Morondava to Toliara Overland

By the way, if anyone else is out that way in September who wants to tag along, the more the merrier. One other friend will be on the trip (if all other plans work out!) and we're happy to share the car hire/boat costs!

I plan on doing exactly the same thing - but I'm leaving in 2 days. Will let you know how it went, if you want - PM me, should I forget to post here in 3 or 4 weeks.

Hi Pete,

Good question, we are considering same as you.. but we are arriving end of Sept in Mad.. might be too late to join you
rgds
Hanspeter

OK, reporting back as promised.

You'll see lots of posters in Morondava advertising sea transfers to Belo-sur-Mer and even on to Andavadoaka but if you enquire you'll find out these are all on demand only. (Except for the taxi bé de la mer which might run with a modicum of frequency).

I ended up getting a vedette from Morondava to Belo and then on to Morombe, then a 4WD to Andavadoaka and another 4WD to Tulear. I would definitely recommend staying for a few days in Belo (with a visit to Kirindi Mitea) and Andavadoaka. Granted I only drove through Ifaty but it didn't strike me as a place I'd want to stop at, even for a coffee. If you're looking for a place to break the looooong drive between Andavadoaka and Tulear, Salary is way nicer.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. If travelling by sea, you might end up going against the wind. Think a very choppy ride in a motor boat and not much progress at all if you're sailing as the Vezo haven't so far figured out how to change tacks to sail close to the wind. At least in July the prevailing winds are southerlies - email any local hotel for September info

2. Petrol costs as much as it does in Europe so hiring a motor boat will be expensive. Ditto for a 4WD (200 000 for the 45 km between Morombe and Andavadoaka, for instance). If you decide to hire a motor boat, our skipper Paul is well known all along the coast and is considered one of the best. We booked him through MadaConnnection in Morondava, a part of a local cabal that owns hotels and travel businesses all along the coast, including Hotel Baobab in Belo and Coco Beach in Andavadoaka. His (?) boat - I don't really know if it's really his or it's owned by the company - is called 4x4 de la mer.

3. There are no ATMs between Morondava and Tulear. Plan accordingly. I somehow thought I'd be able to get some cash in Morombe so ran out of money in Andavadoaka and had to go the most expensive way, i.e., call Tulear to have them send a 4WD to pick me up and take me back to a working ATM. Otherwise I could have taken a pirogue to Salary or Manombo and a taxi brousse from there

Oh, and I can't really see how you can do the whole thing in 3 weeks. I had about that long, didn't do any river trips nor went to the Tsingy and still had to fly from Tulear to Tana to catch my plane back to Europe

If you need any hotels recommendations, feel free to PM me

P.S. By the time you get to Andavadoaka you'll be sick of the spiny forest. And the road only follows the coast for a little bit anyway. You might just as well double back to Morombe and fly to Tana. Oh, and don't bother with the baobabs around Morondava. You'll have your fair share of those later on - and in a much less touristy setting.

We were in Morondava in the beginning of July 2008.
I saw quite a lot of posters for a combined navette and 4 WD truck service linking Morondava and Toliara. It stops in Belo and Salary. It should depart every second saturday in the dry season. None of the locals I asked knew of this.

Madaconnection was quite helpful on all means of transport.

Nevertheless we chose the Camions Brousse to Tulear. It is actually a short 4WD bus which strives it way through the bush on bumpy dirt track. At nighttime the passengers are asked to cross the rivers by foot, so the bus has minimum load when it drives through the low water.
I reckon that we experienced all kind of technical problems, so it took 55 hours to Ifaty. That included an unplanned stay in Bevoay as the ferry had to be fixed (They have some huts you can rent). Still I reckon that Morondava - Toliara will take at least 30 hours. The road from Bevoay down south is quite good compared to the roads leading to Manja.

Such a bus trip is what sometimes happens in the third world. If you decide for the overland you should prepare yourself with patience, food and appetite for seeing a very remote part of this island.

The combined navette-katkat service was supposed to be run by the same Madaconnection/Hotel Baobab/Coco Beach gang. As I understood from talking to expats along the coast, it never really took off. I don't remember now whether it was the boat that gave up the ghost or the 4WD now (probably the latter). Oh, and at EUR180 one way it would be a bit on the expenive side - you could as well take the plane