Normally I travel without much of a plan, deciding every day where I go next. That doesn’t work in Madagascar because there isn’t much of a transport network and what there is is not well maintained, distances are large, and many options just aren’t on the Internet. I found this agency, https://remoterivers.com, that worked out…

Back on the capital but this time with opportunity to check it out. The affluent part is on a ridge that is 200m higher than downtown. The queen’s palace, moat museums and several churches are up here, as is my hotel. Great views. All the attractions are closed, maybe because everybody is packed into an…

When it’s not New Year’s Eve, the Madirokely village on Nosy Be is just a sleepy place. Pretty but there isn’t much to do here. I chose a hotel in the tourist part of town because that’s where the hotels are. There is also a local part with bad traffic, rutted dirt roads, and the…

What dis you do on New Year’s Eve? I went scuba diving. Arranged a dive trip to Nosy Tanikely, a small island not far from Nosy Be where I am staying. The corals are not the brightest I have seen, but they have swarms of fish, turtles, and a shark. It’s not the season for…

The other thing Madagascar is famous for. This is the Avenue des Baobabs not far from Morondava at the west coast. The trees here are a thousand years old, and the oldest in Madagascar is estimated at 2000 years. They rise to about 30m, but their cylindrical trunks with diameters of 3m makes them seem…

There are five species of lemurs on Madagascar. I had already met King Julien. At the Kirindy national forest I got to see three more. I especially liked the sweet white guys. Lemurs don’t appear to be afraid of humans. Also saw a bat that seems to have lost its way and simply hung off…

That’s it with hiking this year, it’s time to head north to Antsirabe, a big town that serves as a transport hub. From there it’s all downhill to the west coast. But since some sections of the road are really rough that would be a 20-hour drive so I stayed in the Colour Café in…

We got a heavy thunderstorm lasting five hours that night of the 24th, with heavy rain and lots of lightning. I was counting seconds to estimate the distance; too close and I would have had to abandon that freestanding tent with its metal poles. It was a good tent but at one point I had…

The 23rd and 24th were the first two days of hiking in the Andringitra National Park. It’s beautiful and a series of relentless ascents and descents, about 600m per day and 11-12km. Camping, no electricity and no network. I had four people with me, the park guide who was hiking with me and three others…

You have seen the Dreamworks Madagascar movies? One of the most exuberant creatures is King Julien,  a lemur with a fancy pineapple headdress lording it over the other lemurs. Lemurs are to Madagascar what kangaroos are to Australia. Technically King Julien is a Kata lemur, but people here call the species King Julien now. Even…

Madagaskar is the world’s fourth largest island, off the coast of eastern Africa. Once again my EU passport did its job and I just walked in with a minimum of formalities and waiting. The taxi ride to Antananarivo (always have to count my a’s here) was traffic hell and I could barely breathe, apparently nobody…