Return from North East trip!

So I just got back from a month in Madagascar. Found it to be an adventurous trip and just right for the more experienced or slightly jaded traveller. We didn't speak much French, but somehow got buy. I did feel a bit ignorant for not speaking much though so consider it worth learning some.

I went from Tana to Moromanga (2500 in a taxi brousse)
Moromanga to Andasibe (2000ar taxi brousse)
We hired the national park 4x4 to go to Mantadia National Park for 90000ar return. Can thoroughly recommend this place as it just feels so much more wild, pristine and remote than Andsaibe NP. Saw 6 species of lemur in the park. Think a full day guiding was 80000ar.
Getting to Tamatave was a bit of a pain from Andasibe. We were told that our best option was to head back to Moromanga and get a taxi brousse from there. However, when we got to Moromanga, it turned out that there was only one taxi brousse a day and it left at 7am. Our next option was to get a taxi brousse coming from Tana from the main road. However, these are always full as the passengers get on at Tana with the intention of going all of the way. However, some helpful locals helped us find a pickup which we hitched with. I don't know if we were just lucky.
Melissa Express to St Marie (can't remember! 80-130000)
Stayed at Le Bon Endroit in the north of St Marie and really enjoyed it. We were the only ones there. Facilities were basic and the snorkelling and beach are not particularly great. However, the location is beautiful and remote and there are plenty of activities like kayaking and a very interesting walk to the dramatic eastern coast. The meals are whatever was caught that day and the village above it is very traditional. Whales off of the coast Price is very reasonable.
Then went to Ille Aux Nattes for 2 nights. I thought this place was fairly average. I'm sure lots of people will like it more than St Marie as it is very tropical and picture postcard beautiful, but for me there were too many hotels and it just wasn't quite as interesting as the main island. Same goes for the south of St Marie as opposed to the north. Driving through, it just seemed more congested and less pristine than the remote north.
boat to Maroensetra (230000ar) You must spend an obligatory day in Soaneirano Ivongo as the boat from St marie does not arrive in time to meet the boat to Mananara/Maroansetra. In fact, the boat to Maroansetra left at 4am in the dark, looking out for shifting sandbacks and the oncoming waves of the Indian ocean using head torches. Travel time 8-10hrs to Maroansetra.
Maroensetra is an authentic town with some amazing hats adorning people's heads! The market is worth a look around for its authenticity.
Trip to Masoala/Nosy Mangabe. Two of us spent 2 nights on Masoala and 2 nights on Nosy Mangabe for a 5 day trip. Price quoted 1.400,000ar for both of us for the whole trip, but little extras were added to make it about 1.5milar. The boat is expensive. This was quite a big price, but considerably cheaper than any lodge.
Flight to Sambava on the oldest, shoddiest plane I have ever seen. A duel propeller plane that fitted about 10 of us onboard. It was not a happy flight for me. My experience with Air Madagascar was terrible all round as they didn't seem like they were going to let us onboard at one point due to overbooking, even though we had confirmed. I purposefully made sure this was the only flight I booked with them and am glad.
Sambava-Marojejy (5000ar)
Marojejy is the most beautiful place in the world for me personally. There is something quite stunning about hiring a team, walking through unspoilt villages and purchasing food, and then climbing up a sacred mountain to see the incredibly rare 'white lemur,' the silky sifaka. I had quite bad conditions, but was keen to make it to the summit. The usual summit trip is over 4 days, but I requested to attempt it in 3, and they assigned me a young, fit guide called Franco. It was tough, but I made it to the summit on the second day after getting up at 4:45am and climbing for relentless hour after hour in the rain. My view from the top was obscured, but coming down the clouds parted as I reached the viewing platform from just below camp 3. Wow. Pure wilderness with no sense of humanity. Unbelievable. The view from camp 2 surely makes it the best campsite in the world. I got to the bottom, exhausted, and was told that the silky sifakas had been found so had to head up the mountain again! Luckily, they were not too far. If you are happy eating Malagasy food like rice, beans and veges then you do not need to bring food with you. In fact, I would suggest you don't so you can help the local villages by purchasing direct from them. 3 day climb including 2 guides (one to stay with my girlfriend who was not crazy enough to summit), a cook, a porter for the food, fees including bungalow and a 'sipona specialist' to track the silky sifakas came to about 300000ar. Food was an extra few thousand ar.
Back to Sambava and taxi brousse to Vohemar (5000ar). Even though the distance is not too far, this was a particularly painful taxi brousse as I must have been sitting next to the only fat person in Madagascar who gave me a huge dead leg.
By this point everything was so unplanned, but went to Galaxy Hotel where the owner speaks English. he hooked me up with a woman who owns a 4x4 to get me through the next section, which is an incredibly bad 157km road. Private hire for both of us from Vohemar direct to Ankarana NP was 600,000. Extravagant, but oh so worth it. The huge bus 4x4 bus type things that go from Vohemar to Ambilobe were about 30,000 and the smaller 4x4s 60,000. The huge buses looked like hell. We saw 2 simply stuck in the mud whilst trying to go uphill. The passengers had emptied out and were walking, but where to is anyone's guess. Even when they get through I imagine it takes 3 days or so.
Tough journey, but the scenery (which I had not read anything about) is spectacular and rugged with a wild west type frontier feel to it. Coming from a long time in the jungle, it was most pleasant.
We stopped at the Daraina reserve which makes the whole journey worthwhile. The golden crowned sifakas there are very inquisitive and come down to investigate you. One mother had a baby which was very close to us. They are beautiful creatures. The situation they are in is less than idea as gold miners are felling trees to explore the area (themselves very poor). These charismatic creatures survive on the few remaining trees large enough to support them.
left Vohemar at 6.30am. Arrived Ankarana at 9.30pm
Ankarana NP was great. Tsingy amazing. Again, new scenery for us. Stayed at Goulam's Lodge which was 50,000ar (a bit on the expensive side I felt), but his guiding was really very good and he could reel off all manner of names of things in Latin. If I had more time I would like to do the multi day hike that explores both sides of the park. As it went we only had two days to explore the eastern side and not the caves of the western side. The Bat cave on the eastern side was interesting though. I am not a particularly 'cavey' person so perhaps that was enough!
Goulam reserved us an overnight taxi brousse coming from Diego and heading to Majunga. (60,000ar) It was a fairly hellish journey and for safety reasons I would not suggest driving at night since there are no lights and zebu carts all over the place. We took our chances as we did not fancy doing the same journey over the course of several days. The driving is reckless. We mowed over a dog on the way. In fact on taxi brousse journeys in the country we hit baby geese, ducks, chickens and the dog. All down to reckless driving. To my privileged, animal loving western mind, this saddened me.
Got out at Ankarafantsika NP. The least interesting of the parks we visited, but still well worth a visit. The canyon was nice, as well as the sifaka. On the way back form the canyon, night fell, and this was a really fantastic are for nocturnal species. We saw numerous mouse lemurs.
Another overnight taxi brousse back to Tana (30,000)
Got back and our flights had been cancelled by Air France due to the pilot strike. Nightmare as had to be back this week for the start of a masters degree. Managed to get them switched in the end, but my immue system took a battering!

Typed that out with great haste, with little consideration for grammar or readability. Hope it may of be some help/interest to some!

A few piccies from this really incredible trip. I found it a captivating destination:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/66590211@N08/

Enjoyed reading your trip report, several times over. Did some of what you did some 11 years ago ands seems like not much has changed except prices.
thanks
cherrio

Great report, thank you for sharing.

Jon