The unsporty Sportive and other limestone Tsingy

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Hugo's experience was in AntsiraḤana, Madagascar. He went on 25 of November 2007 for 1 day. He went for tourism, adventure, relaxation, peace & quiet, get closer to nature. Hugo went with a group of friends. He got there and around by car or van, airplane or helicopter. Hugo's verdict is: you must go here.

Diego Suarez (Antsirahana), is basically a seedy springboard into the National Parks of L'ankarana and Parc National de Montagne D'ambre.

We spent a week in this area and there are simply too many of the wonders of Madagascar to see in that time.

Here is a flavour of some of the sites and sounds to be found:

First chameleon on the road to Ankarana

Northern Sportive Lemur - suprisingly unsporty

Our legendary guide "john" shows us a classic Karst hole in the ground, fingers crossed no flash floods...

Into the spooky "lost world" limestone cave in Ankarana

one of the cave's surprises (luckily nothing is poisonous in Madagascar)

Classic Tsingy

Tsingy - the extraordinary Karst limestone landscape

Leaf Chameleon at night

Conrad was our very own Steve Irwin, picking up and investigating anything that moved

Arrow headed snake causes excitement amongst our team of budding travel photographers

Bright green day gecho

Another Northern Sportive doing his stuff

Brown Lemur (missed all the good pictures of the babies playing I'm afraid)

Le Lac Vert - Ankarana national park

Chameleons are all over the shop

Biggest millipede I have ever seen

Plenty of bird watching (sorry cannot remember their names and my camera was not good enough to photograph them)

Swimming spot at the western ridge

Camp dinner, with a cheeky bottle of Taylors 77

Roadside Chili and lime sauce livens up any boring nosh

My camera died mid-trip, so the photos peter out and don't do justice to the amazing things we saw.

Anyhow, a brief overview of practicalities was:

- 1 night in Diego Suarez, making preparations for our trip and getting a good lunch.

- 3 nights posh camping in Ankarana National park. You need transport and a guide, so we booked Cap Nord to sort us out. In the end they provided a driver, guide and a fantastic cook (what very fat and sat in the boot) who whisked us to the points of interest. One night at the Park entrance, one night in the thick of things being woken up by brown lemurs and then one night on the Western Ridge. Lots and lots of sweaty walking!

- Then went for 2 nights in Joffreville and Parc National de Montagne d'ambre. One highly amusing night staying in the Monastry being cooked for by nuns and then one night in the posh Nature Lodge.

This trip was a great introduction to the amazing natural wonders that Madagascar has to offer. Very few people around and everywhere has a shoddy decaying feeling, but that certainly adds to the charm and soft adventure of it all.

Comments

professormagellan says...

stunning photos: sounds like this is way off the normal tourist
trail and well worth seeing. But how do you organize such a trip from the UK? What language do they speak there?

Posted 228 days ago.
Hugo says...

Yes, most places in Madagascar (apart from Nosy Be which has direct flights from Italy now) are pretty off the tourist trail and come highly rated (from my limited experience).

You can just pitch up but we booked your first nights accommodation and internal flights in advance. Internal flights got quite busy so this is probably a prudent thing to do unless you have bags of time. If you liked you could also book up with Cap Nord - http://www.cap-nord-voyages.com/ (or another local tour guide) in advance, so you knew you had a tour booked in.

The language spoken is Malagasy and French, so it is handy to have one of those, most likely a smattering of the latter.

Posted 228 days ago.
DanaPalamara says...

Hi Hugo, that's the 3rd story I've read on this site about Madagascar and my boyfriend and I have decided we are definitely going there for our next holiday as a result. Thanks for inspiring me with your fab photos. So good to hear that you can just turn up. Any more dos and don'ts we should know about?

Dana

Posted 166 days ago.
Hugo says...

Thanks Dana. I highly recommend it, wonderful place and not too touristy at all. Tips might include swotting up on your French, ensuring that your timing is not slap bang in the rainy season and also booking up flights in advance to avoid disappointment of full planes.

Posted 165 days ago.