The resplendent avenue of the baobabs near Morondava, Madagascar

A Journey to the Eighth Continent

Prajwal Madhav

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Some call it the red island because of its laterite soil, but others prefer the moniker the eighth continent owing to the multitude of species of flora and fauna that have evolved here during the millions of years of the island’s isolation. Call it what you want, but Madagascar certainly boasts of plants, animals and particularly landscapes that can only be seen here and that is one of the reasons why I embarked on my two-month adventure to this exotic land.

Arriving in Antananarivo or Tana by flight with a friend, we were welcomed at the airport by Christian who would accompany us for a week to the Tsingy de Bemaraha national park.

Getting there was not going to be straightforward and in Madagascar, the journey is indeed, quite often the destination.

A monument in Antsirabe dedicated to the 18 ethnic groups of Madagascar with cyclo-pousse, a mode of public transport

We went to the taxi-brousse station and sat in a sort of bush taxi, waited for nearly two hours for passengers to be stuffed in like sardines and the roof to be loaded with bags until it was almost double its height before leaving for Antsirabe. Nobody complained and the people’s patience seemed boundless.

The route nationale (RN) 7 was in acceptable shape compared to other roads in the country and we drove past brick huts that looked exactly like houses that children draw. A scary number of trees had been burnt down to create space for rice cultivation and to feed zebus, two of the Malagasy people’s staples. They unfortunately practise slash and burn agriculture to cater to their insatiable appetite for rice and eat it three times a day.

In Antsirabe, we went to a house which belonged to Lanto, a young guide and tour operator and were welcomed by his wife Tojo and their children. She cooked us dinner, rice and zebu of course, and hosted us for the night. In the morning, Christian took us to his brother’s handmade paper workshop, a well-known product of his Antaimoro ethnic group. We then took another taxi-brousse to Miandrivazo village and reached in time for an extraordinary sunset. The next morning, yet another taxi-brousse took us to Masiakampy where we climbed into a narrow pirogue or a dugout canoe to float down the Tsiribihina for more than two days.

Antaimoro handmade paper workshop, Antsirabe

While rowing down we encountered fishermen and pirogues transporting food and people. Christian cooked us a sumptuous vegetable, fish and egg salad and rice with a zebu sauce.

I was surprised that he managed to prepare such an elaborate meal on a boat that was barely two feet wide!

A pirogue floats past us on the Tsiribihina, Madagascar

After lunch, it got very hot so we opened our umbrellas for protection but in the evening it was more pleasant as we entered the Bemaraha gorge whose wall blocked the sun. We spotted our first lemurs here — beady-eyed baby brown lemurs which frolicked on the rocky gorge wall. We soon reached our campsite, a beach by the river with a beautiful waterfall further inland which served as a shower.

My first lemur — Eulemur fulvus and my first chameleon along the Tsiribihina river, Madagascar

The next morning we were off early and visited a small dusty village called Begidro where kids who were used to Western tourists were perplexed by our appearance thinking we were some unknown Malagasy ethnic group! It was only when I took my camera out that they came running calling us “vazaha” or foreigner and asking for sweets, photos and whatnot. In the evening, we saw baobabs for the first time just before reaching our campsite, an enormous stretch of sand by the river.

Making breakfast as the sun rises at our campsite

The night sky was clear and dark and as we sipped our rhum arrangé — a rum cocktail with various ingredients — this time milk, orange and ginger, watching constellations and shooting stars making their long celestial journeys across the sky. The next morning, we had just an hour on the pirogue and I was astonished to see a huge crocodile basking on a sandbank in the middle of the river beside which we had camped for two nights.

We soon arrived at a spot where a cart pulled by two zebus awaited us. Riding through a village with people following us, we reached our four-wheel drive in Antsiraraka which took us across the Manambolo river on a motor-driven platform to Bekopaka.

A crocodile basks by the Tsiribihina, Madagascar

Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park

The next morning, we drove 17 km to the national park entrance. We barely started walking through the dry forest when our guide Laurent pointed to lemurs. We saw white cuddly Decken’s sifakas up on a tree, unperturbed by our presence. The social primates were grooming each other and paused for a few seconds to look at the unexpected visitors before getting back to their business. Inside the forest we saw more brown lemurs before reaching the tsingy — pointed limestone formations sculpted by the rain.

Decken’s sifakas on our way to the tsingy in the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, Madagascar
A brown lemur in the forest, Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park

Unlike other limestone blocks that are white, oxidation has turned the tsingy grey. Millions of years ago, Madagascar separated from Africa and its western part was covered by the sea. The Mozambique Channel receded revealing a flat limestone platform with fossils of corals and sea creatures with some crevasses. Rain eroded these fissures thereby creating strange pointed formations. Ages ago, the Vazimba tribe which lived here had to walk on tiptoes, which in their language is called “tsingy”, hence the name.

Grands tsingy, Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park
The otherworldly Tsingy de Bemaraha, Madagascar

It was exhilarating to climb these structures with a harness and carabiners. From the belvedere at the summit I was treated to a spectacular view of a forest of big or grands tsingy.

The contrast of the lush green trees against the grey stone was stunning.

Climbing across the pointed stones, we crossed a bridge suspended around 80–100 metres above an abyss between the tsingy.

Shadow of the suspension bridge hanging over an abyss, Tsingy de Bemaraha

We climbed down through extremely narrow passages to the forest and rejoined our car to drive back to Bekopaka where we visited the small or petits tsingy just 15–20 metres high. Although they are less impressive than the grands tsingy, this maze-like area with narrow passageways has interesting flora and fauna like pachypodium and various lizards native to Madagascar.

Petits tsingy, Tsingy de Bemaraha
Driving through Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, Madagascar

The next day, we crossed the Manambolo and the Tsiribihina to race across a sandy track to visit a 700-year old enormous baobab called baobab sacré and a couple of them in loving embrace called les amoureux. We finally reached the avenue of the baobabs where tall Grandidier’s baobabs with their resplendent golden trunks shining in the setting sun stand like sentinels along the dirt track.

A gigantic 700-year old baobab, Madagascar
Les amoureux enlace each other, Madagascar

In a week I had used seven different modes of transport to visit two unique sites. Madagascar is a complicated country to visit but the incredible array of landscapes found nowhere else on earth makes it well worth the effort.

The stupendous avenue of the baobabs near Morondava, Madagascar

Getting to and around Madagascar

Most flights land in the capital Antananarivo’s Ivato airport. Some flights land in the northern island of Nosy Be, a mecca for diving.

Taxi-brousse is the way to go to most cities and towns. Air Madagascar has a monopoly on domestic flights but is notorious for cancellations. Madagascar can be expensive if you don’t have time since Air Madagascar flights and renting a four-wheel drive are exorbitant. Travelling by taxi-brousse is cheap but long.

Entry to most national parks costs between 45,000 and 65,000 ariary per person and per day and it is compulsory to hire a guide for anywhere between 30,000 and 120,000 ariary per group depending on the duration of your visit.

Hi, I am Prajwal Madhav. I hope you enjoy my posts.

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Prajwal Madhav

Traveller, travel planner, travel writer, French teacher, amateur photographer deeply interested in food, wine, culture, history and languages.