I always find it strange when people are advised not to visit a tropical rainforest area because it’s rainy. One of the defining characteristics of this kind of area is that it rains there all year round.
I’m much more in tune with posters like #1 when she says “rain doesn’t equal bad weather.”
Quite right. It doesn’t, and particularly not in a rainforest area like eastern Madagascar.
In fact, statistically, December counts as one of the driest months in the east and one of the wettest in the west and south. If you orient yourself according to that, then you take in Andasibe, Tamatave, Sainte Marie and maybe Ranomafana, and abandon the rest. But that would be an equally absurd attitude to take.
If you go to Madagascar in December you’ll encounter rain. But a rainy season doesn’t mean that it’s going to rain all day, every day for days on end. The rain may take the form of one or two short downpours with the rest of the day dry, it may fall entirely at night, leaving the day dry, the morning may be rainy and the afternoon dry or vice versa and of course you may get one or more days when it rains all day. In short every combination is possible, but you’re likely to get more than enough dry weather to make your trip enjoyable. And in a humid tropical climate, a good downpour cools things down very pleasantly. In fact you may, like me, find it quite enjoyable to wander around in light rainfall (obviously you take shelter if it gets torrential).
For many years now, I’ve visited Maroantsetra, where the climate is quite similar to Sainte Marie, in the middle of what counts as the rainy season. For the greater part of that time, the weather pattern has been mainly torrential rain at night and blazing hot sunshine during the day. “Rainy season” is a relative term.
Frankly, I can’t think of any rational argument against going to any of the places you mention in your programme in December, but there are a good many arguments in favour.
Do the tour. You’ll enjoy it.
