Andasibe rainforest

A Family Trip to Andasibe

(Friday 28th March, 2014)

One of many pretty views from the side of the road between Antananarivo and Andasibe.

Disclaimer: I did not write a journal during this trip, so this will be some writings from memory to describe our journey into Andasibe-Mantadia and the surrounding area.

Because of the visit of my parents back from Denmark and their staying in Antananarivo, I decided to bring them to the rainforest of Andasibe – it is the closest (and easiest) national park to go to if you’re in Antananarivo and are not travelling around Madagascar for more than a week. I had arranged for a driver guide to take us there, around and back.

We drove off from Karthala where we all stayed, and went through the mountains on much the same itinerary as I went with my colleague before. We, too, made a stop at Peyrieras Reptile Reserve where we also saw the chameleons, snakes, moths – however, we opted for the longer walk up the hill where the reserve also houses a small flock of Coquerel’s Sifaka in the forest. We met these and had a nice time being quite close to them.

Coquerel’s Sifaka in Peyrieras Reptile Reserve.

After our visit to the reptile park our driver guide took us to a local restaurant on the road side where we had lunch. Another rice with meat and broth lunch, but we all had an enjoyable time. Driving onwards in the pretty landscape, we eventually made it to our hotel right on the outskirts of the Analamazaotra Reserve. A cosy hotel with cottages called Feon’ny Ala. As we spent the late afternoon and early evening there, we saw a Common Brown Lemur come down to a tree right outside our cottage to forage. It did feel very close to nature.

In the evening we also went on a ‘night safari’ as I had a few weekends prior to. It was another good experience where you got to catch a glimpse of the rainforest at night time; we also saw a pygmy kingfisher, some snails, moths and briefly spotted some nocturnal lemurs in the distance.