Madagascar, Tsingy de Bemaraha, September 21-25 part 1
Tsingy de Bemaraha, September 21-25
With Air Madagascar changing the times – and as an extra challenge, once even the date – of every single flight we have booked with them, we got to Morondava earlier than planned, although via Tana and not with the now no longer available direct flight. Morondava is our starting point on the west coast to visit the limestone pinnacles of Tsingy de Bemaraha. Dorin uses the early arrival time for a first visit to the Allée des Baobabs with its up to 1000 year old trees for the sunset. We will get there also at the end of our tsingy trip, but what if that is not going to be the perfect sunset??? This one was spectacular. He gets there with the little “vintage” Toyota taxi that picked us up at the airport. We are surprised the car made it from the airport, the 40min each way on the country road seems like a miracle.
The next morning, Belaza, our driver for Western Madagascar, picks us up in our 4WD ride. And a 4WD you need on this rough 8h track to Tsingy. Also required, not getting motion sickness and having a jelly-like spine. The road is like an endless beach road, so dusty that the vegetation next to it is coated in red. Driving 40km/h is fast. Still, not the worst road we ever had, that honor goes to Kenya. An interesting experience is the ferry crossing to our mid-point Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, where the cook of the Mad Zebu serves meals that can keep up with French high cuisine. Fun fact, chameleons either hate the color red or Dorin.