#ankarafantsika

To start off the Easter holidays we took a short trip to Majunga, via Ankarafantsika National Park. This was our first time travelling by Cotisse. If you’re planning travels around Madagascar you have probably come across taxi brousse as an option for getting around. Cotisse is basically a glorified version of your regular taxi brousse. It’s a more professional looking cooperative of sprinter minibuses, that are more reliable, and more punctual with their departure and arrival times (they also have wifi). Although I’ve not yet travelled by taxi brousse, it looks like Cotisse buses are a lot more spacious as well. It costa 38,000 ariary (£8) per person for each leg of the journey, and it’s about 11 hours each way between Tana and Majunga, including a stop for lunch halfway. To get to the national park (about 9 hours drive from Tana) we booked seats between Tana and Majunga on two consecutive days, so that we could be dropped off to spend a night in the national park along the way, and be picked up the next day to continue to Majunga. The entrance to Ankarafantsika national park is located on the main road to Majunga so it’s an easy place to stop or be dropped off. We were a little concerned that the second Cotisse would forget to pick us up on the second day, especially since there was no mobile phone signal in the park (for Airtel at least), but we stood on the side of the road waving like lunatics and the bus stopped for us to hop on.

It was hard to find information or contact details about accommodation in the national park, so we went prepared with tent and sleeping bag. At the park entrance there is an Eco-lodge with camping shelters to pitch a tent. There are some bungalows available, but from what I can tell from reading online they are booked quickly and you should reserve (although I really don’t see how you can reserve with no contact phone number or email address for this site). We camped, which was only 6,000 ariary (just over £1) per tent per night. There are shared toilets and showers available, which are far from luxury but do the job. I really recommend bringing a torch to move around the campsite in the night and also to use on tours. There is a restaurant at the site, which is a little overpriced but nothing crazy (for example about 9,000 ariary for a simple breakfast). The nearest town is 2km down the road (you can access by taxi brousse) where there are other Malagasy restaurants, although these are generally no good for vegetarians. Also part of the campsite is the Durell conservation and research center, where they are breeding the rarest tortoise in the world to be released into the wild. These animals are under heavy security, since they are illegally traded for thousands of dollars, but you can take a look through the fence.

Price to enter the National park for one day is 55,000 ariary (about £13), and guided tours are very reasonably priced (20,000 to 40,000 ariary per group depending on which circuit you choose). You cannot go into the national park without a guide, nor can you walk along the main road at night without a guide - perhaps due to the crocodiles living in the nearby lake. We did two tours, the animal circuit where you hope to see lemurs and reptiles, and the lake circuit where you hope to see crocodiles and birds. We saw lots of amazing animals, including the Coquerel’s sifaka, Sportive Lemur, Rhinocerous chameleon, Rufous Vanga, Madagascar Fish Eagle, and a couple of crocodiles from a distance!

Oplurus cuvieri

Look, a nice beach. We will get to that later.

Ankarafantsika Rice Paddies

After the great time in Nosy Komba we decided to make our way down to Mahajanga. Because it is such a long way we thought it would be best to split it up over a few days.

The first day consisted of a slow boat ride back to the mainland followed by a couple of taxi brousses to get to Antsohihy. I think that Philie and Vicky would consider that taxi brousse from Ambanja to Antsohihy as their worst one yet (they haven’t had the pleasure of being vomited on).

The next day we thought we would go to a town called Mampikony, spend the night and then head to Mahajanga the next day. Our hotel booked us a taxi brousse, and after we got on at 7am it proceeded to leave town with just the 3 of us as passengers. This seemed highly unusual as we were used to either waiting for 2 hours for it to be (over)filled or driving around for 2 hours collecting (too many) passengers. Philie and I were pretty confused, but fortunately Vicky reassured us by saying “I think we are being taken out into the middle of nowhere to be robbed”.

Despite Vicky’s reassurances, in a strange twist of events, we didn’t get robbed (I can hear the collective cheer), we picked some more people up along the way and arrived in Mampikony uneventfully. It was also unexpectedly comfortable (for a taxi brousse - everything is relative) so we decided to go crazy and go all the way to Mahajanga. This turned our planned 5 hour travel day into a twelve hour one, and my butt was not happy with the decision, but arriving that day was quite nice.

Mahajanga is a major west coast port town. It was busier than we expected. The city was nice, but nothing special. We went to the museum. It was closed. But on the bright side we didn’t have to pay an entry fee. (Trying to find the positives in an otherwise pointless exercise)

We did however have a great day going to the beach, Grand Pavois (this is the first photo), and the nearby Cirque Rouge. They were both pretty impressive, but we didn’t quite leave ourselves enough time to properly explore the cirque rouge.  While eating lunch at Grand Pavois our waiter tried to convince us that people get robbed at Cirque Rouge and we needed him to come with us (obviously for a decent fee). He explained that if we had a Malagasy person with us we wouldn't have any trouble.  But seeing as he (and everyone else we come across) thought I was Malagasy, we figured I could be the 'guide'. 

Cirque Rouge

After Mahajanga we headed to Ankarafantsika National Park - a 3 hour taxi brousse ride away.  This place was pretty cool, Philie and I camped here for 3 nights and we did a lot of walks around the area.  Our guide, Gabriel, was awesome and he was very committed to trying to help the children in the nearby village. 

Ankarafantsika Canyon

Patterns on the Rocks in Ankarafantsika Canyon

We also saw the Coquerel's Sifaka (pronounced "See F***er"), which is now our favourite lemur. (This is a pretty big call because all the lemurs are supercool).

Coquerel's Sifaka

Male Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher

Flatid Leaf Bug, Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar by Frank.Vassen on Flickr.

Notre niche temporaire dans la forêt

  Ce matin notre Soulouf est revenu. Moi je n avais pas très bien dormi avec toute cette eau salée d’hier ! On a quitté la niche du Village Mena, dit au revoir a Nelle la patrone et Olivier son humain et on a repris la…