ankavanana) River and then hike into the park from the north.
TOURS
Guides There are several guides in Maroantsetra, licensed by Madagascar
National Parks to take visitors by boat to Nosy Mangabe and the Parc
National de Masoala. Most also have experience of the 4-day hike to
the Tampolo area (where the park’s lodges are clustered), the
4–5-day hike to Antalaha and the 6-day hike to Cap Est.
Francklin “Donna English” Razanadrafara ( 032 21
230 81 or 033 42 656 67,
donna1983@hotmail.fr) is reliable and experienced
though only self-taught in natural history. His rates for guiding
are around 35,000ar/day. For those planning to camp or stay in
village accommodation, a cook will be another 15,000ar per day and
you should allow 20,000–30,000ar per visitor per day for
food.
ACCOMMODATION
The tourist lodges in the park are clustered together around the Tampolo area. Unless specified, the following rates don’t include any extras, but in practice you normally book a “package” in advance, including park fees, transfers and most activities.
Arol EcoLodge North side of Ambodiforaha village
032 44 007 76, arollodge.free.fr. An attractive, older
lodge in a clearing right next to the forest, with four twin-bedded
bungalows (one double and one single bed) and two double-storey
family houses (all with hot water) and five older double bungalows
with cold water. There’s a central, open-sided restaurant
area. Not fancy, but excellent value all round. Arol is active in
the community and operates good treks. Rates include all transfers,
fees and activities. Full board from €212
Chez Madame Méline Ambodiforaha village, metres from the beach
032 58 477 12. There are four simple
bungalows here, with basic beds and bedding, shared bucket showers
and clean toilets. Meals available. Bungalows 20,000ar, camping 10,000ar
L’Hippocampe 032 64 418 99 or 032 70 346 95,
madahippocampe.com. Simple, wood-and-palm
bungalows built around a big tree by the beach, with a bar. Limited
electricity and basic bathrooms with cold water only. 100,000ar
Masoala Forest Lodge masoalaforestlodge.com. Dedicated to working
with the Masoala community and natural environment, this South
African-owned and managed safari-style camp has seven comfortable
canvas tents on high platforms set among the trees, with thatched
roofs and plumbed-in bathrooms below. Meals are hosted and
there’s a full programme of activities, including
sea-kayaking trips. Full board, including some activities €540
Masoala Vanilla Lodge Just south of Ambodiforaha 032 40 773
39, masoalavanillalodges.mg. Malagasy-owned lodge among the trees; bungalows have
electricity and shared bathrooms. 40,000ar
Petit Relais du Masoala Just south of the Lohatrozona River
032 02 162 00, relaisdumasoala.com. Satellite lodge of the
main Relais du Masoala at Maroantsetra,
with stylish and unusually light and airy dark-wood, thatched,
en-suite chalets set on the slopes above the beach and the
dining-bar terrace. With nets on frames, safes, generous bathrooms
and large decks, this is the most luxurious accommodation in
Masoala, and there are big discounts if you stay several nights,
though all the extras add considerably to the cost. Full board
€349
Tampolodge On the south bank of the Tampolo River
034 317 47 97 or 032 427 13
37, tampolodge.com. This Italian-owned lodge has
the most stunning location in Masoala, between the creek and the
sea, with tumbling rainforest hills providing the backdrop. The
bungalows, right on the beach, are quite rustic (verging on basic)
but the dining-bar-lounge areas are beautiful. The office, in
Maroantsetra at the south end of the bridge, is open Mon–Fri
8–11am & 2–4pm, Sat 8–11am. Full board
€200
Sava – the Vanilla Coast
The relatively wealthy far northeast coast is Madagascar’s prime region for the cultivation and export of vanilla, local prosperity being tied umbilically to the fortunes of the flavoursome pods on world markets. In the early years of this century this Sava region (named after the initials of its main towns) experienced an unprecedented economic boom as vanilla prices rose steeply – roads and airports were built and thousands of migrants moved here – and then a crash as vanilla prices plummeted. This coast is also notoriously prone to cyclones: in March 2004 it was devastated by Cyclone Gafilo, the most intense cyclone ever recorded in the southwest Indian Ocean, and a string of slightly less devastating storms mangled the region in 2007.
Today, Sava remains a relatively well-off area, with the surfaced road between Antalaha and Vohemar one of the best in the country, though the scruffy signs of bust-after-boom, cyclone damage and subsequent repair are everywhere. Inland, in the mountains west of Sambava, are the remote parks of Marojejy and Andanaharibe-Sud – very worthwhile targets if you have a few days.
Leaving the coast at Vohemar to cross Madagascar towards Nosy Be and Diego Suarez, the RN5A is extremely rough and slow. Part-way along this route, near Daraina, there’s the opportunity to see one of Madagascar’s rarest and most beautiful lemurs.
PLAIN VANILLA
A native of Mexico, vanilla (which just means “little pod” in Spanish) was first planted in Madagascar in the 1800s. It is the only one of 30,000-plus species of orchids around the world that produces a fruit. To be exact, the 110-species genus of Vanilla is the only one that produces fruit – of which just two species, Vanilla planifolia and Vanilla tahitensis are grown commercially. Like many orchids, vanilla is a vine, and sends out aerial roots to its host or support. In vanilla plantations, the vines are grown on support trees especially planted for the purpose.
Vanilla – much taken for granted in everything from fizzy drinks to ice cream – is a serious business, and one of the most labour intensive crops in the world. Every blossom, for example, has to be pollinated by hand – in its natural state in Mexico, the plant is pollinated exclusively by a single species of bee. Although the vanilla orchid needs plenty of warmth, water and sun, it also needs a good deal of shade, so plantations are typically established beneath the scattered “forest giant” remnants of virgin rainforest. Once the pods have been ripened and picked, a process of washing in hot water and slow drying has to take place (taking several weeks) before they are properly cured and ready for export, with tiny crystals of pure vanillin, crusting the black, twisted surface. That substance, vanillin, can now be manufactured synthetically – to the delight of the big food conglomerates. Fortunately for the vanilla growers of Sava, artisanal production and organic methods also have a market, especially among connoisseurs of one of the world’s most underrated flavours.
Antalaha
ANTALAHA, with its airport, is a practical gateway town for Masoala and an obvious stepping stone for Marojejy. As well as the legitimate vanilla business, with plantations all around (and opportunities to visit and learn something about cultivation and preparation; ask in town), Antalaha is a centre for illegal rosewood exports: the trade has made some here very rich.
The town stretches for several kilometres along the coast behind the beach, which is protected by a reef. Even so, you should be very careful if you swim, as the sea is rough and the tides and currents strong: the port itself is probably the most sheltered area.
Macolline
33,500ar including lunch • macolline.org
For some insights into the local environment, visit the Macolline botanical gardens on the south side of the bridge over the Ankavanana River, 4km north of the port.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: ANTALAHA
By plane Antalaha’s airport is at Antsirabato, 12km south of the
town centre (10,000ar by taxi). Air Madagascar is on av de
l’Indépendance ( 033 12 222 40 or
032 07 222 13).
Destinations Antananarivo (weekly; 2hr); Maroantsetra (2 weekly; 30min); Tamatave (2 weekly; 1hr–1hr 25min).
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse run frequently north to Sambava (2–3hr; 5000ar) and Vohemar (6–8hr; 10,000ar).
Services There are ATMs at all three major banks in town.
GETTING AROUND
Taxis to most points in town cost 3000ar, or 5000ar as far as the river bridge for the taxi brousse departure point to Sambava.
ACCOMMODATION
Vitasoa rue du Havre, just off the seafront by
the port 032 07 520 90 or 032 04 165
02. There’s good value and
convenience at this very central standby, with a choice of rooms
on two floors, or separate bungalows, all en suite with fans and
hot water. 30,000ar
Sambava
The biggest town in the northeast, SAMBAVA is something of a regional tourism hub, and offers the only practical access to the Parc National de Marojejy and Réserve Speciale de Anjanaharibe-Sud. The town spreads along the coast between the sandy shore and a brackish creek, narrowing to a strip of land just a couple of hundred metres wide at the northern end of the centre, where the coast road crosses the creek and a river delta. On the other side of the bridge, the poorer quarters of town stretch inland to the north of the river. If you’re looking for beach time, you’ll find that the coast at Sambava is fringed with broad and beautiful strands, but the sea here is dangerous. The most sheltered area is the north-facing bay near the airport, 400m down the first right turning on the way into town.
Leaving Sambava northwards, the road twists and turns through a heavily populated region of farms and secondary forest, with numerous police checkpoints as far as Ampanefena. Further north, the scene changes as the road straightens over long stretches of empty bush and scrub, and spans numerous single-lane bridges before reaching Vohemar.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: SAMBAVA
By plane Sambava’s airport is close to the centre, on the south
side of town (5000ar by taxi). Air Madagascar is on rue du
Commerce ( 020 88 920 37 or 033 11 222
17; Mon–Fri 8–11.30am &
2.30–5pm).
Destinations Antananarivo (2 weekly; 1hr 15min); Diego Suarez (weekly; 35min); Maroantsetra (weekly; 30min).
By taxi brousse There’s no real gare routière for taxis brousse: they gather on the west side of town, along the road out to Vohemar.
Destinations Antalaha (frequent; 2hr; 8000ar); Vohemar (frequent; 3–4hr; 5000ar).
Services The major banks all have ATMs.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Mimi Hôtel
Resto-Pâtisserie 032 07 610 28, mimi-hotel.marojejy.com. A really useful
base for organizing trips to the Marojejy area, with twelve
rooms on the ground and first floors, and four bungalows. They
have a salon de thé for snacks
(daily 7.15am–1.30pm & 3–8.30pm) and a
restaurant (daily 8.15am–2.30pm &
6–8.30pm). Most dishes cost 7000ar; try the house
speciality – duck with vanilla and smoked bacon
(14,000ar). 35,000ar
Andapa
Set beneath dramatic, forested mountains, in a landscape of rice fields known as the Andapa Basin, friendly little ANDAPA makes a good base for visiting the nearby parks. It’s surrounded by irrigated rice fields – this is one of the country’s most important rice-growing areas – and there are big coffee plantations on the slopes. The decent, surfaced road up to Andapa is a spectacular switchback following the course of the Lokoho River.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ANDAPA
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse run the 105km between Sambava and Andapa (several daily; 4hr; 10,000ar).
ACCOMMODATION
Hotel Beanana On the way into town 032 07 161
13, beanana.marojejy.com. Ten decently
furnished hard-built rooms, some with garden views. Good value.
40,000ar
Hotel Riziky Near the gare routière 032
40 214 22, riziky.marojejy.com. Six en-suite
bungalows, generator electricity and helpful staff make this is
the budget go-to lodgings in town. 30,000ar
Parc National de Marojejy and around
Park Category B, 10,000ar • parcs-madagascar.com
Only opened to visitors in 1998, Parc National de Marojejy now vies with Masoala as the country’s most impressive rainforest sanctuary, its rugged mountains providing the region’s distinctive terrain. Marojejy’s soaring multi-green landscape, with buttress-rooted Canarium trees growing to more than 40m in height, is one of Madagascar’s largest mid- to high-altitude rainforest zones, and home to one of the rarest lemurs of all – the snowy white silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), known as simpona fotsy in Malagasy. With a single baby born usually every two years, after a mating season that lasts just one day, and the world’s entire population of silky sifakas confined to these dramatic forests (there are none in captivity), it’s perhaps not surprising that no more than 200–300 silky sifakas are believed to survive, which makes it even more rewarding when you come across a troop playing and tumbling through the trees like animated escapees from a cuddly toy shop.
Ten other species of lemurs live here, including aye-ayes and the very rare hairy-eared dwarf lemur (Allocebus trichotis) – but no longer any indris, now only found in neighbouring Anjanaharibe-Sud. But the park boasts a huge list of fauna and flora, many of the species rare and very local. To focus on just one group: of seventeen species of chameleons found at Marojejy, five are endemic to the park, living nowhere else on earth.
From November to April, the Marojejy region is slammed by daily torrential rainstorms. There is some respite, but so much water falls that roads are often closed for hours, the trails become impassable and the leech problem reaches epidemic proportions. The best time to visit is from May to October, when it’s slightly cooler and – if not exactly dry – then certainly less rainy.
Hiking in the park
There’s really only one main hiking trail, and Marojejy’s steep, wet slopes are tough for all but the hardiest of visitors – there’s a 2000m altitude variance in the 8km from the park entrance to the peak. Starting from the visitor centre in the village of Manantenina (just 80m above sea level), at the confluence of the Manantenina and the broad, meandering Lokoho rivers, you hike or drive north for about 6km to the park entrance at 180m above sea level, following the Manantenina.
Once inside the park, the trail becomes steeper, with a 270m climb in the course of 3.5km to the first camp, Camp Mantella (450m). The Cascade de Hubert waterfall is a half-hour walk from here, but this area only gives a flavour of the park’s inspiring scenery – and while you might just see northern bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur occidentalis) there are no silky sifakas at this altitude. Marojejy’s prize denizen inhabits the forest from around 700m and above, where you start getting into highland rainforest. You need to be based for the night at Camp Marojejya, 2km further to the west and 325m higher (775m), to have a chance of seeing them.
If you don’t clock the silkies, the majestic scenery alone is still worth all the effort, with the rocky pinnacle of Ambatotsondrona – Marojejy’s icon – soaring up across the valley from Camp Marojejya. Geology lessons don’t get much more vivid than this rocky peak, demonstrating as it does the tooth-like gneiss scenery, with its sheer, hard cliffs facing south where the landforms have buckled and the softer rock has been weathered away by thousands upon thousands of cyclone seasons.
From here, west to Camp Simpona (at an altitude of 1250m), you scale 475m over the course of 2km. Most people don’t go any further, but if you want to summit Marojejy, it’s another half-day’s slog, climbing nearly 900m over the course of a brutal 2km trail that takes you out of the forest into a rocky and often misty, moorland environment, peaking at Marojejy summit (2132m) and putting you above the jagged, neighbouring peaks, with views, on a clear day, as far as the Indian Ocean.
Réserve Spéciale Anjanaharibe-Sud
Park Category B,
10,000ar •
parcs-madagascar.com and anjanaharibe.marojejy.com
The forest-swathed, granite Anjanaharibe hills are protected at their southern end by the Réserve Spéciale Anjanaharibe-Sud, containing some of the least disturbed mid-altitude rainforest in Madagascar. These highlands (peaking at 2064m) are akin to the Marojejy twenty years ago: immaculate, inaccessible and compelling – at least for now. Since the 1970s, ministers in Tana have stabbed at maps of Madagascar and lamented the absence of an east–west road link in the north. Many would like the tarmac that reaches Andapa to continue west, straight through Anjanaharibe-Sud, a prospect that alarms conservationists.
Lemurs found in this remote rainforest bastion include, as well as silky sifakas, the black race of the indri (Anjanaharibe-Sud is the northern extremity of the indri’s range), and most of the lemurs found in Marojejy. They all tend to be relatively shy, however, having had until recently little contact with humans that wasn’t violent.
The obvious primary destination in the special reserve is the hot springs, just over 4km from the rough motorable trail that runs through the reserve. It’s a real slog that takes a full day there and back, with plenty of river-fording, log-straddling and leech-removing en route. At the end, you have the reward of a warm bath to look forward to, and the possibility of seeing white-fronted brown lemurs (Eulemur albifrons) and occasionally silky sifakas along the way, in addition to innumerable birds, frogs, reptiles and invertebrates.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL DE MAROJEJY
The closest airport to the parks is at Sambava.
Tours The most practical way to visit is to organize a complete trip from Sambava or Andapa, which should cost from around 50,000ar per person per day. You will need to bring all your own food and drink supplies.
By taxi brousse/on foot If you’re on a tight budget, you can visit both Marojejy and Anjanaharibe-Sud by a combination of taxi brousse and some foot-slogging. Doing it like this, you pick up guides (18,000ar per day for up to six visitors) at the park entrances, and at the same time either hire a porter (4000–7000ar per day in Marojejy; 10,000ar in Anjanaharibe-Sud) or carry all your own gear. Cooks can also be hired and cost 12,000ar per day, with food to be provided by you.
INFORMATION
National Park office The parks’ headquarters are at Manantenina, 65km from
Sambava and 40km before Andapa ( 020 88 070 27 or
032 02 729 03, anjanaharibe.marojejy.com).
ACCOMMODATION
The region of Marojejy and Anjanaharibe-Sud is an area where a light tent would be really useful. Indeed, your own tent is the only accommodation option in Anjanaharibe-Sud (camping pitch 4000ar).
Marojejy park bunkhouses Aside from camping, the furnished bunkhouses at Camp Mantella, Camp Marojejy and Camp Simpona are your only option. There’s a flush loo in each one and bedding is provided, though washing facilities are limited (you can bathe in the Manantenina River). There’s a small extra charge for use of the equipped kitchens. Rates are per person per night. Camping 4000ar, bunkhouse 8000ar
Vohemar
The small seaside town of VOHEMAR (or Iharana) lies off the main RN5A road on a sandy peninsula, linked to the mainland by a bridge across a tidal creek. Like Sambava and Antalaha, this is a vanilla and clove centre. Historically, Vohemar marked the northernmost extent of the eighteenth-century Betsimisaraka union. Long a trading centre, Vohemar was established on the foundations of a much earlier civilization – known as the Rasikajy – by traders from East Africa and the Arabian peninsula. There’s evidence of this in the extensive royal tombs excavated in the district, containing hundreds of skeletons as well as ivory, Chinese porcelain and Persian glass and jewellery.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: VOHEMAR
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse normally drop passengers along the main street in the town centre. For Ambilobe, however, it’s best to wait at the turn-off 2km southwest of town on the RN5A, en route to Sambava.
Destinations Ambilobe (2–3 daily; 12–24hr, 40,000ar); Antalaha (frequent; 6–8hr; 10,000ar); Sambava (frequent; 3–4hr; 5000ar).
By 4x4 If you’re looking to rent a vehicle and driver for the very rough road to Ambilobe, contact the helpful owner of the Galaxy. Expect to pay between 350,000ar and 600,000ar depending on whether you’re going to stop at Daraina on the way (and for how long) and whether the driver will be picking up other passengers en route.
Services The BOA and BFV have ATMs.
ACCOMMODATION
Galaxy At the back of town, north of the centre
032 02 507 10, hotelgalaxyvohemar.over-blog.com.
Belonging to the president of the Sava region hotel
owners’ association, this is a friendly, basic set-up,
with a handful of little en-suite bungalows, and some even
cheaper box-like rooms with nets, electricity and shared
facilities (10,000ar). Wi-fi. 31,000ar
Aire Protegée Loky Manambato
10,000ar • association-fanamby.org
The Aire Protegée Loky Manambato is a remote tract of dry woodland, home to several troops of critically endangered golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli), one of the world’s rarest primates. You reach it by making for the small town of DARAINA, 53km northwest of Vohemar. This has little to offer, but you’ll find a few shops, a decent little hotel, and the office of Fanamby, a conservation NGO where you buy your ticket for the sifakas and pick up a local guide.
The best time to see the sifakas, which are relentless browsers on leaves, flowers and seeds, is early morning or late afternoon: this is a hot district and by the middle of the day they tend to stop feeding and take a siesta. Once you locate them by their calls, they’re easy to spot, with their soft golden-white coats, apricot-coloured crowns, triangular black faces and large ears. Braver sifakas will approach you as close as any lemurs in Madagascar, leaning down from the trees to examine you at barely arm’s length, before powering off in marvellously horizontal, 8m leaps through the trees.
As well as the sifakas, the woods have a population of aye-ayes (you’ll see their nests if not the mysterious beasts themselves) and an as yet unidentified species of fork-marked lemur (Phaner), a noisy, nocturnal lemur that feeds on sap and tree gum. On the forest floor, look out for minuscule and quite common Brookesia ground chameleons.
This whole area is also a goldfield, honeycombed with deep pits dug by itinerant prospectors, and you’ll meet whole families panning and digging throughout the woods: they can get up to 80,000ar per gram for the grains they find (75 percent of the gold price on global markets). The jury is out on the impact that gold-diggers are having on the lemurs (they seem to co-exist happily enough), but there is inevitable habitat disturbance and destruction.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: AIRE PROTEGÉE LOKY MANAMBATO
By road Unless you have unlimited time, you’ll need your own or a rented vehicle to get to the Loky Manambato. North of Vohemar, the RN5A is rough and bumpy but in reasonable condition, taking about 3hr in dry weather. The area is accessed by turning east off the Daraina–Ambilobe road 6km north of Daraina and driving 5km into the hilly bush, where you park and walk into the gentle valley of the seasonal Manambato River.
ACCOMMODATION
Lemurien Blanc Edge of Daraina town, by the Fanamby
office 032 51 078 93. The solid
construction and reasonable comfort of the en-suite rooms here
are surprising in this remote area, plus there’s a
half-decent restaurant and plenty of cold drinks. 30,000ar
To the west coast
North and west of Daraina the RN5A deteriorates significantly into enormous ruts, often only drivable at walking speed. In the rainy season vehicles get stuck on this route for days. Some 46km west of Daraina, a dry season shortcut begins that takes you across the seasonal Andrevo River to meet the west coast RN4 road north of Parc National d’Ankarana. Ask before setting off and don’t count on being able to use it – there are no bridges or ferries.
NOSY BE AND THE FAR NORTH
Richly scenic and diverse, the far northern tip of Madagascar holds some of the country’s best-known attractions. The relatively accessible parks of Montagne d’Ambre, with its beautiful rainforest, and Ankarana – a dramatic massif of limestone pinnacles – are close to the main RN6 road connecting Antananarivo with the biggest town in the north, Diego Suarez, which has one of the world’s finest natural harbours. The highway passes well to the west of the highest mountain range in Madagascar, the inaccessible Massif de Tsaratanana, where Mount Maromokotro peaks at 2876m. Off the sheltered west coast lies the fabled island of Nosy Be, with smaller and even more alluring islands dotted around the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel.
With a distinct annual rainy season (Dec–March), the natural vegetation of this region is largely deciduous dry forest, but highland rainforest takes over from about 800m above sea level, and lowland rainforest – a biome known as the Sambirano ecosystem after the major river – spreads as far as Nosy Be, the southeast corner of which is still shrouded by a cloak of primary rainforest sheltering a number of rare and endemic species.
This part of Madagascar gets more visitors than any other, with regular charter flights to Nosy Be from France and Italy, drawn by the infrastructure, climate and warm seas. Diving and snorkelling are popular here, and kite- and windsurfing are big around Diego.
PEOPLES OF THE FAR NORTH: THE ANTANKARANA AND TSIMIHETY
The people of the region with the best claim to be its indigenous inhabitants are the Antankarana, the “people of the rocks” – a reference to the widespread scenery of limestone pinnacles or tsingy. With a long history of trading contacts with Arabia, East Africa and especially the Comoros, the Antankarana were some of Madagascar’s earliest converts to Islam, incorporating the teachings of the Koran into traditional customs. By the early eighteenth century, however, they had mostly become subjects of the much more numerous and hierarchical Sakalava of the west coast, whose aristocracy extracted tribute from the locals until a century later when they themselves were subjugated by the all-conquering Merina.
The Tsimihety – traditionally non-hierarchical pastoralists, whose name means “People who don’t cut their hair” – mostly live a little to the south of the Antankarana. Their most famous son was the independent country’s first president, Philibert Tsiranana.
GETTING AROUND: NOSY BE AND THE FAR NORTH
By plane From Antananarivo there are flights to Nosy Be (5 weekly) and Diego Suarez (3–4 weekly). There are also twice-weekly flights between Nosy Be and Diego Suarez and weekly services between Diego Suarez and Sambava.
By road Mostly in good condition, one main tarmac road – the RN6 – runs through northwest Madagascar, linking Antananarivo with Diego Suarez (1112km, 15–24hr). A good new road connects the RN6 just north of Ambanja with Ankify, the port for Nosy Be (17km; 20min). An extremely rough road, the RN5A, ploughs east over the spine of Madagascar from Ambilobe to Vohemar (171km; 12–24hr) where the tarmac resumes on the east coast.
By boat Small motorboats link the mainland with the archipelago of smaller islands around Nosy Be, the most important route being between Ankify and Hell-Ville.
Diego Suarez (Antsiranana) and around
The far north of Madagascar is dominated by Antsiranana – “the place by the sea” – still most commonly known simply as DIEGO SUAREZ. The town is almost encircled by its vast, indented bay, sparkling azure blue under the Capricorn sun, fringed with beaches and scattered with intriguing islets. This area has a wonderful, breezy climate, perfect for the beach, with most of its metre of annual rainfall coming between December and March, and barely 100mm falling between May and October.
It’s an easy town to enjoy, with some glorious views, an easy-going atmosphere and plenty of places to stay, eat, drink and generally while away a few days. Striking contrasts – the old colonial and modern architecture, the beaches and hillsides, and the melting-pot cultural environment – make for a memorable stay. There are lots of activities available, too, with excellent diving, snorkelling, kite- and windsurfing opportunities.
Brief history
The area was first named after a Portuguese captain, Diego Dias, who sailed with the second expedition to India in 1500; his ship went astray and he became one of the earliest Europeans to set eyes on Madagascar. It was then named after his countryman, Fernando Soares, who in 1506 was the first European to land in the bay. However, it was a third Portuguese adventurer, the pirate and slaver, Diego Soares, who stamped his notorious name on the early town after a particularly brutal sojourn in the 1540s.
Almost landlocked, Diego Suarez is reputed to have the best natural harbour in the western Indian Ocean and it played a key role during the French colonial period, particularly when the Japanese threatened to overrun it in 1942. This led to a successful British invasion – the Battle of Madagascar – and the liberation of the island from the Vichy Republic. French and British Commonwealth cemeteries attest to the losses on both sides. Diego remained a French naval base and repair dock until 1973 when it was returned to Madagascar. These days it’s the country’s fifth-biggest town and the third port after Tamatave and Majunga, with its economic mainstays being a tuna cannery, Indian Ocean trade, and some cruise-ship tourism.
The centre
The town straddles a long ridge between two shallow river valleys, with the old town centre and port area sticking out to sea at the end, where the ridge forms a peninsula. The main avenue in town, Rue Colbert, runs in one straight kilometre from Place Foch to the cliffs above the bay. Diego’s main market is the splendidly colourful and welcoming bazary kely – “small market”, a typically Madagascan paradox – while the fine old bazary be (big market) is now a thriving branch of the Alliance Française, the French cultural centre.
Ramena
Tuk-tuks and taxis charge 30,000–40,000ar to Ramena Beach, with good discounts if you take the same vehicle back – though they won’t wait all day
Southeast of the city centre, leaving behind the hillside villas, a causeway runs across tidal flats, scattered with mangroves, then passes the base of the Montagne des Français (popular with local rock-climbers) and circles Baie Andovobazaha, with its dramatic but forbidden “sugar loaf” island of Nosy Lonja (venue for traditional rites), to the seaside suburb of Ramena. Ramena’s 3km strand combines working fishing beach with leisure beach in typically gasy fashion – making for relaxed interaction between visitors and locals. It’s easy to pass a few hours or a whole day here, strolling along the sands, taking a dip in the limpid sea and sampling the gargotes and fancier beach bars.
Les Trois Baies
Behind Ramena, a peninsula of scrubby, low hills rises up, then drops to the east, where Les Trois Baies – a row of secluded coves and islets sculpted out of the coast – shelter behind the ocean-facing coral reef. This is sandy, 4x4 territory, and realistically you need your own vehicle to reach it.
Mer d’Émeraude
Toto Circuits Diego runs all-day excursions to the Mer d’Émeraude for 65,000ar/person (based on a group of four), including transport from town, a picnic lunch, drinks and use of snorkelling equipment
The best-known trip out of Diego Suarez is a visit to the Mer d’Émeraude, or Emerald Sea – an enchanting marine zone of breathtaking turquoise ocean, nowhere more than a few metres deep. It flanks a remote peninsula that would take hours to reach by land, but is just a short boat ride north of Ramena. Get a group together, or join an organized excursion.
WATERSPORTS IN DIEGO SUAREZ
The deeply indented coastline around Diego Suarez offers some of the best diving in Madagascar. With plenty of wrecks and an almost infinite number of anchorages for dive boats, there is no shortage of possibilities for dives and snorkelling trips – though conditions are generally a little rougher than around the very sheltered seas off Nosy Be and its neighbouring islands. If you’re into kitesurfing or windsurfing, you may be in for a treat, especially from May to October when a steady southeasterly breeze, the varatraza, comes into the bay. You can rent equipment at Ramena Beach.
DIVE OPERATOR
MadaScaph Plage de Ramena 032 48 012
52, madascaph.com. €35 per dive for
qualified divers and €45 for a training or trial dive.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: DIEGO SUAREZ (ANTSIRANANA) AND AROUND
Arriving by air or road, you approach the town from the south, along the RN6.
By plane Diego’s Arrachart airport is 9km south of town along the
RN6. Private taxis to the town centre cost 10,000ar. Air Madagascar
is at 5 rue Surcouf ( 020 82 214 75 or 033 11
222 04; Mon–Fri 7.30–11am &
2.30–5pm, Sat 8–11am).
Destinations Antananarivo (at least daily; 1hr 15min–1hr 55min); Nosy Be (2 weekly; 25min); Sambava (weekly; 35min).
By taxi brousse The gare routière national (for Tana and Majunga) is in the town centre near the main market, and the gare routière Ambilobe is 5km south. Private taxis to the town centre from the gare routière Ambilobe cost 5000ar.
Destinations Ambanja (frequent; 5hr; 15,000ar); Ambilobe (frequent; 3hr; 10,000ar); Ambondromamy (for Majunga; frequent; 16hr; 40,000ar); Ankify (for Nosy Be; frequent; 5hr; 15,000ar); Antananarivo (frequent; 24hr; 70,000ar); Joffreville (several each morning; 1hr 30min; 3500ar).
By car Le Paradis du Nord, a hotel and
vehicle-hire agency on av Princess Fatima Achimo ( 032 04 859
64, leparadisdunord-diego.com) is recommended for excursions
and vehicle rentals.
GETTING AROUND
Short, town-centre journeys cost 500ar in a shared tuk-tuk or bajaj and 1000ar in a battered old Renault 4L (“quatre-elle”). Longer trips are negotiable.
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist office Corner of rue Colbert and rue Flacourt (Mon–Fri
8am–noon & 3–6pm; Sat 8.30–11am;
033 05 306 32, office-tourisme-diego-suarez.com), plus a kiosk at place
Foch (Mon–Fri 8am–noon & 3–6pm).
Madagascar National Parks Office Route de l’Aéroport ( 020 82 213 20).
Useful if you want to make an early start in Montagne
d’Ambre.
Tour operators Toto Circuits Diego, 8 rue Sadi Carnot ( 032 05 597
75, kikoohotel.com), offer trips to the Mer
d’Émeraude; for kitesurfers, Kitesurf Madagascar is based at
Babaomby Island Lodge on the Mer
d’Émeraude ( 032 62 402 63, kitesurfmadagascar.com). New Sea Roc, 26 rue Colbert
( 032 04 724 46, newsearoc.com), are
adventure sports specialists, offering great climbing
options.
ACCOMMODATION
DIEGO SUAREZ
Jardin Exotique 9 rue Louis Brunet 032 25 338
12, jardinexotique.hotel-diegosuarez.com.
En-suite rooms with a/c or fans set in a pleasant garden,
through which a wild troop of crowned lemurs regularly forage.
Choose your room carefully, though, as some are stuffy. A/c
supplement 10,000ar, breakfast 7000ar. 66,300ar
Kartiffa Rue Richelieu 033 37 954
06, kikoohotel.com. Co-owned with Kikoo Hotel and tour operator Toto
Circuits, this has a fabulous location in an old colonial
neighbourhood, with panoramic views across the port and bay. The
comfortable rooms have nets, fans and lock-up cupboards.
There’s a pool, drinks from the fridge and breakfast
available (5000ar) but no restaurant. 52,000ar
Perle de la Baie 5 rue Richelieu 032 04 434
50, perledelabaie.blogspot.com. With great
views looking north over the bay, this chambres
d’hôtes has five comfortable rooms
and a studio apartment available by the month. There’s
access to the little beach below the house, good bicycles to
rent (20,000/day) and breakfast available for 9000ar. 47,000ar
La Terrasse du Voyageur 201 rue du Mozambique 034 20 061
08, terrasseduvoyageur-hotel.com. Located in
Diego’s main Muslim and market quarter, this large,
welcoming and very nicely finished hotel is the best
traveller’s base in town. They have it all: a good choice
of en-suite rooms with lovely balconies, fans or a/c (plus some
very simple rooms with shared facilities for 30,000ar), and a
fine roof terrace, bar and restaurant that acts as a local
social centre and music venue. Breakfast 6000–11,000ar.
Wi-fi. 84,000ar
RAMENA AND AROUND
Babaomby Island Lodge Mer d’Émeraude 032
55 009 39, babaomby.com. With safari-camp-style
tents on raised platforms just behind the beach and a convivial
atmosphere, this is very much a barefoot getaway place, where
you’re hosted by the French-Malagasy owners. They major
on wind- and kitesurfing, with good instructors and all the
gear. Boat transfers from Ramena or Diego. Open end of March to
end of Nov. Full board €130
Badamera Park Plage de Ramena 032 07 733
50 or 020 82 910 56, badamera.com. A popular weekend escape, set
under trees back from the beach, with a buffet
musicale every Sun (from 1pm) and a very pleasant
dining-lounge area. Simple huts without bathrooms, with electric
lights but no sockets (24,000ar) or en-suite bungalows with
either one or two double beds and unheated water. 60,000ar
La Case en Falafy Plage de Ramena 032 02 674
33, case-en-falafy.com.Chez Bruno, as it’s also known,
has twenty simple en-suite bungalows in brick, thatch and
falafy, with fans and nets,
hottish water and 24hr electricity. Busy public areas include
two pools, a pizzeria and a Med-style restaurant on two floors
(poulet à la catalaine with
ratatouille 12,000ar, paella 15,000ar). 45,000ar
Sakalava Lodge Baie de Sakalava 032 67 385
95, sakalava.com. This 100 percent
solar-powered, rustic-chic beach resort for kite- and
windsurfers has a fantastic location, right on the Indian Ocean
but not far from Ramena. Kite rental from €72/day,
windsurf rental from €58/day, Renault 4L convertible
€30/day. Half board €90
Suarez PK4, Route de Ramena 032 07 416
17, suarez-hotel.com. German-Malagasy-owned,
and sister lodge of Ankarana Lodge, the Suarez
perches on the hillside overlooking the bay and Nosy Lonja, with
light, well-furnished rooms (a/c, room safes), funky decor, a
large pool and a gentle mood of exclusivity – though
it’s not super-expensive. The restaurant offers a good
range, including vegetarian and Malagasy options (most mains
around 15,000–20,000ar). B&B 196,000ar
EATING AND DRINKING
The best street food in Diego Suarez is to be found at a row of tables under the trees on rue Surcouf, just south of Air Mad. You can eat very well here for 5000ar – a price that might include a bowl of salade composé, several zebu brochettes, a sweet pepper beignet, some fried calves’ liver, a roast banana and a glass of juice.
DIEGO SUAREZ
Les Arcades Rue Lafayette 032 53 401
77. This very popular street-front
bar-restaurant is a major rendezvous for Diego’s NGO
community (beers and cocktails from 3000ar, free wi-fi) and also
has a few very cheap rooms. It owes much of its character to the
charming Algerian manager who goes out of his way to help
guests. Dishes include crab salad (8000ar) and tandoori chicken
(10,000ar). Daily
dawn–late.
Bodega 5 rue Colbert 032 04 734
43. Renowned French restaurant, with
chalked-up entrées and plats du jour that are based around local
produce and prepared in traditional sauce-embellished style
– zebu steak with Roquefort, duck with foie gras and mangosteen. Strawberry mojito, made
with local fruit, 6000ar. Unless you choose what’s
probably the best lobster in Diego, expect to pay around
40,000ar for three courses. Daily lunch
and dinner.
Melville Rue Richelieu 032 07 666
15, hotels-diego.com. The restaurant of
Hôtel Allamanda, where
you’re paying for the superb seafront location as much as
for the food. However, they do an excellent poisson à la tahitienne (raw fish marinated
in coconut and lime, 10,500ar) and other interesting options
like aubergine and mozzarella gratin (15,000ar) as well as
plenty of meat dishes and some Malagasy options. Daily 7am–10pm.
Pizzeria Su e Giu 85 rue Colbert 032 27 427
93. Diego’s foremost pizza place
– eat in or out. Pizzas 10,000–15,000ar,
crêpes 5000ar, plus coffee, ice cream, shakes, tiramisu.
Daily 7am–late.
Terrine d’Argent 46 rue Colbert, almost opposite
Hôtel Colbert 034 81 647 94.
Delightful restaurant in a private residence offering the best
value in Diego, with a few starters (carpaccio, tomato salad,
oysters), followed by hearty main courses (for example, wild
boar stew or casseroled rabbit) and dessert (two courses
10,000ar, three courses 15,000ar). An extra 2500ar includes an
aperitif, glass of wine, coffee and a shot of rhum arrangé. It’s behind the blue
gate, next to Bijouterie Vash. Daily
6–8.30pm.
Tsara Be Vaovao 36 rue Colbert 032 04 940
97. Busy, stylish and highly
recommended French restaurant, specializing in seafood and zebu,
and cooking everything from fresh ingredients, rather than
frozen. A necessarily leisurely three-course meal chosen from
the carte (48,000ar) can be
accompanied by either half-litre house wine pichets (23,000ar) or a choice from the short wine
list (from around 50,000ar). Mon–Sat lunch and dinner, Sun dinner only.
Vahinee Rue Colbert. Sports bar and live music venue on a busy corner, with outdoor tables. It’s a bit sleazy, but breezily open to public view and enduringly popular for people-watching (vahinee means neighbour in Malagasy). You can nurse a drink for an hour without harassment. They serve fast food such as brochettes and chips. Daily from 7am to when the last customer leaves.
RAMENA
Couleur de la Lune Plage de Ramena 020 82 819
33. One of the best beach gargotes, with generally faster service
than others. Go for seafood. You can eat very well here for less
than 15,000ar. Opening times
vary.
L’Émeraude Plage de Ramena 032 50 583
80. Beach restaurant and bungalow
set-up, with an eye on a Thailand Full Moon mood. They serve
good paella on Sun (15,000ar). Daily;
opening times vary.
DIRECTORY
Banks There are ATMs at the branches of BOA, BMOI, BNI and BFV.
Festival Zegny Zo Festival, Diego Suarez’s biggest jamboree –
and the biggest cultural and entertainment festival in northern
Madagascar – happens each May. Check their Facebook page
rather than the out-of-date website for updates ( on.fb.me/1C8jd1U).
Parc National de la Montagne d’Ambre
Daily 6am–6pm; office daily 8am–4pm (for earlier
entry you’ll need to arrange tickets in advance) • Park Category A, 25,000ar
• parcs-madagascar.com
The delightfully named Parc National de la Montagne d’Ambre (Amber Mountain National Park), which protects a huge, extinct shield volcano that last blew its top around two million years ago and now peaks at 1474m, is one of Madagascar’s oldest and finest natural areas. Created in 1958, it is loved and venerated by local people as much as by passing visitors, and its crater lakes, waterfalls and dark rainforests teem with life (many species remain to be discovered) and combine to make a strong impression.
The higher slopes of the mountain receive around 3500mm of annual rainfall, similar to parts of eastern Madagascar; most of this falls between December and March, though no months are really dry. Around the Station des Roussettes, a clearing in the forest that forms the main human focus in the park, it rains much less often between May and October, but the park averages 6–10°C cooler than Diego, so although it’s humid you’ll need some warm layers, especially in July and August. Harmless leeches tend to be a problem in the wetter areas and during heavy rains. Mosquitoes can strike at any time: be prepared.
Unfortunately, there were two armed robberies in the park in late 2013 – incidents that received international attention and briefly became the subject of travel warnings. They seem to be have been isolated cases, however, and at the time of writing, the local view was that a repeat episode was unlikely.
Route de Montagne d’Ambre
The Route de Montagne d’Ambre, off the main RN6, is a narrow road built by the French, overhung by foliage and climbing slowly through hills and farmland. It soon becomes very potholed, allowing for careful inspection of the nearby bushes (regularly bejewelled by colourful day geckos and poised chameleons) as your vehicle crawls past. Climbing the mountain you pass through abrupt changes of scenery, from dry grasslands and farms to permanently moist rainforest, over the space of just a few kilometres. The dense vegetation around Joffreville, the park’s main town, signals your imminent arrival. The tarmac ends here and only good 4x4s can make the final 3.5km along the (usually) wet-earth and rock track up to the park entrance: in the wet season, without your own vehicle, you’ll almost certainly have to walk this last stretch.
Joffreville
There’s little substance to the straggling ex-colonial hill station of JOFFREVILLE, founded in 1903 at the village of Ambohitra, though there are a few crumbling old ruins from the days of the colons flanking its broad, cobbled, two-lane avenue. These include a single general store and, near the top, a hideous abandoned tower block that turns out to be a former “École Normale”.
Park trails
While the forest footpaths are often slippery, some of the motor trails are in good condition, and this is one of the most vehicle-accessible of Madagascar’s parks. There’s an easy circuit of (mixed-use) driving and walking trails looping around the Station des Roussettes (roussette: fruit bat), taking in a lake and three waterfalls (cascades), making a park visit of anything from a few hours to a full day straightforward and very rewarding.
Ten minutes’ walk from the forest station is the Lac Sacrée, a deep crater pool with a viewpoint looking across to a tumbling waterfall, where local people traditionally leave offerings to the spirits of the ancestors they believe are now confined to these remaining forests. A short walk to the north, following the stream valley, brings you to the Cascade Antankarana – a fine veil of water over a fern-draped rocky hollow. If you have all day, you can follow the Voie des Milles Arbres (“Thousand Tree Way”), and the Circuit Grand Cascade, and you’ll eventually reach the Cascade d’Antomoboka.
A two-hour round-trip walk from the forest station will take you to Lac Mahasarika or Petit Lac. Four more lakes lie higher up through the forest to the south, but the terrain is much steeper and heading up here is only possible if you’re fully equipped to camp out. The second lake, Lac Grande, is a half-day hike for most people (assuming you’re stopping frequently along the way) and marks the start of the climb to the main caldera at the mountain’s peak, less than 1km to the west.
Flora
An arboretum as much as a conventional national park, Montagne d’Ambre features many named trees along its paths, and a good number of them – such as Japanese cedars, Brazilian araucarias and water-sucking gum trees from Australia – are foreign exotics planted in the colonial period in agro-forestry trials. The botanical highlights, however, are the indigenous tree ferns, lianas and Dracaenadragon plants growing among the rosewoods and specimens of Canaria madagascariensis – the tree whose aromatic resin gives the park the amber for which it’s famous.
Wildlife
The Amber Mountain is a reptile paradise: you can see half a dozen species of chameleons alone in your first hour in the park, including the wonderful nez-bleu (the blue-nosed Calumma boettgeri), the splendid panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) and no fewer than four species of tiny ground-dwelling Brookesia that live only on this mountain.
Mammals
The mountain’s diurnal lemurs include crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus), with their neat grey coats and orange head markings, and Sanford’s brown lemurs (Eulemur sanfordi), which have grey faces and males with rather untidy white beards and ear tufts. Both species have some relatively habituated troops, and there’s something slightly unnerving and child-like about the way the stocky Sanford’s lemurs clamber through the branches and watch passers-by. The mountain has seven nocturnal lemurs, including the noisy and very mobile Montagne d’Ambre fork-marked lemur (Phaner electromontis), and is also rated highly as a spot to see some of Madagascar’s native carnivores, though the worm-eating falanouc and ring-tailed mongoose can prove almost as elusive as the aye-aye – you might be lucky if you sit out quietly at dawn or dusk around the campsite in the park. Since there seems little prospect of night walks being allowed in the near future, these animals have the forest to themselves – for more chance of spotting them visit the private reserve at the Domaine de Fontenay, where you can walk whenever you like.
Birds and insects
The park’s bird count numbers more than seventy species, including the exceptionally rare and vociferous Madagascar fish eagle (Haliaeetus vociferoides) and the beautiful Madagascar crested ibis (Lophotibis cristata). But the avian star is the Amber Mountain rock thrush (Monticola erythronotus), endemic to this forest: the male, with his blue head, has a beautiful song.
Aside from the insects you would prefer to avoid, the park is home to some impressive swallowtail butterflies, easily seen as they break through shafts of sunlight, but hard to photograph in their ceaseless flight.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL DE LA MONTAGNE D’AMBRE
Taxis brousses There are morning and late afternoon departures from Diego’s gare routière national to Joffreville (1hr 30min; 3500ar). You’ll have to walk the last 3.5km to the park entrance.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
There’s no full-service accommodation inside the park, and nowhere to buy food. The campsites at Grand Lac and Lac Maudit are essentially wild camping with no facilities (pay the gate; 5000ar per person). If you don’t have transport, it’s a 6km walk from the gîte and campsite to the shop in Joffreville.
JOFFREVILLE
Le Domaine de Fontenay 032 11 345 81, lefontenay-madagascar.com. In this
remarkable old mansion and garden you’ll find a huge
suite, a large double that’s almost as big, and eight
standard rooms. Unfortunately, fine and eccentric as the house
is, it suffers from increasingly poor staff-management relations
and haphazard service. The 3-square-kilometre private park, with
plenty of wildlife, is a major compensation. Table d’hôte dinner 65,000ar.
B&B €127
Litchi Tree 033 12 7684 54, thelitchitree.com. Converted from a
run-down Cape-style farmhouse, this is the Amber
Mountain’s best hotel – five beautifully finished,
en-suite rooms, each with a double and single bed. Generator on
5–10pm. The kitchen serves a daily table
d’hôte, with guests’ requests
and preferences catered for (lunch and dinner €18,
breakfast €8). €85
Hotêllerie du
Monastère 032 74 795 24, gitesaintbenoit.com. The Gîte Saint Benoit in the local
Benedictine monastery closes at 7pm, meaning you can’t go
out in the evening, but for reliable, secure accommodation, it
works. There are eight en-suite rooms, plus cheaper dorm
facilities and dining and lounge areas downstairs. Half board
€60
Nature Lodge 034 49 123 06, naturelodge-ambre.com. Set in lightly
wooded gardens on a hillside, this offers a great combination of
reliability and affordability, with twelve very nicely done
wooden cabins – six looking towards the ocean, six with
mountain views. The dining room offers a changing daily carte (dishes 10,000–15,000ar).
Generator electricity 6–10am & 6–10pm. Room
safes. €80
INSIDE THE PARK
Station des Roussettes 032 02 155 58, bit.ly/gitedesroussettes. Bunkhouse
(gîte) and campsite booked
through the Relais de la Montagne
d’Ambre in Joffreville. The solid if rather
run-down bunkhouse has three basic bedrooms, each with two or
three beds, plus a common dining/lounge area with a big
fireplace for chilly nights. The campsite has tent shelters,
flush toilets and very basic shared outdoor kitchen facilities.
Per person rates: gîte 6000ar, camping 2000ar
Parc National d’Ankarana
Daily 6am–6pm; office daily 8am–4pm (for earlier
entry you’ll need to arrange tickets in advance) • Park Category A, 25,000ar
• parcs-madagascar.com
Limestone karst landscapes are not unique to Madagascar but the island’s extreme version – the spectacular pinnacle rocks known as tsingy – is so harsh, alien and inaccessible that it might as well be from another planet. The Parc National d’Ankarana, a tsingy landscape 30km long and 8km across, is the easiest place to experience this geological phenomenon: the RN6 highway passes just a couple of kilometres from the outliers of these expanses of needle-like rocky shards. Visiting the reserve is a fascinating experience, and very worthwhile, whether you have a few hours or several days.
The main park gate is located at the tiny hamlet of Mahamasina. The park can be visited all year round from the east side, but flooded tracks during the rains mean its hard-to-reach western entrance doesn’t normally open until July. It can be very humid and mosquitoes and biting flies are often a nuisance – take plenty of repellent.
THE FORMATION OF THE TSINGY
Ankarana’s limestone massif formed on the ocean bed during the age of the dinosaurs, rose, then cracked, resulting in the steep scarp on the west and the gentler slopes to the east. This tectonic movement created and then sank a huge network of caves. Over the millennia, the range cracked further, from east to west, breaking open the cave systems and creating channels for several rivers. Mildly acidic rainwater dissolved into the softer strata of limestone from above, and carved it out from underneath, eroding the solid rock both vertically and horizontally, and wearing it away on every surface to a sponge-like, porous honeycomb of limestone cells. It’s also believed that the snails whose shells you see everywhere may have contributed over the aeons to the process of erosion, by rasping the limestone surface for algae growing in rain puddles in the rock.
Hikes in the park
The national park is around 25 percent shady forest and 75 percent rugged limestone pinnacles, though which very rough footpaths have been built, linked together with occasional stretches of wooden steps and footpath suspension bridges.
Short walks through the forest and up onto the two tsingy formations nearest to Mahamasina – the tsingy meva or “small tsingy” and the tsingy rary or “braided tsingy” (a reference to its stripy appearance) – are great fun, but some of Ankarana’s glories lie beneath the surface, in the subterranean cave and river systems. You can sense this as you stomp around, as your footsteps often sound hollow. Walking on the forest paths is relatively easy, but climbing up into the tsingy – which involves some scrambling and squeezing through gaps in the rocks, as well as some steep ascents – is much tougher. It will also destroy your shoes if they’re not suitable: you need good hiking boots or well-built trainers. To visit the caves you’ll need to camp out and devote several days, but they’re highly recommended.
Flora
Ankarana is a botanist’s delight, with more than 330 species of plants recorded so far. Ribbons of dense forest fill the sunken canyons between the major tsingy formations, and plants and trees continue to colonize the tsingy themselves, so while the pinnacles are all but impenetrable to humans except on walkways and bridges, Ankarana’s lemurs and other wildlife can happily feed and take refuge among them.
There’s a striking difference between the deciduous trees growing directly out of the tsingy, which lose their leaves in the middle of the dry season and burst into life again after the rains in December, and the trees in the forest-filled canyons between the limestone outcrops, which are evergreen or constantly regrowing and much more jungle-like.
Lianas (lianes in French) are common here, sprouting from any pocket of nutrient and searching triffid-like for purchase on a tsingy pinnacle or up into the branches of a more conventional tree, before sending their tendrils back down to the ground. Ask your guide to show you the liane-pête (péter is the French for “fart”), whose leaves, when squashed, smell strongly sulphurous. Malagasy school kids play tricks on each other with them, but they’re said to be good for your teeth and stomach.
Ankarana has at least four species of baobabs (Madagascar has seven of the world’s nine) and is one of the best places in Madagascar to see the bizarre, rock-like succulent Adenia neohumbertii. Other notable trees include the spine-covered tsagnaniamposa, meaning the tree that can’t be climbed by the posa (the phonetic spelling of Madagascar’s secretive large carnivore, the fossa).
Wildlife
While you almost certainly won’t see a fossa, these nocturnal predators are around, preying on the very high density of crowned and Sanford’s lemurs (Eulemur coronatus and E. sanfordi). These two species of lemur are found in the canyon forests at densities of up to 500 per square kilometre, making Ankarana one of the most densely populated primate habitats in the world. The local Antankarana people have a fady on killing all lemurs apart from the aye-aye, and the crowned and Sanford’s lemurs are naturally quite habituated here. Crowned lemurs need to eat huge quantities of leaves to obtain enough nourishment, and they defecate almost constantly to make room for more – as you’ll soon discover if you start taking photos from beneath a troop of them.
As for the caves, there are more species of bats here than anywhere else in Madagascar as well as various signs of early human habitation and some big crocs in Crocodile Cave. Look out for the handsome brown and green mottled frog, Tsingymantis antitra, only recently discovered, which has no close relatives and only lives in Ankarana.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: PARC NATIONAL D’ANKARANA
By taxi brousse Every vehicle driving along the RN6 between Diego and Ambilobe passes Ankarana and will drop you at Mahamasina (3hr from Diego; 7000ar), the main east entrance to the park. The western entrance is much more difficult to access, from a turning to the west further south along the RN6, and requires a 4x4.
Services There are no banks and virtually no shops at Mahamasina. The hotels are your only reliable food and drink sources.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Camping in the park (3000ar per person)
can be arranged and paid for at the gate, or booked with Madagascar
National Parks ( parcs-madagascar.com).
Ankarana Lodge Mahamasina 032 04 908 10,
kingdelapiste.de. The former Tsingy Lodge, destroyed by fire in 2011, now
has five fresh-feeling, identical, en-suite bungalows, with a/c,
fans and nice rainfall showers. The whole place is well looked after
by attentive staff and there’s a large and enticing pool plus
good dining room (dinner 30,000ar). B&B €99
Chez Aurélien Mahamasina 032 02 786 00,
aurelien_ank@yahoo.fr. Twenty huts
in styles ranging from dur
(“hard”, ie brick and plaster) to round and thatched,
plus some much cheaper rooms with shared facilities
(15,000–20,000ar). There’s a good restaurant and bar
(lunch and dinner 15,000ar, breakfast 7000ar). Brick rooms 35,000ar
Iharana Bush Camp Southern end of the park (9km south of
Mahamasina, then 5km west along a dirt road) 032 11 062
96, iharanabushcamp.com. Ankarana’s top
lodge has a stunning location that justifies the high price –
on the shores of a large lake beneath a towering wall of tsingy. But the chunkily furnished, modestly
sized, rustic-chic en-suite chalets with mosquito nets and open
sides are getting a bit tired. Hot water, but no power sockets. Half
board €184
Le Relais d’Ankarana Mahamasina 032 02 222 94,
relaisdelankarana.unblog.fr. Simple, clean,
comfortable en-suite rooms with mosquito nets and solar power for
24hr hot water and fans. Generator on every evening (6–10pm),
when you can charge batteries. Three-course dinner (20,000ar) and
breakfast (9000ar). 80,000ar
Ambilobe and around
AMBILOBE is an important junction town with a lively market on the north bank of the Mahavavy River. It links the Tana–Diego axis with Madagascar’s northeast coast road at Vohemar via the terrible RN5A through Daraina.
Out of Ambilobe heading north on the RN6, the road is mostly in good condition as it skims across a flat plain. Then it climbs into hillier areas where the surface is much more damaged, and communities of rock-breakers line the road as you get towards Ankarana.
From Ambilobe south to Ankify, the RN6 is fast and mostly in reasonable condition. The route to Ankify no longer goes via Ambanja: a new road sprouts to the west, 7km north of Ambanja, and arrows straight through the cacao plantations, eventually becoming a causeway through the mangroves, before reaching Ankify port.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: AMBILOBE AND AROUND
By taxi brousse Vehicles jostle along the streets in the town centre.
Destinations Ambanja (frequent; 3hr; 8000ar); Ankify (frequent; 3hr; 8000ar); Antananarivo (frequent; 20hr; 60,000ar); Diego Suarez (frequent; 3–4hr; 9000ar); Vohemar (2–3 daily; 12–24h; 40,000ar).
Services For changing money, there’s a branch of BOA with an ATM.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Chez Mama 200m south of the Noor on the same side of the road. Good range of dishes in the 3000–6000ar range. Daily; times vary.
Chez Sabitre South of Noor and down a side road to the
west 033 37 577 11. Surprisingly good
meals, including pizzas and seafood. Expect to pay around 10,000ar.
Daily; times vary.
Hotel Noor Behind the Jovenna petrol station 034
99 611 02. Quite a pleasant old place built
around a courtyard in the centre of town, with some rooms looking
out onto the animated streets. There are reasonably comfortable beds
with ill-fitting mosquito nets and ceiling fans, but fairly basic
plumbing in the en-suite bathrooms. No restaurant. 35,000ar
Nosy Be and around
The island of Nosy Be (“Big Island”) presides over Madagascar’s tourism industry like a brightly cloaked magician, conjuring perfect holidays out of the seductive natural environment and putting most visitors under a deep spell. Indian Ocean traders have been visiting and settling on the island for centuries, but it jumped onto the world stage in 1841 when the queen of the Boina Sakalava tribe invited the first colonial rule in Madagascar by calling on the French to help her people against their Merina oppressors on the mainland. An imperial governor was installed, Admiral de Hell, and French and Réunionais Creole settlers followed soon after.
For the vast majority of today’s visitors, arriving on direct flights from France or seasonal charters from Italy, this is the only part of Madagascar they ever see. With its fringe of glorious beaches along the west coast, you can see why: arriving in Nosy Be’s primary-coloured landscape, with its deep-blue sky and opalescent sea, golden sands, and tropical verdure draped with purple bougainvillea, is a tonic for greyed-out Europeans. It’s the kind of lush environment where fence posts sprout leaves and turn into hedges. And the sensual perfume of ylang-ylang flowers is everywhere.
All is not perfect however. Since the demise of the ylang-ylang perfume distillery and the SIRAMA state-run sugar plantations at the turn of the century, Nosy Be’s inhabitants rely increasingly on tourism. This has its dark side: prostitution and exploitation are evident in some resort areas, and the brutal murder of two Europeans in 2013 saw a slump in tourism from which the island has yet to recover.
None of this is likely to have any impact on your stay: the beaches and marine life are still beautiful, the interior is an underrated bonus and the surprisingly remote Lokobé rainforest is a real draw for wildlife enthusiasts. Nosy Be itself is just the largest of more than twenty islands scattered in the Mozambique Channel off Madagascar’s indented northwest coast, several of which have inviting lodges.
THE DONIA FESTIVAL
Nosy Be’s biggest cultural event of the year is Donia ( festival-donia.com), a
4–7-day music and cultural festival at the end of May, celebrating
the unity of the peoples of the western Indian Ocean. It focuses on music
shows at several different venues, including Hell-Ville stadium, where up to
20,000 people cram to watch acts from Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues,
the Comoros and Madagascar, as well as from francophone mainland
Africa.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: NOSY BE AND AROUND
By plane Nosy Be’s Fascène Airport is on the east coast. Taxis to the capital, Hell-Ville, cost 20,000ar, with rates to west-coast hotels varying from 30,000ar to 50,000ar. Most of those hotels send their own vehicles to do the transfer.
Destinations Antananarivo (at least 2 weekly; 1hr 5min–1hr 35min); Diego Suarez (2 weekly; 25min).
By boat The only regular services to Nosy Be leave from Ankify harbour on the mainland, docking at the port on the east side of Hell-Ville (30min; 10,000ar); small boats leave throughout the morning, with the last departures around 12.30pm. Passports are required, and life jackets must be worn. Vehicle ferries are less frequent (150,000ar for 4x4). Hotels and tour operators run excursion services to other islands.
GETTING AROUND
A winding, country road circumnavigates the island – around 100km and taking about 3hr to drive without stops. Taxis brousse run along the west coast from Hell-Ville as far as Andilana, allowing you to stop wherever you like (2000–3000ar). Transport further afield is sporadic.
Hell-Ville
Home to half its 95,000-strong population, Nosy Be’s little capital may officially be called Andoany, but it’s still known universally as HELL-VILLE, after its nineteenth-century governor, the oddly named Admiral Anne Chrétien Louis de Hell. For those visiting for the day from one of the beach hotels, it makes for a fascinating excursion into the real life of Madagascar. If you’ve flown in or arrived by ferry, it’s a happily low-key and welcoming introduction to the island.
The gently buzzing Boulevard Général Charles de Gaulle, with its stone benches sponsored by THB beer, is Hell-Ville’s main artery and shopping street, and an enjoyable avenue to stroll. Hustle and aggravation are rare, so you can wander here at ease. Hell-Ville has three markets: the bazary be or grand marché by the old Théâtre Municipal that now houses the Alliance Française; the small market known as the marché d’Andavakotoko, towards the sea from the grand marché; and the marché d’Ambonara, on the way out of town towards the beaches.
GETTING AROUND: HELL-VILLE
Taxis brousse The main departure and arrival area is near the main market at the bottom of bd Charles de Gaulle.
Tuk-tuks and taxis Tuk-tuks cost 500ar per hop and taxis 1000ar for most journeys in town. Taxis from Hell-Ville port to anywhere in town cost 3000ar.
INFORMATION
Tourist office Rue Passot 020 86 920 62,
nosybe-tourisme.com. The tourist office
is very helpful, with some books, maps and leaflets. Mon–Fri 8am–noon &
2–6pm, Sat & Sun 8am–noon (closed on
public hols).
ACCOMMODATION
Many travellers choose to stay in the minor suburb of Ambonara – little more than a few shacks, farm plots and a few shops by the roadside, just a short walk or ride away from the centre of Hell-Ville.
Belle Vue Rue Tsiomeko 020 86 613
84,
bellevuehotel_nosybe@yahoo.fr. In a
lively, central location, this has 23 clean if small and
somewhat stuffy rooms at a wide range of prices (from en suite
with a/c to simple rooms with fan and facilities down the
corridor), some of which have views east across Hell-Ville port.
It can sometimes be noisy when the Porte Rouge club at street level is busy. The restaurant is open daytime
only. 27,000ar
Les Bungalows d’Ambonara Ambonara (signposted), 1.5km from the
town centre 032 02 611 12, nosy-be-holidays.com. Tucked into a
shady garden setting just back from the main island road, this
has a small swimming pool (one of very few in Hell-Ville) and
very nice common areas. Clean and well-furnished but rather dark
en-suite rooms, with nets and fans. The restaurant – and
their collection of rhums
arrangés – have a great reputation
(breakfast 10,000ar). €30
Chez Nirina Ambonara (signposted), 1.5km from the
town centre 32 56 30 100, chez-nirina.com. Clean and very well-run
little bungalow set-up in a local neighbourhood on the outskirts
of Hell-Ville (a 20–30min walk), with a responsible
no-sex-tourism ethic. The five tile-floored, falafy-roofed en-suite rooms have fans and
mosquito nets but no hot water – and they’re not
soundproofed. Breakfast €6.50, three-course meal
€12.50. Wi-fi. €17
La Plantation Rue de Fortin 032 07 934
45, hotel-laplantation-nosybe.com. Centrally
located and full of character, La
Plantation has sixteen en-suite rooms with fans and
mosquito nets, many with sea views, balconies and room safes
(a/c supplement 10,000ar; breakfast 10,000ar). Clean, secure,
well-managed and attractively furnished, with a great
atmosphere, this is the best hotel in Hell-Ville. Restaurant and
bar by reception downstairs. Wi-fi. 56,000ar
Tsinjo Hotel Rue de Fortin, next to La Plantation
032 84 150 55, tsinjohotel.e-monsite.com. The Tsinjo has 21 very decent but
characterless en-suite rooms, some with balconies (10,000ar
supplement for a/c). 50,000ar
EATING AND DRINKING
Le Manava Rue George V 032 04 394
54. One of Hell-Ville’s few
genuine nightspots, on an upstairs terrace floor, with free
entry. On offer are a pool table, slightly expensive drinks (THB
5000ar) and a menu of pizzas and standard fare
(10,000–15,000ar) accompanied by the owner’s
musical choices, which include the likes of Donovan’s
“Hurdy Gurdy Man”. Live music on Tues from 9pm
(5000ar). Daily noon–2.15pm
& 6–11pm.
Hôtel de la Mer Bd du Docteur Manceau 032 80 282
24, hoteldelamer-nosybe.com. On a quiet back
street above the sea, this old colonial house is a spectacular
location for a lazy lunch or dinner, and they have wi-fi. Most
of their seafood dishes are in the 14,000–15,000ar range.
They often have a disco here at weekends. Daily lunch and dinner.
Le Nandipo Rue Albert I 032 29 775
32, lenandipo.com. A mix of Catalan bodega,
sports bar and restaurant, this delightful Hell-Ville
institution has good music, free wi-fi and usually a crowd of
travellers, expats and locals. There’s plenty of choice
on the drinks list and menu, with pizzas and various Med-style
dishes (snails, wild boar, salads) at 14,000–20,000ar.
Daily 7am–11pm.
Oasis Bd de l’Indépendance
034 75 119 95, facebook.com/oasisnosybe.
Hell-Ville’s best-known pavement bar/snack bar
rendezvous, with nice staff and good coffee, pastries and ice
creams. Mon–Sat
6.30am–9.30pm, Sun 6.30am–noon.
Porte Rouge Rue Tsiomeko. This small bar is effectively at the heart of Hell-Ville’s low-key nightlife district. Cheap, cold THB beer is always available, as sometimes are snacks – usually brochettes. Always crowded but not hustly. Daily from around 8am till midnight or when the last customer leaves.
DIRECTORY
Airline Air Madagascar is in Ambonara, on the north side of the road
out of town ( 020 86 612 18, 033 11 222 51 or 032
52 005 29; Mon–Fri 8–11am &
2.30–5pm, Sat 8–9am).
Banks All Nosy Be’s ATMS are in Hell-Ville, at BOA, BMOI, BNI and BFV.
Pharmacy Pharmacie Tsarajoro, bd Général Charles de
Gaulle ( 020 86 613 82; Mon–Fri
7.30am–noon & 3–6.30pm). Out of hours, it
shares a rota of jours de garde days
with other pharmacies around town.
Supermarket Nosy Be’s best is Shampion, rue de Fortin (Mon–Sat 8am–7pm, Sun 8am–1pm).
The west coast
With their palm-shaded sands and vivid sunsets over the Mozambique Channel, the west coast beaches of Nosy Be – a series of long bays bracketed by rocky headlands – are every inch the iconic image of a tropical paradise. Their warm, safe tidal lagoons are sheltered from the ocean by large sections of reef (which although degraded are still well worth diving or snorkelling) and the paved Route de l’Ouest that runs north to Andilana and then around the island passes just a few hundred metres from the shore, making access easy. And between the hotels and tourists, traditional village life carries on, with fishing boats pulled ashore and women pounding rice or preparing food on the porch.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE: THE EVENTS OF 2013
Nosy Be’s growing association with sex tourism, often involving underage participants (adult prostitution is not illegal, but sex workers have to be 18 and carry ID cards), is a cause of shame and deep concern for many islanders. But the lure of cash is hard to resist when jobs are so scarce and poorly paid. Some liaisons lead to long-term partnerships and legitimate businesses (foreign investors need a Malagasy business partner) and even marriage and emigration abroad.
In October 2013, a combination of simmering resentment and suspicion of corrupt officials erupted into mass protests and violence when the mutilated body of an 8-year-old boy was found washed up on Ambatoloaka beach. How the boy had died is unclear, but local rumours quickly spread that the police were protecting Europeans suspected of organ-trafficking or paedophilia and the police station in Hell-Ville was attacked, leading to two rioters being shot. A mob in Ambatoloaka then captured two foreigners – a French tourist and an Italian expatriate resident – subjected them to a night of violent interrogation, then bludgeoned them to death and burned their bodies on the beach in front of a large crowd.
The seismic impact of the killings led to travel advisories being issued and there was a serious depression in tourism across the whole island. Although most islanders recognize that the murders were a horrific case of mass hysteria and mistaken identity, there is still a somewhat subdued atmosphere in the island’s resort areas, and single male vazaha should be aware that they may arouse suspicion until they have settled in.
Ambatoloaka
Just 10km from the capital, Ambatoloaka is the first resort area out of Hell-Ville, and also the busiest on the island. Yet this slip of a tourist town barely existed twenty years ago. It’s still charmingly low-key by international standards, consisting of a single 400-metre lane that runs just a block behind the beachfront and is lined with wooden shops, eating houses, hand-painted excursion and scooter-rental outlets and a couple of bar-discos. The close proximity of everything makes doing a restaurant or bar crawl supremely easy, and you’ll feel like you’re getting a genuine immersion in local life, though it’s a pretty tame scene. After dark, when the centre of Ambatoloaka is a car-free zone, it does become busier and livelier: you leave your vehicle at the town’s small, guarded car park at the north end of the road, and walk in past the barrier.
Past the rocky area at the north end of Ambatoloaka beach, the bay continues for a further kilometre or so as Madirokely beach. This is still fairly busy, the sands and sea not the most pristine, and the hawkers sometimes out in force, but Madirokely is a slightly more refined resort, with its own access road 1km further along the coast highway. A footpath leads between the two resort areas.
Ambondrona to Ampasy
The next beach north from Madirokely is Ambondrona. Again, it’s not the island’s best – the water can sometimes be cloudy here and you may feel a bit besieged by sales people – but the coast road passes right behind the beach and there are several hotels, including Domaine Manga Be. The next stretch takes in the less attractive resort areas of Belle-Vue and Ampasy.
Djamandjary
DJAMANDJARY is the island’s second town and has its own life aside from the tourist industry. As you drive north, on the right you’ll see the biggest Protestant church in Madagascar, built in 2012 by former president Marc Ravalomanana, a Protestant himself who noticed three times as many worshippers outside the former church as inside it. The concrete pill-box shaped houses on the left side of the road are the last standing cyclone-proof homes on the island – a French initiative during colonial times.
A little further north on the right side of the road you pass the SIRAMA sugar and rum factory, standing idle since 2006. There’s even an ancient locomotive sinking in rusty dereliction into the grass by the staff housing. Some 65 percent of Nosy Be’s lush, hilly countryside is held by SIRAMA, the state-owned sugar producer, which used to produce thousands of tons of sugar cane, mostly for the manufacture of rum. However production came to a halt in 2002 and since then much of the farmland has been carved into small, unofficial plots and planted with rice and other crops by islanders. If you want to have a go at hiking up to Mont Passot from here, note that the path, which can also be ascended on a trail bike, starts behind the factory.
Bemoko and around
Beyond the next headland is Bemoko beach – though there’s not much of it at high tide – and the area is less developed and more forested. It faces the hilly and partly forested island of Nosy Sakatia, which has a handful of places to stay of its own. You then pass a coastline of mangroves – and the uninhabited islet of Nosy Ratsy where stillborn infants were traditionally buried.
Andilana
Finally you reach the rocky headland of Andilana with its superb – though very much occupied – north-facing beaches. The sea around Andilana - with little surface drainage and close to the open ocean – tends to be very clear.
ACCOMMODATION: THE WEST COAST
AMBATOLOAKA
Chez Gérard et
Francine Southern tip of the village at the
end of the road 032 07 127 93, gerard-et-francine.com. First opened
in 1988, and in a house built by the owner’s family
in 1947, this perfectly located, super-friendly guesthouse
is tucked beneath tumbling jungle, right on the beach at the
southern tip of Ambatoloaka. There are nine rooms, available
only to couples or families (no single men are allowed
unless you can convince them you’re not here for sex
tourism). Also has 24hr electricity and a nice bar (open
5.30–8.30pm for guests’ use only). Great
breakfasts, but no lunch or dinner – you can eat 2min
away in the village. B&B €44
Sarimanok On the beach in Ambatoloaka village
032 05 909 09, sarimanok.mg. In the heart of the
village, this very stylish and professionally managed new
hotel has just fourteen large, chic rooms, each with wi-fi,
minibar, safe and a/c (and balconies upstairs).
There’s a popular restaurant, the Ba-Tu-Moch (most dishes 17,000ar; breakfast
16,500ar) and a first-floor pool deck with good views.
Altogether, a very cool set-up and Ambatoloaka’s best
hotel. 171,000ar
AMBONDRONA TO AMPASY
Domaine Manga Be Plage d’Ambondrona, 10km from
Hell-Ville 032 42 092 82, domainemangabe.com. A simple beach
hotel with 21 rooms in varying styles and a diverse mix of
clients. Entertainments include a pool table and occasional
live music. Breakfast 9000ar. €40
Nosy Be Boutique Hotel &
Spa Plage d’Ampasy, 11km from
Hell-Ville 034 06 771 87, nosybehotel.com. One of the oldest
hotels on the island (dating from 1994), right opposite the
islet of Nosy Tanga, with an English-speaking owner-manager.
It’s a popular choice with honeymooners, with 50
rooms in a variety of styles (all with TV, minibar, a/c and
fan), a large pool and a beautiful spa area offering highly
rated treatments. The menu changes daily, with Italian and
speciality dishes. Half board €174
BEMOKO AND AROUND
Ravintsara Wellness Hotel Plage Bemoko, 16km from Hell-Ville
032 07 137 76, ravintsarahotel.com. Set in 12 acres
of stunningly beautiful gardens that are as close to a
rainforest as anything outside a rainforest, this has 22
identical rooms with a/c, fans, safes and fridges, huge
bathrooms and lots of glass. There’s a large dining
area, dominated by huge tree trunks, and no shortage of
eating options, including vegetarian and a children’s
menu. Malagasy or pop bands usually play in the evenings.
B&B €184
Vanila Plage Bemoko, 17km from Hell-Ville
032 03 921 01, vanila-hotel.com. Opened in 2000,
this independently owned beach hotel is a very solid choice,
with bright and airy rooms (a/c and fans), pleasant
professional staff, two pools and two restaurants –
Parfum Vanila and the more
intimate Grill del Sol.
There’s a library, internet room and spa, plus a
private beach with a bar-restaurant on Nosy Sakatia, a short
boat ride away. Activities include bike hire (15,000ar/day)
and diving (€40). B&B €136
ANDILANA AND AROUND
Andilana Beach Resort On the cape, facing Nosy Andilana
034 65 000 08, andilanaresort.com. By far the
biggest hotel on the island, this 200-room all-inclusive
caters largely to a hedonistic Italian crowd. It has a
fantastic beach setting and a great pool, but watch out for
very expensive excursions and hotel wi-fi (both cheaper
booked in the village). Full board, including drinks €180
Au Belvédère Andilana headland 032 76 751
99, belvedere-nosybe.com. In a lovely
location above Andilana beach (theirs is the beach
restaurant, Chez Loulou), these
rooms in a long thatched block all have sea views from the
convivial veranda, plus large windows, fans and mosquito
nets. B&B €50
La Casa Flops 032 05 888 30, casaflops-nosybe.com. Delightful
little homestay based on socially and environmentally
responsible principles – composting toilets and solar
panels provide power – with just four en-suite rooms
(no a/c, no fans). The kitchen prepares three-course meals
to order (€12.50), or you can eat Malagasy-style for
5000ar/dish. Camping is also available (€15 with your
own tent). B&B €45
Chez Eugénie Andilana village 032 40 634
48, chez-eugenie.com. In a village
setting, 200m south of Andilana’s beautiful
crescent-shaped beach, this family-run place has two suites
sleeping 4–6 at the back and three rooms, each with a
double and a single bed alongside the main building. They
also have a further room for up to four people, without a
bathroom. Good restaurant. B&B €35
Le Grand Bleu 500m past Antanamirana village, just
before Andilana 032 02 194 84, legrandbleunosybe.com. One of the
most beautiful locations in Madagascar, getting both sunrise
and sunset, Le Grand Bleu is also
nicely engaged with the local community. The breezy chalets
on the hillside have 24hr electricity and wi-fi, and laundry
and transfers are all included: confort rooms have a/c, hammocks and deck
chairs; randonneur rooms are more
basic, with fans and hammocks. There’a also a pool,
lounge and dining terrace, and it’s 400m down the
hill to the beach. Daily menu with a choice of entrée and plat (breakfast €4, lunch or dinner
€11). €65
AMPORAHA
Sangany Lodge Amporaha Nord 034 08 125
61, sanganylodge.com. Opened in 2013 and
managed by its English-speaking owner, this is a very nice
set-up of four simple thatched villa-bungalows, and a tree
house, in a remote corner in the far northeast of the
island. Apart from a couple of other hotels, there’s
nothing to do in this area, but it’s the perfect
beach escape. B&B 500,000ar
EATING
AMBATOLOAKA
Chez Papa Bebeto Ambatoloaka village 034 03
814 94. Local atmosphere –
as many gasy as vazaha customers – and quick service
from the busy kitchen area, with staff revolving around the
figure of Bebeto himself. It’s good for starters or
mains (smoked swordfish salad 6000ar; most mains not more
than 10,000ar). Mon–Sat
noon–3pm & 7–10.30pm.
Chez Teresa & Joseph Ambatoloaka village 032 04
664 75 or 033 14 295
42. Very popular owner-managed corner
restaurant, with views straight into the action on the stage
in Taxi Be. The menu is in
English, with Italian (linguine with lobster sauce
14,000ar), French and Malagasy dishes (chicken romazava, 12,000ar). The restaurant
spills into the street and garden, with the hostess and host
(aka “Babu”) seeing that everything goes with
a swing. Daily except Tues
7am–late.
ANDILANA
Restaurant Chez Ernest On the road, at the eastern end of
plage d’Andilana 032 40 081
63. Often busy with refugees from
Andilana Beach Resort looking
for something local, this roadside shack can deliver, but
only when Ernest is there – at 30,000–40,000ar
it’s priced way over its league when the man himself
isn’t in charge. When he is, the delicious fish and
seafood (lobster, crevettes, catch
of the day) with fries or coconut rice are well worth the
equivalent of €10 a head. Daily 5–9pm.
Chez Loulou Plage d’Andilana 032
69 783 91. Owned by the Belvédère hotel and
often full of day-trippers from hotels further down the
coast, this is nonetheless a lovely spot: just be prepared
to be one of many diners. Choose from a limited list on the
blackboard of mostly fish and seafood offerings in the
20,000–30,000ar range. On Sun there’s a buffet
lunch (40,000ar). Daily lunch and
dinner.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Djembe Ambatoloaka village 032 04 944
48 or 020 86 920 19. The
later and steamier of Ambatoloaka’s two main club/discos.
5000–10,000ar (women free before midnight). Mon–Wed & Sat
10.30pm–3am (closed Thurs, Fri &
Sun).
Le Taxi-Be Ambatoloaka village. This hyperventilating, open-sided bar and music venue with its famous quatre-elle at the back of the stage is the place to be until midnight, when Djembe takes over. Daily until 1am.
Mont Passot and the lakes
Mont Passot is a 9km walk (allow 3hr), or if you don’t have a vehicle you could possibly hitch a lift; it’s an easy drive on the paved road (30min from Andilana), but taxis brousse don’t run this far
The lower of the island’s two peaks, Mont Passot (3298m) is a popular late afternoon trip to watch the sun go down over the Mozambique Channel, whether on foot or by car. En route you’ll pass several of the volcanic interior’s eleven crater lakes, all of which have populations of Nile crocodiles. Accidents with these big reptiles (the same species as in Africa, Crocodylus niloticus) are not uncommon, but this doesn’t seem to put local people off from fishing and using the lakes as a car wash – and in any case harming the animals is fady.
Lac Andjavibe, on the south side of the road as you approach by vehicle, is a black spot for crocodile deaths: on average somebody is taken from the shore every three to four years. Continue on and to the east side of the road is the first of two twin lakes, commonly known by the same name, the Lacs des Soeurs or Lacs Mirahavavy, but their true names are Antsimonigny (to the west) and Ambalavato (east). You go through a tollgate for Mont Passot (10,000ar) and there’s a short path to the rim of Lac Antanilatsaka, where a few women usually have some colourful craft stalls set out, selling beads, raffia toys, and embroidered fabrics. Close to the summit you pass Lac Bemapaza, directly by the roadside.
Passing big-leafed teak trees and a telecoms tower you come out on the summit to a 360-degree panorama. Before you is the island’s biggest lake and source of Hell-Ville’s drinking water, Lac Amparihibe and, almost connected to it, Lac Antsidihy, with Djamandjary further away on the coast. Looking south you can see the Lokobé rainforest and the islands of Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikely. The summit has a new row of souvenir shops and an observation deck, but hopefully the shady mango tree will be preserved.
Réserve Naturelle Intégrale de Lokobé
Community fee 5000ar, paid to your trip organizer or the guide accompanying you
The Réserve Naturelle Intégrale de Lokobé (Lokobé Strict Nature Reserve) is Nosy Be’s last area standing of pristine lowland rainforest. Considering how easy it is to walk up its eastern flanks, accessible on several footpaths, you’d be forgiven for not appreciating that on its western side, which rises vertiginously from the port at Hell-Ville to the highest point on the island (430m), this 7.4 square-kilometre rainforest is almost inaccessible.
Fauna and flora
Lokobé is home to a diverse range of Malagasy fauna and flora, including a particularly fine range of palms, notably an extremely rare endemic species, Dypsis ampasindavae (kindro in Malagasy), of which only thirty trees exist, most of them here. You’re almost certain to see the dramatic-looking, whiskery-eared black lemur (Eulemur macaco) and the very cute Nosy Be sportive lemur (Lepilemur tymerlachsonorum) on a day walk. Sexually dimorphic black lemurs (only males are black; females are chestnut with white beards) are easily encountered as they forage for fruit through the low canopy, unintentionally dispersing seeds as they go. And sportive lemurs are easily spotted in their customary tree holes, staring curiously at camera-wielding visitors at a convenient height for photography. The minuscule, endemic Nosy Be mouse lemur (Microcebus mamiratra) is another matter: you need to go for an extended after-dark walk, take a good head torch, and listen for high-pitched squeaks.
In the cold-blooded line, you’ll be treated to the brilliant turquoise-green Nosy Be panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) and, if you’re lucky, the arboreal, skink-like, emerald-green zonosaurus lizard (Zonosaurus boettgeri; thought extinct but rediscovered here in the 1990s), as well as countless small species of frogs and geckos.
Approach
The commonest way to reach Lokobé is as part of an organized trip. You drive from Hell-Ville to the sandy, backwater village of Ambatozavavy. From here you take a heavy and solid lakana – a mangrove wood pirogue, with an outrigger made of very light ylang-ylang wood – and paddle around the southeast extremity of Nosy Be. About 1km along the coast, you’ll see among the rocks on the shore the flash of red and white cloth – Nosy Be’s sacred colours signifying areas of ritual importance (Ambatozavavy was named after the curious shape of female genitalia, or vavy, naturally incised here into a boulder by a fluke of geology). A short while later you reach the backwater beach village of Ampasipohy, meaning “Short Beach”. Periodically overrun by tour groups at weekends, it’s a quick walk from here into the magical forest.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: RÉSERVE NATURELLE INTÉGRALE DE LOKOBÉ
Tours Organized trips include transport, entrance fee and lunch on the beach (around 50,000ar).
By taxi brousse 2–3 taxis brousse run daily between Hell-Ville and Ambatozavavy.
< Back to Nosy Be and the far north
Other islands and beaches
Offshore from Nosy Be lie several smaller islands, some with upmarket resorts offering a taste of barefoot (and exclusive) luxury, though idyllic Nosy Komba and Nosy Sakatia, famous for its orchids, make for straightforward day-trips from the mainland. Excursions to the former are often combined with the marine reserve of Nosy Tanikely, perfect for snorkelling.
Nosy Komba
Any hotel or tour operator on Nosy Be can organize a visit to Nosy Komba, including boat transfer (15min) and lunch, or you can do it yourself from Hell-Ville
The almost circular island of Nosy Komba, just 3km from the Lokobé peninsula, is a highly recommended day-trip from Hell-Ville. Peaking at 569m, this conical, partly forest-flanked island, has one main village, Ampangorina, on the north shore, and no roads. It is home to black lemurs (komba), traditionally protected by a fady and now the object of a flourishing village tourism industry, with habituated groups coming to feed on bananas and hop onto shoulders.
Nosy Tanikely Marine Reserve
10,000ar reserve fee
Some 10km south of Hell-Ville, Nosy Tanikely is a pin-prick-sized, star-shaped marine reserve of forest-cloaked, black volcanic rock and pale sandy beaches, and, like Nosy Komba, is a high-profile excursion destination. Just 500m across, this is one of the best snorkelling sites in the area, its waters protected for a further 500m radius from the low-tide mark, and can get busy in high season. Big brown-marbled grouper fish (Epinehelus fuscoguttatus) come here to spawn in November and December, and there are black lemurs on the island and a good variety of other wildlife.
Nosy Sakatia
There are several spots where you can cross to Sakatia from Bemoko beach (10min)
Pockmarked with ancient volcanic craters, and harbouring the most important turtle-nesting beaches in the Nosy Be region, Nosy Sakatia is Nosy Be’s second-biggest offshore island (4km long and 2km wide) and lies just off its northwest coast. There are several small villages, but no roads: you move around Sakatia by boat, or hike through the bush on well-worn paths.
Nosy Iranja
Another important turtle nesting site, Nosy Iranja is really two islands, joined by a sandy spit (exposed at low tide), off the west coast of the Ampasindava peninsula across the bay from Nosy Be. The large resort hotel occupying most of Iranja Kely, the smaller, southern island, has been abandoned under a cloud, leaving a visit here to adventurous travellers, who camp on the beach, or to people booked to stay at Zahir Nosy Iranja, the small establishment on the north island, near the village.
Nosy Mitsio and Nosy Tsarabanjina
The volcanic archipelago of Nosy Mitsio, around 70km northeast of Nosy Be, consists of the main island of Mitsio, a 40-square kilometre, dragon-shaped outcrop of beach-fringed bush and patchy cultivation, and a clutch of uninhabited satellite islets, one of which – tiny Nosy Tsarabanjina – is dominated by Constance Lodge. This whole area of shallow seas is excellent for diving and snorkelling.
OTHER ISLANDS AND BEACHES
Constance Lodge Nosy Tsarabanjina 032 02 152 29,
tsarabanjina.constancehotels.com. As it’s
part of a chain it won’t be a surprise that you’re paying
here for the sublime location (the south beach rooms get amazing
sunsets), not the somewhat formulaic international comforts and French
cooking. Access is by speedboat (1hr 30min–2hr from Hell-Ville)
or by helicopter from Nosy Be airport. All-inclusive €560
Eden Lodge Baie d’Ampasindava 032 02 20
361, edenlodge.net. On a remote beach at the end of
the Ampasindava peninsula, this luxurious French-owned eco-lodge (sister
hotel to L’Heure Bleue at Madirokely on
Nosy Be) walks the responsible tourism walk in a way few Malagasy hotels
do. Set among baobabs, the eight thatch-roofed tents are supplied by
solar power and staffed by local villagers. Full board €480
Sakatia Lodge Nosy Sakatia 032 02 770 99, sakatia.co.za.
A popular South African-owned beach lodge, with modest bungalows, where
most guests are sea-loving types enjoying the first-rate snorkelling and
diving opportunities (whale sharks are often seen), deep-sea fishing and
sailing. Excellent food, generator electricity. 189,00ar
Tsara Komba Lodge Nosy Komba 020 86 921 10, tsarakomba.com. Beautifully located on the south
coast of the island, away from the island’s lemur razzmatazz,
Tsara Komba has eight superbly finished
and very private cottages directly on or just above the beach.
Outstanding service and excellent food mark it out as one of
Madagascar’s best beach hotels. Full board €486
Zahir Nosy Iranja Nosy Iranja 032 05 938 80, lezahir-lodge-nosybe.com. Sister hotel of
Zahir Lodge at Madirokely on Nosy Be,
these seven barefoot bungalows, on a 400m-long fleck of an island, offer
great value for this kind of thing. Allow the best part of 2hr for the
speedboat transfer from the main hotel. Full board €180
WESTERN MADAGASCAR
Far from Antananarivo and far from each other, the towns and natural attractions of western Madagascar take a little perseverance to reach. This is a vast region, amounting to almost a third of the island’s land area, stretching from Majunga in the north to Morondava in the south, and covering the traditional regions of the Sakalava people: Boina or Boeny to the north and Menabe to the south. Much of it is broad, rolling savannah and farmland, with scattered patches of much-reduced dry forest, featuring huge numbers of baobabs, and large mangrove swamps towards the coast. Dozens of streams and rivers meander westwards from the interior, flooding and shrinking with the seasons.
The great wildlife and landscape draws of the west are the easy-access deciduous dry forests of Parc National d’Ankaranfantsika, the remarkably animal-rich Kirindy Private Reserve, reached via the famous Allée des Baobabs, and the otherworldly “stone forests” of the vast Tsingy de Bemaraha plateau. The Bemaraha plateau is cut through by the snaking gorge of the Manambolo River, which opens up a dramatic landscape of limestone formations rising sheer from the river valley. Like the Tsiribihina River, further south, the Manambolo is navigable by kayak and riverboat, and both rivers are popular for multi-day river trips. The west also has some seductive and expensive coastal hideaways, combining tropical beach allure with wildlife attractions – the best-known being the exclusive Anjajavy l’Hôtel, north of Majunga.
The climate in the west follows Madagascar’s familiar pattern of a hot, rainy season roughly from December to April, and warm, dry weather from May to November. While most of the island’s rain falls on the east coast, meaning the west is overall much drier, travel is still difficult here during the rainy season as roads turn to mud baths and river ferry docks are submerged. Most tourist hotels and wildlife lodges are closed from December to April. The early part of the rainy season in November is, however, a popular time to visit: greenery sprouts everywhere and the warmed-up wildlife is in reproductive mode.
PEOPLE OF THE WEST: THE SAKALAVA
Western Madagascar is dominated culturally by the traditionally pastoralist Sakalava, who are known – if it’s not unfair to try to summarize their culture in a few words – for their love of their zebu, for their music (the nervous jangle of the 6/8 salegy rhythms are their lasting legacy) and, unlike the Merina and some other groups, for not digging up and reburying their ancestors.
The Sakalava’s name is a Malagasy derivation, meaning “people of the valleys”, a reference to the rivers that meander across their dry cattle pastures. A more dubious etymology has it that the name originates in the Arabic sakaliba and Latin esclavus – “slave” – though these words originally referred to the once enslaved Slavic populations of eastern Europe. It’s a measure of the sensitivity around race and cultural origins that such a derivation could be stamped on this large and diverse ethnic group. Much of the Sakalava population does indeed have a partly African slave and immigrant background, the old Sakalava capital of Morondava itself once being a big slave port that traded with the Swahili coast of East Africa.
The Sakalava kings and their subjects came to be associated with the extremes of wealth and divergent social hierarchies that accumulated with the slave trade. For centuries they dominated the west, conquering by force, absorbing, enslaving and intermarrying with less powerful groups such as the cave-dwelling Ankarana and Vazimba, who may have been the first humans on the island, presumed to have sailed from what is now Mozambique. With the arrival of proselytizing, industrializing Europeans in the nineteenth century, the slave trade was banned and then slavery itself was abolished. At the same time the highland Merina rapidly came to control most of the old Sakalava kingdoms, with the exceptions of Menabe (capital: Morondava) and Boina (capital: Majunga). French colonial rule suppressed Merina dominance and relatively elevated the Sakalava and other coastal peoples.
Sakalava subgroups who probably had a former separate ethnic identity include the town-dwelling Muslim Antalaotra, many of whom trace their origins to the East African coast and Arabia, and the Vezo fishing and seafaring people, who make a livelihood from the sea. Western Madagascar also has an important population of people with Indian ancestry, known as Karana, who played a key role in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century slave trade.
GETTING AROUND: WESTERN MADAGASCAR
By plane Majunga and Morondava are served by regular flights from Antananarivo, and there’s a weekly flight between Morondava and Tuléar.
By road Two reasonably good tarmac roads link Antananarivo with the west coast – the RN4 to Majunga (553km; 8–12hr) and the RN34/35 to Morondava (722km; 12–20hr). Most of the other roads in the region are earth roads – okay to poor depending on the season. Driving up or down the coast is particularly difficult, even in a good 4x4, and not really viable except in the dry season. Doing these routes by taxi brousse can be very slow and unpredictable.
By sea Local, ocean-going cargo vessels – the sailing dhows known as boutres – ply the coast and will usually take passengers. Sailing north with the prevailing winds is usually faster. Shorter journeys through the creeks and lagoons can be made by paddled or poled dugout canoe.
By river The larger rivers are navigable from about May to October. Most trips ply the Manambolo and Tsiribihina, taking travellers downstream by kayak, raft or live-aboard riverboat. Sailings early in the season can be troubled by occasional late rains and high, turbulent water, while voyages later in the year risk making slow progress through the maze-like sandbanks that develop as the waters dry to a trickle.
Majunga
It may be the capital of the Boeny region, the country’s second port and its fifth biggest town, but there’s no question MAJUNGA (also spelled Mahajanga) is a bit sleepy: the huge Louis Dreyfus textile factory, a couple of kilometres out of town on the Tana road, has been dormant since the corporation closed it down in 1996, and townsfolk these days seem most interested in keeping out of the heat, sampling their district’s thirteen varieties of mangos and walking along the Corniche at sunset.
First impressions of the town aren’t encouraging: dusty and potholed sums it up – or muddy and potholed in the rainy season. Majunga sprawls across a flat snout of land, with the ocean and beach on one side, and a somnolent river port, washed by the red flow of Madagascar’s biggest estuary, the Bombetoka, on the other. If you’re flying to Madagascar from Europe, these muddy meanders, carrying the highlands’ precious topsoil into the sea, are quite likely to be your first sight of the country from 10,000m above.
The main reason to come to Majunga is to leave again in order to visit Parc National d’Ankarafantsika, two hours’ drive to the southeast. Wildlife tourism could take off in the immediate area if the transport links were better: there are rare lemurs at Katsepy, impressive cave networks at Anjohibe (see Information and tours) that are world-famous among cavers and rich fossil dinosaur deposits at Berivotra.
Brief history
Majunga started life as the main settlement of the Boina people (an offshoot of the Sakalava) in the mid-eighteenth century. It was the island’s biggest slave port for nearly a hundred years: thousands of Indian, Arab and Comorian families settled and intermarried here and their eight mosques are scattered across the town. Majunga was formally annexed by the Merina in 1824, but since the end of slavery in 1895, with the arrival of the French (who used Majunga as a beachhead for their colonization of the island), only fishing, mangrove-pole-cutting and a trickle of trade have kept the town afloat.
Majunga’s era as an economic backwater may be drawing to a close, however: recent oil finds in the Mozambique Channel look set to bring rapid development to the area over the next few years and an energetic Englishman, Peter Hanratty, has set up a local chamber of commerce and started a biofuel project, growing jatropha in degraded land shared with livestock.
The Corniche
Majunga splits into several distinct neighbourhoods, and the relatively swanky quarter behind the oceanfront Corniche is certainly the most attractive. Watch a balloon-seller at work here among the crowds as the sun goes down, or a just-married couple posing for photos in front of the famous and gargantuan vieux baobab tree (an African baobab, Adansonia digitata), and you may start to see why many middle-class Antananariviens choose to make Majunga their seaside home from home.
The commercial centre
Between the Corniche district and the rarely busy port, a grid of ho-hum commercial streets ends with the main transport park for vehicles to Tana. Scattered through the town are the occasional remains of once-elegant houses and commercial buildings. Look out for the rusting ironwork of the Gustave Eiffel House, on avenue de la Libération, built in 1902. Also nearby on avenue de la Libération, look out for the Palais de la Culture (Majunga’s main assembly hall and public meeting place), the striking, Art Deco Catholic Cathedral and the old post office, dating from the 1890s and origin of some very rare philatelic specimens. On the south side of town, at the port aux boutres, local produce is traded from dhows.
Markets
Majunga has four markets: the Bazary Be is the touristy crafts market next to Hôtel Badamier but they also sell some fruit and veg. Bazary Tsaramandroso, in the district of the same name on the road out to the airport, Bazary Analakely (formerly Marolaka), at the bottom of avenue Philibert Tsiranana, and Bazary Mahabibo (“cashew market”) are general markets, with Mahabibo having a good fish section and generally being the cheapest.
Amborovy
Taxi brousse #12 operates frequently between town and Amborovy beach (500ar)
Majunga’s main beach district is on a long spit several kilometres north of the town in an area called Amborovy, reached by turning west off the airport road just south of the airport. Amborovy is nothing special, and the hotels out here seem slightly stranded: you couldn’t walk along the beach into town even if you wanted to, as a winding creek separates the Amborovy spit from Majunga. On the east shore of this creek, there’s a picturesque spot called Tsambingo, where dhows offload the straight and heavy mangrove poles for building that their crews have cut in the mangrove forests further down the coast.
Amborovy beach is reached by a rough, sandy track from the airport road. There’s a scattering of hotels and beach bars but only a limited amount of shade provided by feathery casuarina trees, and the sea isn’t particularly clear or very clean.
As you approach the beach, check out the extraordinary bouteilles de sable offered at the roadside. With infinite
patience, delicate paintings are built up using a mouth straw with tiny
quantities of varicoloured sand grains (for example by Tsiry Rakotoasitera;
034 36 654 00). You can get a portrait of Bob Marley, a
rural scene or even a copy of a loved one’s photo. Large bottles,
taking two to three days to complete, cost from around 60,000ar.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MAJUNGA
By plane Arriving by air, you land at Amborovy (Philibert Tsiranana)
airport, 7km north of the town centre. Private taxis to the town
centre cost 20,000ar. As well as Air Madagascar flights to
Antananarivo (daily except Tues; 1hr 15min), the Comoros and
Mayotte, Sky Services ( 032 05 217 41 or 033 37
217 41 skymada.com), flies a
Cessna 182 (3 passengers) along the coast, including to Soalala and
Antanimalandy (1–2 weekly; from 155,000ar per person); the
plane can be chartered, as can a helicopter (from 1.5 million
ariary/hr).
By taxi brousse Coming in by road on the RN4, the gare routière zone national is just east of the port, about 1km from the centre of town. Taxis brousse to Antananarivo run throughout the day and also overnight (frequent; 12hr; 30,000ar).
By minibus Première Classe (Corniche, near the CNAPS pensions office;
034 49 588 88 or 032 04 904 57,
malagasycar.com)
and Cotisse Transports (opposite Central
Hôtel; 032 11 027 11 fb/cotisse) usually
operate one or more shuttle bus services daily between Majunga and
Antananarivo. Breakfast and a picnic lunch are included, for
78,000ar with Première Classe (7 seats, a/c) or 35,000ar with
Cotisse (16 seats, non-a/c).
By boat Boutres call frequently at Majunga and places are available if you ask around, though you’ll need to discuss the fare, have a flexible schedule and an adventurous attitude, and be immune to seasickness.
GETTING AROUND
Short taxi hops around town are 3000ar by day (and from 4000ar at night), while tuk-tuks cost 1000ar per hop and pousse-pousses from 500ar.
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist office ORTB ( 034 08 088 80, majunga.org) have two
offices – 14 av Philibert Tsiranana (Mon–Sat
8am–noon & 3–6pm) and Hôtel de Ville
(Mon–Fri 8.30am–noon & 3–5.30pm)
– plus a kiosk on the Corniche (daily: Jan–June, Oct
& Nov 4–8pm, July–Sept & Dec
9–11am & 4–8pm). Helpful and enthusiastic, they
can supply leaflets and also organize Majunga town guided tours by
tuk-tuk or pousse-pousse. The tourist
office also acts as an outlet for local craft makers using the
Angaya label.
Tour operators Aventure et Découverte, corner of av Andriamisara and rue
Victor Hugo ( 034 08 521 96 or 032 05 521
97, aventure-decouverte.com) are Boeny region specialists,
with lots of suggestions and tours from one to many days;
Tongavatours, corner of av Barday and rue du Colonel Barre
( 033 73 864 64 or 033 01 234 56,
tongavatours.com) specialize in birdwatching trips, visits to
the Anjohibe caves and boat trips up the Betsiboka River as well as
vehicle rental with driver.
ACCOMMODATION
MAJUNGA
Hôtel Le Badamier Av de la République, next to the
crafts market 032 57 435 75, hotelmajunga-lebadamier.com. A very
friendly and popular option, with 32 rooms, some with balconies
and all with a/c, fan, safe, TV and wi-fi. There’s a
ground-floor snack bar (open from 6.30am for breakfast until
10pm) and pavement tables. 90,000ar
Central Hôtel Rue Henri Paul 032 69 422
93, facebook.com/centralhotelmahajanga. The
refurbished and renamed former Nouvel
Hôtel is a simple, French-owned
establishment, with hot water, TVs, free wi-fi and either fans
or a/c. 37,000ar
Chez Chabaud Quartier Manga 032 40 028
57 or 032 40 530 05.
Friendly, secure and very clean but basic standby with a breezy
rooftop breakfast terrace. Go for elementary en-suite comforts
(nets, fans, windows; 39,000ar) or a rock-bottom overnight with
showers and toilets en commun. 12,000ar
Chez Tranquilllle Corniche 032 07 524 59,
hotelcheztranquilllle.com.
Multi-lettered Réunionais-owned establishment with a
small, clean swimming pool and just four rooms. Accommodating
staff and good food make this worth reserving (15,000ar extra
for a/c). 45,000ar
Karibu Lodge Corniche 020 62 247 11,
karibu-lodge.com. The best accommodation
in town by some distance, Karibu has a
great location above the ocean, very stylish, comfortable,
split-level rooms (some with fine sea views), excellent food and
a nice pool. €66
Le Vieux Baobab Av de la République 020 62
220 35 or 034 07 220 35.
Don’t get excited about the name: this newly built block
in the town centre has a shiny facade and neat, dependable,
characterless rooms with wi-fi. Singles have fans, while doubles
have fans or a/c (with a 17,000ar supplement). Choose carefully,
as some rooms are small and windowless. 67,000ar
AMBOROVY
Edena Kely 9km from town, just across the road from
the beach 032 555 58 00 edenakely.com. Perhaps “Little
Eden” is going too far – it’s slightly
spoiled by the sad lemur prison near the bar – but
overall this is one of the most likeable set-ups along the
Amborovy coast. The raffia-clad bungalows have safes, fridges,
hot water, a/c, good mattresses and nets, and there’s a
nice pool and frequent evening entertainment. The restaurant
does a 20,000ar menu. 107,000ar
Zahamotel 10km from town, on the beach 032
70 551 01, sofitrans-sa.com. Named after the
zaha baobab (pint-sized specimens
of which line the entrance track), this larger resort hotel is
somewhat chaotic and scruffy and not all rooms are operational,
but the beach is quite pleasant. Get a sea-view room (those
further back are a little cheaper) and ask about low-season
discounts. 105,000ar
NORTH OF AMBOROVY
Antsanitia Resort 24km north of Majunga 020 62 911
00, antsanitia.com. The pronunciation sounds
like “enchanté”, which aptly describes this
ecolodge – Majunga’s most remote and most
responsibly run hotel, at the mouth of the Morira River, close
to the ocean. There’s a wide range of en-suite rooms,
from simple chalets with fans and nets to luxurious suites with
private pools. Meals aim to be organic and responsibly sourced.
Highly recommended. €56
EATING
MAJUNGA
Bar Bacchus/Barbakus Av de la République 020 62
237 85. Polished, a/c, French-style
restaurant, with good service, excellent food (menu du jour 30,000ar, plats around 20,000ar) and a surprisingly good
wine list. Daily, lunch and dinner
(closed Tues & Thurs lunch).
Chez Chabaud Quartier Manga, directly across the
alley from the Chez Chabaud hotel 020 62 233
27. With its white tablecloths,
excellent home cooking and rock music gently surging in the
background, this is an unexpected treat and deservedly popular.
The starters (try the warm calamari salad) and mains (crunchy
steamed veg; cashews in parsley; medallions of zebu in deux poivres sauce) can be superb, and
candied pawpaw an unusual dessert. Three courses add up to about
30,000–40,000ar. Daily except
Tues lunch and dinner.
Coconut Bar and Restaurant Rue Henri Paul 032 05 260
07. The former Hanratty’s Irish Bar has been remodelled as
a pavement café-restaurant by English entrepreneur Peter
Hanratty. Cold beers, rhums
arrangés, good pizzas (11,000ar), desserts
and a great location. Daily
7am–9pm.
La Rotonde/Cotton Club Av Andriamisara 032 64 058
23, rotondecottonclub-majunga.com. Burgers,
ice creams and snacks at the front and on the pavement and an
a/c lounge with wi-fi, sports screens, piano bar and occasional
live music at the back. Front daily
6am–11pm; lounge Mon–Sat
6.30pm–late.
AMBOROVY
Papy Râleur 9km from town, opposite Edena Kely
0323 07 939 15. Owner-managed
beach restaurant with free wi-fi, which has earned a great
reputation for excellent cocktails, seafood and steaks (despite
the Grumpy Grandpa name). The changing daily three-course menu
is around 25,000ar (lobster costs more and needs to be ordered
the day before). Daily lunch and
dinner.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
MAJUNGA
Pub Loock-Ness Rue du Colonel Barre 032 73 541
56, loockness.canalblog.com. With sports
screens, wi-fi, a billiard table (“sometimes for
billiards, sometimes a dance floor…”), occasional
live music and karaoke, Majunga’s central nightlife
institution is always entertaining. THBs at 4000ar and snacks
and a menu du jour (12,000ar) to soak
them up. Mon–Fri 8am–late,
Sat & Sun eves only.
Le Ravinala Ground floor, Blues Rock Café,
Quai Orsini 032 04 680 89.
Majunga’s main disco gets steamy. Entrance is 6000ar for
men and 4000ar for women. Fri and Sat
evenings only.
Shakira Off av de Gallieni 032 43 183
34. Rivals Le Ravinala as Majunga’s most popular night
club, with regular publicity on the local TV. Very hot inside,
but you can escape outdoors at the back. Entrance 5000ar.
Fri and Sat, plus occasional other
evenings.
DIRECTORY
Alliance Française The Alliance Française, on the Corniche ( 020 62 223
32, www.alliancefr.mg; Mon–Sat 7.30–11.30am
& 3–7pm), runs cultural events and has a
café-restaurant and library.
Consuls Peter Hanratty, Fuelstock International (next to the Central
Hôtel; 032 05 260 07 fuelstock.co.uk) is
the British correspondant consulaire,
available for British travellers in case of need.
Katsepy and around
Facing Majunga across the estuary lies the seaside village of KATSEPY – a busy weekend getaway for Majungans with daily ferry services, several popular beachfront restaurants and one good place to stay.
Antrema forest
Guided walking trips to Antema from Katsepy (allow 4hr, including time with the lemurs) should cost around 20,000ar; a guide with vehicle (if you can find one) costs about 40,000ar for a 2hr visit
The most compelling reason to make the trip to Katsepy is to see the very accessible crowned sifakas (Propithecus coronatus) and mongoose lemurs (Eulemur mongoz) that live in the forests in the Antrema forest, below the Katsepy lighthouse 7km north of Katsepy (3km along the earth road to Soalala, then 4km along a track to the north). You could walk alone, but there are always locals to guide you.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: KATSEPY AND AROUND
By ferry Ferries run from Majunga to Katsepy at 7am and 3pm (30min; 10,000ar), tides permitting.
By speedboat Speedboats run from Majunga to Katsepy on demand, depending on numbers (15min; from around 20,000ar per boat).
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Chez Chabaud Katsepy 032 40 530
05. Sister property to the place in town,
Katsepy’s Chez Chabaud has simple
en-suite bungalows on the beach that are as popular with weekenders
from Tana and Majunga as with overseas visitors. Like the town
establishment, it does excellent food. 40,000ar
Northwest coastal hideaways
Around 100km northeast of Majunga, on the remote Anjajavy peninsula and beyond, some of Madagascar’s loveliest exclusive beach resorts have been set up, most in recent years. The best known, Anjajavy, with its idiosyncratic approach combining conservation and careful client-cosseting, is much older and something of a model for others along this coast. Independent travel in this region is very hard – most visitors arrive by private aircraft direct from Antananarivo, though some lodges also organize boat transfers from the Majunga area.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: NORTHWEST COASTAL HIDEAWAYS
Anjajavy l’Hôtel Anjajavy, 125km northeast of Majunga
020 22 327 59, anjajavy.com. The only Relais &
Châteaux property in Madagascar and eye-wateringly expensive
(in low season rates drop by about a third), Anjajavy is not just a beautiful, manicured lodge
– the 25 a/c villas are lavishly comfortable and
there’s a huge pool – but a superbly protected,
near-pristine patch of coastal ecosystem. Troops of Coquerel’s
sifakas and brown lemurs and countless birds and
reptiles spill into the gardens from 7 square kilometres of forest
in the hotel’s hinterland, looked after in coordination with
the national parks service and the local community. Wi-fi. Closed
late Jan to early March. Air transfers from Antananarivo to Anjajavy
with MTA ( mta.mg) normally run
(each way) on Tues, Thurs & Sat (€595; 1hr 30min).
Full board €734
Lodge des Terres Blanches Antanimalandy, 100km northeast of Majunga
034 55 070 90, lodgedesterresblanches.com. A simple, rustic
beach resort with personal hosting from its Belgian owners, this
six-bungalow establishment does a great job at barefoot escapism without
the pool, a/c or luxury refinements of its coastal neighbours. The coast
here is pristine, with forest extending right down over the rocks and
rugged eroded cliffs to the beach. Transfers are normally run by Sky from Majunga. Full board €160
La Maison de Marovasa Be Marovasa, 135km north of Majunga 032 07
418 14, marovasabe.com. Although it doesn’t have
the indigenous forest of its neighbours to the south, the infrastructure
and facilities here are very well developed – with buildings in a
contemporary plantation style – and the coast has lots of small
bays and interesting snorkelling spots. As well as the six luxurious
rooms and three suites, there are also some much cheaper “Pilot
Rooms” with shared bathrooms (full board €70 per person).
Full board €500
THE RN4 SOUTH TO ANTANANARIVO
The RN4 road from Majunga to the Parc National d’Ankarafantsika twists and turns to begin with as it crosses the dry hills around Berivotra. American palaeontologists have leased a great escarpment on the south side of the road where a tributary of the Betsiboka has carved into the rock, exposing a rich array of dinosaur fossils – many of them new species. Some 44km southeast of Majunga, if you’re independently mobile you can stop at the side of the road and you’ll quickly find the evidence – fascinating and sizeable lumps of fossilized limb bones, some showing the hollow structure of the dinosaur’s bird-like ancestry. The impressive carnivore Majungasaurus was found here. On the north side of the road, 6km further east, a set of signboards explains the area’s importance for dinosaur research – and the importance of not disturbing the fossils.
East of Berivotra, as you come down onto the plain, the road straightens out and, following the broad Betsiboka valley upstream, you pass the turning to Marovoay (reputed to be the hottest town in Madagascar; market day Friday), before entering the Ankarafantsika forest. Some 40km southeast of Ankarafantsika, the RN4 meets the RN6 from Diego Suarez at the market town of Ambondromamy (main market on Tuesday).
Less than 90km further south, Maevatanana – a large town on the upper Betsiboka, with a BOA bank with an ATM – is a common meal stop. After Mahatsinjo, 110km further south, the RN4 starts to climb in earnest, switchbacking up onto a high ridge. The temperature and scenery change very quickly and you’re soon in a landscape of grassy hills dotted with conifers and interspersed with farm plots and rice paddies – the typical highland landscape.
Parc National d’Ankaranfantsika
Park Category A, 25,000ar;
guide fees mostly 15,000–25,000ar per circuit per group of 1–5
visitors • 033 02 131 86, parcs-madagascar.com
Spread across the hot hillsides between the Betsiboka and Mahajamba river valleys, the Parc National d’Ankaranfantsika straddles the RN4 road between Madagascar’s central highlands and the northwest coast. Majoring on western dry deciduous forest, and scored by well-cut, sandy trails, this 1360-square-kilometre park is a joy to visit, and relatively accessible – although there are a few steep sections: don’t assume this will literally all be a walk in the park.
There are more marked seasonal differences in the dry forests than in the rainforest parks of the east: during the dry season (approximately May–Nov) rain is rare, temperatures drop a little and many of the large trees shed their leaves. Many reptiles and amphibians, and some of the smaller mammals (including the fat-tailed dwarf lemur) enter hibernation. While you can’t expect to see as much fauna, visiting is comfortable at this time of year and it’s a real pleasure to walk the soft, leaf-strewn footpaths, and to be able to see through the much-reduced understorey, making forest birding much easier. The most impressive time to be here, however, is shortly after the rains have broken in November, when greenery sprouts in every direction and amphibians, reptiles and birds are all noisily mating and egg-laying. From December to April, the rainy season, while lush and full of life, can be uncomfortably humid and is inevitably full of insect life, not all of it the kind you appreciate: bring bug spray.
Most visits focus on the forest station at Ampijoroa, located next to Lac Ravelobe on the main RN4 highway. The village of ANDRANOFASIKA is 6km further southeast along the highway in the Tana direction, just outside the park boundary, and has basic shops and services. The easiest guided walks are conducted in the forested areas of the park, just southwest of Ampijoroa forest station, and night walks take place along the park boundary near Andranofasika.
Flora
The park’s main vegetation – more than 820 species of plants – is a tangle of deciduous trees, shrubs and lianas (climbing plants), rising to a canopy of 15–20m, with some bigger emergent trees, especially baobabs. On the south side of Lac Ravelobe, close to the forest station and the road, are stands of Adansonia madagascariensis baobab. You can get most of the way to them by car. Look out for the katrafay tree (Cedrelopsis grevei), whose wood is used in building and the bark oil as an anti-malarial. As the sun goes down, and at night, look out for the ghostly white flowers of Hypoestes leucopogonata (a new plant species first identified in 2015 by a botanist at the Missouri Botanical Garden from photos taken for the research for this guide). The fluorescent blooms of this plant attract moths, and local children think of the fluffy flowers as phantoms.
Fauna
The forest has a grid-like network of trails marked by points metriques at 50m intervals – helpful if you get separated from your guide while tracking something interesting. The trail known as the Circuit Coquereli loops though these woods, a walk of 3–5km which takes two or three hours.
Ankarafantsika is good fossa habitat: an Australian researcher set camera traps around the forests and Ankarokaroka Canyon and counted 25 individual fossas in the area. However, don’t expect to see the beast itself: guides who have worked here for years have never seen one and the closest you’re likely to come is the common discovery of pale fossa scat on the trail.
Lemurs
Most of the park’s lemur action is experienced on the forested southwest side of the RN4. During the day, you’d be unlucky not to see the dapper Coquerel’s sifakas (Propithecus coquereli) with their two-tone chocolate-and-cream coats, either moving through the canopy in their ceaseless quest for food – a very wide range of plants and leaves – or bounding, kangaroo-like, across the trail. The young are born in June and July and spend a month clinging to the mother’s belly before moving to her back in preparation for a life spent largely in a squatting position. The park’s other diurnal lemurs are the rather pointy-faced brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus) which often comes to the forest station, and the somewhat similar but smaller, greyer and shyer mongoose lemur (E. mongoz or dredrika in Malagasy).
Currently, night walks in the park are not permitted, meaning nocturnal species are less often seen, but if you’re out in the forest first thing in the morning, you may spot just the face of the nocturnal Milne-Edwards’ sportive lemur (Lepilemur edwardsii), poking out of its tree hole. Late in the afternoon, you may see another nocturnal lemur, the western woolly lemur (Avahi occidentalis), huddled in a cluster of two or three in a tree fork. They’re easily identified by their unkempt-looking coats, pale faces and the dark rings around their red eyes – looking as if they have indeed been up all night.
If you’re keen to see other nocturnal lemurs, note that some of the guides do night walks along the wooded bank of the stream on the west side of Andranofasika village. You have a very good chance of seeing both kinds of mouse lemur – the grey Microcebus murinus and the locally endemic golden-brown Microcebus ravelobensis – though it’s very hard to tell them apart. Through the rainy season and into the beginning of the dry season you may also see the relatively slow-moving fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius or matavirambo in Malagasy), which habitually hibernates through much of the dry season until the start of the rains.
Birdlife
The forest birdlife is diverse, with the trails often alive with flitting forms. Pairs of stately Madagascar paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone mutata) and crested drongos (Dicrurus forficatus) sometimes perch obligingly on lianas. Keen birders won’t need reminding to look out for the rarest of Madagascar’s unique vangas, Van Dam’s vanga (Xenopirostris damii) and the very local, furtive and largely terrestrial white-breasted mesite (Mesitomis variegata), which has one of its strongholds in the tangled woods of Ankarafantsika. Around Lac Ravelobe, you may see the Madagascan fish eagle (Haliaeetus vociferoides) and Madagascar coucals (Centropus toulou) foraging through the bushes for chameleons, of which they are the biggest predator.
Reptiles and insects
Reptiles and amphibians are most abundant during the rainy season, though a few Nile crocodiles, Madagascar’s only species, can be seen all year round in the lake, and are particularly prominent as the waters recede at the end of the dry season: take care. Locally common chameleons include the horned (Furcifer rhinoceratus) and leaf-like dwarf (Brookesia decaryi), found only here and in nearby localities in the Majunga hinterland.
Insect life varies through the year: a fascinating dry season species is the walking flower – the nymphs, or immature adults, of a creature called the flatid bug (Phromnia rosea). Wearing coverings of curious, white, waxy extrusions, like little Afghan coats, the nymphs live in bumbling colonies covering the low branches.
If you have more than a few hours at Ankarafantsika, a visit to the Ankarokaroka Canyon, cut into the grassland in the southwest of the park, is highly recommended. It’s best to drive the 5km from the forest station before dawn and get dropped off, watch the sun rise over the red and yellow sandstone fissures from the rim of the canyon, and then walk down into it before it gets too hot (3km round trip, allow 2hr). You can then walk back through the forest to the forest station (3–4km).
The canyon was formed some 350 years ago after a bush fire and heavy rains enabled erosion to start. Subsequent oxidation caused some sandstone levels to harden, forming layers that erode differentially. A dizzyingly diverse and otherworldly display of stalagmite-like sandstone pinnacles, known as lavaka – ranging from tiny ones the size of a mushroom to towering spires – now fills the floor of the canyon and provides perches for banded kestrels (Falco zoniventris).
The Angonoka Project
Ankarafantsika is the headquarters of one of conservation’s unsung success stories, a captive breeding programme for the rarest tortoise in the world, the ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora), or angonoka in Malagasy, named for the spur that projects from the lower shell used by the males in courtship battles. The last coastal scrubland habitat of this sizeable reptile, the remote Baie de Baly National Park near Soalala (150km southwest of Majunga), where just a few hundred survive, is under critical threat from habitat destruction. The status-symbol pet trade, where they change hands for thousands of dollars, is also decimating their numbers. At Ankarafantsika’s closely guarded facility, funded by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, you can watch the tortoises and their attentive keepers – but only through the high fence.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL D’ANKARANFANTSIKA
By taxi brousse The only immediate access to Ankarafantsika is via the RN4 Majunga–Tana road. Vehicles will drop you at the Ampijoroa forest station on the road, 6km northwest of Andranofasika (2–3hr from Majunga, 8000ar; 8–10hr from Antananarivo, 30,000ar). Leaving again can be difficult as passing taxis brousse are often full.
ACCOMMODATION
Ampijoroa Forest Station
bungalows/gîtes 033 02 131 86,
ankarafantsika@gmail.com. Organized
accommodation at the forest station encompasses seven round,
en-suite bungalows with mosquito nets, facing out across the lake,
plus six simple gîtes for two
people, with shared showers and toilet. Bungalow (four people)
100,000ar, gîte 35,000ar
Ampijoroa Forest Station campsite 033 05 560 59. Managed by La Pygargue restaurant, the
dome tents at the forest station have mattresses on the ground and
the larger, frame tents have camp beds. Tent pitch 5000ar, dome tents 20,000ar, frame tents 25,000ar
Blue Vanga Lodge Signposted 600m north of the highway, 300m
east of the centre of Andranofasika 034 08 522
22, bluevanga-lodge.com. Along an inauspicious,
trash-strewn entrance track, this is, surprisingly, the smartest
place in the area, and has an English-speaking manager. The six
en-suite brick bungalows have decent bathrooms, mosquito-netted beds
and periodic generator electricity (usually 6–11pm).
B&B €45
Nambinna Andranofasika. Very simply furnished rooms with no frills and basic shared shower and toilet facilities. 10,000ar
EATING AND DRINKING
Blue Vanga Lodge Signposted 600m north of the highway, 300m
east of the centre of Andranofasika 034 08 522
22, bluevanga-lodge.com. If you plan on eating
at the Blue Vanga Lodge, it’s
essential to book at least a day ahead. The menu du
jour (30,000ar) can be hit and miss: for example a
salad of boiled eggs and green beans, gristly grilled zebu and
stodgy, sautéed veg followed by caramelized bananas. Daily dawn to 9pm, though closing times
vary.
La Pygargue Ampijoroa forest station 034 07 560
59 or 033 05 560 59. Named
for Lac Ravelobe’s fish eagles, this welcoming set-up is much
better than you might expect, with a fine, shady deck and good, if
slightly pricey meals (starters 10,000ar, mains 20,000ar, puds
8000ar) and plenty of vegetarian options. Daily 6am–9pm, though closing times vary.
Morondava and around
Far out on the west coast, the town of Morondava has some compelling assets nearby that draw visitors from across the globe. Foremost among these is the iconic Allée des Baobabs, or Avenue of the Baobabs, just a short drive out of town (arriving by plane, you’ll see the big baobabs as you descend, looking like stumpy wind turbines on the flat plain among the fields of sugar, cotton and rice). Further north is the less well-known Kirindy Private Reserve, the only place in Madagascar where seeing a fossa can almost be guaranteed.
Morondava
MORONDAVA – the early nineteenth-century Sakalava capital before it was absorbed by the Merina empire – used to be a remote backwater. But a new road connecting it to Tana was completed in 2012 and now this small town, the capital of the Menabe region, has a lively atmosphere and more hotels and restaurants than you’d guess. With its recently surfaced main street, Morondava seems slightly cleaner than the average Malagasy city – and it’s also a little pricier.
There are no specific attractions in town itself: the broad beach of white sand is a magnet for visitors from Tana, though it also serves as a working fishing beach and ad hoc toilet, so it can’t be wholeheartedly recommended. For a more unspoilt strand, check out Kimony beach, an 8km drive north of the town centre, turning north just west of the airport. You could walk there along the shoreline (5km), but there’s a creek halfway along, which may or not have a pirogue ferry in attendance.
Most of Morondava’s hotels are along the seafront lane that follows a former island, Nosy Kely, now joined to the rest of town. Coastal erosion is a serious problem here, with the northern seafront frequently awash at spring tides, and offshore sandbars forming and dissolving all the time.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MORONDAVA
By plane Arriving by air, you land at Morondava airport, on the RN35
6km east of the town centre. Taxis to anywhere in town from the
airport cost 20,000ar. The Air Madagascar office is on the RN4,
2.5km from town ( 032 07 222 14; Mon–Fri
7.30am–noon & 2–5.30pm, Sat
8–10.30am).
Destinations Antananarivo (5 weekly; 1hr–1hr 30min); Tuléar (weekly; 1hr).
By road As you can come in on the RN35, the main taxi brousse station
(gare routière) is just
past the stadium, a short walk from anywhere in the town centre
and a few minutes by Bajaj or taxi from Nosy Kely. Both taxis
brousse (12–20hr; 30,000ar) and minibuses run via the
RN34 to Anatananarivo (700km), the latter with a choice of
seven-seater shuttle buses run by Première Classe
(Hôtel Le Menabe, town
centre 033 01 588 88 or 34 14 588
88, malagasycar.com; departing Wed & Sun 6.30am;
12hr; 70,000ar), and thirteen-seater vans run by Loïc
(town centre east; 034 20 009 89, bit.ly/LoicFacebook); both include breakfast before
departure. In addition, 1–2 taxis brousse per week
normally connect Morondava with Tuléar and vice versa,
via Manja (2–3 days, 40,000ar), though doing the trip via
Fianarantsoa, while longer in kilometres, can be quicker and
costs no more.
By boat Boutres run up and down the coast (ask at the port). A motorboat sailing under the name Menabe Sea Lines used to ply between Morondava and Belo-sur-Mer and is worth asking about.
GETTING AROUND
Cyclo-pousses in town cost 1000ar per trip and Bajajs 2000–5000ar per trip, the same as taxis.
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist office ORTMEN (Office Régional de Tourisme du Menabe) is on
the seafront, Nosy Kely north ( 032 40 766 82,
morondavatourisme.com; Mon–Sat 8am–noon
& 3–6pm, Sun 8am–noon).
National Parks office The parks office, town centre east ( 033 19 117
06, arn.parks@gmail.com or
krm.parks@gmail.com; Mon–Fri
7.30am–noon & 2.30–6pm), sells tickets for
Andranomena and Kirindy-Mitea national parks.
Tour operators Remote River Expeditions ( 032 47 326 70, remoterivers.com), based out of Chez
Maggie, runs adventurous tours in western
Madagascar, including river trips.
ACCOMMODATION
MORONDAVA
Arche de Nöe Seafront, town centre 032 40 680
02 or 032 78 812 69.
Sleepily managed, this older hotel (“Noah’s
Ark”) has little wooden bungalows, all a bit too close
together, with fans and hot water but no a/c or mosquito nets,
plus some cheaper rooms in a hard-built block. Being right on
the beach, close to the town centre, with no fence, security
here can be an issue. 50,000ar
Baobab Café Creekside, Nosy Kely south 034 07
405 07 or 020 95 520 12, baobabcafe-hotel.net. Pretty,
comfortable and professionally run, this is one of the best
places in Nosy Kely, with old and new wings, a good pool and
views across the creek. The well-furnished rooms at various
prices have a/c, fridges, TVs, room safes and nets, and
there’s a good restaurant (menu du
jour 38,000ar). Wi-fi. 105,000ar
Bougainvillea Seafront, town centre 032 04 713
88 or 020 95 521 63.
With its quaint, somewhat claustrophobic little A-frame wooden
bungalows, this place, first opened in 1975, is one of the
cheapest in Nosy Kely, with en-suite double and family rooms
(60,000ar) and cheaper non-en-suite rooms. Wi-fi. 31,500ar
Chez Maggie Seafront, Nosy Kely south 020 95
523 47, chezmaggie.com. Long vacated by the
original Maggie, this recommended beach hotel has a garden
setting, excellent seafood and an affable and experienced
American owner-manager (who operates Remote River
Expeditions). Rooms vary, with the best value being
the nicely constructed, breezy wood-and-thatch nos 11, 12 and
14, with shutter windows, fans and nets. Pool, wi-fi. 104,000ar
Eden Rock Seafront, town centre 32 78 812
68, edenrockhotel-morondava.com. A
minute’s walk from the (not very appetizing) town beach,
this is one of the best-value hotels in the town centre, with
tidy rooms with fan (20,000ar extra for a/c) set around a pretty
little garden courtyard. 50,000ar
Oasis Chez Jean Le Rasta Town centre west 032 04 931
60, bit.ly/JeanLeRasta. This is a real Rasta
shrine, but very inclusive (visitors from Tana sometimes treat
it as a tourist site, taking selfies amid the reggae ephemera).
Small, simple rooms without hot water in a crowded,
garden-restaurant setting. 24,000ar
Palissandre Côte Ouest Resort
& Spa Seafront, Nosy Kely south 033 15
349 74 or 020 95 520 26, hotel-restaurant-palissandrecoteouest.com.
Morondava’s top hotel, the Palissandre (“Rosewood”) makes
plentiful use of the endangered timber. The very spacious and
comfortable bungalows all have sea views and decks, mosquito
nets, stylish, extra-large bathrooms, a/c, minibar-fridges, room
safes, TVs and 24/7 electricity. Spa, pool, wi-fi, beach sports
and excursions. B&B €164
Trécigogne Creekside, Nosy Kely south 032 04
687 60, hoteltrecicogne.com. Set around a shady
garden, this place has good-value en-suite rooms with hot water,
24hr electricity and lock-up cupboards (51,000ar with a/c for an
extra 10,000ar), and simpler rooms with fans and shared
facilities. There’s a nice dining deck (daily
7am–2pm & 6–9pm; full breakfast 10,000ar)
facing the mangroves. 27,000ar
Vezo Hôtel Town centre west 032 11 220
00, bit.ly/VezoHotel. Formerly a bank,
complete with strong rooms (now the loos for the main bar), the
Vezo is set to become the
town’s classiest digs, with up to 24 rooms with
super-high ceilings and verandas and a huge breezy roof terrace.
The rooms have a retro, stylish edge, but check whether
there’s a/c (30,000ar supplement, and there are no nets).
A work in progress, but some serious investment is going on.
120,000ar
KIMONY BEACH
Kimony Resort 1km from the beach, Kimony 034 07
202 46, kimonyresort-morondava.com. Opened in
2012, this popular local resort, co-owned with L’Olympe du Bemaraha has a great pool and 23 nicely done,
identical bungalows with various numbers of beds in each. A very
professional set-up, with generator and solar power
(11pm–6am fans and lights only), good staff and excellent
food (pizza/bread oven). The small “zoo” (5000ar
for non-guests) mostly houses chickens and rabbits, though the
iguanas and crocs are interesting. 200,000ar
EATING
La Capannina Creekside, Nosy Kely north 032 04 670
90, hoteltrecicogne.com. Under the same
management as the Hôtel
Trécigogne, this has switched-on staff, a good
atmosphere and usually the best food in town. They offer a long menu
(notably pizzas) and daily specials (for example Thai-style
barracuda with sweet potato mash, 15,000ar) and imported wines
(26,000–38,000ar). April–Feb
daily 11.30am–9.30pm (closed Tues mid-Jan to Feb &
April–June); closed March.
Chez Alain Creekside, Nosy Kely north 032 05 041
69. Long-established and with a good
reputation, Chez Alain is definitely worth
a try – particularly for its seafood – if
you’re here for a few days, but it doesn’t always
deliver. Expect to pay around 40,000ar for three courses. Musical
entertainment in the evenings offsets the basic ambience of a large
thatched hut. Daily lunch and
dinner.
Chez Elysse Seafront, town centre 034 05 703
81. Indian-style gargote with good cheap meals. Most dishes come in at
around 8000ar, with spaghetti bolognese and khimo
riz both 3000ar and THB beers just 2800ar. Daily except Tues eves only.
Chez Tina Seafront, Nosy Kely north 032 26 796
03. Fresh new beach restaurant with
brightly upholstered seating under thatched sunshades, serving crab
salad (6000ar), grilled coconut crab (12,000ar), smoked sailfish
(7000ar) and the like. Daily
10am–midnight (variable).
Couleur Café Seafront, Nosy Kely north 032 43 666
54 or 020 95 935 02.
Unashamedly French-style beach bar, with breakfast 7500ar and main
dishes 14,000–19,000ar (garlic-sautéed octopus or crab
with ginger, the house speciality – 15,000ar) followed by
crêpes 7000ar. Imported wine 24,000–34,000ar. Daily 7.30am–10pm (closed Thurs
am).
MadaBar Town centre, next to Loic bus office
034 04 194 19. Bar-resto-ice-cream parlour, with
sandwiches 6000ar and main dishes (including pizzas)
9000–13,000ar, though people tend to think of it mainly for a
drink and snack – 3 crêpes 5000ar, ice-cream boules 1800ar. Daily
7am–11pm.
Sam Suffy Town centre east 032 04 706
10. Popular and attractive backstreet
eatery with lots of grilled dishes at cracking prices (coconut
crevettes with garlic and tuna brochettes are both 6000ar), a well-stocked
bar and a hands-on proprietor. Daily
11am–2pm & 6–9pm.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Chez Fab Town centre east 032 54 336
26. Pleasant garden bar boasting six
species of palm trees, with a mixed gasy/vazaha crowd. Daily 8am–11pm.
Oasis Chez Jean Le Rasta Town centre west 032 04 931
60, bit.ly/JeanLeRasta. Popular evening drinking
spot with live music from 9pm most nights – Rasta Jean
playing guitar with other musicians. Entry fee sometimes on Wed, Fri
and Sat, otherwise it’s free but a hat is passed around.
Daily: hours variable.
Tapas Nocturne Nosy Kely north 033 15 887
00. Despite the name (and the pizza oven), this
is actually Morondava’s main nightclub, with a changing
programme of soirées (Sun is
soirée retro) and the
occasional live music spectacle. The VIP
corner has free comfy seating if you buy a bottle of spirits, and
there’s a nice deck for cooling off over the creek at the
back. Entry 3000ar for men, free for women. Wed–Sun 9pm–2am.
SHOPPING
Palais du Lambahoany Town centre. Indian-owned cloth shop (the family have been in Morondava for generations). Expect to pay 15,000ar for a Malagasy cotton lamba measuring 1.25m by 1.8m, or 8000ar per metre for cloth cut from the bolt. Mon–Sat 7.30am–noon & 2.30–6pm, Sun 7am–noon.
DIRECTORY
Banks BIV on the main street usually has a queue at the ATM, whereas BOA round the corner often has no queue. These are Morondava’s only two banks.
Pharmacy Pharmacie de l’Espoir, town centre east (Mon–Fri 7.30am–noon & 2–7pm, Sat 7.30am–noon).
The Allée des Baobabs
Do an image search for “Madagascar” and (among all the ads for the Disney animation) it’s a magnificent stand of Grandidier’s baobabs (Adansonia grandidieri) that appears first on your screen. Just 20km out of Morondava, this iconic 2km natural avenue forms the central focus of the Aire Protégée Monument Naturel Allée des Baobabs, a 3-square-kilometre area managed by the Malagasy organization Fanamby to protect more than three hundred of the species. Known as renala (“mother of the forest”) in Malagasy, the lofty baobabs reach heights of more then 20m, towering above the mix of scattered bush and farmland that makes up the present-day landscape. Fifty years ago, indigenous dry forest was the natural vegetation here: nearly all of that has been cleared or burned, leaving the resilient baobabs like sentinels standing on the plain. Close-growing pairs of baobabs tend to wrap around each other, creating delightful baobabs amoureux, or “baobabs in love”. There’s a famous pair just fifteen minutes’ drive north of the ticket office.
The best time to visit is sunrise or sunset, when the slanting light shows the baobabs at their best and you can often photograph their reflections in the neighbouring shallow ponds. Although including the visit en route to or from Kirindy Private Reserve seems a good idea, you can only achieve that by missing the evening or dawn walk in Kirindy. Most people therefore make a special trip to the baobabs from Morondava. Indeed some visitors fly in just for these photos, and it’s rare to have the place to yourself, especially in the evening when a crowd of several dozen visitors, local craft sellers and children is quite normal. If you’re looking for a more personal communion with the trees, a pre-dawn raid in the rainy season offers a better chance.
BAOBABS
There are nine species of baobab tree, seven of them found in Madagascar (mostly in its drier parts) and six of them endemic to the island. The common African baobab (Adansonia digitata) has spread widely across the island and its huge bulk makes it unmistakeable, but it’s the profusion of baobabs confined only to Madagascar that makes the group so fascinating.
The genus is named after the French explorer Michel Adanson, who remarked from the banks of the Senegal River in 1754: “I perceived a tree of prodigious thickness, the like of which I do not believe was ever seen in any part of the world”. There are several well-known myths attached to baobabs, all of them variations on the idea that God grew tired of this disruptive tree that wouldn’t stay planted and marched around the countryside, so he replanted it head first, with its roots poking into the air. These charming stories are however outdone by the fascinating natural history of the trees.
For baobabs, environment is all: in well-watered areas they grow tall, but they remain stunted in the harsh tsingy zones where a 3m specimen may be 100 years old. Even in the best conditions, they are notoriously slow growers, taking decades to reach a good size, and prone as tasty saplings to be eaten by zebu or goats before ever fruiting. Once established, however, they’re very robust, with their thick, pulpy flesh almost immune to the bush fires that consume so many other species, leaving the baobabs standing when the rest of the forest is long gone. That said, without having specialist knowledge, they can be quite hard to identify, especially when standing alone.
Madagascar’s baobabs are in leaf between the start of the rains, usually in November, and April or May when the dry season begins. Four of the species – the tall, straight Adansonia za and much smaller A. rubrostipa (both from the west), the more northern, multi-shaped A. madagascariensis and the moisture-loving A. perrieri from Montagne d’Ambre – flower during the rains, producing huge, fleshy blooms. The flowers open at dusk and are mostly pollinated by Madagascar’s giant hawk moths, whose nectar-sucking tongue can be more than 20cm long. The localized Adansonia suarezensis in the far north, and the west’s giant Adansonia grandidieri (the baobabs at the Allée des Baobabs) flower in the dry season and are pollinated by various species of bats, as well as fork-marked lemurs (Phaner). Strangely, although the sherbet-like pulp of baobab fruit is good to eat, there are no living animals that do so, leading botanists to speculate that the job of seed dispersal might have been done by an extinct giant lemur (such as Archaeolemur, which died out around 1200 AD).
Which leaves the baobabs of today relying on humans to disperse their seeds – and protect the vulnerable seedlings. Although baobabs can live for hundreds of years, they don’t have tree rings, so a baobab’s age is hard to measure, but most botanists think the six endemic species will die out in the wild unless huge efforts are made to protect them. Their commercial value may come to the rescue: as well as the bark being used for rope, the fibre as a water source and for thatch, the fruit, seeds and even the leaves are edible. Indeed the very high vitamin C content of baobab fruit has made the dried and powdered fruit a popular dietary supplement. And Homeopharma, Madagascar’s national chain of homeopathy and herbal remedy stores, sells baobab seed oil that people swear by as a skin rejuvenator.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: THE ALLÉE DES BAOBABS
The Allée des Baobabs is 16km from Morondava airport, the last 6km of which is on the sandy RN8 road to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina. For those in their own vehicle, parking is 2000ar. For the baobabs amoureux, drive 4km north from the ticket office then take a turning west and drive a further 3km.
By taxi brousse By taxi brousse (2000ar each way), make sure you leave town by 3pm to be sure of arriving in good time for sunset. You may have to change vehicles at the junction on the RN4 if you don’t take a Belo-sur-Tsiribihina vehicle – and getting back to Morondava in the dark can be a slow process.
Tours Any hotel in Morondava will organize a driver and vehicle to take you. The standard rate hovers around 70,000–80,000ar round trip for 1–4 people, including waiting time (1hr 30min).
Kirindy Private Reserve
25,000ar per person per day; guide fees vary •
032 40 165 89
Formerly a Swiss forestry training station and now an active German primate research base, Kirindy Private Reserve is a gem. This 120-square-kilometre tract of deciduous dry forest is one of Madagascar’s truly outstanding natural areas – a fauna and flora hotspot that rivals the best in the country. It’s particularly strong on nocturnal lemurs, for in these tangled woodlands live six nocturnal species, alongside two diurnal lemur species and the rare and strange giant jumping rat. There are also some outstanding birds, including the sickle-billed vanga and white-breasted mesite, and a higher concentration of fossa (Madagascar’s apex predator) than anywhere else on the island – possibly because of the high concentration of nocturnal lemurs.
Perhaps the best month to visit Kirindy is November. As in Ankarafantsika, everything is green after the first rains, the small lemurs, lizards and frogs emerge from hibernation, and there’s a profusion of reproductive activity. But it’s very humid, and increasingly so as the heaviest rains set in from December and peak in January or February. The benefits of being here in the dry season are cooler temperatures at night and dry daytime heat, and improved birdwatching visibility through the dense understorey. You’ll find few reptiles and amphibians about, however.
It might seem surprising that the nearby Andranomena – a 64-square-kilometre special reserve between Kirindy and the Avenue of the Baobabs – isn’t equally attractive a habitat, but sadly Andranomena has been massively degraded in recent years.
Flora
Among the star attractions are three species of endemic baobab tree: the giant, umbrella-branched Adansonia grandidieri; the very common, bottle-shaped A. rubrostipa; and the fat-trunked A. za. Those descriptions are typical, but baobabs are notoriously individualistic and sometimes comical in appearance: the specimen endowed with an improbably phallic, stumpy branch at the perfect height for a selfie seems to be on every guide’s route. Another tree that’s relatively common here is the endangered ebony, Diospyros aculeata, with its characteristic star-shaped base, whose occasional broken trunk reveals the black heartwood inside the pale outer sapwood.
Fauna
Kirindy’s mammalian denizens are why it’s so special – particularly one, the fabulous fossa, whose combination of feline slinkiness and an almost prehistoric set to the muscular legs make a sighting one of the most compelling wildlife experiences you can have in Madagascar.
Diurnal mammals
Even if you’re unlucky in terms of seeing a fossa, you’re not likely to leave Kirindy disappointed. By day the trees shake with small troops of beautiful white and grey Verreaux’s sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi), here at the northernmost extent of their range, and the lower levels and forest floor are visited by inquisitive and charming red-fronted brown lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons), some of them so tame they’ll practically lick your camera lens as they investigate what morsels you may have brought (best not to do so). Also on the ground, you’re very likely to see a narrow-striped mongoose (Mungotictis decemlineata) mincing along a forest path. Late in the afternoon, and often at a good height for photos, you’ll frequently see the orange eyes of red-tailed sportive lemurs (Lepilemur ruficaudatus, or boenga in Malagasy) staring at you from their tree holes, with their characteristic, long upper canines poking, vampire-like, over their chins. Even once awake after dark, the “sportive” moniker seems inappropriate, as they lethargically work their way from branch to branch picking and munching on leaves.
FIERCE HIDDEN BACKSIDE – THE FOSSA
Like a cross between a cat and a mongoose, and the size of a small puma, Cryptoprocta ferox is a savage, arboreal hunter. The first part of its scientific name means “hidden backside”, referring (disappointingly) to its unique, flap-covered anus. The fossa’s genitalia are, however, memorably spectacular – the male possessing a large, spiny penis supported by a bone, and the female a similarly disproportionate and spiky clitoris. The annual fossa mating season at Kirindy happens almost like clockwork, between November 5 and 20, with each female in heat occupying her favourite branch high in the forest, where she remains for hours, locked together with one noisy suitor after another.
Out of the breeding season, you still have a good chance of seeing a fossa as one or two individuals regularly come to Kirindy Camp to forage for food. Staff feed them meat scraps dangled from a pole, luring the creature up a tree in order to demonstrate the fearsome strength of its formidable splayed feet and semi-retractile claws, as it climbs up and down with svelte agility, balanced by its long tail. Small children need to be kept well away: fossas are brazen and utterly instinctive predators.
Nocturnal mammals
At night, the trees are alive with lemurs – shrill and hyperactive pale fork-marked lemurs (Phaner pallescens, or tanta in Malagasy) streaming through the higher branches, and tiny mouse lemurs – grey (Microcebus murinus), and Madame Berthe’s (Microcebus berthae), the latter discovered here in 1992 and only found at Kirindy – hopping and bouncing through the twigs and leaves, often lower down where they can be easier to photograph than the tanta. Telling these mouse lemurs apart can be tricky: Madame Berthe’s is more reddish than grey, and with a weight of only 30g it’s the smallest primate in the world. In contrast, Coquerel’s giant mouse lemur (Mirza coquereli) is on a different scale and, appropriately therefore, in a different genus: this omnivorous, squirrel-sized primate, with a short snout and bat-like ears, is ever on the move, scampering through the branches and as happy to pause for fruits and tree gum as to grab insects and small vertebrates on the run. In the rainy season, you might also see the slower fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius; kelilbohoho in Malagasy), whose tail serves as a fat store for dry-season hibernation.
Night walks often take place a couple of kilometres east of the forest station. If you have a driver, he will wait on the forest road while you walk, accompanied by your guide, into the woods towards the seasonal Kirindy River, which flows parallel to the road, only about 400m to the south. Remember your head torch: this is one place in Madagascar where a good flashlight is indispensable.
Back at camp after a night walk, it’s well worth staying up for a visit by one of the local pairs of extraordinary giant jumping rats (Hypogeomys antimena), rodents the size of a large rabbit that come into camp to sniff out scraps of fruit and vegetables. Kirindy is the heart of the tiny range of this highly endangered mammal, which lives in strict monogamy: pressured by habitat destruction into this small area, its slow rate of reproduction and predation by fossas and domestic dogs makes its future very insecure.
Birds
Among Kirindy’s birds, the sickle-billed vanga (Falculea pallata) is a standout species: flocks of these dramatic-looking locksmiths of hidden insect life flap noisily through the understorey, prising the bark from tree trunks and probing for grubs and bugs with their long, tweezer-like beaks. On the forest floor, look out for the very localized, terrestrial white-breasted mesite (Mesitornis variegatus) and the splendid, sapphire-blue eye mask of the giant coua (Coua gigas), a long-tailed skulker the size of a chicken.
Reptiles
If you’re a reptile enthusiast, you’ll find the reserve’s herpetofauna rich and exciting. By day, chunky spiny-tailed iguanas (Oplurus cuvieri) catch the rays on tree stumps (though their presence in the winter is only notable by their tails poking defensively from their hibernation tree holes), while shy Brookesia chameleons (Brookesia brygooi) creep nervously through the leaf litter and huge Oustalet’s chameleons (Furcifer oustaleti) walk hand over hand up the lianas. At night, the forest floor crackles with the passage of fat ground boas (Acrantophis madagascariensis) and lissom colubrid snakes (Madagascarophis colubrinis) on the trail of delicate, pastel-coloured big-headed geckos (Paroedura picta), gulping as they step carefully through the dead leaves. In the lower branches, look out for tree boas (Sanzinia madagascariensis) and tree geckos (Blaesodactylus sakalava).
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: KIRINDY PRIVATE RESERVE
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse bound for Belo-sur-Tsiribihina will drop you on the RN8 road at the Kirindy junction, 5km short of Kirindy Camp; a very hot, sandy walk.
Tours You don’t need a vehicle to visit the reserve, but having one gives you more options to explore the forest than walking out of the camp. Expect to pay 200,000ar for a 24hr trip for a vehicle and driver hired in Morondava, and a further 100,000ar for extra days spent at Kirindy.
INFORMATION
Guides Your final accommodation and meal bill will include reserve fees (25,000ar per person per day) plus the guidage for one morning walk after breakfast (roughly 8–10am; 20,000ar) and one night walk before dinner (roughly 6–8pm; 30,000ar). There are also late afternoon walks as well, which leave at about 3.30pm (an extra 20,000ar, paid direct to your guide). If you stay up late to see the giant jumping rats, your guide may take you on a further short walk into the forest while you wait for the rats to appear – often not till after 10–11pm; another 20,000ar, paid direct, is about right.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Camp Amoureux 46km from Morondava (4km north of the
village of Marofandilia) 033 24 306 55 or
020 22 288 78. Signposted to the
east, just 100m off the R8, is this simple, community-run tented
camp, set up by the NGO Fanamby, with small en-suite canvas
tents on platforms, a basic dining area and a lounge area facing
the camp’s eponymous pair of entwined
(“amoureux”) baobabs. Unlike Kirindy itself, the
forest here is patchy and limited. Full board 100,000ar
Kirindy Camp 55km from Morondava on the RN8, then 5km
(east) from the main road 033 16 303 78 or
032 40 165 89,
cfpfmva20051@yahoo.fr, kirindyforest.com. An overpriced,
rough-and-ready sort of place, but with nice enough staff. Solar
electricity is turned on at about 6pm and may run as late as
midnight. The bungalows have simple en-suite bathrooms with
flush loos and showers with warm water, and there are also
simple huts with bunk beds and shared facilities but no electric
sockets. Meals, often convivial, are served on the dining deck
under a shady roof: breakfast (included if you’re in a
bungalow) costs 20,000ar for weak coffee, croissant, baguette,
jam and cheese, while lunch and dinner are 5000ar each for
starter and dessert, 20,000ar for mains. Choice is limited, but
the soup and brochette of zebu with
tasty tomatoes and onions is good. Dorm (bed only) 40,000ar, double (B&B)
120,000ar
Belo-sur-Tsiribihina
As well as being the end point for boat trips along the Tsiribihina River, BELO-SUR-TSIRIBIHINA – 98km north of Morondava – is where most travellers pick up transport north to the Tsingy de Bemaraha. It’s also the location of the traditional mausoleum of the Sakalava kings, a football-pitch-sized compound surrounded by a wall and fence of white-painted stakes, which you pass by on arrival into Belo from Morondava. The actual relics are kept in the ossuary in the middle, and aired roughly every eight years for the colourful ceremony of fitampoha, similar to the highlands’ famadihana ceremonies. The next fitampoha should take place in 2020.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: BELO-SUR-TSIRIBIHINA
Mad Zebu 032 40 387 15. Unassuming-looking and
completely unexpected gourmet restaurant that practically everybody
– and seemingly all tour groups – visit for lunch at
least. Try crayfish carpaccio with tomato and ginger sorbet as a
starter (9000ar), pick from the perfectly prepared and presented
zebu and roasted veg dishes as mains (12,000–15,000ar) and
finish with the likes of coriander fruit salad with lemon sorbet
(8000ar). Open daily lunch and
dinner.
Menabe 032 42 635 35, hoteldumenabe.free.fr. Surprisingly good
hotel in an old colonial building, with a variety of en-suite rooms
with solar hot water, and a decent dining room. 25,000ar
The Tsingy de Bemaraha
Park National de Bemaraha Petits Tsingy gate
open April/May–Nov, Grands Tsingy gate June–Oct • Category A, 25,000ar;
guide fees 8000–46,000ar (for 1–5 visitors) depending on the trail
• Réserve Naturelle Intégrale du
Tsingy de Bemaraha Category B, 10,000ar:
entry by special permission from MNP only • parcs-madagascar.com
The huge Parc National de Bemaraha and its far-flung northern extension, the Réserve Naturelle Intégrale du Tsingy de Bemaraha, are located on Madagascar’s most extensive plateau of tsingy or limestone karst pinnacles. The two protected areas are located on the 5000-square-kilometre Bemahara plateau, an immense limestone slab that stretches north from the banks of the Tsiribihina River for more than 200km towards the northwest coast. It’s a region that competes for remoteness with the most inaccessible parts of the island, incorporating a landscape of spectacular strangeness that is home to a host of endemic plants and animals. In recognition of its uniqueness, it was the first region in Madagascar to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As well as vast areas of needle-like limestone pinnacles, eroded to such an extreme extent that they resemble a stony forest, some 850 square kilometres of the 1570-square-kilometre protected area is actual forest – deciduous dry woodland in the more exposed areas, with moisture-loving ferns and other vegetation tucked into the crevasses between the outcrops. The Bemaraha plateau is cut clean through its middle by the deep gorge of the Manambolo River, near the small town of Bekopaka, on the southern boundary of the national park. The southern boundary of the plateau itself is effectively formed by another river – the Tsiribihina – with its own spectacular Tsiribihina Gorge.
Trails in the national park range from an hour to two days. From just outside Bekopaka, the most frequented entry point is the Bekopaka Gate, which gives access to the Petits Tsingy trailhead. The other entrance is at the Grand Tsingy trailhead, about 17km north of Bekopaka on a rough track
TSIRIBIHINA AND MANAMBOLO RIVER TRIPS
Descending one of these two big rivers on a three- to five-day trip is a popular option for travellers with plenty of time. River trips are normally feasible between May and September, but as water levels drop towards the end of the dry season, navigation gets increasingly slow and difficult. After the start of the rains in November, flash floods and the rising waters rule out the trip until the following year. Various vessels are used for the trip, including traditional pirogue canoes, modern kayaks and rafts, and larger river craft with on-board facilities and canopies to protect you from the extremely hot sun.
You normally camp on the riverbank – check what bedding will be provided. Meals and bottled water are included; other drinks are extra. It’s important to note that in recent years there have been a number of attacks on overnight tourist camps, especially on the upper Tsiribihina, usually by cattle rustlers chancing their luck in pursuit of an alternative source of revenue. Tourists have been seriously injured in these robberies, so you should check out the local situation in advance before committing to the trip.
THE TSIRIBIHINA
On this, the larger of the two rivers, the voyage is around 140–150km, depending on sandbanks and the precise route taken through them. It starts at the landing stage (embacadère) at Masiakampy, a tiny village on the Tsiribihina 35km south of the town of Miandrivazo. Most tours, however, start in a group vehicle at the start of the surfaced RN34 244km further east at Antsirabe on the central plateau. The trip ends near the coast, at Belo-sur-Tsiribihina.
THE MANAMBOLO
The more scenic of the two trips starts at Ankavandra (look out for the British NGO Hoveraid, which has its headquarters here, and whose little hovercrafts scud around the sandbanks of the river), about 200km west of Antananarivo via Tsiroahomandidy – a very long day by taxi brousse or a slightly shorter, more comfortable one in a tour company’s 4x4. After passing through a spectacular canyon in the southern part of the Tsingy de Bemaraha, the trip ends at Bekopaka, leaving you perfectly positioned to explore the national park.
TOUR OPERATORS
The Tsiribihina Espace Mada 50, rue Général Ramanantsoa Isoraka,
Antananarivo ( 020 22 262 97, madagascar-circuits.com); Remote River
Expeditions, Morondava.
The Manambolo MadCaméléon, Lot II K 6 Ankadivato Ambony,
Mangarivotra Faravohitra, Antananarivo ( 020 22 630 86
or 032 07 344 20, madcameleon.com).
The tsingy experience
The climbing and steps required in many of the areas of the park can be quite steep and some of the gaps between the rock faces are narrow. Even the relatively easy hikes near Bekopaka in the Petits Tsingy can be quite challenging, especially if you’re short or a little broader than average. Furthermore, swaying aerial walkways and stretches of via ferrata (where you wear a harness that’s provided to secure yourself to a safe cable route fixed to the rock face) make Bemaraha a park that’s only really suitable for fit and adventurous visitors. But it’s emphatically worth the effort: from the belvédères or viewpoints, there are some stunning panoramas.
The first few minutes in the tsingy can be quite disorientating: the huge limestone shards that make up this natural environment may make you feel like a particularly clumsy ant trying to walk through the bristles of a hairbrush. The towering peaks and walls of limestone are as alien as a hall of mirrors. But there are routes through this geological maze, where erosion has cut so deep that ribbons of soil at the base of the rocks provide narrow pathways, often crammed with vegetation and scattered with frog-filled rock pools.
At the base of the tsingy, springs burst out and run into the Manambolo River, which also provides boat access to fascinating bat-filled caves, some of which were once used as cemeteries by the Vazimba. Claustrophobia-sufferers need to be prepared for a tight squeeze.
Wildlife
Lemurs found in the park include the all-white-with-a-black-face Decken’s sifaka (Propithecus deckenii), one of the least known of all the large lemurs, and the locally endemic Cleese’s woolly lemur (Avahi cleesei), the only primate named after a member of Monty Python, honouring the actor John Cleese for his film work in support of lemur conservation. While Cleeses are hard to find, Decken’s sifakas are quite widespread and you’re likely to see them on the forest trails or from a boat trip on the Manambolo.
At least a hundred species of birds are found in the park, though actual birdwatching in the tsingy can be quite difficult. The going is easier for herpetologists, who can find Guenther’s as well as Henkel’s leaf-tailed geckos (Uroplatus guentheri and U. henkeli or seseke in Malagasy) and the remarkable spiny chameleon (Brookesia perarmata), endemic to the Bemaraha, where it is known locally as ramilaheloka.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: THE TSINGY DE BEMARAHA
The only practical access to Bekopaka is via Morondava, a long 1–2 days’ drive on a rough road (with a lengthy river crossing at Belo-sur-Tsiribihina and a short one at Bekopaka). The trip is only feasible in the dry season from April to Oct/Nov. Visiting the northern part of the Tsingy de Bemaraha (the Réserve Naturelle Intégrale) requires special permission from Madagascar National Parks and access from the north – an adventurous overland drive west from Antananarivo via Tsiroanomandidy; few tour operators are familiar with the route, though one that can help is Asisten Travel.
By plane Although the closest scheduled services are Air Mad’s
flights to Morondava, the charter airline MTA ( 034 03 355
35 or 032 07 090 09, mta.mg) has built an airfield
northwest of Bekopaka at Amborodia, about 6km from the Grand Tsingy
circuit trailhead.
By taxi brousse Taxis brousse sporadically link Morondava with Belo-sur-Tsiribihina and even all the way to Bekopaka. Expect the 1–2 day trip to Bekopaka to cost around 40,000ar.
By 4x4 Daily rates from Morondava owner-operators (such as Remote River Expeditions) start at around 400,000ar.
By boat You can come on an organized river cruise down the Tsiribihina to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, then continue by road, or descend the Manambolo straight to Bekopaka. Guided 3hr pirogue trips on the Manambolo River involve renting a dugout, which costs 6000ar per person, as well as park and guide fees.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Most hotels in the region are only open from the beginning of May to the end of Oct. All the places covered below are in Bekopaka.
Camp Croco By the south bank ferry dock, Bekopaka
034 36 967 56, madcameleon.com/le-camp-croco.html. Simple
camp with small, matting-walled bungalows, beds with mosquito nets
and solar-heated hot water. There’s a dining area and decent
meals (30,000ar menu). 60,000ar
Camping site Bekopaka. National parks camping site by the park office with pitches for your own tent and simple shared facilities. 5000ar
Le Grand Hôtel du Tsingy de
Bemaraha Bekopaka 033 08 799 48, vazimbahotel.mg. The former Vazimba has 23 rooms with solar electricity. 120,000ar
L’Olympe du Bemaraha Just outside Bekopaka 032 07 202
46, olympedubemaraha-madagascar.com. The oldest
hotel in the area, the Olympe has a
variety of rooms (non-en-suite budget rooms start at 45,000ar) and
somewhat temperamental infrastructure. On the plus side, the
sparkling pool is a blessing on a hot afternoon. 80,000ar
L’Orchidée du Bemaraha Bekopaka 032 50 898 79, orchideedubemaraha.com. Simple brick- and
corrugated-iron-roofed cabins, with a nice pool, in a low-lying
garden setting. The menu du jour costs
30,000ar. There’s evening generator power for charging
sockets and 24/7 room lights. 110,000ar
Relais des Tsingy/Auberge Ibrahim Bekopaka 032 02 049 48 or
020 95 520 89, tsingy-de-bemaraha.com. Simple en-suite
bungalows at the Relais, with three-course
meals for 15,000ar, or rooms at Ibrahim’s budget annexe. Ibrahim 15,000ar, Relais 40,000ar
Le Soleil des Tsingy Bekopaka 034 14 719 68, soleildestsingy.com. Le Soleil is one of western
Madagascar’s nicest hotels, and with its large, stylish
en-suite rooms, mosquito nets, safes and fans (no a/c), quite a
surprise in this remote spot. The infinity pool and beautiful lounge
deck have panoramic views to the west, and meals are based around
the produce from their organic garden. Full board €140
Tanankoay Bekopaka 033 13 658 45, tanankoay.com. A little out of the centre, this
has a variety of rooms, bungalows and tent options, a pleasant
garden and a dining room serving meals of variable quality. The
en-suite Sakalava bungalows are relatively smart, spacious and well
furnished. Tent 10,000ar, room
68,000ar
Tsingy Lodge Bekopaka 033 11 507 56, tsingy-lodge.com. Friendly, English-speaking,
owner-run lodge, with traditional-style Sakalava bungalows (both
en-suite and sharing facilities). 50,000ar
Belo-sur-Mer and around
A tiny seashore town, 90km south of Morondava and cut off from the mainland for up to five months of the year during the rainy season, BELO-SUR-MER is one of the west coast’s biggest traditional boat-building centres, specializing in the large dhows known as boutres. Snorkelling in the translucent waters is good here, although the diving is not what it used to be and the Mozambique Channel’s strong tides can be treacherous.
Offshore islands
Up to 20km offshore from Belo, a cluster of minuscule desert islands stretches from Nosy Andravoho in the north to Nosy Andriamitaroka 50km to the south. The islands are ports of call for Vezo fishermen, and there’s fringing coral around most of them, but access is difficult without your own chartered vessel.
Parc National de Kirindy-Mitea
Park Category B,
10,000ar • parcs-madagascar.com
Belo is the main access town for the recently opened Parc National de Kirindy-Mitea, a 700-square-kilometre zone of dry woodland (including some very dense stands of baobabs), extensive tidal wetlands and mangrove swamp. Like Belo itself, the park isn’t easy to get to, and having paid for your entry and organized transport and guiding (via the national parks office in Morondava), you’re likely to be the only visitor. Key bird species include an endangered, endemic west coast duck, the Bernier’s teal (Anas bernieri) and an endemic subspecies of the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus).
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: BELO-SUR-MER AND AROUND
By road It’s possible to reach Belo and Kirindy-Mitea by road usually from April/early May until some time in November, although the routes are rough and very muddy following any rain. Taxis brousse between Morondava and Tuléar will drop you on the mainland about 8km short of Belo, reached across the tidal flats on foot or zebu cart. It’s likely to be an all-day journey (costing around 20,000ar in total). By 4x4 the trip takes around half a day direct to Belo in dry weather – expect to pay around 400,000ar to rent the vehicle for a one-way trip.
By sea This area can only be reached by sea in the wet season: motorboats can make the voyage from Morondava in around half a day; sailing vessels in 1–2 days (the prevailing winds are southerly). Costs are negotiable.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Ecolodge du Menabe Belo-sur-Mer 033 09 436 32,
menabelo.com. Beautifully sited and personably
hosted, this rustic, environmentally friendly beach lodge has ten
sea-facing en-suite bungalows, great seafood and plenty of
activities. They can organize boat transfers from Morondava. Open
all year. Full board 178,000ar
Tsara Belo Belo-sur-Mer 033 02 911 64,
tsara-belo.com. Slightly newer and pricier than
the Ecolodge, this is a similarly simple
beach-style set-up, though it’s not on the beach. The
en-suite bungalows have cold-water showers. Hosted dining. Closed
Jan & Feb. Full board €90
SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR
Southern Madagascar has some of the island’s most compelling attractions: the gaunt sandstone plateau of Parc National d’Isalo, cut by oasis-like canyons; the towering mountain fastness of Parc National d’Andringitra, with its grasslands and moors on one side and almost unexplored rainforest on the other; the spiny forests and glorious beaches, surfing and diving of the dry southwest; and the seductive rolling landscapes, scalloped bays and diverse forest ecosystems of the far southeast, around the port of Fort Dauphin. This is also Madagascar’s poorest region, however, and more prone to lawlessness – generally manifested in cattle rustling and highway banditry – than the rest of the country.
The climate of the south is relatively more extreme than that of central and northern Madagascar. The Tropic of Capricorn carves through the region, and the dry southern or austral winter brings cooler weather from May to August than in the north of the island. Much of the southwest, spiny forest country, is also very arid, while facing the cyclones from the Indian Ocean, the beautiful forest of the southeast coast is bathed in moist air for much of the year.
PEOPLES OF THE SOUTH
The Malagasy peoples of the south talk in a range of dialects of Malagasy, united (like the English language) by the one written version. Even more than in other parts of the island, these ethnic groups managed to avoid domination by the highland Merina in the nineteenth century, and even retained much of their autonomy during the six decades of French rule in the twentieth century.
One of the country’s most distinctive ethnic groups, the Bara range across the dry interior of the southwest. In this region, three traditional kingdoms strongly resisted French rule, mounting a ten-year rebellion, crushed by the execution in 1907 of one of their kings, Lahitafika. By tradition exclusively cattle herders, with a strong claim to African origins, Bara herders are often seen moving their livestock along the RN7 between the sapphire town of Ilakaka and their de facto capital, Ihosy. The inter-clan cattle-raiding that once characterized Bara society, in which every young warrior was expected to participate, has also earned them a reputation as restless bandits (dahalo), preying on vehicles when herds aren’t there for the taking.
To the west of Bara country and scattered all along the southwest coast – mostly between Morondava and Tuléar – live the Vezo, whose name literally means “Paddle!”. They are fishing people, and tend to live in villages right on the beach, using their dugout canoes (with a single outrigger of light wood) to take their nets out to the fishing grounds. While their ancestral origins are linked most closely with those of the herding, farming and trading Sakalava, Vezo identity is tied so closely to the seafaring, fishing and seafood-selling lifestyle that those who cease these activities stop considering themselves Vezo. At the same time, Mahafaly or Antandroy incomers who paddle and fish are soon assimilated as Vezo.
In the far southwest interior, the Mahafaly (literally “the fady-makers”) were little influenced by Merina rule, instead seeking French protection to keep control of their main town, Tuléar. Cultivators and pastoralists, they are also traditionally adept craftspeople, renowned for their woollen rugs and woodcarvings. They’re particularly famous for their funerary sculptures known as aloalo. These intricately detailed and painted posts, depicting the life and times of the deceased, used to feature mostly naked figures, and were all about the world of the ancestors: today they act as carved obituaries, full of cattle, cars and symbols of achievement.
In the remote far southeast, in the hinterland of Fort Dauphin, live the Antandroy (“People of the thorns”), with a closely related group, the Antanosy, forming a large part of the population of Fort Dauphin itself. Traditionally livestock herders, they now also eke out a living from rice and cereal farming, and as seasonal migrant labourers. The Antandroy are renowned weavers, and build large whitewashed concrete tombs, elaborately painted and decorated with tiles.
GETTING AROUND: SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR
By plane The south is a region where flying is very helpful: if you get your timing right you can avoid backtracking and make a circuit that incorporates the key gateway towns of Tuléar on the Mozambique Channel and Fort Dauphin on the Indian Ocean coast, as they are linked by Air Madagascar.
By road The obvious route to the southwest from Antantanarivo is the long, scenic drive down the RN7, which ends in Tuléar (920km; 24hr-plus). For most of its route, this is an endless series of tight bends through the highlands, so it’s hard to average more than 40kph while driving safely. Though only a two-lane highway, and not very wide, the RN7 is in reasonable condition for most of its length and overall the busiest road in Madagascar. There are plenty of taxis brousse plying the route, though they are often full (if you’re trying to get transport from anywhere along the highway between Ambalavao and Tuléar you should make a very early start). Nearly all the other routes in the south are rough and sandy, and prone to be seriously affected by the rains: the RN13 that branches off the RN7 to Fort Dauphin (492km; 20hr-plus by 4x4, up to 40hr by taxi brousse) is particularly slow and difficult, even in the dry season.
By sea There is commercial sea traffic along the southwest coast between Tuléar, Morombe and Morondava, but the local vessels are small and poorly equipped and passengers tend to be treated as a last-minute freight consignment. There are no passenger ferries. There is very little in the way of sea transport in the rough seas around Fort Dauphin.
By river Seasonally, you can do river trips down the Mangoky River, near Morombe, and more rarely down the Onilahy, near Tuléar.
Parc National d’Andringitra
Closed Jan–March, and access can be difficult at other
times after heavy rain • Park Category
B, 10,000ar • Guides
(hired at the gates) 10,000–50,000ar (depending on the trail) for
1–4 people; porters 7000ar per day; hikes booked at the camps tend to
cost much more • parcs-madagascar.com
On the southern edge of the central highlands, the spectacular landscape of the 310-square-kilometre Parc National d’Andringitra looms up between the RN7 highway and the east-facing escarpment that drops to the coast, 100km away. Only created in 1999, the park has sharply divided ecosystems, from forest and grassland on the northern and western sides, where there’s a notable dry winter season, to mountain moorland around the bare granite peaks, to remote ravines tangled with rainforest on the eastern slopes. Andringitra is extraordinarily rich in wildlife, with 13 species of lemurs, more than 30 other mammals, 106 species of birds, 35 reptiles, no fewer than 57 species of frog and at least 1000 species of plants and trees.
You should be prepared for rain throughout the year (especially higher up) and for low temperatures at night.
Trails
Most of the park circuits start at the Namoly Gate in the east. Walks in the west mostly take place outside the park proper but give you great views and ring-tailed lemur encounters. Walking west to east (from the Morarano Gate in the west to Namoly) or vice versa takes a minimum of two days in each direction.
The trails in the park are mostly in good condition, but they’re long and quite arduous. The easiest is the Circuit Asaramanitra, a 6km loop (plus the 4km access trail from the Namoly Gate) which takes a good half-day to complete, including a visit to the base of the Riandahy and Riambavy falls, just 500m apart. To the east, the 8km Circuit Imaintso (plus a 7km access trail from the Namoly Gate) loops through primary rainforest.
Diavolana trail
If you have a full day and make an early start, you could do the Circuit Diavolana. This 13km route through a range of climate zones runs below the cliffs, above the waterfalls, and finishes at a campsite. As you climb, the landscape becomes increasingly Lord of the Rings, with streams tumbling through the rocky grassland, stone-walled Betsileo tombs tucked into clefts in the mountain and the vast, curtain-like folds of the higher altitudes creating a looming backdrop that never seems to get any closer – until suddenly the cliffs are right above you.
Imarivolanitra trail
With two or three days available, you could tackle the tough, 28km Imarivolanitra trail, which takes in the 2658-metre summit of the same name. The second highest point on the island, it’s still more often known by its old name, Pic Boby, so called after a French hiker’s dog that went missing up here in 1920. To reach Pic Boby at sunrise, you’ll need to leave the plateau camp by 3am.
Wildlife
Although the park is extremely biodiverse, its wildlife isn’t always easy to see and the greatest number of species is found in the inaccessible eastern rainforest. Andringitra’s most emblematic species is the ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) and you’ll invariably encounter ring-tails at Camp Catta, as well as higher up in the mountains. Other lemurs – all found in the eastern forests – include the red-fronted brown lemur (Eulemur rufifrons) and red-bellied lemur (E.rubriventer), Milne-Edwards’ sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi) and the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus).
Birdlife
Outstanding birdlife includes the handsome and relatively common Madagascar blue pigeon (Alectroenas madagascariensis), with its distinctive red tail, and the much less easily seen, hook-billed and stump-tailed yellow-bellied sunbird-asity (Neodrepanis hypoxantha), which is like a diminutive flying lemon, flashing through the high forest.
Reptiles and amphibians
Andringitra’s most notable chameleon, found in bushes in the high-altitude grasslands, is the unmistakeably jewel-like Campan’s chameleon (Furcifer campani), with its three lateral stripes and multicoloured scales. Above the tree line, look out for two Andringitra endemics – the mottled mountain climbing frog (Anodonthyla montana), which breeds in rainwater puddles in the granite and can often be found tucked under stones, and the prettily green-patterned Andringitra bright-eyed tree frog (Boophis laurenti), which makes do with heather bushes for trees and breeds in fast-flowing streams above 2000m.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION: PARC NATIONAL D’ANDRINGITRA
There are two routes to the park, both from the RN7, but either way it’s much easier if you have your own 4x4 transport.
Namoly Gate If you’re approaching from the east, there are occasional taxis brousse from Ambalavao to the village of Antanifotsy, also known as Namoly (on the river of the same name) (47km; 3–4hr).
Morarano Gate For the western approach, you turn south off the RN7 at Antanambao, 35km southwest of Ambalavao (any southbound taxi brousse will drop you; 1hr), and follow a dirt road south to Vohitsaoka (10km) and on to Camp Catta and Tsara Camp in the Tsaranoro valley, near the Morarano Gate (the park’s western entrance), 25km from the RN7. You may get transport as far as Vohitsaoka, but be prepared to walk. Alternatively, call ahead and arrange for Camp Catta or Tsara Camp to pick you up (€20 for the 10km from Vohitsaoka).
Tourist information The park office is just north of Namoly village.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Inside the park, there are five simple, do-it-yourself campsites, run by the national park (6000ar/tent), used for multi-day hiking trips.
NAMOLY
Gîte d’Etape 032 02 450 25 or 032 40 481
75. Private rooms and dormitory
accommodation with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and
solar lighting. Dorm 13,000ar,
room 20,000ar
Maison d’Hôte Trano
Gasy Next to the park office 033 11
264 27, tranogasy.com. Simple, en-suite cabins
with cold-water showers (hot water available on request), solar
electricity (no charging in rooms) and good meals available
(breakfast €5, main course €10). €20
TSARANORO VALLEY
Camp Catta Morarano, western Andringitra, 20km from
the RN7, 6km before the Morarano Gate 033 15 347
19, campcatta.com. Stunningly located,
Camp Catta’s larger,
stone-built, en-suite bungalows are recommended (160,000ar)
– unless you’re camping in your own tent. Good set
meals (breakfast 13,000ar, lunch 30,000ar, dinner 37,000ar) and
excellent walking and rock-climbing are on offer, and
there’s a spring-fed swimming pool. Camping 8000ar, double 86,000ar
Tsara Camp Western Andringitra, 19km from the RN7,
7km before the Morarano Gate 033 15 530 73,
boogiepilgrim-madagascar.com. The
Tana-based tour operator Boogie Pilgrim runs this beautifully
sited tented camp, with en-suite safari tents under thatched
roofs (with charging points; electricity morning and evening).
Like Camp Catta, they run hikes up to
Caméléon peak (1540m) to the south and Tsaranoro
peak (1910m) to the west. Obligatory full board €98
Parc National d’Isalo
Park Category B,
10,000ar • Trail fees 16,000–30,000ar depending on trail
for up to four people; guides 25,000ar/day; porters 10,000ar/day • parcs-madagascar.com
The popularity of the Parc National d’Isalo owes much to its location, midway between Fianarantsoa and Tuléar, and its accessibility, straddling the RN7 highway from Antananarivo. This 810-square-kilometre sandstone plateau is a dramatic spectacle, its towering mesas and sculpted pillars creating a desert-like, Monument Valley-style landscape that is especially striking at its southern extremity, where the tarmac highway twists past the cliffs. Cut by streams and springs into countless, sandy-floored, oasis-like canyons, filled with forest, with several alluring natural swimming holes of cool, crystal-clear water, the whole region offers tremendous scope for hikers and anyone aiming to escape the blasted heat of the prairies of the high plateaux. The park ranges from just over 500m up to 1268m above sea level and the canyons are in places as much as 200m deep.
Scenery aside, Isalo is less convincing as a wildlife destination: although still blessed with 14 species of lemur, 77 varieties of birds and more than 400 species of plants, there simply isn’t the range of ecosystems here to support the fabulous riches of some parks. Culturally, however, the region is richly endowed. This is the heartland of the Bara people, believed by some anthropologists to have come from mainland Africa. Their traditions, including the cult of warriorhood and pogo-like ritual dances, are similar in some respects to those of the Maasai cattle herders of Kenya and Tanzania. One of the old Bara clans’ royal family seats is at the village of Ampika, by the mouth of the national park’s Canyon des Makis. Bara burial caves are still scattered in canyon walls throughout the plateau, and in the far north of the massif, sixteenth-century Portuguese explorers are said to have married Bara women and lived in cliff dwellings – a good story for which there’s scant evidence.
The park headquarters is at the town of RANOHIRA in the park’s southeast corner.
ACTIVITIES AT ISALO
If you’re looking for an added shot of adrenalin at Isalo, note
that the Jardin du Roi or Relais de la Reine can organize quad-bike excursions (from 55,000ar/hr), riding for experienced riders on ex-racehorses
(half-day €50) and supervised climbing
on a via ferrata cable-hiking route through the rocks between the two
properties (1hr 30min, €20). See bit.ly/RidinginIsalo
for more information on riding.
Interpretation Centre
Daily 8am–6pm • Free, optional tip
For an interesting introduction to Isalo, visit the interpretation centre, 10km southwest of Ranohira, a small museum on the south side of the road, which explains the geology and ethnology of the area. There are photos of the tomb of King Ramieba, the last Bara king, ensconced in a rock cleft, with one of his guards shown in Napoleonic headgear.
Trails
Isalo has several standard options for brief and extended day walks, as well as multi-day camping circuits. Most of them are helpfully marked with point métrique stones at 50m intervals, though you will be accompanied all the time by a park guide, so you can’t get lost, or bite off more than you can chew. Nevertheless, take a good hat and carry enough water: above the cool canyons, the trails on the plateau can be hot and steep.
Namaza Trail
The easiest trail, the Namaza Trail (up the stream and canyon of the same name, 1.5km in each direction) starts at a car park 4km northwest of Ranohira. From here, the easy footpath runs for 800m through the beautiful Namaza valley to the Namaza campsite. Even at the height of the dry season, pretty greens and yellows fill the canyon, with purple-flowering Koehneria flowers, related to purple loosestrife, everywhere. After a further 700m, with a little climbing (60m gain), you reach a beautiful, cool pool at the base of dark cliffs, where the Cascade des Nymphes waterfall tumbles from the plateau above, and you can swim.
Circuit Piscine Naturelle
The well-known Circuit Piscine Naturelle (Natural Swimming Pool Trail; 3km from the car park to the pool in each direction), starts from a car park 3.5km west of Ranohira (the turning is on the south side of town, by the Toiles d’Isalo hotel). From the car park, the footpath ascends 70m over the Isalo plateau before dropping after 3km to the pool itself, the largest and most popular in the park, with its fringe of Bismarck palm trees. From the pool, a 3km path running northwards across the plateau descends (180m drop) to the Namaza valley, enabling a circuit to be made.
Canyon des Makis and Canyon des Rats
In the northeast side of Isalo, two spectacular clefts into the side of the Isalo Plateau, the Canyon des Makis (maki: ring-tailed lemur in Malagasy) and the Canyon des Rats, are accessed by a 13km dirt road along the Manamaty river valley from the RN7, starting just northeast of Ranohira. The Canyon des Makis is the southernmost and easiest of the two: starting from its car park, you take the footpath for 1km or so, crossing a couple of streams and irrigation ditches and then cutting through fields and gardens, before breaking through a tangle of bush at the mouth of the canyon to emerge in the glorious ravine. Here, multi-directional sunlight bounces off the orange sandstone walls, illuminating the stream and pools on the canyon floor, where lush flora bursts from the damp ground against a backdrop of dripping water and little rainbows fizzing over moss-covered boulders.
The mouth of the Canyon des Rats is just 700m to the north of the Canyon des Makis, though you’ll need a long half-day to do justice to them both (including driving time). Alternatively, explore the Makis canyon, then walk the 6km trail that starts from further up the canyon and runs southwards through the park to join the Circuit Namaza.
Flora
Isalo’s plants and trees are some of its most distinctive natural assets: spiky and fan-like Bismarck palms (Bismarckia nobilis; satrana in Malagasy) are scattered across the landscape in this, the heart of their natural habitat (the Bismarck is now found all over the world, and particularly popular as a garden tree in the suburban canyons of Southern California). More unusual is the extraordinary elephant’s foot (Pachypodium rosulatum, or vontaka in Malagasy). It looks like a stumpy little baobab with pipe cleaners for branches until it bursts into yellow flowers at the end of the dry season. You’ll see it on the canyon walls on the Circuit Piscine Naturelle.
Fauna
As for animal life, while lemur sightings in Isalo are likely to be either far off away on the cliff sides, or scampering with rather too much familiarity around one of the campsites, the park does have some interesting denizens. You’re almost certain to see ring-tailed lemurs in the more open, rocky areas, and in the forest Verreaux’s sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi) are also likely. Look out, in and around the streams and pools, for the regionally endemic large western white-lipped tree frog (Boophis occidentalis) that’s often encountered around the Cascade des Nymphes. If you see one, you’re more likely to notice its red webbed feet than the colour of its lips. Also keep your eyes open for the very rare, strikingly green-black-and-red-marbled painted burrowing frog (Scaphiophryne gottlebei) – a species that is strictly endemic to Isalo and critically threatened by collection for foreign frog fanciers. Among Isalo’s seventy-odd birds, keen ornithologists won’t need reminding about the robin-like Benson’s rock thrush (Monticola sharpei bensoni) for which the park, and especially the plateau top above the Namaza trail car park, is a key habitat.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL D’ISALO
Isalo is easy to reach: all transport along the RN7 passes through and invariably stops in Ranohira, where most visitors set out from, though there are several access routes to trails into the park from the RN7 between Ranohira and Ilakaka. Note that there is no bank in Ranohira: the nearest banks are at Ihosy and Sakaraha, both with ATMs.
By taxi brousse Taxis brousses are frequent through Ranohira, but are often full, so when you’re trying to leave, you may need to make a very early start in order to get a seat without having to jostle with a lot of locals.
Destinations Antananarivo (frequent; 18hr); Fianarantsoa (frequent; 5–6hr); Tuléar (frequent; 4hr).
By taxi You can rent a taxi in town to cover the 4km to the park, and guide fees will be lower if you drive with your guide to the car park.
MANGOKY RIVER TRIPS
During the season of high water, roughly November to March, one or two operators (including Remote River Expeditions, based in Morondava), run river trips down the Mangoky River from Beroroha to Bevoay. The Mangoky, which rises near Fianarantsoa, is an excellent rafting river with wonderful opportunities for remote camping on sandbanks and in the bush while paddling 170km over the course of several days. There’s little infrastructure or settlement along its course, the river meandering lazily through a mix of wide-open plains and quite narrow gorges – and past the largest baobab forest in the world. The usual way to reach the starting point is by 4x4, driving north along bush tracks from Ranohira, past the east side of Parc National d’Isalo.
INFORMATION
Park office The park office in the centre of town (daily 7am–5pm). They sometimes have a few large-scale maps of Isalo.
Guides If you’d like to be sure of getting a good guide, you can always get advice at Chez Alice – Alice is an experienced judge of quality among the 85 official guides and countless freelancers.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
While Ranohira’s purpose in life is to service visitors to the national park, only a few low-budget lodgings and some simple restaurants and shops are located here. Higher-end options are off the highway several kilometres further south. All the hotels do meals – the Relais de la Reine and Chez Alice are particularly good, and there are also one or two stand-alone restaurants in town.
INSIDE THE PARK
Analatapia Campsite Circuit Piscine Naturelle 032 44
440 75 or 033 13 172 58.
The park’s biggest campsite has 68 pitches and simple
shared showers, toilets and kitchens. Price per person: 5000ar
Namaza Trail Campsite 800m along the trail from the car park
032 44 440 75 or 033 13 172
58. Shady riverside site, with 34
pitches and basic bathroom and kitchen facilities, often visited
by ring-tails and introduced red-fronted brown lemurs. Price per
person: 5000ar
RANOHIRA
Chez Alice 400m north of the town centre (past
Berny on the left and Zebu Grill on the right) 033 07
134 44,
chezalice@yahoo.fr. An excellent
budget option, with pretty little bungalows on the hillside. The
well-decorated and comfy en-suite rooms aren’t large, but
they have mosquito nets, hot water and electricity on the town
grid. There are also non-en-suite rooms (22,000ar). Alice is one
of Ranohira’s real characters, managing a very good
kitchen (breakfast 5000ar), producing superb home-made pasta
(ravioli 13,000ar; menu 20,000ar) and
offering good advice on guides over a rhum
arrangé from her wide selection. 36,000ar
Liberta En route to Chez Alice 034 76 699
63. Simple place serving superb
thin-crust Italian pizza (16,000–22,000ar). Worth calling
ahead. Open daily; times vary.
BY THE RN7
Isalo Ranch 4.5km southwest of Ranohira on the north
side of the road 033 15 510 25 or 034
02 510 25, isalo-ranch.com. German-owned and
English-speaking, this has rooms in simple but well-constructed
thatched bungalows (no fans or a/c), with a large pool and
restaurant. There’s hot water and 24hr solar/generator
electricity, though with charging only in the restaurant
(breakfast €4, menu €10). You can also camp.
Camping per person 12,800ar,
room €40
Isalo Rock Lodge 10.5km southwest of Ranohira on the
south side of the road 034 02 034 00, isalorocklodge.com. Opened in 2010, with
Italian management, this stylish lodge has chic rooms with good
bathrooms and 24/7 electricity for charging. The fine views into
the valley, however, don’t compensate for an atmosphere
as arid as the physical environment – and it feels
overpriced. Pool, room safes, wi-fi. €148
Le Jardin du Roi 14km southwest of Ranohira on the south
lejardinduroy.com. Co-(French-)owned
with the Relais next door, the Jardin is a sprawling stone-built country
retreat with magnificent surroundings. It’s the more
upmarket of the two, with bigger rooms, a/c and a fancier
“chimney room” in each block where a fire is lit
on cold August nights. Battery-supplied electric sockets work
24/7 and can charge. They also have simpler bungalows, with
plainer furnishings, for riders. Pool, wi-fi. The restaurant
serves menus and dishes à la carte (breakfast €6,
lunch €14, dinner €16). Open year-round. €105
Le Relais de la Reine 14km southwest of Ranohira on the south
side of the road 034 41 782 73, lerelaisdelareine.com. Like the Jardin, a very striking, if
European-flavoured hotel. With its amazing stonework
architecture and beautiful grounds (the prettier of the two),
this is a cool oasis in the dry, rocky heat, though the
comfortable rooms are on the small side. The top-quality meal
service is similar to that of the Jardin, and the same price. Room safes, pool,
wi-fi in lobby, but electricity off throughout the daytime.
Closed mid-Feb to early April. €85
Satrana Lodge 7.5km southwest of Ranohira on the south
side of the road 034 14 059 49, satranalodge-madagascar.com. A
magnificently sited, large tented camp on the hillside, with
en-suite tented rooms on a wooden platform, with solid,
indoor-outdoor showers and thatched roofs. Unfortunately,
management and staff problems make it unreliable. €83
Ilakaka and Sakaraha
IKAKAKA and SAKARAHA, the two towns nearest to Zombitse National Park, have boomed on the highway from almost nothing over the last twenty years, as rural migrants have arrived seeking fortunes from mining for gems – particularly the sapphires of which this region is now the world’s biggest producer. The fortified emporia of Sri Lankan gem traders and others line the streets of each town – pure Wild West, and none too welcoming. Sakaraha has a new bank with a useful ATM, the only one between Tuléar and Ihosy.
Parc National Zombitse-Vohibasia
Park Category B,
10,000ar • Guides 3000ar per trail for up to 6 visitors (this is
a pitifully small sum, so do leave a decent tip) • parcs-madagascar.com
Unexpectedly, the relative monotony of the RN7 highway is broken where it plunges through a large tract of dry forest, the Parc National Zombitse-Vohibasia, a ragged zone of patches of western deciduous woodland that also incorporates some of the southern, spiny forest flora. Among the generally low trees are two baobabs, Adansonia za and A. madagascariensis, and a wide range of wildlife. Although declared a national park in 1997, maps of the area at the time show how much forest has been felled since then, especially on the western side nearer Sakaraha. While not a must-see, the small, accessible sector of Zombitse is very easy and comfortable to visit: the wildlife here is more prolific than in Isalo and you’ll generally have the wide, flat trails to yourself.
The park is separated into the southern Zombitse area (around 160 square kilometres), most of which is north of the RN7 and hard to visit, and the northern Vohibasia area (around 200 square kilometres), which is further north still and more or less inaccessible. Get to Zombitse as early as possible for the best wildlife – especially if you want to spot Appert’s tetrakas foraging.
Trails
If you only have an hour or two, follow the 500m loop of the Circuit Ritikala on the south side of the RN7 highway. The 5km Circuit Lobo is an eastern extension of the same Ritikala trail, for which you should allow half a day, with an early start. The Zombitse sector’s northern trail, on the north side of the road, is the Circuit Mandresy, for which you should allow a good three hours.
Wildlife
One of Madagascar’s rarest birds, the largely terrestrial warbler, Appert’s tetraka (Xanthomixis apperti, also known as Appert’s greenbul), has its last main refuge here; it can usually be seen in the undergrowth along the Circuit Ritikala. Naturalists also visit for a green-and-gold coloured endemic lizard of the southwest, the Standing’s day gecko (Phelsuma standingi), usually seen in pairs on larger tree trunks, and eight species of lemurs, including ring-tails and the relatively habituated Verreaux’s sifaka.
The one lemur to look out for, though, is the Hubbard’s or Zombitse sportive lemur (Lepilemur hubbardorum) – only identified in 2006 and endemic to the forest (the sportive lemurs here were formerly considered to be the red-tailed species, L. ruficaudatus). Once you get your eye in, Hubbard’s are easy to see by day, peering – orange-eyed and splay-fingered – from their low-level tree holes. The star of the forest is the nimble, noisy, squirrel-sized pale fork-marked lemur (Phaner pallescens), which you may manage to see if you’re lucky and get to do a night walk, though it’s almost impossible to photograph as it bobs and dashes through the branches.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: PARC NATIONAL ZOMBITSE-VOHIBASIA
By taxi-brousse Most visitors have their own vehicles, but any passing taxi brousse can drop you at the Zombitse park main gate (or pick you up – though most will already be full).
Destinations Ranohira (for Parc National d’Isalo; frequent; 1hr); Tuléar (frequent; 3hr).
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
This campsite at the park headquarters is quite close to the highway and security has been a problem in recent years. Check before pitching here (3000ar), or stay in lodgings in Sakaraha.
Zombitse Ecolodge On the RN7, 10km east of Sakaraha 033
12 325 64, zombitse.de. Rustic, German-owned lodge with
camping possible. Camping 20,000ar,
double 40,000ar
Tuléar and around
Sheltered on what were once mud and sand flats behind straggling stands of mangroves, the port of TULÉAR (also known as Toliara or Toliary) is not the most prepossessing place in Madagascar. This former slaving port has been sidelined by recent history – a fact reflected in the rebellious political stance often taken by the townspeople to matters being decided in Tana. Trash abounds here, especially around the outskirts, and there’s very obvious poverty, with begging quite widespread and frustrated pousse-pousse men looking for fares. Like an island of impoverishment in a sea of destitution, the town is barely able to look after its people, with insufficient support for its basic municipal services from Antananarivo and not enough wealth trickling down through jobs and market forces. There’s a new Chinese cotton factory out near the airport, but people here lament the complete lack of any local enterprises that contribute significantly to employment. The hinterland is barren and dry for most of the year – cotton, cattle and goats and a little subsistence agriculture are about all it can support and the drift of rural migrants to the town is ceaseless.
In practical terms Tuléar is a bit of a backwater, too. Although it’s connected to Tana by the country’s best road, the drive of at least 20 hours just serves to emphasise how dislocated it is from the rest of the country. Assuming the picture that’s forming hasn’t put you off coming here completely, you’ll find that there are one or two things to do in town apart from heading out of it. As you wander around Tuléar, look out for the town’s zebu carts, sometimes painted with bright, symbolic imagery derived from popular culture – typically music and film stars – and whose young charioteers will invariably stop to be photographed for a modest fee.
Tuléar has no real beach to retain tourists passing through. Batterie Plage, on the northwest side of town – site of British gun emplacements from World War II – is a working beach of windswept dunes that has also attracted notoriety for attacks on tourists. One to avoid.
Musée Cedratom
Corner of bd Philibert Tsiranana and rue Flayelle •
Mon–Sat 7.30–11.30am & 2–5.30pm • 5000ar
• 033 21 541 05 or 032 53 776 31
In the middle of town, the University of Toliara’s Musée Cedratom (or Musée Mahafaly) displays local cultural artefacts, with reconstructions of tombs and examples of aloalo – sculpted wooden grave posts that adorn the tombs of the Mahafaly people. The sculptures traditionally commemorated the dead and acted as intermediaries enabling them to join their ancestors.
Musée de la Mer
Route du Port (700m south of bd Lyautey) •
Mon–Sat 8am–5pm • 10,000ar • 032 40 956
64 or 034 01 972 44
Located down a rather insalubrious street, the Musée de la Mer is certainly worth the attention of divers and anyone interested in marine biology. Attached to the university’s Institute of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, whose students or teachers will usually provide an ad hoc guided tour, it showcases the dried or pickled remains of a large variety of local marine organisms, albeit in a fairly dusty manner. Its star exhibits are five stuffed West Indian Ocean coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae), the “living fossil” deep-sea fish that was thought to have died out more than 60 million years ago, until a live specimen was identified in 1938. Even preserved like this, they are large and impressive beasts.
Arboretum d’Antsokay
12km southeast of Tuléar centre, past the airport
• Daily 7.30am–5pm; closed Feb • Guided visit 10,000ar
• 032 02 600 15 or 034 07 600 15, antsokayarboretum.org
The best attraction in Tuléar is the Arboretum d’Antsokay, a 25-acre patch of managed spiny forest heavily planted with the flora from a lifetime’s botanical collecting by its Swiss founder, Hermann Petignat. The fascinating hour-long guided tour, made all the better by engaging guides (some of whom speak good English), starts – or ends, depending on whether you follow the numbered route or do it in reverse – in a neat and well-lit mini-museum. As well as geological samples, fossils and relics (including a giant Aepyornis egg), displays include musical instruments (note the two guitar-like kabosy on the left, a lokanga fiddle and a large zither or marovany on the right) and various local crafts.
The arboretum
Along the arboretum’s footpaths, there are some 900 species of plants, more than 80 percent of which are endemic to southwest Madagascar. Among them have been recorded 34 species of birds and 25 species of reptiles – although as the animals are free to come and go, sightings vary depending on the weather and the time of year.
Look out for the arbre vazaha (Commiphora) that “peels like a European”, and the baobabs from Morondava that are 30 years old yet only a metre or so tall. Further along, notice the stick-like green euphorbia, which has a toxic, adhesive white sap, and the famous octopus tree (Didierea madagascariensis), with its trailing leaf-and-spine-covered limbs, so characteristic of the southwest. Keep an eye out too for the beautiful jabihy or “natural bonsai” (Operculicarya pachypus); the strangely shaped succulent known as “Napoleon’s hat” (Kalanchoe beharensis); and the amazingly unclimbable Pachypodium lamerei, with its fearsome armour of tri-pronged spines (what, you wonder, is it so afraid of?). As you walk, you’ll see natural spiny forest beyond the park’s boundary.
Ethnology trail
Finally, back near the office and museum, is the absorbing ethnology trail, or sentier ethnologue, where exhibits demonstrate plant use in traditional culture and include the nazo manga (“blue wood”) posts put before a chief’s house. The hut-like houses of the local Antandroy cattle herders, of which an example is on display, are typically made of the ocotillo tree (Alluaudia procera; or fantsiolitse in Malagasy), a young specimen of which is growing outside the house.
L’Aire Protégée de Tsinjoriake
26km south of Tuléar • Most hotels in Tuléar run or organize half- or full-day excursions to the area
A new ecotourism initiative along the Baie de Saint-Augustin between Tuléar and the mouth of the Onilahy River, l’Aire Protégée de Tsinjoriake incorporates a well-established swimming spot – the stunning marine grotto of Sarodrano, tucked beneath the cliffs.
Sarodrano Peninsula
Across the lagoon, the dune-covered Sarodrano Peninsula is one of Madagascar’s oldest human settlements: the Vezo of its picturesque village make a living from fishing and cultivating algae for use in food production. You can also continue south, climbing over the steep plateau, on a reasonable tar road, to the old village of SAINT AUGUSTINE, on a broad beach at the mouth of the Onilahy.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: TULÉAR AND AROUND
By plane Arriving by air, you land at Tuléar’s relatively
modern Toliara airport, 7km southeast of the town centre. The
Snack Bar Mora Mora has good, cheap
offerings if you’re waiting here. Private taxis to the town
centre cost 15,000ar. Air Madagascar is on the corner of rue Chanar
and rue Henri Martin (Mon–Fri 8–11.30am &
3–5pm, Sat 8–10am; 034 11 222 01).
There’s also an airport office ( 034 11 222
06).
Destinations Antananarivo (2 weekly, 1hr 40m); Fort Dauphin (2 weekly; 45min); Morondava (weekly; 1hr).
By taxi brousse Coming in by road on the RN7, the main gare routière is in an area called San Fil, near the end of the RN7, close to where it joins bd Gallieni. For those arriving in town on the only other road, from further north up the coast (Ifaty or beyond), the transport park area is on the northern fringes of town, about 3km south of the bridge across the Fiherenana River. For Fort Dauphin allow 3–4 days for the 600km journey via Ampanihy and Ambovombe on the RN10. Once the rains have started (usually Nov), the section between Ambatry and Ambovombe is blocked by multiple flooded river crossings, so transport can only use the RN7 and RN13 via Ihosy (820km; allow 48hr-plus; 30,000ar).
Departures Antananarivo (regular day and night; 16–20hr; 40,000ar); Fort Dauphin (occasional; 2–4 days; 30,000–40,000ar); Morondava (several weekly; 40–48hr; 50,000ar).
By boat There’s comparatively little boat traffic from Tuléar (except to Anakao), but if you’re lucky with timing it would be a good way of progressing north. Ask around at the port, just south of the town centre.
GETTING AROUND
Pousse-pousses cost 1000ar per hop (though some owners will expect tourists to pay more) and town taxis 3000ar or more depending on distance.
INFORMATION
Tourist office ORTU, cnr rue Montagnole/bd Philibert Tsiranana (Mon–Fri
8am–noon & 3–5.30pm, Sat 8am–noon;
032 51 296 56 or 034 20 083 82,
tulear-tourisme.com).
ACCOMMODATION
TOWN CENTRE
Hyppocampo Route du Port (av de France), 500m south
from bd Lyautey 032 42 866 83, hyppocampo-tulear.com. One of the
Tuléar area’s best hotels, this modern and stylish
establishment has well-furnished rooms with fridges, a/c and
wi-fi (no fans or nets). There’s a large, inviting pool
and great sea views – but unfortunately a sad cage in the
garden containing a male ring-tail and a female brown lemur.
163,000ar
Mahayana Bd Gallieni 032 04 702
48, ikoabidaly.wix.com/hotel-mahayana.
Seemingly a seaside hotel stranded in the middle of town. Smart
rooms, with a/c, fans and nets and a large, clean pool. A good
standby. 80,000ar
Le Palmier Bd Branly 032 04 334 25,
lezebuphilosophe.biz. Owned and managed
by an English-Malagasy couple, this is the best deal in town if
you’re on a low budget, with a mix of en-suite rooms and
studios with kitchenettes, all around the same price. The wi-fi
works, the drinks from the bar are cold and the kitchen is open
at most reasonable hours for good meals (most dishes 12,000ar)
served in a pleasant dining room. 25,000ar
Serena Hotel Bd Philibert Tsiranana 032 45 377
55, serenatulear.com. No relation to the Aga
Khan’s international chain of the same name, but modern,
stylish and good value – the best place to stay in the
city centre. Breakfast (from 7000ar) on a glazed terrace area
overlooking the street. 66,500ar
BAIE DE SAINT-AUGUSTIN
Bakuba Concept 14km southeast of the town centre (7km
from the airport) 032 51 528 97, bakubaconcept.com. Stunning boutique
hotel/homestay in an out-of-the-way coastal location just south
of the fishing village of Ankilibe. It’s owned and run by
a Belgian couple whose lives in Africa are displayed in every
aspect of the funky ethnic design. Great food, lovely staff and
warm atmosphere. Pool, wi-fi, dogs. If possible, choose the huge
Suite Masai (€160). One downside: the uninviting
beachfront. €105
Famata Lodge 16km southeast of the town centre (9km
from the airport) 032 05 937 83, famatalodge-tulear.com. Much simpler and
more rustic than Bakuba Concept,
Famata Lodge is equally seductive
for a different reason – the pretty natural environment.
Family-friendly, homely thatched en-suite cabins cluster in the
dunes among the palms and spiny forest. With its creek, beach
and swimming pool there are lots of places to eat and relax
– and for children to play. 24hr solar electricity.
€36
EATING
La Bernique Cnr bd Gallieni/rue du Commerce 034
99 307 70 or 020 94 449 87.
This is one of Tuléar’s top tips, with a great corner
location, deck, garden and indoors area, and a bevy of helpful
staff. The largely French menu changes daily (menu
du jour 15,000ar), with mussels and oysters flown in
from Fort Dauphin every Wed (Air Mad willing). Daily except Tues 8.30am–11pm.
Chez Alain Down a lane off the RN7, near the San Fil
gare routière 033 80 495 07, hotelchezalain-tulear.com. Something of a
Tuléar institution, with a hotel and entertainments side by
side in the large grounds, as well as tables for up to 100 diners,
this is perhaps more of an address for a New Year bash or similar
event. But the welcome is warm, the food fine (try the ginger
caramel crayfish, 15,000ar) – and they have baobab juice
(3000ar) and free wi-fi. Daily
6.30am–10pm.
Corto Maltese Rue Gambetta (rue Docteur Raseta) 032
02 643 23 or 032 04 657 42.
Named after the cult Italian graphic novel about a 1920s adventurer,
this outwardly nondescript place run by an Italian couple opens its
shutters to an enthusiastic crowd of local vazaha and clued-up travellers for good pasta and meat
dishes. Eat well for 30,000ar. Mon–Fri lunch and dinner; closed Sat &
Sun.
L’Etoile de Mer Bd Lyautey 034 07 605 65 or
032 02 605 65. “The
Starfish” is Tuléar’s chicest restaurant, with
a pleasant terrace at the front and a huge range of offerings,
majoring on seafood, curries, pizzas; expect to spend around
40,000ar. Can sometimes be a little too popular and booked up with
parties for the good of all its customers. Wi-fi. Daily 10am–11pm.
Gelateria Rue Gambetta (rue Docteur Raseta). Great ice cream for 2500ar per scoop and a shady terrace to slurp it on. Pizzas, sandwiches and drinks too. Tues–Sun 9am–12.30pm & 4–10.30pm.
Le Jardin de Giancarlo Rue Gambetta (rue Docteur Raseta) 032
40 604 83 (Giancarlo himself). The Jardin, set in a shady courtyard bursting with
character and artworks, is currently the best and most popular
restaurant in town, with a menu that changes often and one employee
a full-time pasta maker. Giancarlo’s signature dishes are his
mama-style lasagne and the full-on three-cheese gnocchi with foie gras. Most mains 10,000–20,000ar,
pizzas 10,000–12,000ar. Daily except
Wed 10.30am–9pm.
NIGHTLIFE
Zaza Club Bd Lyautey. Hot, sweaty and often hilarious Afro-tropical joint that’s been around for many years. There’s mainly a young crowd dancing – and occupying the outdoor seating to catch a cool breeze (though the club’s a/c is sometimes on). The streets outside can be dodgy late at night: get a cab from right outside. Entry 3000–10,000ar. Daily until late.
SHOPPING
Score Rue du Marché/bd Gallieni 020
94 440 36. Pretty basic by international
standards, but the biggest supermarket in the region. Mon–Fri 8.30am–1pm &
2.30–7.30pm, Sat 8.30am–7.30pm, Sun
8am–noon.
L’Univers de la Pierre Bd Philibert Tsiranana 032 02 532
02, universdelapierre.com. Madagascar has every
kind of gemstone except diamonds (“fortunately”, so
the wry owner says, “as that would mean war”), and if
you’re into buying gems, this is the place, with a good
display. The workshop is open for free guided visits (Mon–Fri
during shop hours). Mon–Sat
8am–1pm & 2.30–6pm, Sun
9am–noon.
Anakao and around
While it is more or less inaccessible by road, the beach area around the Vezo fishing village of ANAKAO, 30km south of Tuléar across Saint Augustin Bay, is one of Madagascar’s favourite getaways for locals and low-budget travellers – and increasingly for more upmarket visitors too. Be prepared for the lack of infrastructure at Anakao beyond the hotels’ compounds: the local poverty often jars uncomfortably with carefree tourism, as does the obvious lack of toilet facilities for villagers with enjoying the beach itself.
Nevertheless, the main attractions of this area, where scrubby dunes meet ocean, are the simple pleasures of sun and sand. The area is getting a world-class name for surfing and wind- and kitesurfing rather as much as snorkelling and diving, though marine life can be very worthwhile and the water conditions are usually good. Whale-watching is also good here during the migration season, from July to September. And if you’re interested in local culture, you’ll find the big painted cement tombs of Vezo ancestors, near the point, fascinating.
Nosy Ve
Entry fee 5000ar • Access by charter boat only
Birders make the effort to get out to the little island of Nosy Ve, 3.5km offshore, which is a breeding colony for thousands of red-tailed tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda), protected by a local fady. The island is also a good diving and snorkelling site, preferred over the fished-out areas in the lagoon.
Nosy Satrana
Access by charter boat only
Around Nosy Satrana, 5.5km south of Anakao, you can still find fragments of eggshell of the extinct flightless bird, Aepyornis. These giant birds, 3m high, weighing 400kg and known as vorompatra in Malagasy, are believed to have been outgrazed by zebus and their eggs collected for food until the species became extinct (as recently as the seventeenth century). Fascinating as the eggs are, taking Aepyornis shell fragments is illegal.
Parc National de Tsimanampetsotsa
Park Category B,
10,000ar • parcs-madagascar.com
Most of the hotels in Anakao organize overnight excursions to the spectacular little Parc National de Tsimanampetsotsa – a plateau of spiny forest above a soda lake of the same name, frequented by greater and lesser flamingoes. The 70cm-long giant-striped mongoose (Galidictis grandidieri) lives only here, and you have a good chance of seeing one on a night walk along the base of the escarpment. Ring-tailed lemurs and Verreaux’s sifakas live up in the spiny forest. The ticket office and park headquarters are at Efoetsy, around 85km south of Anakao.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ANAKAO AND AROUND
By road Until the new ferry across the Onilahy River is more frequent, driving from Tuléar to Anakao is an all-day, 270km affair via the RN7 as far as Andranavory, then turning south on the notorious RN10 Fort Dauphin road before branching back to the coast. Most people take a boat across the bay instead. To get to Fort Dauphin you need to first get transport east to the junction town of Ambatry (90km, about 4hr), from which you may have to wait for a place in a taxi brousse (usually full, en route from Tuléar). Although some taxis brousses venture south along the coast, this is largely 4x4 territory with the rough coast road very difficult after rain and completely cut beyond Itampolo.
By ferry If you pre-book a room, most hotels will include a transfer from
Tuléar (1hr) for a modest charge. Alternatively, operators at
Tuléar’s ferry port typically charge
50,000–75,0000ar one way and 80,000–150,000ar for a
round-trip ticket, depending on the boat and your destination. Check
the life jackets are in order. Companies include Vedette Fitahiana,
rue Manus Jatop ( 032 29 294 16 or 032 69 122
29, hortencia@vedettefitahiana.info);
Transfert Anakao, ferry port ( 020 94 922 20, lalandaka.com); and
Anakao Express, ferry port ( 034 60 072 61 or
034 60 072 62, anakaoexpress.com).
Most services leave at roughly 9.30am from Tuléar, 7am from
Anakao.
ACTIVITIES
Diving and snorkelling There are a couple of PADI-accredited dive centres in Anakao. The best sites are around Nosy Ve’s reefs.
Surfing The main surfing areas are beyond the reef, so you’ll be renting a boat to get you out there. Many people use the services of local surfer Nono, whose Nono Surf is based at the Safari Vezo.
Whale-watching Most hotels organize whale-watching trips during the humpback migration, between July and September.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
There’s almost nowhere to eat or drink in Anakao apart from the bars and restaurants at the hotels themselves. Seafood lovers will be in heaven, but vegetarians could struggle a bit.
Anakao Ocean Lodge Baie d’Andovoke 020 94 921
76, anakao-madagascar.com. On a 2km crescent of
sand, facing southwest onto the lagoon, this is Anakao’s top
resort hotel, with lovely, stone-and-wood bungalows equipped with
nets, a/c, room safes and minibars, plus a spa. Be sure to get a
beachfront bungalow. Half board €197
Auberge Émile Anakao main beach, central 032 04 023
76. Punningly billed as “Aime
Île” (“Love Isle”), this basic set-up
next to Safari Vezo has very simple rooms
with cold water and sporadic electricity set some distance back from
the (nice) bar and dining deck on the beach. 30,000ar
Hotel Peter Pan Anakao main beach, south 032 82 614
54, peterpanhotel.com. There’s often a
good crowd of surfers and young NGOs and volunteers on leave at this
Italian-run restaurant-hotel. The relaxed, house-party atmosphere
and excellent food, usually eaten communally (nice breakfast,
10,000ar), are bonuses to the tidy en-suite bungalows (also 2
non-en-suite from 25,000ar). PADI dive centre, Il Camaleonte. Wi-fi.
105,000ar
Safari Vezo Anakao main beach, central 034 07 602
52, safarivezo.com. Slightly quirky, this is one
of the longest-established hotels in Anakao. The rustic bungalows
stretch for 300m along the beach, with electricity (6–10pm),
room safes and indoor-outdoor bathrooms (sea-water flush toilets and
sun-warmed water on demand for bucket showers). Nono Surf is based
here. Half board €75
North of Tuléar
As you head north along the coast out of Tuléar, the road starts unpromisingly, with acres of rubbish and landfill. After crossing the Fiherenana River and passing a quite demanding police barrier, it’s rocky, sandy and corrugated. Although the route runs very close to the seafront, don’t expect a tropical beach paradise: much of the zone immediately behind the beach is degraded scrubby bush and overgrazed goat lands. You’ll pass the occasional turning to a beach hotel, and several straggling small settlements, one or two of which will try to waylay you with rickety stalls of sea shells and dried marine specimens.
Ambondrolava
Volunteering costs US$400/month including
full-board accommodation • honko.org
Patches of mangrove along the route north of Tuléar include a sizeable forest at Ambondrolava, 10km north of Tuléar (between the road and the seashore dunes), where the estimable Belgian NGO Honko does great work in mangrove management and poverty alleviation and takes volunteers.
Ifaty, Mangily and around
Eventually the road bypasses the small fishing village of IFATY (25km from Tuléar) and reaches the coconut groves and scattered wooden bars and shops of MANGILY centre 3km further on. From here, various tracks trail through dry fields and over the dunes to the beach (about 500m) and inland into the bush. As a beach getaway the area plays second fiddle to Anakao and beach vendors can be a nuisance. The main attraction is the beach hotels themselves, some of which are very nice – and the more questionable appeal of Mangily’s watering holes – though the barrier reef here is extensive, and there’s great snorkelling and diving to be done (and the chance to learn if you’re a novice).
Baie de Ranobe coral reefs
5000ar each per person per dive at each reserve
• reefdoctor.org
The brightest note in this area is focused on the undersea world. A voluntourism reef-diving NGO, ReefDoctor, based on the north side of Ifaty village, works on community-based reef conservation the length of the Baie de Ranobe, the 26km lagoon behind the barrier reef between Ifaty and Manombo. With local participation, they have created the small marine reserves of Andabotira, Ankarajelita and Massif des Roses, which visitors can dive.
Reniala Forêt de Baobabs and around
Guided visits from 15,000ar depending on trail •
032 02 513 49 or 034 03 790 40, reniala-ecotourisme.jimdo.com
Several areas of the original wild spiny forest in the Mangily area have been fenced and commercialized as wildlife reserves for guided visits. The largest, though less than 1 square kilometre – and also generally the best reviewed – is the Reniala Forêt de Baobabs, which incorporates a labelled plant trail and bird reserve. The park is open from dawn to dusk, though you should check in with the office by the main road the evening before if you want to make a really early start.
The standout flora here are the baobabs (reniala means baobab in Malagasy), with roughly a thousand specimens of the smooth, cylindrical Adansonia rubrostipa, and the fantastical, cactus-like Didierea family of octopus trees and their relatives, with their tiny leaves and fearsome spines, for which the spiny forest is named, and which are endemic to southwest Madagascar. Lemurs include the attractive little nocturnal grey-brown mouse lemur (Microcebus griseorufus), while the endemic birds highest on every self-respecting birder’s list are the very rare Madagascar plover (Charadrius thoracicus), the very localized red-shouldered vanga (Calicalicus rufocarpalis), the sub-desert mesite (Monias benschi) and that would-be roadrunner, the long-tailed ground roller (Uratelornis chimaera) – though increasingly you’ll need to be lucky to see the last named.
Sharing an entrance off the RN9 with the Reniala Forest on the north
side of Mangily are two other parks, the Spiny
Forest Ifaty Private Reserve ( 034 36 579 72
or 033 85 549 44) and the Réserve du Parc Mosa ( 034 36 579 72
or 033 85 559 44; guided visits from 15,000ar depending
on trail and subject of interest).
THE SPINY FOREST
The strangest biome of all Madagascar’s ecosystems is the spiny forest, which covers more than 14,000 square kilometres of the country’s southwest and is unique to this corner of the planet. With its multitude of strange forms, including spine-covered tendrils, bulbous stalks and fleshy, cactus-like lobes, the xerophytic (dry-loving) flora of this tangled, alien environment is utterly distinctive – more like the studio set from an early episode of Star Trek than natural vegetation. The forest occurs naturally in this arid landscape, sheltered from the drenching cyclones of eastern Madagascar by the central mountains.
The key plant types in the spiny forest are a brilliant variety of succulents – the euphorbias – as well as the stumpy, triffid-like pachypodiums, the baobabs and dozens of species of a family endemic to Madagascar, the spine-possessed Didiereaceae, which are almost encased in ruthless, hard spines and which can grow to 15m in height.
But the spiny forest isn’t all about the plants: it’s also about the animals that, bizarrely, flourish among them. While the animal life is not as prolific or diverse as the rainforest, this is still a rich and rewarding ecosystem for any amateur naturalist. Iguanas and day geckos, chameleons and tortoises, flightless birds, bats, spiny tenrecs (a family of primitive, shrew-like mammals), all make their home in this dessicated environment, extracting moisture from plants refined by evolution to retain it.
Lemurs are widespread, too, and none seemingly more unsuited to a home amid the thorns than the waif-like Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi). And yet this cuddly toy of a primate, with its soft inquisitive fingers, seems quite at home clinging vertically to the spine-covered green spears of a giant Allaudia ascendens. What still perplexes primatologists is that the sifakas are able to hurl themselves from spiny trunk to spiny trunk, grasping and landing between the closely set clumps of vicious needles, and are never seen to stab a toe or get a painful surprise in the backside. If you want to witness this compelling phenomenon yourself, the best place to do so is in the Anjapolo part of the Réserve Privée Berenty and at Mangatsiaka in Parc National d’Andohahela.
Village des Tortues
1km north of Mangily on the east side of the road
• Daily 9am–5pm • 6000ar • 034 19 841
55 • bit.ly/MadaTortoises
Different from the other reserves is the Village des Tortues, a highly recommended 7-hectare private sanctuary and conservation project for the big radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) and diminutive spider tortoise (Pixys arachnoides). Visits among the baobabs, euphorbias and strangely shaped Didierea are accompanied by guides from the sanctuary, and as well as free-roaming adults you can see hatchlings in the nursery areas.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: IFATY, MANGALY AND AROUND
By road Although taxis brousses ply the sandy coastal road between Tuléar and Ifaty/Mangily (allow at least 2hr; 4000ar), they aren’t that frequent and you may not be delivered to your exact destination, especially if you’re heading for a beach hotel. Many travellers have their own transport.
ACTIVITIES
Diving Mangily Scuba in Mangily village ( 034 64 781
76, ifatyscuba.com) is the area’s most-clued up
dive centre, US-owned, with new equipment. Half-day diving intro
costs €40 and 3–5-day open-water PADI course
€355.
ACCOMMODATION
Les Dunes d’Ifaty Mangily beach 034 07 109
16, lesdunesdifaty.com. With a good physical
infrastructure (stone bungalows with nets, ceiling fans,
excellent bathrooms), pleasant Mauritian management and tasty
food with vegetarian options, this is one of Mangily’s
best hotels. Great pool. Half board €120
Le Lagon Mangily beach 034 98 100
04, lelagon-hotel.com. Not to be confused
with the Princesse du Lagon, these
simple en-suite rooms in a block, and nicer A-frame en-suite
wooden bungalows (40,000ar), are well maintained, with nets and
fans. The restaurant has a good reputation (seafood mains from
10,000ar). 30,000ar
Le Paradisier Ifaty south, 500m from the road
032 07 660 09, paradisier.net. Right on the beach, this
low-key, off-grid-style resort hotel has large, two-storey
bungalows with solar electricity (no sockets in rooms), nets and
fans (no a/c) and plenty of activities. Good pool. €88
Solidaire 200m east of Mangily centre 034
02 666 60, hotelsolidaire.org. Top-value in the
area, run for the benefit of a community development NGO ( eaudecoco.org), the
Solidaire is deliberately not on
the beach, to emphasize its community credentials. Solar-powered
bungalows with a nice pool and a good resto (breakfast €5, dishes €6).
€32
NIGHTLIFE
Discotheque M. Sebastien Mangily centre, east side of the road. This large, red wooden club, with a big dancefloor and tables on the deck by the road (ideal for people-watching), is Mangily’s main nightspot. It rarely gets going until midnight, but there are plenty of nearby bars to check out while you wait. 5000ar. Daily in season 6pm–4am.
Manombo to Ambatomilo
Just 2km north of Mangily centre, the coastal road meets the shoreline and the good beaches of the Ifaty/Mangily coastline give way to scattered mangroves, with only occasional beach stretches and fewer places to stay. On the north side of the usually dry Manombo River, Manombo (26km from Mangily) is a small, dusty town. Beyond a stretch of mangrove-fringed shore, you hit beach again and start to pass small Vezo fishing communities, the first of which is Tsifota. In parts, the road runs almost along the beach itself, and there are several perfect picnic or swimming spots if you have your own transport. On the inside of the wide, turquoise Ambatomilo lagoon, sheltered by the reef, beautiful bays fringe the coast northwards, through the Vezo villages of Tsiandamba, Salary and Ambatomilo itself, about 95km from Mangily.
Inland, between the coast and the RN9, lies the Forêt des Mikea, a large sandy area of dry and spiny forest with exceptional biodiversity and endemism – but completely unprotected. If you have your own 4x4 it’s ripe for natural history exploration, but next to impossible to visit otherwise.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MANOMBO TO AMBATOMILO
By road Taxis brousse transport north of Mangily is sporadic: grab anything that comes along as it may be the only vehicle for hours. Travel can be slow-going, too, with vehicles frequently getting stuck in the sand. You need to make an early start, and if you want to be sure of arriving somewhere on this coast on the same day, rent a 4x4 and driver.
ACCOMMODATION
Ankasy Lodge & Spa Ankasy beach, 8km north of Tsifota, 7km
south of Tsiandamba 032 05 400 32, ankasy.com. One of the most beautifully
located hotels on the west coast, Ankasy has just four enormous beachfront bungalows
with 24/7 solar energy and sockets in the rooms, hot water on
demand and no TV (or internet). Lots of watersports available.
Closed Jan. Full board €220
Salary Bay Salary beach, 3km north of Salary
village 032 49 120 16, salarybay.com. Hospitably managed beachfront
bungalows on one of the best stretches of coast in Madagascar,
on a headland with a speck of an island 300m offshore. Quad
biking, whale-watching in season, snorkelling and diving are
available, though bear in mind that the reef is 3km from the
beach. Half board €140
Shangri-La Lodge 3km north of Ambatomilo 032 40
333 61, ambatomilo.com. Beautifully located
six-room beach lodge set on a low cliff, with a restaurant
(breakfast €5, menus €15), and offering trips out
to a rocky islet, 2km offshore. €36
Andavadoaka
The coastline around the developing small resort and fishing town of ANDAVADOAKA, 165km north of Tuléar, is much more varied and indented than the Salary coast, with rocky north–south hills jutting out into the sea, creating deeply sculpted coves. The beautiful, transparent waters of the lagoon here contain offshore islets, and the Velondriake marine reserve where the snorkelling and diving are superb. One of southern Madagascar’s most successful overseas-funded NGOs, Blue Ventures, is located in Andavadoaka and has had a significant impact in the area, working with the Vezo community and foreign volunteers to develop sustainable use of local marine resources and conserve the fragile coral reef ecosystem.
Despite its remoteness, Andavadoaka is a bustling village with a new clinic (thanks to the Laguna Blu), and draws in migrants from the rural areas looking for work opportunities. A statue of the Virgin Mary looks over the village from the rocky headland at the south end of the bay.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ANDAVADOAKA
Although Andavadoaka has an airstrip, it no longer has an Air Madagascar service. You may find boat transport from further south, using the prevailing southerly winds.
By taxi brousse Sporadic taxis brousse venturing from Tuléar along the coast will almost certainly take more than a day (the faster method is to Morombe on the inland RN9 road on the first day and then back south to Andavadoaka on day 2). If you’re coming from the north, there are usually several taxis brousse most days from Morombe to Andavadoaka (allow 3hr).
By 4x4 A 4x4 should normally be able to do the trip from Tuléar in about 6hr.
ACCOMMODATION
Atoll Hao 5km off Andavadoaka facebook.com/HaoHotel. New luxury
villa-hotel complex on the east shore of this sliver of an
island, formerly deserted. Half board €250
Coco Beach Seafront, south 032 07 640
34 or 034 14 001 58.
Very basic accommodation consisting of ancient en-suite wooden
bungalows on the beach (not recommended) and newer hard-built
en-suite bungalows further back, with cold water and occasional
electricity. You’re likely to meet Blue Ventures
volunteers here, though the place looks to be on its last legs.
30,000ar
Laguna Blu Ampasilava beach, 3km south of
Andavadoaka village 034 05 814 10, resortmadagascar.com. Italian-owned and
largely Italian-patronized luxury resort, with solar electricity
and open-air bathrooms. There’s spiny forest, and baobabs
right behind, and a magnificent, virtually private beach and
lagoon in front. Half board €170
Manga Lodge Baie d’Anternanangy 032 05
330 09, mangalodge.com. Beautifully located,
owner-managed, rustic beach lodge and restaurant 4km south of
Andavadoaka on the next bay (breakfast 5000ar, lunch and dinner
menus 30,000ar). Good value. 90,000ar
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Disco Bar Madoso Main street. This is one of two main drinking spots in the village, the other being a would-be supermarket, the Epibar bar-grocery. Open daily, with weekends being much busier.
Morombe
You’re very likely to stop the night at the small town of MOROMBE, effectively the Vezo capital, if you’re en route by taxi brousse between Morondava and Tuléar. With the Mozambique Channel on one side and mangroves and tidal flats on the other, it’s almost an island – a couple of sandy, parallel streets back from a beach strewn with boats and fishing nets, and flecked with fish scales. Morombe is the Majunga or Morondava of fifty years ago – remote, isolated and, since the cancellation of Air Madagascar flights, a little forgotten.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MOROMBE
By taxi brousse Taxis brousses arrive in the centre of town.
Destinations Andavadoaka (at least 1 daily; 2–4hr); Morondava (at least 1 daily; 14–20hr); Tuléar (at least 1 daily; 10–12hr).
By 4x4 In a good vehicle, you should be able to reach Tuléar in about 8hr and Morondava in 10hr, though the latter can take much longer in the rainy season.
By boat Passages on sea-going boutres can sometimes be picked up, north along the coast to Morondava (allow 24hr) or south to Tuléar (allow 36hr against the prevailing wind), with stops en route. You may also be able to get a motor pirogue from Belo-sur-Mer.
Services Morombe’s BOA has an ATM.
ACCOMMODATION
Chez Katia Morombe seafront 032 74 273
40 or 033 01 769 30,
rogeka_momo@yahoo.fr. About the
best place in Morombe, Katia’s
has six en-suite rooms of various styles and a pleasant
restaurant and dining terrace overlooking the beach (menus
25,000ar) 60,000ar
Le Crabe Morombe town centre 032 48 411
45, baynbb@yahoo.fr.
Very simple en-suite bungalow-shacks, with cold water and
limited electricity (and a larger house for €20). €10
La Pirogue d’Or Morombe seafront 032 55 474
60, piroguedormorombe.com. Also known as the
Lakana Volamena (“Golden
Canoe”) this is the oldest hotel in town, with simple
en-suite stone or wooden bungalows, with mosquito nets, and a
restaurant (mains from 10,000ar). €22
Fort Dauphin and around
Hilly and multifaceted, FORT DAUPHIN (pronounced colloquially in the Antanosy dialect as “Faradofay” or even “Farady”, but officially known as Taolagnaro) is a complete surprise. Well off the usual tourist routes, with no easy road connections to the rest of the island, this is a breezy, subtropical port where forest-cloaked mountains rise steeply above brackish lakes, and the old town centre shelters behind an indented peninsula, sprayed by the surf of the southern Indian Ocean and fringed by glorious beaches.
Fort Dauphin was the first French toehold in Madagascar, named after the future King Louis XIV in 1642 by settlers from the Compagnie des Indes Orientales. Today, with its mix of squalid poverty and manicured streets (in parts you could be in a French provincial town), Fort Dauphin reflects its colonial past, a wealthy new cosmopolitanism, and the austerity of the hard-pressed deep south of Madagascar, with its steady migration of rural migrants to the towns. Many here are looking for job opportunities with Rio Tinto’s huge titanium mine on the outskirts of town, run by a local corporation called QMM, or at the new port of Ehoala.
For visitors, there’s plenty to do and some excellent places to stay. There’s a fine, equable climate too, with lots of sunshine. The rains are heavier from November to March and there are scattered showers through the rest of the year.
Fort Dauphin has two main centres – the milling shanty town bisected by the road from the airport, and the sleepier administrative quarter near the old port.
Fort Flacourt
Museum Tues–Sat 9am–noon &
2pm–5pm, Sun 2–5pm • 10,000ar, including guide •
034 17 346 92, facebook.com/museefortflacourt
Fort Flacourt occupies a restricted military zone, out on the peninsula near the old port. It’s a pleasure to come out here as much for the clifftop panorama of “Shipwreck Bay” as for the limited interest of the old buildings and cannons. Also here is the Musée de l’Anosy, reopened in 2014 after a facelift, which houses more than a hundred cultural artefacts of the Anosy, a local ethnic group, including musical instruments, tools and clothes, as well as photos of traditional hairstyles and tattoos, and a documentary record of the area’s colonial history.
Beaches
The town beaches are the gorgeously sheltered Libanona Plage on the west side of the peninsula, which gets busy at weekends, and the surfers’ Plage Monseigneur on the east side, which is much more exposed. Plage Ankoba, west of Libanona, also has good surf but can be dangerous. There are several other beaches around the peninsula, and the Talinjoo hotel has a virtually private cove of its own.
Réserve de Nahampoana
Daily dawn to dusk • 22,000ar, including guide; buy
tickets at Air Fort Services the day before if you want to make an early start
• The road from Fort Dauphin is mostly rough dirt track but is
feasible in dry weather in a town taxi (allow 30min) • nahampoana.com
Opened in 1997, the Réserve de Nahampoana – 7km from Fort Dauphin – has expanded on the botanical gardens originally created around a monastery in 1896 to become a worthy alternative to Berenty for close encounters with lemurs. With its paths and open glades, amid impressive stands of bamboo and triangle palm or lafa (Dipsys decaryi; grown worldwide but found in the wild only in this region), this is an easy, landscaped area of humid forest to explore, less than one square kilometre. You’ll quickly encounter the three groups of introduced ring-tailed lemurs, or maki, and some thirty graceful simpona or Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), which will happily come very close to photographers.
Pic St Louis
Formerly a popular, strenuous but straightforward footpath climb, with the reward of stunning 360-degree views from its 529-metre summit, the hike up Pic St Louis has been more or less ruled out for the present on safety grounds (except for large escorted groups) on account of recent violent attacks and muggings. Air Fort Services offer escorted hikes, in theory: seek local advice.
The Baie de Lokaro
Lokara is only accessible by 4x4; aim first for the village of Evatra, from where a rough, 2.5km 4x4-track crosses the peninsula to Lokara
Lokaro, some 25km northeast of Fort Dauphin, behind the four-peaked peninsula you can see on the horizon, is the next bay on this deeply scalloped coast – a perfect 1.5km triple crescent of golden sands backed by dense coastal forest and sheltered from the ocean by rocky outcrops. The craggy islet of Nosy Lokaro is joined to the far end of the beach at low tide. The Baie de Lokaro is the top out-of-town getaway for wealthier locals and expats, though there is nothing in the way of infrastructure – you need to bring all provisions and water. Several hotels in town, including the Lavasoa and the Talinjoo, have simple beach annexes at Lokaro, though these tend to function at weekends, or when booked, rather then being open all the time.
Parc National d’Andohahela
Park Category B, 10,000ar • Tsimelahy trail 7000ar guide fees • Taxis brousse can drop you at Ankasofotsy on the RN13 (42km west of Fort Dauphin), from where it’s 8km (north) by 4x4 to the start of the Tsimelahy trail
Fort Dauphin’s local “serious” park, Parc National d’Andohahela is a richly varied and mountainous patchwork of three separate districts, or parcelles, in the remote interior. From east to west these are: parcelle I, taking in 630 square kilometres of humid mountain rainforests along the Anosyennes range; parcelle III, a small transitional zone of just 5 square kilometres just to the north of the highway; and finally the 124-square-kilometre arid, spiny forest of parcelle II to the west, in the mountains’ rain shadow. After bandit attacks in the early 2000s, the park was subject to foreign government advisories for a number of years and closed in 2012. Security has improved and the park is open once again, but it is still little visited, and usually only as a day-trip with a Fort Dauphin tour operator as on-the-spot facilities are extremely limited. It is possible to camp if you bring all your supplies.
Wildlife at Andohahela can be a little thin on the ground, though lizards are plentiful enough, and there’s a good chance of seeing ring-tails (Lemur catta) and Verreaux’s sifaka. Hikes include the Tsimelahy trail (roughly 2hr), which passes through the transitional zone between humid and dry forest. You can also hike west of Tsimelahy to the village of Mangatsiaka (8km), which steadily moves out of transition vegetation and into the spiny forest typical of southwest Madagascar.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: FORT DAUPHIN AND AROUND
By plane The airport is 5km west of the old town centre, and town taxis
charge 10,000ar to anywhere in the centre. Air Madagascar’s
office is located up the hill off av Maréchal Foch
(Mon–Fri 8–11.45am & 2–5.45pm, Sat
8–10am; 034 11 222 08 or 020 92 211
27).
Destinations Antananarivo (daily, 2 weekly via Tuléar; 1hr 15min–2hr 30min); Tuléar (2 weekly; 45min).
By road The gare routière is 3km west of the old town centre, along av Maréchal Foch (the RN13). Going by taxi brousse from Fort Dauphin to Antananarivo (via the rough RN13 to Ihosy where it joins the tarmac RN7), costs 80,000ar and takes anything from 60hr to four days or more, dependent largely on weather, and sometimes on breakdowns or banditry on the RN13. Taking available transport along the RN12A/RN12 to Manakara (for the train to Fianarantsoa) is safe enough but is very weather-dependent, with eleven river crossings by platform ferry along the southern half of the route; allow 2–3 days in the dry season, and up to a week in the rains. Going by 4x4 is a much more certain option, though both the RN13 and RN12 can still be washed out.
By sea Although the port is used by large commercial ships, on which you might get a berth, and visited by the occasional cruise ship, the waters around Fort Dauphin are too rough for safe inshore passenger ferries.
GETTING AROUND
By taxi Town taxis cost from 2000ar depending on distance, and more at night. There are no pousse-pousses or Bajaj in Fort Dauphin.
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist office ORTFD, place de France (usually Mon–Fri 8am–noon
& 2–5pm, closed Sat & Sun; 032 88 568
55 or 020 92 904 12, bit.ly/ORTF-D). Cruise
ships usually arrive from Dec to April and the tourist office is
quite set up for day visitors.
Tour operator Air Fort Services, av Maréchal Foch (Mon–Fri
8am–noon & 2–5.30pm, Sat 8am–noon;
034 46 122 80, airfortservices.com) books air tickets and hotel rooms
and organizes excursions around Fort Dauphin and beyond.
ACCOMMODATION
Chez Anita Rue Général Brulard 033
03 049 52 or 033 12 679 83,
anitahotel.restaurant@gmail.com.
With a mix of rooms in a block with shared showers and very small
A-frame en-suite bungalows (40,000ar), this basic but clean,
pension-style set-up is about the cheapest in town. It also has a
pleasant little restaurant. 25,000ar
La Croix du Sud Bd Numéro 1 020 92 211
56, madagascar-resorts.com. Smart, en-suite
rooms with nets and tiled floors surrounding a pleasant garden
courtyard. Breakfast is included, but there’s no restaurant
(guests use the next-door Dauphin). Wi-fi.
Part of the de Heaulme colonial business empire. €92
Dauphin Bd Numéro 1 033 23 210
07, madagascar-resorts.com. Used, like the
neighbouring and co-owned Croix du Sud, as
a base for trips to Réserve Privée Berenty, the
Dauphin is the older of the two, with
comfortable, modern, en-suite rooms. Opposite, a third sister hotel,
Le Galion, is due to reopen in 2015
after a major rebuild. Half board €86
Kaleta Av Gallieni 020 92 212 87,
on.fb.me/1y8Ebm4. Also known as the Colbert, after its sister establishment in
Tana, this is Fort Dauphin’s best-known hotel, with high
ceilings and very large, well-proportioned rooms with a/c, satellite
TV and minibar. Popular bar and restaurant (grilled lobster
25,000ar). Wi-fi. 160,000ar
Lavasoa Overlooking Libanoa beach 033 12 517
03, lavasoa.com. Not quite as good as its
neighbour, the Talinjoo, but very pretty
and beautifully located. Rooms have great views from their verandas,
minibars and safes and there’s a restaurant (breakfast
€6, menus €12). They also
offer surfing and kitesurfing. €49
La Marina Up the hill past Air Madagascar 032
05 231 47, www.hotel-lamarina.com. Tucked away up a
long entrance lane, with a pleasant, quiet atmosphere, the Marina is an older-style hotel. Rooms have
nets and minibars, and the staff are very helpful. Wi-fi. 65,000ar
Talinjoo Overlooking Libanoa beach 034 05 212
35, talinjoo.com. A beautiful hotel, designed by
its architect owner, using locally sourced materials, including the
super-comfy bed linen. Glorious views from all the rooms, and lots
of special touches, including showers with views and an infinity
pool. B&B €51
Tournesol Av de Maréchal Foch 032 12 513
16 or 020 92 216 71. These
breezy bungalows with TV, fans, hot water and great mountain views
are good value – plus there are some larger a/c studios
(60,000ar). The restaurant is open daily (breakfast 6000ar). 45,000ar
Village Petit Bonheur On the road to Libanona beach, overlooking
Monseigneur beach 034 10 295 74. In a
magnificent ocean-view location, this friendly hotel has comfortable
little A-frame bungalows in the garden and larger rooms in the main
block, some of which have a/c (60,000ar). There are tables and
chairs in the garden, or you can eat in the main restaurant (dishes
from 5000ar). 40,000ar
EATING
Chez Georges Behind Libanona beach 032 48 097
38, georgesliban@yahoo.fr.
Tasty seafood dishes from the big menu or specials from the
blackboard (for example fish or crayfish brochettes 14,000ar), plus reliably cold THBs, wine
and cocktails. Pretty good value overall. Daily 8am–8pm (last order).
Restaurant Le Bon Goût Av du Maréchal Foch 033 92 008
14 or 032 65 662 43.
Formerly La Recrea, this has a
street-front dining room and a locals’ drinking garden at the
back, with a pen of tortoises. Lots of appetizing choices include
pizzas (most 12,000ar), zebu steak with ginger sauce (13,000ar) and
poisson à la indonesienne
(13,000ar). Tues–Sun lunch and
dinner.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
Florida Av du Maréchal Foch, near the now
defunct Gina Hotel 034 84 200 11, facebook.com/FloridaByAnita. Beer snacks and
dancing are the order of the day, or at least the weekend, with the
company here mostly being a young, local crowd. It rarely warms up
before 11pm. 2000ar. Daily 7pm–4am
(variable).
Freedom Bar Rue Circulaire. Extremely rustic, family-run cabin bar at the edge of the beach, and the only place in Fort Dauphin to go for a proper sundowner, looking west across the Baie de Galions to the new port and the setting sun. Very popular with locals, it always has cold beers and excellent snacks and street food, include petisse (fishcakes) and zebu brochettes (change from 5000ar). Daily 10am–10pm.
Surfs Up Av du Maréchal Foch. Facing off with Florida, like two cowboys in a western, and run (like Florida) by a gasy-vazaha partnership, this bar is all about Rasta colours and a cool clientele. Free entry. Daily 7pm–4am (variable).
Réserve Privée Berenty
€20 fee for independent visitors • bit.ly/Berenty
The bumpy 90km road to the Réserve Privée Berenty passes though a fascinating range of natural habitats, from the moist forest of Fort Dauphin into the spiny forest environment of the lower Mandrare River, with stands of impressive Adansonia zabaobabs along the way. Further upstream beyond a sea of sisal plantations, lies the small town of Ifotaka en route to the heart of Antandroy country.
Renowned as the site of primatologist Dr Alison Jolly’s ground-breaking research on the female-dominated social life of lemurs, the Réserve Privée Berenty covers just 2.5 square kilometres of gallery forest, including some massive Indian tamarinds (Tamarindus indica), along the west bank of the Mandrare River. Amid vast plantations of spiky, cactus-like sisal plants, this iconic reserve, with its broad, well-maintained footpaths, is still considered a must-go by many visitors to Madagascar for its photo opportunities and the sight of “dancing” sifakas. Although the native ring-tails and Verreaux’s sifakas are indeed very habituated and happy to frolic among every new busload of visitors, Berenty is far from being any longer the only place to see these species (Nahampoana is increasingly good), and nor is it representative of natural lemur society in the wild. Reservations aside, it’s still a wonderful place, and remains one of the world’s leading primate research centres.
Other lemurs at Berenty include the little white-footed sportive lemur (Lepilemur leucopus) a nocturnal species that you’ll often see in its low tree holes by day, and a hybrid population of introduced red-fronted brown and red-collared brown lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons and E. collaris). The reserve also has a spectacular roosting site of the giant fruit-eating bat, the Madagascar flying fox (Pteropus rufus). Roughly 1000 of these bats, with wingspans of 1m, take off at dusk each evening on their nightly fruit-foraging missions.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: RÉSERVE PRIVÉE BERENTY
Tours All visits to Berenty are organized through SHTM (the
Société Hotelière et Touristique de Madagascar:
madagascar-resorts.com), who own the reserve and the
Dauphin and its sister hotels in Fort
Dauphin. You can travel independently, but will need to book a visit
in advance at the Dauphin. The drive takes
3–4hr, or you can also charter a plane from Fort Dauphin. The
cost of tours depends on the number of nights and the number in the
group: a three-day, two-night trip from Fort Dauphin, including 4x4
transfers, reserve entry fees, day and night reserve visits and a
private guide throughout works out to €127 per person for two
people, not including accommodation and meals.
ACCOMMODATION
Berenty Lodge Réserve Privée Berenty
032 05 416 98, madagascar-resorts.com. This is the only
place to stay at Berenty, with adequately comfortable en-suite
wooden bungalows (ask for one that has been recently renovated) with
nets, evening electricity and a/c, plus a restaurant bien sûr – though their monopoly
does nothing to keep standards high. On the plus side, you get the
bonus of the very good Musée de l’Androy cultural
museum next door. Full board €114
Mandrare River Camp 3km downstream from Ifotaka 032 05
619 00, manafiafy.com. Tucked into a stand of forest
on the west bank of the Mandrare is this magical African
safari-style tented camp, with excellent cuisine and outstanding
opportunities for communing with the spiny forest (day and night
walks) and getting to know Antandroy culture. Rooms have nets, hot
water, plumbed-in bathrooms and 24hr solar lighting. Nightly rate
includes all drinks, activities and road transport from Fort
Dauphin. Closed Jan–March. Minimum stay three nights. Full
board $1400
Sainte Luce Reserve
Open May–Feb • 034 20 258 62 or
04 74 849 357, sainte-luce-reserve.org
• Most visits are coordinated through the reserve management and the
Manafiafy Beach and Rainforest Lodge
Some 30km northeast of Fort Dauphin as the crow flies lies 4.3 square
kilometres of precious littoral forest – humid
coastal forest, swamp and grassland that thrives directly behind the seashore.
It doesn’t sound much, but it’s a highly important area for some
of southeastern Madagascar’s rarest endemic flora and fauna and contains
within it the half-square-kilometre Sainte Luce
Reserve, named after the huge bay to the north, whose name dates
back to a group of seventeenth-century French settlers. As well as the forested
area itself, meandering creeks ribbon their way from
north to south, roughly parallel to the coast, as far south as the Baie de
Lokaro, creating what is in effect a long, slug-shaped, inshore island of rare
habitat. Managed on a shoestring by a local NGO coordinated by an Australian
resident, the conservation work here benefits the district’s wildlife as
well as the local fishers and farmers who live in the three villages of
Ambandrika, Ampanasatomboky and Manafiafy, together known as Sainte Luce. If you’d like to make some
positive contacts with local people, then a visit to Stitch Sainte Luce ( stitchsainteluce.yokaboo.com), an embroidery workshop set up by the
NGO Azafady, is highly recommended.
Flora and fauna
The flora in and around the forest is dominated by buttress-rooted pandanus palms, and includes mangroves and the very rare Sainte Luce palm (Dypsis saintelucei) of which only around 100 mature individuals survive. These palms are critical to the survival of the jewel-like day gecko Phelsuma antanosy, which normally glues its two eggs to them. On the boggy grasslands on the shores of glassy Lac Ambanjika, and alongside the creeks (target of delightful boat trips from the Manafiafy Beach & Rainforest Lodge) live a variety of fascinating, acid-tolerant carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants (Nepenthes).
The S9 (“Ess-neuf”) forest, visited for walks by the lodge, is cut by easy-access, flat paths, and home to the large, diurnal red-collared brown lemur and nocturnal southern woolly (Avahi meridionalis) and rufous mouse lemurs (Microcebus rufus), among others. On a night walk, you’re also likely to see some very large sleeping warty chameleons (Furcifer verrucosus) and cute, roosting pygmy kingfishers (Corythornis madagascarensis), perched at the end of branches to protect themselves from snakes.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SAINTE LUCE
By road You could travel here independently by road (taxis brousse would drop you at Mahatalaky on the RN12A, from which it’s a 13km walk, including some stream crossings), or even by pirogue or boat along the coast and creeks, but both options require time and flexibility. In practice, nearly all visitors are either pre-booked to volunteer with the reserve or drive up by 4x4 from Fort Dauphin airport, included in a stay at Manafiafy Beach and Rainforest Lodge.
ACCOMMODATION
Manafiafy Beach and Rainforest
Lodge Manafiafy beach 032 05 619 00
or 032 05 619 99, manafiafy.com. For well-heeled and adventurous
nature lovers, there are few places in Madagascar as close to
perfection as this. Five spacious and artfully rustic
wood-and-thatch chalets with broad decks sit above the pristine
beach, facing onto a remarkably beautiful bay of smooth grey rocks
and crashing surf. Behind, there’s the littoral forest and
its denizens, which the camp’s guides are consummate experts
at exploring and explaining. Rooms have safes, nets and solar power.
Like Mandrare River Camp, the nightly rate includes all drinks, day and
night walks, boat trips, and the exhausting 2–3hr transfer
from Fort Dauphin. There’s also whale-watching (from their
spotting tower next to the lodge) June–Oct. Minimum 2 nights.
Full board $1080
Sainte Luce Reserve Camping Manafiafy sainte-luce-reserve.org dadamanga.com. The reserve has plans to
construct its own beach lodgings and allow DIY camping in the
future. Meanwhile, you can volunteer, working on research projects,
tree-planting and the like, and the people here will put you up and
feed you. Full board per person: €60