Tana - Tulear-Tsiribihina-Tana Circuit

Hi,

I'm flying to Madagascar in mid-December for a month and was planning to make a trip from Tana down to the Tsiribihina River, down to Tulear and back up towards Tana taking in Isalo and Ranomafana PN as well as PN Andasibe-Mantadia. Is it feasable to do this circuit in a month, and without flying? I've seen mentioned in a couple of guides that you can get a boat from Morondava to Tulear - has anyone done this?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Hi

A month is ample time to do what you want - I've done that and more in a month without feeling hassled for time. As you're going in December, you'll probably find that the Tsingy de Bemaraha, which many people combine with the river trip, is inaccessible, so that will save you time.

When I was last there, the ferry (a good-looking modern vessel) went from Morondava down to Belo sur Mer, which is only about 70 km away, so we went back to Antsirabe by road to get to Toliara. Trying to get by road from Belo south to Morombe and Toliara looks very interesting but would eat into your time.

"Landerson" is currently the most prolific spammer on this part of the forum, but he seems very inefficient. He used to give a web address that you can't access, now I suppose he's either forgotten to put it in or he wants you to PM him. Why do you need a second identity ("julvadrucker") now, Landerson? Who do you think you're fooling?

Marogisa, why don't you mark his scribbles as spam? I did it yesterday and today both landerson's and his other incarnation's posts got deleted. By the way I think the same person used to publish by different ID earlier this year - I guess by noticing the same mistakes...

Why don't I? Because basically I'm ambivalent about this. These are guys who are trying to earn a living, and how else are they supposed to make contact with potential customers?

"Landerson" at least is honest enough to make it clear that he's looking for business, in contrast to F3008, who is the current other major spammer.

I suppose I go for a middle way by pointing out to people who may be new to the forum who they're dealing with. It's then up to them whether they try and contact him or not. For all I know, he may be a good guide - or not.

It's quite possible that he's operated under another ID in the past, but not necessarily so. These guys are all Malagasy native speakers, so they'll all make broadly the same mistakes in their English and structure their texts in the same entertaining way. They will also have learned their English in the same school system, which I know from a fair amount of direct experience all too often produces the kind of dire English that characterises "Landerson" and other spammers.

Reporting a spammer, by the way, doesn't always get the postings removed - Some time ago, I reported F3008, who pretends to be a tourist, has signed himself with several different names over the past couple of years, and who until recently used to post a "guide's" e-mail address which he'd earlier given as his own. His postings weren't taken down - perhaps the moderators have the same sort of sympathy with these guys that I do.

Thanks for the info Marogisa, they're really helpful! :)