Madagascar – The World As I See It

Tsingy de Bemaraha

Madagascar has a wide array of ecosystems as a result of ocean currents, winds and the mountain range that splits the country from north to south. Rainfall is a the determining factor in forming these ecosystems with heavy rains in the north and east and relatively little rain west and south. The various national parks that we have visited all had very different climates themselves. Isalo is a prime example of Tapia woodlands and palm savannah, partly man-made due to heavy slash-and-burn clearing for farming (locally called tavy). This feels like a waste of natural resources to the Western traveller but is central to the Malagasy culture and way of living. With large parts of Europe cleared ages ago for agriculture and housing, it is hard to criticize what is happening here. Nevertheless, the ecosystems provide for a large amount of income from tourists and as such there should be an economic rationale to preserve them.

Ranomafana is a good example of montane rainforest at altitudes between 800-1300 m which makes it cooler than lowland rainforest, with lower canopy and denser undergrowth that holds many ferns, moss and lichen. This was particularly visible in the primary forest. Kirindy in turn is mainly dry deciduous forest, which must have covered large parts of Western Madagascar many years ago. It is less diverse in plant growth than the forests in the east but has a higher level of endemism. In the dry season, canopy leaves are shed and wildlife moves to the ground. Snakes, tortoises and other amphibians bury themselves in the humus on the floor with larger wildlife preying on them. When rain returns, the forests will return to a sea of green. We would have liked to do Andringitra national park in the south-west as it one of the few examples of cloudforest (rainforest above 1300 m), called this way because it is sometimes cloaked in mist. However this park was closed due to hostilities of local tribes towards tourists and it is unclear how long this will persist.

There is one particular ecosystem in Madagascar that is a must-visit for travellers, the limestone karst formations that are locally known as tsingy. They are found within the dry deciduous forests and hold a striking variety of plants and wildlife. The limestone formations are in essence ancient coral reefs that have been pushed upward due to geological activity. Once above water, they have been eroded by the heavy monsoon, creating a vast plateau of knife-edge pinnacles. We were told the Malagasy word tsingy means ‘to walk on one’s toes’ which is the best way to traverse the plateau. Another translation is ‘where one cannot walk barefoot’.

We visited the area of the most famous tsingy, the UNESCO heritage site Tsingy de Bemaraha. It can only be reached by road from Morondava and takes eight hours over unpaved tracks for which a good 4×4 is necessary. The track is sandy, rocky and adventurous and twice the car had to be loaded on a makeshift ferry (two large canoes with a platform) to cross a river. The trip itself is already very rewarding for those who like to go off the beaten track. The track will also take you early past the Allee des baobabs seventeen kilometres from Morondava, even before you reach Kirindy. As this is best viewed at sunset, most travellers stop here on the way back.
Roughly halfway the drive is a city called Belo sur Tsiribihina. Most drivers will stop here for lunch. There is a restaurant of remarkable quality called the Mad Zebu that is not to be missed. Intriguing how this restaurant is probably the only decent place for western travellers to get a meal but at the same time outperforms almost every other restaurant we’ve been to during our trip in much more densely populated areas (Chez Jenny in Antsirabe deserves to be be mentioned here as well).

Near the Tsingy de Bemaraha park lies the city of Bekopaka from which to plan the visit to the park. For the first day we booked a local pirogue (canoe) trip over the Manambolo river that took us past caves in the cliff walls along the river. We stopped at a number of caves to see stalactite and stalagmite formations and then the boatsman took us to a remote beach from where we made a three-hour hike to a local tsingy. This was a relatively tough climb and we had only expected this tour to be by boat. However, the tsingy plateau was beautiful and more rewarding than the popular Small Tsingy hike close to Bekopaka that we had booked for the afternoon. On the way to both tsingys we saw some lemurs and amphibians but nothing too special.

The main hike to Grand Tsingy we had saved for the second day. This is a tough hike which involves a lot of climbing, some with the aid of ropes and climbing equipment. It takes you through caves, over ladders and small wooden hang-bridges to two viewing points over the Grand Tsingy that show the limestone formations in all their glory. There are supposedly eleven different species of lemur but we did not see many which was fine because that is why we visited this park. We ad late lunch in a place called the ‘cathedral’, basically a cave system with partly open roof, allowing in natural light and plant growth to develop. There were some red-tailed mongoose begging for our food that had no fear of humans anymore and we had to shoo them away.

The tracks through the tsingy are narrow and on a busy day progression can be slow as the slowest group dictates the tempo. It will be interesting to see how this park is going to deal with the inevitable flow of more visitors in the coming years as Madagascar further develops. The trip itself is very entertaining and should be on the itinerary of every visitor to Madagascar but due to the long day drive to and from Bekopaka, it takes a decent chunk out of any holiday. It is possible to get charter flights to Bekopaka from Antananarivo but this is pricey and you’ll miss the great adventure on the road.

The next day we made the long drive back and stopped at the Allee des baobabs to see the sunset. That night we finally did our first clubbing, in a very decent place in Morondava called Insomnia. A well-deserved break after two weeks of hiking through all the natural richness that Madagascar has to offer.

Kirindy National Park

Around 160 million years ago, Madagascar was part of the large prehistoric continent Gondwana that consisted of current day Africa, South America, Antarctica and India, among many other landmasses. The eastern part of Gondwana, holding mainly Madagascar and India, first split off from the western part which included Africa. Subsequently Madagascar split off from Antarctica and then finally some 80 million years ago from the Indian subcontinent. It remained an island until today and as a result Madagascar developed into a biodiversity hotspot, with 90% of its wildlife found nowhere else on earth.

This includes the lemurs, descendants of ancient primates that once roamed Africa. Lemurs are known to have developed in Africa while it was already separated from Madagascar and the best accepted theory for their existence in Madagascar is that they accidentally crossed the Mozambique channel on rafts of vegetation. To allow for the evolutionary diversity, this must have happened a number of times over a period of millions of years.
Then around twenty million years ago, continental plates shifted and with it the ocean currents, rendering such rafting trips impossible. While in Africa lemurs started to compete with monkeys which evolved much later and had many advantages over lemurs and other primates, the lemurs of Madagascar had no such problems and developed into many different species, filling different evolutionary niches.

When the first (Asian) humans arrived in Madagascar about 2000 years ago, the country held well over a hundred different lemur species, some of which have now unfortunately gone extinct.

We had already seen various lemur species in Isalo and Ranomafana. Being ahead of schedule as a result of skipping the train ride to Manakara and boat ride over the Canal de Pagalanes, we decided to add another park to our itinerary. We agreed on Kirindy National Forest, close to the city of Morondova that was already on our list of destinations. Not only does Kirindy hold eleven different species of lemur but it is also the best place to see the fossa, Madagascar’s largest predator and family of the mongoose.

We arrived in Kirindy late afternoon after a fifty kilometre drive from Morondava, where we had spent the morning on the beach, and we immediately booked the night walk. This was a slightly disappointing experience as we were slow-going, paired with people that seemed unhappy with any type of adventure and formed too large a group in the dark. We only saw a limited number of animals and decided to start the morning hike particularly early the next day at 7am.

The experience the following morning was a complete reversal of the night before. Already at the start of our walk we encountered the fossa, a remarkable animal with a very long tail which helps it hunt the trees for lemurs. This fossa had discovered a waste dump while searching for food and we were able to get very close until our guide became nervous and pulled us away. Fearful of having to go through a rabies treatment if we dwindled any longer, we complied.
There are a lot of fun facts on the fossa and you can find more information on Wikipedia.

No really fossa, we are not after your trash pile, we just wanted…. run!!!

After leaving the fossa behind, we kept running into groups of maki (a type of lemur moving on four legs) and sifaka (using only two, making it seem like a dance), passing us by with their young at short distance as long as we remained fairly still. Others were jumping from tree to tree, remaining in view as long as we did not annoy them too much.
All of this and the occasional chameleon made Kirindy by far the best place we visited to see Madagascar’s wildlife.

Ranomafana National Park

Two-thirds along the RN7 road, at the crossroads with the RN25 towards the east coast, lies Fianarantsoa, a gateway city to the southeast. We were supposed to take the train here and follow the scenic railroad down to Manakara at the coast. However the FCE railway corporation had reduced its timetable for departure to only twice a week and our itinerary did not allow for a three-day waiting period. This was disappointing as the experience came highly recommended. Yet this a country that is difficult to travel efficiently and even more so on the fly and we had not expected to be able to follow our full itinerary. We changed our plans and this also meant dropping the boat ride along the Canal de Pangalanes, a canal that connects several lakes stretched along the east coast.
Instead we opted to immediately head for Ranomafana national park, a large area of mostly rainforest fifty kilometres from Fianarantsoa. Here we settled for the night.

Madagascar sunset is around 6.30pm and sunrise is at 6am. We had already changed our daily rhythm to get as much out of the day as possible, sleeping at 10pm and getting up 6.30am at the latest, to be able to take advantage of the early park opening hours and animal activity, many of which are nocturnal. upon entering the park the next day we booked the longest one-day trip possible, an eight-hour hike that takes visitors through bamboo forest, secondary forest and most notable primary forest where trees are taller and undergrowth much richer and more colourful. Most of the trails through the bamboo forest were relatively easy although our guide took us off the beaten track regularly to climb and claw our way to the best lemur spotting sites. We encountered red belly lemurs at first and then the black and white ruffled lemur, a much rarer find.
The trail through the secondary forest proved to be slightly more difficult to tread and once we reached the primary forest it turned into a series of long climbs, steep and slippery descents and many cobwebs. A very limited number of people apparently attempt this hike and our guide was rather short, leaving it up to us to clear the forest track of spiders and webs.

The walk through the primary forest was stunning in its beauty and it is very rewarding for those with a reasonable level of fitness. When you attempt this, make sure you bring enough water and some lunch as you’ll burn a lot of calories. This part of the park did not seem to be much richer in wildlife as the other areas although we did chance upon a ring-tailed mongoose that crossed our trail. This mongoose is active by day and relatively common in Ranomafana. Unfortunately it was gone in a split second before we could even think about getting our cameras out and I even missed it completely.

On our return to the bamboo forest we again spotted a number of lemurs which brought our total to five different species. Throughout our hike we also encountered various geckos, chameleons, frogs and one snake that our guide snatched from the undergrowth and offered us to hold by its tail. We skipped one hour of our hike to go back to the hotel, get some food and return for the night ‘walk’. This is a two-hour activity along the road outside the park where guides point out more animals, mainly frogs and chameleons that come out of hiding during the evening. The guides also crush a banana on the tree stem to lure the small nocturnal mouse lemur. It did indeed come out to lick the tree but got immediately photographed and flashed by 15 people which was probably a bit stressful for the little animal and we decided to leave it alone after that.

This Ranomafana frog just wanted to say hello.

Isalo National Park

Approximately fifteen kilometres east of the coastal city of Toliara, along the RN7 road, is a small place dedicated to the plants and trees of Madagascar, simply called the Arboretum. It has a decent restaurant attached to it and makes for a very nice stopover to have lunch. The tour of the Arboretum will take about one hour and you can order your meal before you take the tour to have it ready when you return. A guide will lead you through some of the more remarkable trees and plants that are endemic to Madagascar and point out which ones are used for medicinal purposes, for glue, for survival or for other things useful. September is at the end of Malagasy winter and no plants or trees were in bloom and they all looked rather withered. I suspect this place is probably best visited in Malagasy summer (rainy season) but it was still an interesting introduction to the country’s flora.

The so-called mother-in-law tree. Named this way because it looks nice but is in fact very dangerous…

Our next stop and destination for the day was Rahonira, the village that acts as a gateway to Isalo National Park. We booked a guide to the park in the evening to make sure we could have an early start and avoid the searing heat in the afternoon. The park is one of the most visited in Madagascar and has a number of trails that lets you hike its beautiful mountain ridges and savannah-like vegetation that is typical for this part of the country. Madagascar is more or less divided into two different types of climate with the west mainly a dry area with long desert plains. This leads up to highlands in the centre that act as a boundary between the dry west and changes into lush rainforest towards the east coast. Parc National de l’Isalo is a park dedicated to the dry weather climate with its long stretches of yellow grass, sandstone formations, canyons and oases. There are three lemur species, lots of birds and interesting trees and plants, such as Pachypodium Rosulatum or Elephant’s Foot Plant, a plant growing on rocky soil that stores water in its trunk.

Starting early next day we drove to the park and discussed the possible trails with our guide. We settled on a six-hour hike along the mountain ridge that would descend into the valley and take us past waterfalls and little streams to the so-called piscine naturelle, a beautiful natural pool. The first part of the hike was therefore filled with beautiful views of barren landscapes and some simple climbing and birdwatching.

We were able to arrange lunch in the park where guides and local residents have set up a barbecue site where they will prepare a dish of rice with either zebu (the local cow) or with chicken. This site also holds the best chance to see lemurs and we’ve spotted a dozen ringtailmakis that were passing by along one of the trails. They have grown accustomed to humans and spotting them did not equal the excitement of discovering a truly wild animal but it is great for photographing and filming.
If you look closely at the final seconds of this short film, you’ll see the last maki accidentally dropping her baby and returning for it.

After lunch we headed to the piscine naturelle which was a steep descent at times and took us past small streams, which we crossed by stepping on the boulders in the water. This area was much more overgrown with trees and plants and the pool and waterfall in the end were beautiful to behold. We were the only ones to jump into the pool, the water is freezing but the short swim to the waterfall was well worth it.

This ended our hike through the park but not our plans for the day. Close to the park is a stone formation with a hole in it that aligns perfectly with the sunset. To reach it we had to go offroad for a short distance which was fun and nothing our 4×4 wasn’t able to handle. Being pressed for time we may have turned it into a rally somewhat which annoyed hikers along the sandpaths but added greatly to the overall excitement. The Fenêtre, as the rock formation is called after the French word for window, was slightly disappointing. Not for the view which was stunning but for the vast amount of people grouped together to occupy the ten square meters where the best pictures could be made. This made for an elaborate shuffle of people with large cameras and tripods moving in front of the group to claim priority and annoyed remarks from the rest and this went on and on. I joined this little dance and got a few good shots from behind the frontline while the rest just took pictures of this strange event unfolding.
The sunset itself was obscured by a large passing cloud which seemed to be nature’s rebuke to human madness.

Madagascar from the southwest to the centre

Baobab tree on the RN7 from Toliara to Antsirabe

After one and a half year of limited travel, it was about time to get the backpack out of storage and find a new and exciting destination. This time I wasn’t planning on going alone but had made arrangements with René and Gijs, two friends from university. Rather quickly we settled on Madagascar as a destination over Japan (not our favorite season) and New Zealand (too far for 20 days).

Planning proved to be much harder than anything else so far. While I like to travel in a happy-go-lucky way, booking flights and hotels a day in advance, this seemed to be a poor strategy for Madagascar. The country is huge and has many airports but only a few of them are used for regular passenger flights. There are private charter organisations willing to provide a more customized experience but they seem tailored to the happy few in this world and quotes came in very expensive.

We decided to book a few domestic flights and do a large part of the island by car with local driver. I had done this before in Sri Lanka with René and liked the flexibility and the little unexpected stops along the way in small villages and lesser known touristic spots.

Infrastructure quality in Madagascar is patchy and it’s advisable not to expect to cover large distances per day. We decreased our list of destinations from six to three, dropping the north, the Sainte Marie island and almost all of the east. We then settled on the national parks along the national road RN7 from Toliara in the southwest to Antsirabe in the centre, the Tsingy the Bemaraha national park that everyone visits and Nosy Be, a beautiful and touristic island that is for some visitors the only part of Madagascar that they’ll see as it has direct flights from other continents.

Our trip was off to a good start when we we landed in Antananarivo, the capital, and discovered that our luggage was still somewhere in Europe. It is refreshing to realise that while we’ve made our trip as flexible as possible to allow for delays, bad weather and genereal inefficiencies common to Africa, it is actually KLM and Air France messing up to such a large extent that four days later we still have no clue where our luggage is.

There was no time to stay in the capital so we bought some essential clothing and a toothbrush and took our flight to Toliara where our driver would pick us up and where our adventure would truly begin. A bit more basic than expected, in a simple outfit and sharing a single phone charger but with all malaria pills, travel documents and digital cameras accounted for. Makes you realise how little you actually need.