Madagascar in rainy season

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and is home to 5% of of the worlds's plant and animal species, more than 80 percent of which are indigenous to Madagascar. It's area is almost 597.000 square km which is comparable to France. Around 19 million of people live there so the density is very low.

We flew from Prague to Paris. From Paris with Air Madagascar to the capital, Antananative (Tana). We spent just one day there and flew over to Nosy Be, touristic destination, for two days to aclimatize. We continued by plane to Diego Suarez; both were Air Madagascar domestic flighs. We continued by paved road to Ambilobe and visited Montagne d'Ambre and Ankara parks on the way. Then very difficult 160 kilometers of unpaved road from Ambilobe to Vohemar which took two days, from which 25 hours was spent on the road. Back on asphalt there, so quickly to Sambava and Antalaha. Crossing the Masoala peninsula to Maroantsetra; 90 kilometers on foot in 3 days while sleeping in villages and wading many rivers on the way. Then circa 90km by small cargo boat to Mananara, we spent two nights on it with an interim landing. Another 4x4 drive to Fenerive. Taxi-brousse to Tamatave. Taxi to Andasibe where we spent 2 days exploring Analmayaotra and Mantady parks. By Taxi-brousse back to Tana. Back to Paris and Prague.

Currency is Malagasy Ariary, 2500 AR for 1 Euro in Feb/Mar 2007. They also still count in Malagasy Francs, especially out of towns but counting in Ariary is preferred. 1 Ariary is 5 Francs, it's strict and written on the bank notes. BTW, all Ariary bank notes are very nice. When I refer to prices, I will always include the amount in euro, too.

Note that every piece of information might be tightly connected to the fact that this was off season. See important information section.

A map of our trip, colors denote a plane, a car, going on foot and a boat.

[Feb 18, Sunday] Leaving Prague to Paris, having 5 hours gap there before the second leg of our trip. Boarding Boeing 767-300 of Air Madagascar. Air Mad as Malagasy people sometimes call it is a friendly airline, established in 1962. You don't have to worry to fly with them. Great food.

[Feb 19, Monday] We land early morning in Tana. Warm and humid, jeez I love it... You buy your 30 day tourist visa right on the airport, it was roughly 15 euros. No problems leaving the airport, you just have to wait, fill some forms, wait, then wait for some rubber stamps etc. As Dany Archer says, TIA. This is Africa. Yeah, I know that people of Madagascar somehow distinguish themselves from the continent. Whatever. It wasn't that bad.

We bought flights to Tana-Nosy Be and Nosy Be-Diego Suarez. The office is on the airport, en total 123 euro per person, one way (the price is already after a discount of 30-50% was applied, we don't exactly how much - you get it if you fly in with Air Madagascar; you just show your boarding ticket). They fly there every day so it's not a problem. No free seats from Diego to Sambava in the next 10 days. They fly once a week and booking is free so we might be able to get them if we enlisted on waiting list but decided to skip it and use other means of transportation.

Taxi from the airport to the town is 15 E. There are official taxi drivers with official prices but of course, when we went back home we went for 10 E with no problems. It takes roughly 40 minutes to get to the town. We checked in Karib hotel on Independece route which is basically the very center of the town. Cheapest 70.000AR per room (30 E). Cheapest means toilet + shower in the room, TV. Clean. Meal in the hotel restaurant around 6-10k (2.5-4 E), beer 4k (1.6 E). However, we suggest hotel Glacier.

[Feb 20, Tuesday] We visited a croc farm which is 1 km from the airport. Nice visit, you can basically see what you then can see in the forrest. Croc meat just for around 10k (4 E) as lunch. Flying to Nosy Be in the evening. Comfortable ATR 72 twin-turboprop plane with leather seats. Plenty of room for legs, much better then usual low-costs I take from Prague to London.

Hell-Ville, 30 minutes by taxi. Hotel Belle Vue. It was the last free room there. Nosy Be is a favourite destination of Italiens. Hell-Ville is more like a very big village then a town. A lot of prostitutes everywhere. Moulin Rouge restaurant. Good night life.

[Feb 21, Wednesday] To Andilana, one hour by taxi. Bungalow with toilet/shower/mosquito net was just 3 minutes from the beach. Fresh lobster for 30k (12 E). Delicious. There is a big Italian hotel in the same area, too. My guess is that during season you cannot get a room or bungalow there without booking beforehand.

We took the same taxi driver who took us from the airport. The car was different and his friend was driving. He tried to get us drunk because he wanted us to hire him for another 1-2 days; eh, alcohol is used for different purposes in different countries. We were tired of the hot and humid weather, didn't have breakfast, didn't sleep well etc. I guess that some people cannot drink beer in that situation. He gave up after the 3rd bottle because we refused to drink unless he drank with us. Funny moments. Anyway, I couldn't withstand that promise for too much longer because I was quite thirsty.

[Feb 22, Thursday] Beach, snorcheling. Quite boring place for me, maybe during the season it's better, but I doubt it's much better.

[Feb 23, Friday]Andilana to the airport. We scheduled that two days ago with the same driver. Probably we could have found a taxi there but it could take some time because of the off season period.

The first time I boarded a plane (Boeing 737-300) without a security check-in. It was an interlanding on the way from Tana and the plane was almost full. We also experienced a routine situation during the landing that probably wouldn't be possible in Europe. Turning around up on high of 100 meters right before landing with a plane like this seemed to me quite unusuall especially because I definitely do NOT love flying.

We took Lucky the taxi driver who could speak some english. He took us from the airport to Montagne d'Ambre park. We stopped by in the sea port to find out if we could take a cargo boat to Sambava in two days. No way, "there is one but if it goes it goes today; rough sea, you know". Lucky called a guide, Florent, and we picked him up at Angap. A guide is usually 30k, sometimes 40k per day. It doesn't matter if you need him/her for 2 hours or the whole day. The same with park entrance fees. We had to go 7 km from the Joffreville to the camp site which is around 4 km from the entrance. Park fees are mostly the same everywhere. Montagne d'Ambre is a true rainy forrest with 3.5 meters of rain per year. It started to rain.

We put up a tent under the shelter that are there for this purpose, it's a very good thing when it's raining. Then we took aproximately 10 km track throughout the forrest in 2 hours, we were almost running when it was possible because it was quite late. It's getting dark at 6pm there. We saw 3 waterfalls, a lot of really rainy (and wet) forrest, and we were completely wet. Very interesting.

[Feb 24, Saturday] Lucky picked us up in Joffreville with a guide and we continued to Ankara park. It took more than 3 hours and we paid 145k (60 E). It was more than needed but we were still learning the prices. Note that 1 liter of gas is 1 euro there so you cannot expect cheap taxi rides as in Peru, for example. Bungalow right at the entrance. We took a short track in the park because the river was flooded and it wasn't possible to cross it.

[Feb 25, Sunday] Another short track to the Lost river. Great, the river just diseappears in the ground. Bat cave was also nice, thousands and thousands of bats there. Very good local food. We get to Ambilobe for 10k en total (we and the guide who went with us to help us get a 4x4 to Vohemar). Ambilobe is a small town, more like a one long street. Nice simple room with shower and toilet.

We went out to hire a 4x4 car and the driver. Since Lonely Planet wrote about 100 E per day + gas, Ambilobe to Vohemar was 160 km and we expected to be there in one day, we thought that 120 E should to it. The guide finally found someone with a 4x4 and the offer was 800k (320 E). We just laughed (yet) and politely refused. The guy didn't bargain and just left which suprised us a little bit.

The guide then found another guy with 4x4 and after a short conversation we hired it for 120 E en total and no extra money for gas. Better to say that we thought we hired a car.

[Feb 26, Monday] We didn't hire a car as we understood later. Theo was a local bussinessman from Tana, travelling to Angape through Sambava. We were 3 in the cabin and other 10 people back. Children not included in the count. We just paid for 2 seats and as we were about to find out it was a very good price.

We were told that this "road" was the worst one in Madagascar that time. We spent more than 12 hours both days on the road. We made 50 kilometers the first day. Mud, mud and mud. The car got broken twice and twice was fixed with a piece of wood, piece of a rope, and a field shovel. Forget about knife. We had to dig the car out of the mud many times. A guy, Serge, who worked for Theo spent a lot of time running in front of the car looking for a way to get through. He was unbelievable. If he took part in Camel Trophy then his team would have to win. Hardworking the whole day, always smiling, nothing was a problem. The only tool he used was the shovel. These people don't plan too much, they don't know if they get there in one day or one week, they don't bring a knife with them but no matter what happens they are great. It's a different world. They have almost no tools to fix the car but, well, somehow they fix it. You would expect them to have a torch because we were finishing in the night already. No. They don't have anything like that. But it doesn't prevent them to get there, maybe just a next day, never mind.

We spent a night in one village, spending the evening together with others, ordering beer for us and them. Great evening. Small bungalow, beer. Yes, trucks go the same road as we did. That's one of the reasons why it's so badly broken.

[Feb 27, Tuesday] Another 110 km to Vohemar where paved road starts. Still a difficult road but better then yesterday. For example, waiting for 2 hours before the stuck in truck in front of us managed to get a little bit further so that we were able to overtake it. Another 4 hours to get to Sambava.

Theo was ok to take us further to Sambava. It took just 2-3 hours. Ironically Sambava is further from Vohemar than Vohemar is from Ambilobe. It's all about paved or non-paved roads here. All in all, great two days. We saw a beautiful part of Madagascar that we wouldn't otherwise have seen if we took a flight or a boat from Diego to Sambava.

Lousy room in Florencia hotel.

[Feb 28, Wednesday] Finally an ATM in Bank of Africa. BMOI doesn't have it in Sambava; you can withdraw there at the desk, max is 100 E, commision is 5 E. ATM apparently working even during weekends. Note that withdrawal limit is usually only 400k (160 E) or less.

We took a taxi for 120 km to Antalaha. It's the best road in Madagascar now - new, flat, easy. That's the reason for the price. We were told that before it was built 2 years ago it took 1-2 days to get there during the rainy season. Yeah, if you want to keep your people down, let them spend time travelling instead of working and getting better. And when you are about to get what you deserve, go to exile to France, supported by French government. Nasty business.

We ended up in probably the best hotel in Antalaha - hotel Ocean Momo. It's a campus with luxurious bungalows and a restaurant; the hotel is just on the beach. The coastline is beautiful there. Antalaha is one of the towns that were severely dagamaged later in March, as noted above. Tuna steaks, some beer, pineapple.

We left our name in Angap so that an English speaking guide could find us since no one else was there. Jimmy came in the evening to the hotel and we made a deal on crossing Masoala peninsula, ie. from Antalaha to Maroansetra.

He was 40k per day (16 E), porters were 30k/day (12 E) + some food for all. The trip was planned to be 4 days and the price en total was 600k (240 E). Part of it, 180k (70 E), was for food, shelter, last 8 km by boat to Maroansetra etc. You pay for all including the guide and porters.

[Mar 1, Thursday] We left the hotel in the morning and together with Jimmy and Lilisy took taxi-brousse (old Mercedes army truck) to Maromandia, which is roughly 20 km from Antalaha. 4 hours in the truck, a couple of broken bridges, quite adventurous.

We went on foot from there, Jimmy had just some problems to find a 2nd porter but finally succeeded with Set. It's not that nobody wouldn't want to make some money (30k/day is very good money there, also note that it's tax free) but that most of the people out of towns have some work and cannot just go off for a couple of days right away. We made 27 km from 3pm to 8pm which means 1.5h with our head torches. Not an easy path. We slept over in Antakotako village. Nice calm village by the river. I was too tired to eat anything so we just just drank bottleded water - yes, they (hopefully...) carry it there using the same path we took, aproximately 30 km...) and betsa-betsa which is very good local alcohol, slightly stronger than beer and very refreshing. Simple room with mosquito net in Bien Venu hotel.

Speaking about porters, you really want them. The weather is quite difficult for us, around 35C on the shadow, with almost 100% humidity. If you carried your backpack you wouldn't probably have too much time or strength to look around and enjoy it. And what's more, you let them make some money.

[Mar 2, Friday] The first 1.5h we spent wading the river or walking closely along the banks. 33 km, we slept in a nice village close to the rice fields at the very beginning of the village. We drank some coco nuts and a lot of betsa-betsa. Very nice and pleasant evening. BTW 6 coco nuts were for 2k (1 E) in total...

[Mar 3, Saturday] Coco nuts and bananas in the morning. Easier path then yesterday and only crossing over two rivers; 24 km en total. We made to Mahalevona village where we are going to take a boat to Maroansetra in the morning. We shook hands with porters who then turned around and set off back to their homes. Jimmy left us there, too, since he had to take a plane in the morning from Maroansetra. He somehow forgot to tell us until yesterday... So, we paid for 4 days. It was just 3 days but we kept it that way. This track was worth it.

We slept in a bungalow of a local businessman who had one of two big shops in the village. We dined with him, watching some music from DVD's, diesel-generator in the yard. This all seemed a little bit weird after the days we spent in villages. However, very safe village, friendly people and we took a swim on the beach in the evening.

[Mar 4, Sunday] Easy 2 hours by 10m boat to Maroansetra, maybe 20 people on it. 5 minutes from the port there is a hotel Coco-beach, we took great roomy bungalow with toilet/shower. Lunch in the hotel restaurant - salads, meals, beer - just great.

Rakutu the guide is somehow connected to the hotel and took care of Nosy Mangabe visit. Speed-boat is 130k, guide 30k per day, permit 30k for both of us for both days, 5k tent. In total 220k (90 E). The boat stays there till the second day so you decide when to leave. It might be possible to go by pirog (2 hours?) and to hire a guide there since at least one is always stationed there but we didn't look for it.

We also asked Rakutu to find out how to get to Mananara by boat since we were told that it's 8 hours by boat or 12 hours by taxi-brousse. Boat seemed much easier then. At least we thought so at the moment.

We spent an evening in the town, we just walked and hit the first open bar, spent a very nice evening with locals.

[Mar 5, Monday] In the morning we set off to the island, 15 minutes by the spead boat. Guide's name was Bidas, a friendly guy with a great smile. Very nice camp just on the beach, and again open shelters with wooden floor for tents, european toilets. We just met some Finish couple there that was just leaving. No one else there aside from guides and the boatman. However, it's full during season. I guess 50 people could be accomodated in this camp at once without any problems.

We took the longest track, about 4 hours, 8 km. Rainy forrest, humidity 100%, very hot, many mosquitos. We saw many black-and-white lemurs, very pissed off when we were hunting themwatching them.

We took 2 hours long track during the night. It was just awesome. The forrest really lives during the night and it's magic. We saw some leaf-tailed gecons and many mouse lemurs. You just shoot with your torch into trees until you see two small dark orange eyes. No eye-eye lemurs, unfortunately. I don't know what kind of a lizard (gecon?) was this but Bidas told us he hadn't seen it on the island for several years until that night. We didn't even put up a tent, we just used our mosquito net, a table and a few chairs.

[Mar 6, Tuesday] Lemurs in the camp were making a big mess since the early morning so we didn't sleep that long. However, it was nice to watch them. Petr and Bidas took a short track to another part of the island and I took a longer track around the toilet.

We again stayed in Coco-beach where we found out that the boat is leaving at midnight. Rakutu said that it would interland somewhere but we should be in Mananara some time around the noon. We stayed in the bundalow (another one, not that nice and with cockroaches this time) till 10pm for half a price.

[Mar 7, Wednesday] The boat set off around half past midnight. A pirog on it and 25 people. It was just a 15m long bark with a small cabin. I spent the night laying on the board wrapped into my poncho because it was raining. Others hid under the big tarpaulin that covered almost the whole boat and layed directly on the people.

We landed in Rantabe at around 5am. We were told that the boad would continue in around 5 hours which was a little suprise for us. After a couple of hours we were told that the boat would continue at 2am the next day. I probably don't have to stress how much we cursed Rakutu. We spent a day with a young student from university in Tamatave. And drinking beer, of course.

[Mar 8, Thursday] The boat left almost at 3am, almost 40 people boarded now. It rained a lot, quite rough sea, we lay on the roof under the tarpaulin, holding to something not to slide off of the roof to the sea. As yesterday, we copied the coastline aproximately at distance of 3-5 km. Unfortunately we have no pictures from the boat, it says something about these two days I guess.

Beautiful morning. Sunset on one side, the coast on the other, black rough sea, very windy, occasionally raining. I will never forget that. This is what all that uneasy time is worth for. We reach Mananara at around 9h in the morning.

We understand now what is the pirog for. They didn't have any cargo to unload in Mananara so why to pay for the dock. They stopped around 100 meters from the beach and transferred all the passangers by pirog. It took more than one hour before we get ashore. TIA. All in all - great two days even when it didn't seem so before. Relaxed people on the boat. Thanks for memories.

We checked in hotel Roge who is the guy that own eye-eye island on the river. Good food in the hotel restaurant. And a very friendly waiter/cook that was exchanging my lack of French for shyness to directly propose, trying to help me as much as she could.

Angap seemed like not working at all there so we forgot about visiting Mananara national park. Mananara is not nice or at least we did not like it. Arranged for a taxi-brousse at 4am in the morning, to Fenerive. Petr took the island track to see eye-eye's (car, pirog and on foot). I had an open tissue on my soles from wading the rivers in Masoala so I was glad to stay in the bungalow trying to improve my French.

I politely showed a snake the door into summer, shooed a few cockroaches and then we went to sleep.

[Mar 9, Friday] Toyota 4x4 came at 4:10 in front of the hotel. Front seat was for us. By all means the driver takes this road very often. The road is much better than the one between Ambilobe-Vohemar and the driver is great so we keep good 9 km per hour average. Lonely Planet calls this road a disaster expecially because of horrible bridges. All the bridges are now new and very good (we counted as many as 30 of them) so this is no longer a problem. There also are several ferries that must be taken.

Around 4pm we drive through Soanierana Ivongo where a paved road starts again. Soanierana is a real shit hole we must say. Dirty, crowdy, smelly. We drive quickly to Fenerive and stop at hotel Gerof Dor. We paid 100k (40 E) for the taxi in total. It was slightly more that expected since official price to Tamatav (another 100 km) would be 110k but we wanted to give them some tip anyway. They returned in an hour and gave us a map we forgot in the car. Nice people.

Room nice and clean, toilet/shower in the corridor, clean. Lobster for dinner. Friendly lady in her fourties, funny evening.

[Mar 10, Saturday] Taxi-brousse to Tamatav, supposedly 2 hour ride was more than 5 hours. The minivan was full, 16 people in 4 rows + one more guy somewhere among us, 3 more people on the front seat. 15 km before Tamatave, a truck blocked the bridge. Basically it went off the safe middle, don't ask us how this could possibly has happened. It took them 3 hours to take it out and another truck had to help to pull.

In Tamatave, taxi-brousse from the station to hotel Joffre, recommended by Lonely Planet. I wouldn't recommend it any longer. Expensive for a small room with a double bed. Really something for two guys. However, it was clean and with a balcony. No problem to find ATM even during a weekend but note that withdrawal limits may vary from bank to bank.

We walked around the city, watched some football, admired sophisticated communication equipment and finally after 3 weeks checked our e-mails. There was a big problem to find a box with English locale, usually only french one is installed there. French keyboard means that 1/3 of keys are somewhere else than you would normally expect them.

We also checked another hotel, mentioned as cost-effective in Lonely Planet, hotel Flamboyant. Great one for us - clean spacy rooms, family atmosphere, half price comparing to Joffre and very helpful receptionist.

[Mar 11, Sunday] We moved to Flamboyant early in the morning. We then visited ZOO Ivoloina, got there by taxi that waited 2 hours and then got us back. The ZOO is nothing special, you can see some lemurs freely on the trees, some in the cages, some chameleons, a lot of ravenalas (compare to Air Madagascar logo) etc. There are a few very short tracks around the lake but if you spent some time in the parks of even on the road, this is a vaste of time. If not, it's worth to visit it.

We tried to arrange a speed boat to get to Brickaville but since it was off-season we would have to hire it just for us, for 400k (160 E) after a discount. It would then take another 100k (40 E) to really get to Brickaville. So we arranged for a taxi to get to Andasibe the next morning. Price was 190k (80 E). Tamatave-Andasibe is 220 km.

We spent some time in the evening on the beach close to the port.

[Mar 12, Monday] It took 5 hours to get there but not all drivers were that lucky. We checked in hotel Feon'ny Ala, took a nice small bungalow a separate clean toilet/shower just behind the corner. Well managed hotel, good prices, friendly staff, great food. Highly recommended.

We arranged for a guide, usually one will hang around, for the next 2 days to visit Analmayaotra and Mantady parks. Very good restaurant in the hotel. The feast.

[Mar 13, Tuesday] Longest track in Analmayaotra park which is just 2 km from the hotel. The track took around 4 hours. Singing Indry lemurs, a big green chameleon. The guide was William. Very nice park, unfortunately no night tracks are permitted here which we really regret. Nice evening, ordering some beers for waiters, talking.

[Mar 14, Wednesday] Track in Mantady park. You hire a car in the hotel to get you there and back, with waiting. It takes 1 hour to get there (prices in the hotel are very good for everything). It's raining all the time but we saw some lemurs trespassing territories and lots and lots of leeches. We then took a car to another part of the park and took a shorter track to natual swimming. Basically a pool under a waterfall. Cold, rainy, great. William seemed very suprised and amuzed that we really jumped in.

[Mar 15, Thursday] We hire a car in the hotel to get us to Muramanga which is about 40 km. Taxi-brousse to Tana, less crowded then the previous one taken to Tamatave so we sit just 3 in one row. Tana is very nice when aproached from this side, rural areas, small brick houses, really nice. Countryside is again very changed and now it's not that different from ours if one doesn't inspect all the trees from close distance.

We end up in Kofimanga base station, taking a taxi to the center. We go straight to Karib hotel we took the 1st night but it's full - the season is beginning. Hotel Glacier was just 200m up the square had a free room. The same quality as Karib. What's more, it was with a nice breakfast. We had a great room for the first night, big, windows facing the square (all rooms 112-119 are like this).

We eat at the hotel restaurant, 2nd floor, windows facing the square, definitely recommended. You can watch the interesting life in the center there while drinking beer.

[Mar 16, Friday] Wandering around the town, buying some t-shirts, wooden sculptures, drinking beer, having a lot of great food, resting... The dry season was already beginning because it's been raining for almost 3 days already. That's not a joke, there is much less water during the dry season that fall down in total but it rains much longer than during the rainy season.

[Mar 17, Saturday] After we check out at 11am we have the last great lunch and then taking taxi (10 E) to the airport where we wait till 10:30pm when our Boeing 767 flies back to Paris.