Isalo National Park is located in southern Madagascar on the RN7 heading towards Tulear. The park is well known for its sandstone formations and large canyons. The terrain ranges from rocky cliffs, to beautiful pandanus lined streams and vast dry grasslands. The scenery here was spectacular.

We stayed in a small village called Ranohira located just a few kilometres from the national park. We stayed in a nice relaxed place known as Chez Alice with views of the massif. On our arrival we made contact with a guide named Parson who works with WWF and once worked as a park ranger in Isalo. He was an amazing person and guide. He shared with us many stories about the local Bara people and history of the area. The Bara are traditionally nomadic people that have an unsurpassed fascination with zebu (cattle). If a young man wishes to marry he must first steal zebu to prove that he is worthy of the union. This tradition has almost died out but some remote villages still practice the old customs. He told us many interesting stories like this one about the history of the area mixed in with typically terrible “Dad” jokes.

We spent two full days hiking with Parson within the park. The park entrance and guide fees were the most expensive that we had experienced of National Parks in Madagascar. The first day we saw a huge spectacular canyon, catta lemurs, burial sites, grasslands and a hidden oasis. We had walked for almost 20km before reaching the main road back into Ranohira. Still 9km from town and decided it would be best for us to hitch a ride with someone. Within a few minutes a vehicle came along the road which we tried to hail down. It turned out to be the local police chief! He was happy to take us back into town.

The next day we had a shorter 17km walk. We saw another spectacular canyon into which we walked and followed a stream into the upper reaches. We bathed in a very cool natural pool with a couple of snakes. The wildlife was not visibly abundant in Isalo but the landscape and scenery easily made up for this. Not surprisingly this is the second most visited national park in Madagascar.

False Start (Tana-Maroantsetra)

We were supposed to fly from Tana to Maroantsetra on 18 December 2014. We were about 3-4hrs away from the airport in Andasibe.  We’d booked a car for 8am to take us to the airport, our flight was supposed to be at 1:20pm so were told we had plenty of time. Air Madagascar (Mad Air) is notorious for cancelling/rescheduling their flights at late notice. We had been previously reassured by them that they would telephone us if their was a change, but in Andasibe we didn’t have any phone network. In hindsight, we really should have made sure to call them the night before. An hour into our drive to Tana, we got network coverage, and we see a text message saying our flight had been brought forward to 9:45am! There was no way we were going to make that flight in time. We frantically tried to call Mad Air, and kept losing phone connection. Finally they advised us the flight had actually been cancelled. In a way, this was much better than early takeoff as we didn’t just miss our flight.

The traffic was horrendous through Tana and we only just made it to the airport 45min before the flight was initially scheduled to fly so we would have been cutting it fine in any case. We were advised the flight was cancelled and they would call us later that afternoon. We checked into a hotel. No phone call. We went into the Air Mad office in town and were advised the next flight to Maroantsetra would be in four days! Yay (sarcasm), four days hanging around in Tana. It wasn’t so bad though, we visited Ambohimanga, which is a hill and traditional fortified royal settlement 24km northeast of Tana. We hired a car that took us for half the day there and back.  This was an enjoyable day trip. Depending on your previous experiences of royal palaces, this may seem very basic, however this is the best-preserved monument of the precolonial Kingdom of Madagascar and very interesting when you consider what life must have been like for them.

On 22^nd December we arrived at the airport very early before our flight. Once at the counter we were advised the flight was overbooked and we could not get a seat! We were very frustrated by this time, as we couldn’t afford to wait another four days. We explained to the staff that we had already been postponed four days. Luckily they did end up finding us seats, hurray! On the flight, three people sat in the cockpit with the pilot and the air steward sat in the toilet for takeoff and landing, poor guy! We arrived in Maroantsetra safe and sound, it was very hot when we arrived. We were met by Rakotovazah, a slightly eccentric appearing and softly soft spoken man, who arranged pretty much our whole holiday in Masoala. We had a good feeling driving into town. Very basic palm huts lined the road, but they were very neat and tidy. It felt slightly surreal arriving in this rural, faraway town only 90 minutes after leaving Tana. We took a taxi to Coco Beach Motel, which was lovely, and discussed our tour. We were very happy with the price and plans, we were to be picked up by the boat right in front of our hotel the next morning. We had a lovely seafood lunch overlooking the mangroves, and hired bicycles and rode down to the beach for a swim. Alex even joined me for a spot of yoga in the evening! We eventually left on a small motor boat the next morning two hours after we were supposed to, Malagasy time!

After our trip to Masoala and Nosy Mangabe, we returned to Maroantsetra for one night.  We were exhausted from our trip and were told the boat we needed to take to Soanierana Ivongo for our Nosy Boraha transfer would leave at 10pm that night.  It would be a 10hr boat trip through the night. It was a boat trip to forget.  Many boats have capsized on this journey.  About 2hrs into the trip I hoped the boat would capsize! I just wanted off! It felt like a riding bull in a sauna with repetitive Malagasy music bursting our eardrums. This was Alex’s worst trip in Madagascar.  We recommend to take the 2 day journey by 4 wheel drive down the infamous RN5 or flight with Mad Air before attempting this boat ride.  We may not have taken these routes but anything has to be better than that boat!