We spent our last 10 days on the coast in Toliara (Tulear) in the south west of Madagascar, mainly to chill out and recharge, but also to visit the spiny forest. We caught a taxi brousse from Isalo (Ranohira) to Toliara, which took 5 hours. We arrived late, just before 10pm and stayed a night at Chez Alain, which was very pleasant and had a good restaurant (luckily still open).

From Toliara, we travelled 40km north to a beach called Mangily. We checked into a lovely bungalow right on the beach, with incredible sunsets, at a hotel called ‘Bamboo Club’. It had a little family of mouse lemur living in the roof and one had made a little home in the back of a speaker. The days floated by surprisingly fast, as they always seem to do on holiday. We only ate, slept, snorkelled and lazed by the pool.

We did take a walking tour into the spiny forest one evening, which was very interesting and surprisingly cool considering the desert climate. The plants and creatures were out of this world, twisted baobabs, weird cacti, hissing cockroaches and spiky tenrecs (impossibly cute and look just like little hedgehogs).

After a week or so, we had to move back to Toliara. We decided to visit the Antsokay Arboretum, a hidden gem and a very pleasant surprise. This was a lovely way to end our time in Mada, what a find this was, in what felt like the middle of nowhere. Antsokay is an extremely well presented little resort that established an arboretum over 20 years ago. The arboretum displays the wonders of the spiny forest over a 2-3 hour walk. This place had a pool and great wifi in the restaurant, so we were very happy to spend our last few days here. We were also extremely lucky to spend a last evening with our friend, Barry Ferguson, an inspirational social and environmental justice warrior (hope you don’t mind that description Barry!) Thanks Barry for a memorable last evening, with a feast of whole sheep, goat and spirited dancing in the sand.

Sadly, this was our very last stop in Madagascar, before flying to Johannesburg. There were a few tears welling as we drove to the airport, passing typical Malagasy scenes of palm trees, rice paddies, friendly vendors in front of their shacks, more than a few potholes and stray dogs. We met many inspiring people and made amazing friends. Veloma Madagascar, mandra pihaona (see you again soon).