In visiting several (but nowhere near even a majority) of
Madagascar’s national parks and reserves, I have learned that the guidebooks
are woefully inadequate and out of date, there is scant information on the
internet, and the staff (including guides and park employees) locally don’t
seem very informative either. To that end, in order to help you avoid the
mistakes I made and have a more efficient and enjoyable trip, here is a bit of
practical information about the parks I visited, which was up to date as of
August 2012, although may have changed by the time you get there.
For extremely useful information about several national
parks, I refer you to the excellent website of a Czech solo traveler who posted his experience in detail. I make the following updates to the information on his site (and it goes without saying that the prices for absolutely everything have
increased since he wrote his website):
Montagne D’Ambre NP:
The trails are no longer sign-posted, so although they are clearly trails, you
will have to guess a little which one you are on. As long as you don’t mind
wandering a little, you’ll eventually come back out to the road and are
unlikely to get lost. The exception is the Mahasarika Trail, which is a tiny
little path off to the left of the main path to Amber Mountain summit just
before the main path gets completely grown over. If you don’t look carefully
for it you will miss it, and it is completely unmarked, but you’ll know it
because it is quite steep and goes through the dense forest.
It was absolutely worthwhile to camp in the park (lemurs
wandered through my campsite and there were all kinds of animal calls
throughout the night). I didn’t see tourists start to show up with their guides
till around 8am, so if you start walking at 6am you have a solid 2 hours to see
things on your own before you risk getting caught hiking the trails unguided.
Note that the walk from Joffreville to the campsite is quite
a steep uphill, and walking in the hot sun with my camping gear it took me
about an hour to the park office and another hour to the campsite, although
arguably I’m somewhat slower than average.
Reserve de
l’Ankarana: Depending on your interests, one day here may well be enough.
You can do a four hour walk to the petits tsingy and you will see basically
what the park has to offer. The Lac Vert walk I’m told is overrated and
extremely hot and you are unlikely to see animals, so if you are after lemurs,
you might want to skip it. The grotte des chauves-souris does indeed have a lot
of bats, but note that you have to descend (and then later ascend) an extremely
steep, uneven staircase and then climb around inside the slippery cave in the
dark, and you will really only see the shadowy forms of the bats (which
incidentally smell really bad). Let’s just say if I had it to do over, I’d skip
it. But if I’d never seen a cave or a stalagmite or a bat before, then I guess
I would still do it.
There is a campsite in the park that you can drive or walk
to, but it doesn’t seem like it affords any advantage over staying at the basic
bungalows near the park office (10,000 Ar), where they also serve very generous
portions for lunch and dinner at their restaurant.
Andasibe-Mantadia NP:
Note that the Mantadia park and access road were very heavily affected by a
cyclone and are now essentially inaccessible. It is possible you might be able
to walk there (I didn’t try), but I was told all of the paths except the Sacred
Falls are closed.
Mitsinjo Reserve is especially worth a visit at night, since
it’s the only place you can do a guided walk at night, but do note that all
walks in the park have a guide fee that is per
person, not per group, and they are not cheap.
Camping is now 10,000 Ar for a spot with a cover and an
actual bathroom, or 5,000 Ar for a spot with no cover and drop toilets across
the road from the park center, but this latter often has groups of school kids
camping in it and can get loud. Note that the restaurant near the park office
is no longer operational, so the only places to eat are a couple of local
places in town or at the hotels, all of which are a couple of km from the
campsites. There is no good place to stock up on provisions even in the town of
Andasibe, so consider buying your food and snacks in Tana or Moramanga.
PARKS NOT COVERED BY
VACLAV
Reserve de Kirindy: This
reserve is outside of Morondava and no one in Morondava seems to be able to
tell you anything about it. It is a lovely reserve where you will see lots of
lemurs, reptiles, birds and even, if you are lucky, the very evil-looking
fossa.
People will tell you it is impossible to reach the park with
public transport, but they are wrong. There are taxis brousses going every morning in the direction of
Belo-sur-Tsiribihina. They leave from the bus station (“estacionnement”), which
is just beyond the main market. Cost is 10,000 Ar and it takes about 2 hours to
reach the entrance to the road to the park. From here it is a hot but
thankfully flat 4-5km walk (took me about an hour) to the visitor center. The
path is off to your left when you are standing at the entrance on the main road,
and it is clearly visible as the only place where cars could drive.
Note that camping is no longer allowed in the park due to
the presence of fossa (predatory wild cats) near the visitor center (I found
this out only after lugging my camping gear all the way over there). There are
bungalows (upwards of 60,000 Ar) or dormitories (27,000 Ar per bed) but they
are frequently booked due to the presence of researchers staying there long
term, so it would be wise to call ahead. They include mosquito nets, bucket showers,
and drop toilets. There is an overpriced restaurant at the visitor center so
you do not have to be self-sufficient with food (meals are 20,000 Ar for just
the main course with side) unless you are on a budget. Do bring lots of water,
as it is hot there and the water is expensive.
It’s worthwhile to do a night walk (30,000 Ar for up to 4
people) and a morning walk (20,000 Ar for up to 4 people), and you can often
see the fossa wandering around near the visitor center in the afternoon. The
giant jumping rats come out at 10 or 11pm, after the lights go out, and for
20,000 Ar one of the guides will wait by their burrows and come running to get
you when one pops out. I felt silly about this and didn’t do it, but if you
really want to see the giant jumping rats and don’t want to risk getting eaten
by a fossa while you wait alone in the dark, this is the way to go.
Getting back to Morondava there is almost always somebody
going in a private 4x4 so if you are friendly you will likely get a ride. Most
of them stop at the Avenue des Baobabs on their way back, though, so be
prepared to wait or to get a taxi brousse from there. Alternatively, walk back
out to the main road the same way you came and you can catch a taxi brousse
from there.
Kirindy-Mite National
Park: This is a very new national
park and is still very much under development. The information available is
extremely little, even from the people in the national park office in
Belo-sur-Mer. First of all, to get to Belo-sur-Mer you have to either rent a
4x4 from Morondava (3-4 hours, at least 200k Ar) or rent a pirogue (around 100k
Ar, closer to 6-7 hours or a lot more, depending on the wind). In Belo-sur-Mer
you can arrange a pirogue to take you to the national park for about 80,000 Ar
for the day. Also, if you make a tour for the whole day, no one will think to
include lunch, so unless you want to eat your own stale crackers, ask them to
cook you lunch (you buy the ingredients and they will cook it on some makeshift
coral barbeques without charging you extra). There are two parts to the
national park: the marine part and the land part. Park entrance fee is 10,000
Ar per person for the land portion.
Marine: This consists of the famous islands everyone tells
you about off of Belo. Be aware that if you just ask a guide and piroguier to
take you to the islands and you say you want to snorkel, they will not
necessarily take you to where you can see any fish. I would suggest talking to
the folks at the NGO Blue Ventures to ask exactly where you should go for good snorkeling,
and have them discuss it with your piroguier so that you go to the right place.
The water right around the islands themselves is rough, there are jellyfish
(annoying and mildly painful but, I’m told, not dangerous), and you wont see
any fish or coral there.
Land: This part involves climbing up steep sand dunes, and
if you include it as part of a one day tour with the islands, you’ll climb up
to the top of one dune where there is a nice view out over a huge lake dotted
with flamingos, and that’s it. What no one will tell you in advance, however,
is if you have the time (at least an hour and a half), you can walk down to the
edge of the lake and actually hike around it. Furthermore, you are allowed to
camp there if you want, but they wont tell you this because they think
foreigners can’t handle camping without amenities, and there are none there (no
toilets, no sheltered campsites). But if you have a tent and don’t mind wild
camping, it is allowed. Of note, they are currently developing this park for tourism
and by the time you get there, there may well be toilets and sheltered camp
sites.
Andohahela National
Park: To be clear I didn’t actually visit this park. It is currently closed
due to increasing violent attacks by zebu-stealing bandits (the dahalo) in the
area. If you are thinking about going, be sure to ask around first to find out
if it’s open. That said, if you get a taxi brousse heading west towards
Ambovombe, you will pass the park office for Tsimelahy about 2 hours in
(clearly visible from the road). But I’m told it’s a long, hot walk from there
to the actual park, so be prepared.
1 comment:
Hi Kim. I am very glad you have found my report useful. Thanks for your kind words - good to know my work was not in vain. Just a small correction - I am not Pole but Czech. Vaclav
Post a Comment