Category: Andringitra & Isalo National Parks

Departing September 24th knowing we will miss the extraordinary scenery of Andringitra we hit the road to make our way to Isalo National Park, about 220 kms south west and about 230 kms from the west coast of Madagascar.

The RN7 on this portion of our journey was excellent and we cruised at an average of 80 km/ hr. There were still the occasional surprise potholes but the going was generally smooth and uneventful. Traffic was very light as we passed through wide open vistas of endless uninhabited grassland and distant rocky crags.

The land so far in our travels has primarily been composed of red clay with limited farming potential. The area here seemed unsupportive of agriculture as it was flat and not conducive to building and cultivating rice terraces so villages and people were few and far between, just wide open infertile land.

We reached our destination, Isalo Ranch, in 4 hours. It is such a luxury to be able to travel 200+ kms in 4 hours!

The “Ranch” is a collection of bungalows located right off of the RN7 just outside of the town of Ranohira, the gateway to Isalo NP and the sandstone canyons and forests that dot the most visited national park in Madagascar.

There are 20 nice bungalows, a swimming pool and bar and restaurant area populated by seniors groups seeing the sights in three weeks, couples with their drivers and us, the only couple anyone had met so far who are driving independently through this country.

In our travels to date we have seen maybe 3 cars/4×4 vehicles that had a white driver and white passenger so we know there are others doing what we’re doing but they are few and far between. When the locals ask us if we are with a group or a guide and we tell them no, they seem impressed, it’s unusual, and in our opinion it’s the only way to fly!

Andringitra NP was established is 1962 and is the third largest park in Madagascar. The landscape is giant sandstone canyons, some up to 200 metres deep and lined with tropical forests, meandering creeks and shallow and deep pools among the boulder strewn landscape.

There are several species of diurnal and nocturnal lemurs as well as the elusive and rare Verreaux’s Sifika, aka the dancing sifika. Sifikas are part of the lemur genus but belong to the Indriidae family. These animals run on two feet and can jump up to 10 metres between tree branches. We were told we were very lucky to see this sifika and quite up-close as well.

We also came across Ring tailed lemurs, a large name unknown chameleon and a Madagascar Hoopoe bird.

It was another great hike, the beer was cold back at the ranch and we prepared for our next and first stop on the south western coast.

 

 

The reason Ranomafana is a rainforest is well, because of the rain and it was raining lemurs and chameleons when we departed on the 22nd at about 8:30 am.

We were expecting another 5.5-6 hour drive and this time Google Maps was fairly accurate. We did the drive in 5.5 hours.

The traffic was very light and being a Sunday it seemed there were far fewer trucks and passenger busses on the road which was surprisingly good with few pot holes and some stretches where we could hit close to 80km/hr however the last 45 minutes was gravel, rock and clay with some serious bumps along the way.

Our accommodation for two nights was at Tsara Camp nestled in the Tsaranoro Valley in the Andringitra mountains surrounded by great mastifs in the west and tall craggy peaks in the east. A very stunning location.

Andringitra National Park is a World Heritage designated site established in 1999 and is part of the Rainforests of the Antsinanan and covers 31,160 hectares.

As in most places to date the lodge offered wifi but as we have said many times before the service is actually ” why try”. First world problems but a hassle when you want to keep your blog up to date.

Our lodging was a permanent tent with an outdoor shower with very hot solar heated water, great views, good food, great staff and an a amazing location. The road to access the camp off of the RN7 was about 23 kms and was very bad. A regular car probably couldn’t make it to the lodge so a 4×4 in our opinion is a must. A great place and we highly recommend it.

Some local residents

The area was truly beautiful and we took advantage of it by doing another 4 hour hike and fortunately this time our knees stood up to the challenge.

We walked about 1 km along a dusty clay road with a panoramic view that was out of a travel Madagascar brochure, past a small village to the “Guides” office where we hooked up with Evenie, a young female guide who happened to speak very good english.

She has only been guiding for four months and has plans to continue on in university to complete her nationally recognized guiding certificate. We were told that to become a guide in Madagascar requires about four years of study and apprenticeship. Guides are required to know the latin and local names of all of the flora and fauna of the area, the medicinal properties of the flora as well as the cultural and historical facts of the area(s) they guide.

We hiked for 4 hours through mostly flat trails with some challenging vertical thrown in.

Wandering through the “Sacred Forest” we saw many stone constructed markers which identified the location of tombs. They were scattered throughout the forest, in the hundreds, and housed (is that the right term?) generations of families that have lived in the area.

While we were strolling along we came upon a small group of hikers that were staying at our lodge. Two of the people in particular seemed to have big chips on their shoulders that we had noticed/felt earlier.

As we crossed paths they commented to the effect that the hike was a waste of time, they only saw one lemur, it was hot outside, my bunions are hurting etc. etc. We don’t have time for people like that but what caught our attention was the lemur comment.

For some reason we weren’t aware there were lemurs in the area and as it turns out there are two diurnal species and three nocturnal species! Missed that in my research.

Within about twenty minutes of our meeting we encountered four Ring Tailed Lemurs and then ten minutes later another 15 Ring tails. As we weren’t expecting this it was definitely a big highlight of our hike. Fantastic!

The first group of lemurs seemed quite timid with our presence but with the second group we were able to get quite close. We were told that since so many hikers come through part of area they have become habituated to human presence.

With the sun high above us the temperature was hitting close to 35 C as we descended our final leg of the hike. On our way we passed an exposed tomb bearing skeletal remains. The remains were those of several Betsileo people who live on the other side of the Andringitra mountain range. These people had stolen the prized zebu from the local Bara people and their punishment was death. The tomb has been exposed to act as a warning.

The knees were holding up but we were getting pooped and we bid farewell to Evenie and trudged back the 1 km to our lodge for a small lunch and a well deserved siesta.

Chameleon Mountain

That evening after dinner in the restaurant we were treated to some local music and dancing.

This was not your “typical” tourist oriented crap that you might expect to find at some all-inclusive 4 star hotel. The musicians came from the local villages and the dancers were most of the staff at the lodge. It was great entertainment.

We’ve searched high and low throughout our travels through 12 countries in Africa to date and it is so difficult to find this kind of entertainment and although the show was short it was a great way to end a great day!