On the boat

We started with 3 hours tour seeing the indri. After a few hours of road travel we embarked in a not too big not too safe boat. Two hours of sailing on lakes and channels.

Back to Tana

Flight back to Tana. Massage, rest.

Tana Andasibe

The earlisest wakeup. Reptile park. Crocodile farm. Lemur island. Evening walk with not too much success.

Tulear

Change program and spend a night in Tulear. On the way sapphir mining and stop in an arboretum. Nice hotel with a moschito.

The extremely long trip to Antsirabe.

Stops at bridges, gold mine.

From Antsirabe to Ranomafana

Gems, wood carving, dance, rice fields.

Ranomafana

Day tour in the park. Up and down. Bamboo lemur. Afternoon rest with some macro photos in the garden. Evening tour with mouse lemur, chameleons and frogs.

From Ranomafana to Isalo

Rice fields, silk, paper, market. Lunch in Anja. After lunch a short visit to a forest with lemurs.

Isalo

Le jardin des Roy lodge, the best one up to now. Early tour in the park, like grand canyon. Scorpion, bath in piscines naturelle. In the evening star photos

Great tsingy

Early wakeup, 1,5 hours drive to the great tsingy. 4 hours tour. Chameleon in our garden.

Little tsingy

We had again an early wakeup, then had a boat tour in the gorge. Lots of birds, a small cave and some old sacred tombs. Then we went into the little tsingy. In the evening we took a private tour, a night walk seeing mostly chameleons.

Towards the Tsingies

Early wakeup. Kirindy forest eith some lemurs and fossa. Very long dusty and bumpy road crossing 2 rivers by so called  ferry. Night in Le soleil de tsingy. Boa.

Long way to the baobabs

Flight to Morondava. 4wd on bad roads. Baobab avenue. Night in Champs Amoureux. Night walk. Sakalava.

Lemurs

Well, we have seen them only in the lemur park but they are really funny. The 20 km-s to the park we did in an hour. It is not simply a permanent trafic jam but buses stop to let people in and out, people are walking on the road, including hundreds of beggars, etc. The guide in the park was knowledgeable and nice, and the lemurs were close to us and not shy at all.

Tana

Appears to be one of the most unsafe cities in the world. We were highly adviced not to go by foot in the city. If we still want, then eventually with completely empty pockets and no camera. Finally we took a ride with a driver. It was interesting but also frightening with lots of beggars, drunk or drug takers, or simply young people with bad faces.

The flight

It was long and boring. From Budapest to Paris it was the standard, then a long and not too obvious transfer. The aircraft from Paris was full with almost no space for legs. Food was basic. Crossing the border in Tana airport has been a challege. Some of the border officials asking whether I have some present for them. Passport, visa, health status checked in a chaotic setup, but finally I am in the hotel.

Airport

Ready for flight. The luggage has been sent to Tananarive, I sit in the MC lounge waiting for the gate announcement. No big thoughts at this time.

Ready

That means:

- backpack ready, batteries charged, lenses cleaned
- passport, money, credit card, insurance packed, flight checked-in
- luggage ready
- taxi ordered

This looks simple but there is a hidden activity of months for organizing, changing program, getting the right vaccines, finding an insurance company outside of Hungary, deciding on which lens to take with me, browsing the net to see what photos to expect, background reading, organizing the visa, etc.

And of course, it will turn out that I took useless things with me, the lenses have spots and I forgot to take some important items. But that's part of the story.

I don't know really what to expect. How the group will be, how exactly the weather will be, how locals will look at us, how rich the wildlife will be, how often we will have wifi, and so on.

Still, I start with great expectations. Be prepared for shocking photos!

Early thoughts

Always begins with why? Why Madagascar? Thanks God, I have here an easy answer. We were preparing a Madagascar trip for years, but for country security reasons we needed to postpone it. To be honest, it looks like nothing changed as the Ministry of foreign affairs still does not recommend Madagascar to be visited. However, a lot of tourism is there, we do  not hear of tourist attacks, so, here we are.

Still, this time it is not a private tour only for the two of us - Radu and myself, but we have joined a small group of 12 people, coming mostly from Australia. I hope they are as enthusiastic photographers as I am, otherwise what else to in Madagascar?