After yesterdays winding roads, roadworks, inexistent paths and crazy/absent signalling, which eventually led us to Andasibe, today we are waking up in the middle of the forest; the not-so-cheap-but-worth-it (60€/208k Ar per night) Andasibe Hotel its the perfect spot to fully enjoy nature !
Following the suggestion of many, we wake up really early in order to make the most of our excursion day before the masses of lazy-tourists arrive and luckily by 9am we’re within the few ones crossing the gates at the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park . The park can be currently divided into 3 different areas: (1) Analamazaotra Special Reserve, (2) Mantadia National Park and the last area managed by an NGO (3) Mitsinjo Analamazaotra Forest Station. NOTE: It’s only a 10-15min drive on bumpy road from the hotel.
Once there, we are friendly assaulted by loads of local guides willing to show us around the reserve, one in particular stands out and propose us to be our guide.
Initially, we kindly refused as we thought it was the usual “hassle” of guides trying to convince tourists and head to the admittance office to pay for the entrance permit (10k-15k Ar each). There we asked, what we were suppoed to do in case we wanted a guide. Were the guides outisde “legal” ones allowed to operate on premises? Should we support that? Well, wanna know the answer ?
The guide to choose a guide
Apparently all those guide are official ones and from the moment any tourist steps in the park, a certain guide is assigned to them. In extreme cases you can refuse to have a certain guide if it doesn’t speak english but we were looking for a french-speaking one so all were good. It was then that we realized that the guy who greeted us at the beginning (named Ratelo) was going to be our guide yes or yes. He also happen to speak a bit of english but we weren’t too worried about it.
Ratelo might have not been a superstar in talking to us but his knowledge about the flora & fauna of the area was astounding. He could spot a chameleon some 50mt away (no kidding), dangling from a tree in the deeprainforest… just how, we wondered. After a bit of explaining on which were the routes we could take and in which area, we opted for visiting the Analamazaotra Special reserve and taking the Indri 2 + Anivokely trail to see a bit of everything.
The trails
Analamazaotra Special reserve
- Indri 1: Short 2h trail, mostly observe indri lemurs
- Anivokely: Short 2h trail, easy flat trail to see a bit of everything
- Indri 2: Long 2-4h trail, mostly observe indri lemurs
- Aventure: Long 4-6h trail, observe several species of lemurs and more
Mantadia National Park (official website)
- Rianasoa: Short 2h trail, natural pool and a bit of everything
- Chute Sacree: Short 2h trail waterfall and plenty of wildlife, great for Indri Indri
- Belakato: Average 3h trail, mostly indri lemurs and a small waterfall
- Tsakoka: Long 4h trail, rare lemurs, plenty of flowers and frogs
* It is also possible to do a general visit of all trails called Trekking (around 4h) and take Night Walks (no more than 1-2h, on the main road leading to the reserve).
Mitsinjo Analamazaotra Forest Station
- Vahimantsina: Long 4h trail, a bit of everything
- Babakotokely: Average 3h trail, mostly lemurs and orchids
*It is also possible to take Night Walks (no more than 1h)
Prices
In terms of prices, theoretically speaking guides should follow certain general guidelines to set the price for their service. Nonetheless, we found out that prices depend a lot on how often some guides work, the season and their knowledge. Expect each guide to charge you a different price and its up to you to agree or not with it. Ratelo asked us (only) 15k Ar/person (more or less 5€/6$) to take us on a 4-5h trail.
Our walk and crazy lunchtime
In the end, it takes us around 5hrs to complete a loop and get back to the starting point and wow…it was simply amazing! Ratelo never stopped a second spotting animals all over the places, anything from tiny insects to huge lemur were on his watch. Overall, the during our “safari” we see a couple of Kingfishers, several chameleons, colourful lizards, a Python, an incredibly weird spider, lots of insects and plenty of lemurs (Indri Indri, Sifaka, Crowned). What a magical biodiversity!
For no less than 5h walking up and down slopes, several animals spotted and and always finding awesome spots for photography, we felt Ratelo did an amazing job and tipped him an additional 5k Ar (1€). If you think you’re guide has done a great job, it is common tipping here, anything from 1-10k Ar is fine.
Now that is lunch time, we didn’t want to eat at our hotels so we asked him if he can bring us to the place where all the local guides officially eat: time for local cuisine !
Not so far from the entrance gates, 5min of driving on the park main road, he takes us to at tiny wooden shack “restaurant” that might as well been abandonded from outside. But we’re up for some local delicacies and can’t wait to try some real Malagasy food finally. The funny thing is that the moment we enter the resturant, everyone just stops eating and start staring at us…thankfully, it only takes a couple more of akward seconds for everyone to welcome us, smile and even strike a conversation!
Inside the malagasy cusine
They give us menu, strictly in Malagasy, so we just ask Ratelo to order for us whilst Max orders his plate with the few Malagasy words Ratelo taught him “Tehihinana hena umbi miaraka ovy ahy” or in english “Can I have some beef with potatoes?”.
As expected both Ratelo and the waitress laughs hearing a foreign tourist talk their langugage. Unexpected twist! But the order goes through and a few moments later we all get our local dishes. The variety is not great since we all get rice, potatoes, peas and either some Zebu* or chicken meat but the interesting thing is the drinks. Apparently, it’s common in Madagascar to drink the warm starch that came out of the rice while cooking it because they don’t want to waste any food. To be honest, the drink is not “that bad” but its neither something I would drink at every meal!
Would you believe that for the food for the 4 of us + drinks was a ridiculous 8k Ar (just under the 3€ mark) ? Simply unbelievable the prices you can find if you go a little off-the-track! Just before saying goodbye to Ratelo, we tell him to meet up again later to take us on a Night Walk.
*The Zebu is a type of cattle which is the equivalent of cows for us
The “meh” night walk
After a quick relax break at the hotel, we’re back to where we were this morning to start our second tour. For those not knowing this, the park closes at night so they only way to do this tour is on the asphalt road just outside the gates of the entrance. Well, without beating around bush too much: it wasn’t really worth it! If you’re lucky, you get to see a couple of chameleons and maybe some far away shiny eyes but nothing exciting/unmissable especially because only guides are allowed to keep torches (even if you brought one for the occasion).
Dinner and Ratelo’s story
A bit underwhelmed, we decide to end up the evening with a nice dinner altogether at another local “more fancy” place (in Ratelo’s opinion) which ended up being the same level of fancy of the previous resturant haha. This time, Ratelo opens up a bit more and the whole evening takes an amazing cultural twist full of the adventures that brought this man to be here today.
We learn that he wakes up every day at night (2-3am) and walks the 20km that separates his house to the spot where he might have a chance to get a lift by a lorry driver to the front of the national park. If he doesn’t get the lift he walks back the 20km home and next morning tries again (40km/day walking and he’s like 60 years old). And even if he’s lucky enough to get a lift, he’s not sure he’s going to work that day and nor if he’s gonna find another lorry that can give him a lift home on the next morning.
Todays he’s had a great day – he tells us – he managed to not spend anything and earn the equivalent of his usual 1 week salary. Since we’re gonna be meeting him up tomorrow as well, tonight he’ll be staying at the reserve with his friends but after tomorrow he’ll go back and have some family time at home.
See you tomorrow Ratelo !!!
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