Madagascar: the Avenue of the Baobabs and the Tsingy de Bemaraha

Arrive in Antananarivo

Ivato International Airport to your hotel in central Antananarivo

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Antananarivo
• Environ 1 h de route

Soir

Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the evening briefing; the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary. Our hotel is central, so if you arrive early you can walk to the Analakely market steps or up towards the Haute-Ville, where old brick houses and churches look over Lake Anosy. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to go through the week: how the 4x4 days work, what to wear on the Tsingy circuits, why we carry cash in ariary, and what the lodges in the west are like. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Malagasy dishes: romazava, a beef and greens broth, zebu brochettes, and rice, which comes with almost every meal here.

Compris

• Pick-up at Ivato International Airport (TNR)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Fly west to Morondava, sunset at the baobabs

Antananarivo to Morondava by air, then the Avenue of the Baobabs

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Morondava
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive to Ivato for the domestic flight west to Morondava, about an hour in the air over the highlands and down to the dry west coast. Flight times change with the timetable, so the morning is kept loose.

Après-midi

In Morondava we meet our 4x4 drivers, who stay with us until day 8, and sit down to lunch near the sea, where fish and prawns from the Mozambique Channel are the local food. The afternoon is free to rest out of the heat or walk the beach.

Soir

About two hours before sunset we drive roughly 20 km north on the sandy RN8 to the Avenue of the Baobabs, a line of about two dozen Grandidier's baobabs, the tallest of Madagascar's species and several hundred years old, now a protected natural monument. We walk the avenue as the light turns gold and the trunks go red, and stay until the trees are silhouettes. Back in Morondava, dinner is your choice.

Compris

• Domestic flight from Antananarivo to Morondava
• Sit-down lunch in Morondava
• Sunset at the Avenue of the Baobabs

North to Bekopaka over two rivers

Morondava to the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunrise, Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, then Bekopaka

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Bekopaka
• Environ 9 h de route

Soir

We leave before dawn to pass the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunrise, with the light on the other side of the trees from last night. The track runs north through dry forest and villages to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, where the 4x4s drive onto a flat vehicle ferry across the wide, red Tsiribihina. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Belo. The afternoon is the roughest stretch, slow and bumpy, broken by village stops and leg stretches. The last crossing is the short ferry over the Manambolo River into Bekopaka, the village at the gate of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, which we reach in the late afternoon. Dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Sunrise at the Avenue of the Baobabs
• 4x4 track north with local drivers
• Vehicle ferries across the Tsiribihina at Belo and the Manambolo at Bekopaka
• Sit-down lunch in Belo-sur-Tsiribihina
• Dinner at the lodge

The Petit Tsingy and the Manambolo gorge

Bekopaka: the Petit Tsingy, then by pirogue into the Manambolo gorge

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Bekopaka
• En bateau

Après-midi

Lunch is back at the lodge, followed by a rest through the heat. In the late afternoon we board pirogues, wooden dugout canoes paddled by local boatmen, on the Manambolo River and float into its gorge, where cliffs rise straight out of the water. We stop at a cave hung with stalactites and pass cliff tombs of the Vazimba, whom the Sakalava regard as the island's first people; your guide explains the fady, the local taboos, that go with them. We are back on the bank before dark.

Compris

• Petit Tsingy circuit with a national park guide, park entry included
• Sit-down lunch at the lodge
• Pirogue trip into the Manambolo gorge, with a cave and the Vazimba tombs
• Dinner at the lodge

The Grand Tsingy

Bekopaka to the Grand Tsingy and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Bekopaka
• Environ 2 h de route

Soir

We are back at the lodge for a late sit-down lunch, and the rest of the afternoon is free: swim, read, or sit by the river at dusk.

Compris

• Grand Tsingy via ferrata circuit with a national park guide, harness and park entry included
• Sit-down lunch at the lodge
• Dinner at the lodge

South to Kirindy Forest

Bekopaka to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, then Kirindy Forest

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Kirindy
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Après-midi

Another long road day, about 150 km and six to seven hours, broken by the river crossings and a sit-down lunch. It is the same track we came in on, as there is no other, but it is shorter than going all the way back to Morondava, because Kirindy Forest sits just off the track south of Belo. We leave Bekopaka after an early breakfast, cross the Manambolo by ferry and bump south through the villages to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina for lunch and the Tsiribihina ferry. In the mid afternoon we turn off into Kirindy, a dry deciduous forest of baobabs and tall hardwoods managed for research and conservation, and the best place in Madagascar to look for the fossa, the island's largest predator.

Soir

We settle into the lodge, and after dinner a local guide takes us on a first short night walk by torchlight for mouse lemurs, geckos and sleeping chameleons. If the road has worn you out, skip it: there is a longer walk tomorrow night.

Compris

• Vehicle ferries across the Manambolo and the Tsiribihina
• Sit-down lunch in Belo-sur-Tsiribihina
• Short night walk in Kirindy with a local guide
• Dinner at the lodge

A full day in Kirindy

Kirindy Forest, from the morning walk to the night walk

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Kirindy

Après-midi

Lunch is at the lodge, and the middle of the day is free while the forest goes quiet in the heat.

Soir

After an early dinner we head out on the main night walk. Kirindy is home to Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, one of the smallest primates in the world, and to the giant jumping rat, which lives only in this part of western Madagascar and comes out after dark. Torch beams also pick out fork-marked lemurs, nightjars, geckos and chameleons on the branches.

Compris

• Morning forest walk in Kirindy with a local guide, reserve entry included
• Sit-down lunch at the lodge
• Main night walk in Kirindy
• Dinner at the lodge

Baobabs by daylight and the flight back

Kirindy to the Avenue of the Baobabs and Morondava, then by air to Antananarivo

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Antananarivo
• Environ 3 h de route

Soir

On the way we stop at the Baobab Amoureux, two baobabs twisted around each other, and one last time at the Avenue of the Baobabs in full daylight, so you see the trunks, the rice paddies and the villages around them as well as the silhouettes you photographed on the first evening. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Morondava, then we say goodbye to our 4x4 drivers at the airport for the afternoon flight back to Antananarivo. The timetable decides the exact times, and if the flight moves we rearrange the day around it. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner in Antananarivo, with your guide and the group, to go over the week and the photos from the Tsingy.

Compris

• Optional early walk in Kirindy
• The Baobab Amoureux and the Avenue of the Baobabs by daylight
• Sit-down lunch in Morondava
• Domestic flight from Morondava to Antananarivo
• Farewell dinner in Antananarivo

Antananarivo's upper town and home

Antananarivo Haute-Ville, then Ivato International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A free morning in the capital. If you want to see more, your guide walks you up through the Haute-Ville, the old upper town of steep lanes, brick houses and churches, to the viewpoints over Lake Anosy and the city, and to the Rova, the hilltop palace compound of the Merina kings and queens, where it is open on the day. The walk takes about two to three hours and is back at the hotel by late morning.

Après-midi

The morning also works as a buffer: if yesterday's flight slipped, we use it to bring you back from Morondava, which is why we ask you to book your flight home for the afternoon. After checkout a driver takes you to Ivato International Airport, about 15 km away and up to an hour in traffic. Book a flight leaving after about 2 pm; for an earlier flight we take you straight to the airport after breakfast.

Compris

• Haute-Ville walk with your guide, including the Rova where open
• Drop-off at Ivato International Airport (TNR)