The island Nosy Mangabe is part of Masoala National Park but is located 2km off the coast near Maroantsetra and is 520ha in size. The island is teeming with wildlife and groups of black and white ruffed lemurs have been translocated here from the mainland. No village has ever been located on Nosy Mangabe but fishermen have small huts on the foreshore and visit the island regularly. Old tombs and graffiti by sailors (several hundred years old) can also be seen during treks.

There is a camp run by the national parks centre with toilets and showers, a kitchen and six camp sites.  The camping is very basic but they have done a great job building wooden decking on the foreshore for tents. At any time you can hear the gentle breaking of waves. When we arrived it was almost lunchtime.  We had a refreshing swim followed by a tasty meal of fresh fish. After lunch we started on our first trek on the island. The island was practically deserted when we arrived, but a large group of Peace Corps volunteers arrived the next day for a day trip.

We had seen two different species of leaf-tailed gecko while in Ranomafana and did not expect to see such a different variety as in Masoala. The long, slender, almost blue body coupled with the huge white/silver eyes was a majestic sight to behold. We saw our first geckos sleeping through the day. Our guide Bionic had shown us our first one and after that Anneka and I kept spotting them. Anneka was also the chameleon guru spotting them playing dead or hiding within dense foliage. During the night walk we also saw many leaf-tailed geckos on the move. It was a wonderful experience.

The wildlife in Nosy Mangabe may have been even better than the main part of Masoala; we saw black and white ruffed lemurs, many leaf tailed geckos, chameleons (including Brookesia micra the world’s smallest), bats, many weird insects and four snakes!

We camped on Nosy Mangabe only for one night.  It began to rain heavily at the end of our night walk and only just made it back before getting saturated. We had a quick meal and retired for the night. We lay on our sleeping bags listening to the rain – imagining what may happen tomorrow. Thankfully we managed to keep all of the mosquitos outside of our tent. With recent rains the mosquitos were horrendous.

Masoala National Park was just superb. It is the largest of Madagascar’s protected national parks and covers an area of 2,300km² and another 100km² of marine parks. The park is home to the red ruffed lemur and the elusive aye-aye. Many other species also call Masoala home; the brown tailed mongoose is only found there and humpback whales use the shallow coastal waters as a nursery ground for young. Sadly, many parts of Masoala are still under threat from illegal logging operations that sell rosewood on international black markets.

We took a small motorboat from Maroantsetra down the peninsula to a small rural village which was to be our home for the next few days. The boat ride was spectacular, with huge peaks of rainforest looming up on both sides and clear calm waters. We had lunch followed by a relaxing swim and an afternoon walk in the park. It was really beautiful, with primary forest and lots and lots of wildlife. We certainly could understand why it is considered one of the best national parks in Madagascar.

We spent three nights in Masoala, in a very basic bungalow, no running water and cold bucket showers. It wasn’t exactly your typical Christmas experience, but it was really enjoyable. We saw red ruffed lemurs, white fronted brown lemurs, the brown tailed mongoose, many chameleons, frogs and even a few tenrecs (like small hedgehogs). The insects of Masoala were also quite beautiful and the moss camouflaged mantis was one of the highlights.

We spent three nights in the coastal village of Masoala and trekked to different parts of the park over the three days. This was a good amount of time to spend in the same place. Those with more time (2 weeks) can trek the coastal route around the peninsula from Antalaha to Maroantsetra. Don’t forget your mosquito repellant and malaria meds.

Kirindy Reserve is a privately managed forest in one of Madagascar’s most threatened ecosystems: its dry deciduous forests. There are many animals with 31 different mammals with 8 species of lemur and it is the best place to see the elusive fossa. There are also 50 different species of reptiles. We highly recommend a visit to Kirindy. If you don’t have time to drive out to Tsingy, a good alternative would be to drive from Morondava to Kirindy, stay one night, do a night walk that evening and a morning walk the next day. After that drive back to Morondava stopping off at the Alle des Baobabs for an amazing sunset. Many tourists visit the Baobabs but if you squint you may just be able to pretend all the other ‘Vazah’ are not there.

We really enjoyed our night walk in Kirindy, we saw several nocturnal lemurs and reptiles. The morning walk was also good, where we saw many diurnal lemurs. We saw a few fossa as well as they come into camp for a drink as water is very scarce in this forest. The forest is certainly dry, don’t expect any lush green rainforests here.

Our only ‘gripe’ about Kirindy was that were were practically forced to stay at the Reserve in a room for 120 000 Ar per night, which was high compared to other accommodation we were staying at in the region. We had wanted to camp, but were told that the fossa will eat our tent…hmmm. We felt like the staff took advantage of the tourists and were ripping us off a bit. No cheap accommodation was available, we had to eat at their restaurant and they would add on small prices for many things. Perhaps you could try camp Amoureux instead only a few kilometres away, which is camping, but may be better value. All in all, it was well worth it as Kirindy is an excellent forest teeming with wildlife.