Madagascar November 2018

Madagascar Route

We decided once more to explore this amazing Island, but with our experience, we planned things differently: combining south, North and National road 7
DAY 1| 1^st of November 2018: Flight to Tana, arrival at 14:00 visa is now 35 Eur. From there we drove to the Bois vert hotel, a nice and pleasant hotel close t the airport.

DAY 2| 2^nd of November 2018: Our flight from TNR- FTU was at lunch time… in the morning we spent some time if a factory where they produce various ship models , which they export them all over the world, later in we continued directly to the airport.( traffic in Antananarivo is very busy, so one should take it in to consideration when planning time for flights). We landed in Fort Dauphin after noon and drove directly to Berenty on a broken rode for 4 hours distance of 80 km, through some villages and broken bridges. Arriving at dark to Berenty

DAY 3| 3^rd of November 2018: We woke early morning for bird watching in the spiny forest, we spotted various endemic birds  :crested coua, vasa parrot, green capped coua, Madagascar night jahr, yellow billed kite, white browed owl, scops owl( western form) gini file, king fisher, paradise flight catcher, weaver, robin And lemurs: sportive lemur, mouse lemur, verreaux Sifaka, ring tailed lemur, brown lemur. After words we returned for breakfast and from there we continued hiking in the spiny forest, searching for plants: Aloudia/Didrea, Euphorbia, Aloe, calanchoea, Baobabs- Za , and a lot of Agaves plantation which are spreading out in the whole area and destroying the endemic nature. After short rest, we continued to the gallery forest for seeing some more of the same plants, few lemurs, owls and bats. Since the visit was very short we had enough time to stroll around the Saturday market at the nearest town.

DAY 4| 4^th of November 2018: Sun rise is very early and with the first light at 4:30 AM we headed towards Andohehela NP, on the way we saw lots of natural spiny forests we saw a lot of huge Operculicaria trees . At the NP we started at the dry part which is very humid, there we saw lots of fern, comifora, aloudias, moringa trees, big trees…
From there we continued to the spiny part of the NP which is 20 Km away… a paradise for Pachipodium, nature and more.. all Pachypodium( lameri, rosulatum) where in flower.
We continued to the hotel in Fort Dauphin.. Crox de Suid… not a very nice one… i would recommend to stay where you have nice view to the ocean in Anju

DAY 5| 5^th of November 2018: We had an early flight from FTU TO TLE VIA TANA , we arrived only at 14:30 to Tulear and started a 3.5 our drives to Ranohira, on the way we saw some amazing Baobabs, Operculicaria and amazing sun set… we arrived at the most beautiful resort hotel Jurdin du roy and prepared our selves for the next day

DAY 6| 6^th of November 2018: Early morning  we headed a short distance drive to the Isalo NP, a 4 hours trail took us inside the amazing mountain rocks, we spotted a lot of small natural botanical gardens full with pachypodium rosulatum gracilies, aloe, calanchoue,.lots of birds and amazing rock formation. We stopped for lunch at picnic spot, there after we continued another 3 hours track to the natural pools, i had the opportunity to jump into the refreshing cold blue pool.

DAY 7| 7^th of November 2018: The longest drive of the trip was expected today… a 12 hours drive from Isalo till our destination in Ambatofinandrahana. On the way we stopped at Ihosy to see the Pachipodium hormabence… unfortunately the place was destroyed and we spotted a single plant in flower. We continued through markets and villages, on the way we had some short stops to observe pachypodium hormabenc, ,arriving at Mama nuro basic hotel at 18:30

DAY 8| 8^th of November 2018: A very early wake up, meeting Mr. Jan batist who will guide us on very difficult 4×4 dirt road, the destination is Itermo 45 km away from the village of Ambatofinandrahana. The road was mostly broken and consisted rocks, holes and broken bridges, which we needed to make some times a short detour. The way took us 5 hours until reaching the quartz rocks where we could stop and admire the Pachipodium bravicaul… during the long and bumpy way we spotted pachypodium dancyflorum, on a completely burned hill, we saw some Aloes and few orchids in flower.
On the way back started a heavy rain, the way was slippery, nevertheless it took us another 5 hours to reach back the guest house of Mama nuro. We decded to continue to the hotel in Ambositra so our next day should be shorter… we arrived at dark to Ambositra for a good night sleep.

Day 9| 9^th of November 2018: After good breakfast we headed to the Ibity mountains in order to see more Pachypodium bravicaule. At the village of Mananduna we met our guide which took us up the hill 2 hours walk to reach the elevation of 1600 meters, where the Pachipodium could be seen in their nature habitat. Among he quartz rocks the stoning Pachipodium unfolded in front of us… it was worth while . On the way back we stopped on top of the hill for picnic break, watching the unforgettable rice fields colored in beautiful green varieties. Than after we continued through Anteserabie all the long way till Antananarivo stuck in a traffic jam for two hours in the capital and ending this part of the trip. We staid for the night at the very pleasant and convenient hotel Bois vert close to the airport.

DAY 10| 10^th of November 2018: At 4am we headed to the airport for our flight to Diego Suarez.upon landing in Diego, we went for a quick breakfast than after continued to mt’ de Francis, we started climbing up the mountain on the way we saw Baobab suarensis, Aloe,euphorbias and many local shrubs, but the most amazing thing there was the spectacular view combining with 680 stairs we had to climb at the end. Probably building the steps and the tunnel they destroyed all the pachipodiums on the mountain. We stayed over night at Diego suarez Alamanda hotel with beautiful view to the bay

Day 11| 11^th of November 2012:  After breakfast we headed to Windsory castle in order to find Pachipodium windsorii in red flower, the way was very bad and as it started to rain we decided to come back although we were only 3 km away. But as an amazing compensation we found an amazing Baobab suarenziz forest with a dark brown reddish bark overlooking the blue and turquoise colors of the bay. We continued a little bit more on he path and we could spot on a hill a bunch of Pachipodium ruterbegenziz, so we climbed this rocky hill and again the view was breathtaking. We continued for the night to the amazing Nature lodge in the middle of nowhere. It was great although the thunders storm at night

DAY 12| 12^th of November 2018:  After a nice breakfast we headed to the red Tsingy , a very beautiful forms in the red soil, we saw there plenty of birds, and the hike was easy, comfortable and fun, from there we continued to Ankarana forest , starting a short hike on the gray small Tsingy, we spotted some baobabs, tsifostema, adenias, comfora, euphorbia pachipoides, and few birds and lemurs. A heavy rain started and the area was filled with flying ants.. we returned to Ankarana lodge- the best in the area.

DAY 13| 13^th of November 2018: This morning was dedicated for a walk in the Ankarana forest, to see some more species of pachypodium euphorbias, and more.. we saw the Pachipodium dycari not in flower, Euphorbia milli more birds and lemurs, the weather was very humid, which made the track very slaw and after 5 hours of walk we decided to return for a rest

DAY 14| 14^th of November 2018:After early breakfast we started our drive to the port at ________ where we took the boat to Nose Be. On the way we stopped at some coca and vanilla farms to see the process of making the vanilla and how the coco beens are collected. We arrived at Nose be around 13:00 pm to the beautiful spa resort hotel Ravinsara for 3 days resting reading and recovering.

DAY 15| 15^th of November 2018: Ravinsara

DAY 16| 16^th of November 2018: Ravinsara

DAY 17| 17^th of November 2018: Starting our stroll back home.

DAY 18| 18^th of November 2018:Israel

Remarks: