We visited Andasibe to meet with a local community organization called Mitsinjo and to visit Ambatovy, a nickel and cobalt mine site on the outskirts of the national park.  Andasibe village is a quaint Malagasy town, dissected by a river and descended upon by thousands of tourists throughout the year wanting to catch a glimpse of the Indri Indri.  The Indri Indri is the largest of the lemurs and a spectacular sight to see. The Indri’s home is the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park which is located roughly 3-4 hours drive east from Tana on RN2.

It is possible to catch a taxi brousse directly to Andasibe from Tana.  These are however limited and very expensive.  The cheaper option is to take the taxi brousse to Moramanga (7 000Ar, about $3) and then catch a connecting local taxi brousse for the remaining 45km to Andasibe. This was the most squished we have ever been in a taxi-brousse, they really squeezed us in. Anneka had marary kibo (an upset stomach) and we were very glad when the van finally took off and dropped us at our hotel – Marie Guesthouse, within an hour. As Anni wasn’t feeling too well, we took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

The next morning we walked to Mitsinjo, the local community organisation, which is less than 2km from Marie Guesthouse. Remember to come back soon to read our post on Mitsinjo!

We also visited Ambatovy nickel and cobalt mine. Representatives from Ambatovy visited Alex’s old work, Alcoa in Western Australia about 4 years ago, to learn best practice for forest rehabilitation. Because of this, we were invited to visit Ambatovy’s operations and to see their rehabilitation. They have not done much reforestation yet, but from what we could ascertain they were doing a pretty good job. The company genuinely seemed committed to restoring the forest after mining activities.

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park is famous for the Indri Indri but also contains many other species of lemurs and is well renowned for its orchids and reptiles. We visited Mitsinjo Reserve and Mantadia national park while in Andasibe. When trekking through Mantadia your guide will take you through some breathtaking primary forest with large trees that have been saved from logging. Some 14 species of lemur live in and around Mantadia however you must work hard for the rewards.  Our guide spent over 4 hours tracking several families of the black and white ruffed lemurs.  They tempted us with their glorious calls all morning but managed to avoid us for most of the day.

We headed back for lunch and heard their calls again over a ridge. The guide asked if we still wanted to try and catch up with them.  We looked up the steep, densely vegetated hillside and replied ‘yeka’ – and we were off again.  Finally we made it to the top of the ridge but still couldn’t see the group of lemurs we had heard.  The guide spotted them after a while and we spent the next half hour observing these spectacular creatures.  We headed off and finished the day with lunch at a pleasantly cool waterfall.

We stayed at Marie Guesthouse which was quite cheap – 25 000 Ar. You can hear the Indri’s wail early in the morning – which can be considered a treat or a curse depending on how lightly you sleep! The rooms were fairly basic, but comfortable enough. The restaurant was good and we really enjoyed learning Malagasy with the waitstaff who were very friendly. It was good that the taxi-brousse drops you right in front of the hotel. The location was good, there is another hotel directly across the road, Feony Ala which also had good food. Mitsinjo was only 20min walk away.

If you only have limited time in Andasibe we would recommend to visit the Mitsinjo Reserve to view the Indri Indri and learn the basics about forest restoration. If you wish to see another national park then Andasibe would be our choice.  Although we did not visit this park, the other option, Mantadia is much more expensive due to car and guide hire and requires hard work to see wildlife that remains mostly hidden in the primary forest.

We spent four days in Andasibe, and would recommend spending at least 3 days there as there is much to see.