Hi,
A few responses to the follow-up questions (a bit wordy – sorry!)
- Did you do Allee de Baobabs/Kirindy with an organised tour? If so, would you recommend it?
We found a car (4x4) and driver in Morondava on our own. Sorry – I don’t have the number for the driver – we just walked around town and bargained a bit until we found a price we could live with. I think we paid about 350.000 MGA but not 100% - it’s a while ago now. The car almost died on the way back to Morondava. We ended up with a good story to tell but if you are short on time you might want to arrange transport through an agency – this way you can do some advance planning and you will probably get a better maintained vehicle.
A bit more about Kirindy: The accommodation is quite spartan and the food just so-so but the wildlife and the forest are super. We didn’t see the Fossa (not the right season) or Madame Berthe's mouse lemur (smallest lemur) but thoroughly enjoyed our stay nonetheless. We stayed at the Parks facilities (as mentioned, quite simple – and watch out for caterpillar “hairs” on your pillow – they can be itchy). There is another place to stay not far away, Camp Amoureux.
http://www.friendlycamp.org/en/camp-amoureux/ We stopped by there on the way back to see the “Lover’s Baobab” and it seemed fine – a bit more upmarket than the park’s accommodation. You could feasibly stay here and take day trips to Kirindy Reserve (probably best to inquire about this first). Night walks in the forest are a big attraction and I’m not sure if that would be doable from here. (They do have their own bit of protected forest here where they do walks but I’m not sure how that compares to Kirindy)
- Same question re: Masoala. It sounds like organised stuff is even more necessary there.
We stayed at Tampo Lodge (
http://www.tampolodge-masoala.com/). Included in the booking was pick up at the airport, boat transfer to the lodge, full board, boat transfer and overnight camp at Nosy Mangabe then the boat and road transfer to our hotel in Maroansetra. (Hotel Relais du Maroantsetra). We arranged our own flights and the hotel in Maroansetra.
(Our guide, Claret, met us at the hotel in Maroansetra and took us on a Tomato-frog-finding-trip in town. The frogs seem to like to hang out close to the sewer canals so not the most pleasant outing, but you do get to see the frog (big and very red) and a bit of the town - we ended up having lunch with Claret and a friend of his at a local restaurant.)
- How was the snorkelling at Anakao versus Belo-sur-Mer versus Ile Aux Nattes? Any major differences, particularly East coast compared to West coast?
First – it you’ve seen great coral/marine life other places in the world Madagascar probably won’t blow you away. That said, I would say the snorkelling at Ile Aux Nattes was definitely better than both Anakao and Belo-sur-Mer (but there was a 4 year gap between the two and that can change things). At Anakao and Belo you need to take a boat/pirogue out a ways. There was also a bit of current. On Ile Aux Nattes we walked from our hotel (on the eastern side – with very shallow water) across to the western coast and waded/swam out to the reef where you can snorkel on the outside of the reef. There may be possibilities of other sites too but we didn’t try any.
- We were planning on focusing on Aux Nattes instead of Ste Marie when we're in that area, like you suggest. Getting between the two is pretty trivial though, right?
It takes just a few minutes to cross over in a pirogue – not a problem. Our hotel arranged pick-up at the airport and the boat transfer to the hotel. Ile Aux Nattes is very small but not “desert island style” - you won’t be on your own, tourist wise. But if you should get bored, or are looking for a change of scenery, you could easily cross over for a few hours or the day.
- If you had to choose only two from the three general areas we're considering (Maroansetra/Masoala area, Ste Marie/Aux Nattes, Southwest coast), which would you go with and why?
That’s why we keep going back – it’s just too difficult to choose!
I think I would choose Masoala and the Southwest coast area. Masoala is a bit more adventurous – the rainforest is beautiful. There is plenty of wildlife but it’s a bit “wilder” than many other parks and, in our experience, the animals tend to keep their distance (i.e. – you need a bit of luck for those great photo opportunities if that is important to you).
Morondava mostly because of Alleé des Baobabs and Kirindy. Anakao is fine for some beach time (and surfing if you are into that) but also a bit busy - and we were there in the low season. While we were in Belo we stayed at Hotel Entremer – a bit of a ways away from most of the lodges/hotels. This suited us very well. Ile Aux Nattes was wonderful but more of a laid-back island place – lovely, but less of an adventure than other regions.
(You did mention diving and as mentioned I have no info about that – that might have an impact on which coast you would want to be on)
Just wanted to add that if wildlife sightings are on your list then we found two of the best parks to be Ranomafana and Andasibe-Mantadia. Ranomafana is very popular but very large so we didn’t find it crowded. Andasibe is busy but the northern part (I think that is Mantadia) less so. Berenty Reserve is also great but a long way to go. You do get to share your meals with Ring Tailed Lemurs and see the dancing Sifakas though.
I’ll be back later with some info on the hotels we stayed at.
Karin.
ps – pictures (2011:
http://bruceandkarin.com/Madagascar.htm) (2015:
http://bruceandkarin.com/images3/Animals.htm) and a travel journal (
http://bruceandkarin.com/Pdf/Madagascar2.pdf) from our 2015 trip (2015 is from Mauritius and Reunion also – Madagascar starts on page 10 of pdf)