Madagascar National Park Visit

Hi..... this may not be what your after but have a read anyway. Its in RANOMAFANA X
English girl sets up a free home stay with a tribal village in the rainforest of Madagascar for others.

In brief, I managed to stay with a real hill tribe in Madagascar thanks to a wonderful young man being my translator and a lot of persistence. Now, as a thank you to him and the village that took me in, I want to help others to feel this life changing experience and help the village as I did. I am not an agency, I will not be asking for any fee and you can be free to email or even call me for advice on how to enjoy this exciting adventure. I’m also not going to over sell it to you. I will write all the positives and negatives about this type of experience so you can make up your own mind whether it’s for you.

In my opinion they are too many of these ‘expensive’ home stay experiences in the world. Many charging around $100 a night run by tour companies. It makes you wonder if any of that money is going to the people or if it is, is this money being used wisely?

Firstly, it was not easy to penetrate this village. With many of the village elders believing ‘the white man is bad,’ considering it is westerners that have exiled them from their own forests for conservation. These people are not willing to give up their time for nothing. But after carful discussions with the village king and elders around a single candle late at night drinking local rum and praying to the spirits we devised a plan.

This village like many others needs help. They live off the land and lack both basic health care and education. But one thing I have learned from a drear friend of mine Christina Dodwell, a famous 60 year old travel writer and owner of one of the biggest charities in Madagascar the Dodwell trust ( Google her, she’s inspirational!) you never give Madagascans cash. Money in the wrong hands is often being squandered on alcohol and other non necessities, as is the problem in villages all over the developing world.

I told them that I hoped there could be a way that others could experience what I had and of course, they asked for money in return. A fair deal. But, as I said, that is not the way to help these people. So, I proposed an idea. ‘If a westerner, were to come and stay with you as I did and in exchange brought you school books, pencils, maps and other things you need at the time, would that be good for you?’ I asked. The king was delighted.

And so, if you would like me to send you a pack I have put together of all the details it would be my pleasure to send it to you. This will include details of the area in Madagascar that it is, the details of the translator who will meet and look after you, where I recommend you stay when your not in the village and other important ‘local tribe’ information that you should read thoroughly. As I told you at the start, I am not a tour operator; this is a no ‘babysitting’ experience. I offer no insurance and no detailed account of exactly what it will entail. But, if you want a real adventure, this is your starting point. Good luck.

1. For current information on entry fees and guide charges in the parks, consult the Madagascar National Parks website at [http://www.parcs-madagascar.com]

2. Night visits in national parks are generally prohibited at present unless they can be done without entering the forest. Andasibe/Mantadia and Ranomafana both offer night “visits” of this kind which involve walking along the road and shining powerful torches into the forest in the hope of seeing an animal. Having observed this in action, I personally would not recommend it as a rewarding experience. Naturally there is a fee, as for any other service you request.

If you visit Andasibe, you should book a night walk with the Mitsinjy community reserve. As this is not part of the national park system but is run by committed villagers to preserve their local ecosystems, it is not subject to the rules of Madagascar National Parks and so you will go into the forest at night. I thoroughly enjoyed this night walk and would recommend it to everybody. In addition, you’d be supporting a very good cause with your money.

1. Many of the best hotels quite simply do not have websites and have mobile phone numbers which change from time to time. Don’t make the mistake with Madagascar of trying to organise every last thing in advance. In many cases it’s simply not possible, and in most it’s not necessary. Most of the time you can just turn up.

“clean, safe, having friendly staff and reasonably charged” can be applied to almost every Madagascar hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Don’t expect “Western” standards of efficiency and don’t expect everywhere to be as squeaky clean as you might in a “western” hotel. My personal preferences are:

Andasibe: The Feon’ny Ala lies next to the forest about 10 to 15 minutes walk from the park office, and you can hear the indri-indri calling. The bungalows are reasonably priced, those with shared external shower and toilets are very cheap. I usually just turn up, but you can call them on +261 20 56 832 02

Ankarafantsika: The “gîte” belonging to the park is the best option – the rooms tend to be on the small size, toilets and showers shared, but I had no problems with that. It also has a pleasant restaurant. There are also well equipped bungalows with internal showers and toilets which are attractively situated and comfortable, though I found the price a bit on the high side. If you take a bungalow, you need perhaps to be aware that one poster on this forum has reported having stuff stolen from their bungalow. Don’t leave your valuables there even when you’re just going across the road to the restaurant. This is one place where I would book in advance: +261 20 62 780 00. This is the number of the park office, and they also run the “gîte”.

Other places to stay are a few kilometres away in a village.

Ranomafana: There’s plenty to choose from, and if you’ll be arriving with your own car, you can just go from one to the other checking out what they offer. The “gîte” at the park entrance is comfortable but basic, I’ve stayed at the Ihary, but would be just as happy to try some of the others.

1. Recommending guides is always difficult, as most are knowledgeable and keen to give good service. I would find it almost more useful to disrecommend the few exceptions. When I’ve visited Andasibe, I’ve always tried to engage either Marie-Ghislaine or Marie-Céline, but that by no means implies they’re necessarily better than the rest – just that they happened to be my guides on my first visit and I liked the way they did things.

Ankarafantsika has a policy of assigning guides in rotation so that everyone has an equal share of the clients. They strongly discourage requesting a specific guide, though obviously they take clients’ language needs into account.

1. In most cases, it’s physically impossible for motor vehicles to actually enter a park, and where it is possible, private vehicles are usually not authorized. Ankarafantsika is one exception – you can use your own vehicle to visit the Lavaka d’Ankarokaroka canyon, but it will need to be a 4x4, and there’s a charge (easily affordable) for it. The canyon is stunning and well worth a visit. If you don’t have your own 4x4, you can either hike to the canyon or book the Park’s own vehicle.

2. A saloon car is perfectly OK to get to the reception offices of all the parks you mention, though in the case of Ranomafana you’ll need to take the southern road in closer to Fianarantsoa. The northern road in would really need a 4x4. You can also, if the driver is willing, use a saloon car to get to the Mantadia section of Andisabe/Mantadia, although the track is pretty rough.

3. Whether you hire your car inclusive or exclusive of fuel depends on what you agree with the hirer. Many hirers prefer an inclusive arrangement, as they can factor in a fuel component that will increase their profit. For that reason, I prefer to hire exclusive of fuel, as I then pay only for what goes in the tank and I decide how much and when. Fuel prices in Madagascar at the end of May were: diesel 2680 ariary/litre, petrol 3240 ariary/litre. Not so very different from price levels in some European countries.

4. Recommending a driver is a bit more difficult, as I prefer to drive myself. A guy who I hired for an excursion recently is called Mandresy. He impressed because he stopped for a chameleon and removed it from the road. Many drivers would have just run over it. His cell phone is +261 32 40 235 45. I didn’t think to ask him what his daily rate for long hires would be or whether he speaks English, because I didn’t anticipate engaging him again. You can find out both by calling him.

I would look for a price of around 25 to 30 euros per day exclusive of fuel but inclusive of the driver’s food and accommodation.

OK, I think that covers your questions. My final piece of advice: your request sounds very much like the way I felt when I was trying to set up my first trip to Madagascar years ago – because I was travelling with two kids, I wanted to fix up everything in advance (and also to know exactly how much cash I’d need). When I found I couldn’t do it, I was pretty frustrated and a bit nervous about how things would go. It didn’t take very long to find out that you don’t need to fix up things in advance. Just go and do it! The only things I ever book in advance nowadays are certain specific hotels that I know to be very popular, and the self-drive car hire, because there are so very few companies that offer this.

Enjoy!

Hello Marogisa,
Thanks for in detail information. I will contact all the sources as per your suggestions.

Forgot to say that you really should visit the Vakona Forest Lodge lemur sanctuary, perhaps combine with a trip to Mantadia. A wonderful opportunity to get up close and personal with several species of lemurs - absolutely delightful!

Hi Marogisa

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. Marogisa - you mentioned that you hired a driver & car recently. How did you go about finding someone? I'm trying to arrange something from out of the country but would be happy to wait until I'm there. I tried doing it through my hotel which was very expensive.

Thanks in advance for your help