Plan Your Trip with my Madagascar Travel Blog

1. Plan Your Trip with my Madagascar Travel Blog Madagascarunknown is an insightful Madagascar travel blog and website that offers reliable travel tips, advice on things to do in Madagascar and how to visit this wonderful island without having to spend a fortune. At over 587,000km2 it is not surprising there is a huge amount of things to do in Madagascar but how do you begin to narrow down what you want to see? For the sake of this article I am going to make a few assumptions. Firstly you want to visit the unique wildlife in Madagascar, secondly you want to see a few of the national parks and thirdly you want to do this on a budget! Top of the list of amazing things to do in Madagascar is to visit the lemur populations on various parts of the island. This can be done by going to the national parks and reserves which dot the countryside. Some of these are within a few hours drive of the capital Antananarivo such as Andasibe where the wonderful Indri lemur can be seen and heard. You will definitely hear them before you see them with their high-pitched wails carrying for kilometers and if you are lucky enough to be close to a family when they start wailing it is a real treat. There are families of the most colourful lemurs, the Diademed Sifaka, in this area also and they come down to the lower branches of the trees after feeding so it may be possible to encounter them too. Others are on or near the main transport routes including Isalo, Ranomafana, Andringitra and Ankarafantsika. The first three mentioned above are all in the southern half of the country and can be visited by taking buses from the capital. It is a day on the bus to Fianarantsao, the main town near Ranomafana and Andringitra and a few hours on to either park. Isalo is about 7 hours on from Fianarantsao but and buses go that way from the main taxi brousse station. Ranomafana is a particularly fascinating place to go with lemurs so specialized they can consume enough cyanide in their diet each day to kill a similar sized animal many times over. The rainforest here drips with life and usually rain so remember that raincoat. The Golden Bamboo lemur, Red Fronted Brown lemur and the Red Bellied lemur are among the species which can be seen here. It is advisable to wear long trousers for a visit to Ranomafana due to the abundance of leeches which can appear on you unnoticed until you see one happily filling up. Getting them off can be tricky but it is a pain free experience due to the anesthetic they inject while biting. Andringitra is great for hiking but because of its altitude can get quite cold at night so warm clothes are essential. Further south Isalo is like a different country being hot and arid with parts parched during the dry season. Inside the park there are oases and a forest created by the steams which run through it. Here there are friendly and cheeky families of Ring Tailed lemurs as well as Verreaux’s Sifakas or dancing lemurs, however it is unlikely you will be able to see the distinctive dance like movement of these lemurs on the ground as they tend to stay in the trees more. To be guaranteed to see the dancing lemurs on the ground you need to go to Berenty

2. reserve in the south east near the city of Fort Dauphin. Of all the amazing things to do in Madagascarseeing the Verreaux’s Sifaka dance across the groud between trees is up there. Standing on hind legs and propelling themselves sideways while their arms wave in the air is a joy to watch. Getting to Berenty however is another matter. There are flights from the cities of Fort Dauphin or Antananarivo but they are very expensive. The other and option is taking the camion brousse from Tulear to Fort Dauphin and getting off in the town of Amboasary. The reserve is only about 12km from there where it is possible to organize a lift up to the reserve. It is best to ring ahead to let them know you are coming as the staff are sticklers for procedure. The camion brousse down south is a real adventure. I was on it for 3 days and while not always comfortable it was what you would really call adventure travel. Hiking and seeing lemurs goes hand in hand but there are parks where hiking is the primary activity. Makay Massif in the south of the country is a huge national park which can be accessed from the same village as you access Isalo. This village, Ranohira, has a park office which caters for both parks though as of 2019 there are only a handful of guides who go to Makay. This is a place for serious off the beaten path travel and takes at least one day drive in a good 4x4 to get there from Ranohira. See my post on the Makay Canyons for more information on this. All of the sites above, apart from Makay, can be accessed by public transport (short transfer required in the case of Berenty) and this will really help keep the costs down. Renting a 4x4 or flying are both expensive and a big part of the adventure is getting around anyway. This is a rundown of some of the highlights and how to get there relatively cheaply. For more information on planning a trip, posts and stories have a look at the rest of my Madagascar travel blog or get in touch.