Africa Tips & articles

16 October 2009 4:30pm

Get the giggles in Madagascar

Stephen Fry, star of the BBC’s hit show Last Chance to See, has just returned from one of his favourite destinations, Madagascar. He says,

‘While tourism and eco-travel are popular in Madagascar, it remains a unique and astounding place that most…people will never have visited and about which it is probable they (like me when I arrived) know little. Madagascar certainly came as a surprise, and – in the making of Last Chance to See – I saw my role as a wide-eyed ignoramus as representing the wide-eyed viewer…for whom I had to ask questions.’

If you didn’t have a chance to read about it in Lonely Planet Magazine, check out the highlights below:

Berenty Forest

Berenty, located in the south of Madagascar, is a marvelous spiny forest which is home to the curious ring-tailed lemurs. One sub-species, the sifaka, is Fry’s absolute favourite because their unique movements. He describes how they ‘propel themselves by the most preposterous, giggle-making yet breathtaking dance, bounding sideways in a manner that is calculated to make even the most po-faced primatologist grin with pleasure.’

Baobab Alley

Baobab Alley, located in the south west of Madagascar, is a holy place for Malagasy – who believe that spirits live in the trees. ‘I first saw baobabs as a child when I read St Exupéry’s exquisite book The Little Prince. I never dreamt I would actually stand amongst these strange, strange entities. They look as if they were dropped from another world, a world close to the surreality of Dalí and the silliness of a concept rock album cover, circa 1972.’

Nosy Mangabe

This island can be found in the north. Nosy Mangabe is famous for being the home of the elusive aye-aye lemur. ‘Nosy Mangabe is an absolutely wonderful island. Crazy name, divine place. Beautiful, and exuding a kind of benevolent variety and diversity that is in stark contrast to the rather more scary qualities of so many jungles, forests and wildernesses. Here there are no venomous beasts, no horrible and frightening, savage animals who lick their lips and reach for their napkins as you approach. A jewel of a place.’

Andasibe National Park

In eastern Madagascar sits the Andasibe National Park, home to the not-to-be-missed indri – the largest, and perhaps most beautiful, of all the lemurs. They get their name from the local word indri which means ‘look up there’ – mistaken for the animal’s name by an 18th-century naturalist. Fry says, ‘What really staggers the mind is their call, an eerie song that recalls the humpback whale. Simply unmissable. There’s a lemur island on the reserve too, where diadem sifakas, brown lemurs and tremulously beautiful bamboo lemurs are so habituated to humans that you can have them crawling all over you.’

Wanna read more on Madagascar? Get yourself a copy of our Madagascar & Comoros Travel Guide. Tell the lemurs hi from us!

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