Ankify Getting there & around

Getting there & away

The road between Ankify (where ferries depart to Nosy Be) and Diego Suarez to the northeast is well sealed and serviced by dozens of sardine-packed taxis-brousses every day. It is never hard to catch a ride if you need to get across the top of the island, but beware it is an arse-numbing six-hour journey (Ar30, 000) even in a ‘direct’ minibus. In Madagascar, direct doesn’t mean the minibus doesn’t stop, it just stays stopped only long enough to fill itself beyond bursting every time someone disembarks along the way! Most people only see this area through the smudged glass of their speeding taxi-brousse, and there is little reason to stop. If you do, however, there are a few towns in this largely unpopulated, and very poor, northern central region. Nondirect taxis-brousses often stop for lunch in Ambanja, which can last for hours.