Madagascar Baobab

Day 1 - Home Country - Departure

Day 2 - Arrival - Antananarivo
The Tour Manager will be waiting for you at the airport to take you to the hotel in the city-centre. Antananarivo is situated in the highlands and this is very noticeableas all roads slope away and are often interconnected by steps and staircases. The centre of the city is the Independence Square, although the square bears more resemblance to a dual carriageway run through the middle by a green strip. It’s always busy here, but in the small streets around the centre there’s also plenty going on. All this is within a 5 minute walk from our hotel. As we’ll arrive early in the morning you’ll have plenty of time to explore the city.

Day 3 - Antananarivo- Daytrip
We get on our bikes for the first time to enjoy a ride out for a daytrip. To start, we follow a route through the busy and narrow streets of Antananarivo. We ride through market streets and no doubt get (unavoidably) stuck in traffic a few times. Once out of the city, the traffic soon quiets down. About 20 miles outside the city lies the Royal Hill. Located on top of the hill are several temples built by the first immigrants from South East Asia, which show great similarities to temples found in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The place is still of great importance to many Malagasy and is held in high regard as a link to their ancestors and origin. It is on UNESCO’s list of protected heritage sites. On the way back to the capital we visit the Lemurs’ Park, a rescue centre for lemurs. Inside the park, you find different sorts of free-ranging lemurs, and as you walk through the park, a park guide explain about the different species of lemurs and their particular characteristics. The ride back into the city is an adventure in itself, especially during late afternoon. The traffic barely moves anywhere. Lucky for us, though, the bikes can get through the narrowest of streets and market places.

Day 4 - Antananarivo - Ampefy
We leave Antananarivo during the morning rush hour (which lasts from 7 – 9 am), crossing the main road and taking a well asphalted road westwards. After half an hour’s ride, we come across the second lemur park of this trip. If for whatever reason we didn’t manage to visit the one yesterday, we can go here instead. The biggest place en-route today is Arivonimamo. Here we stop for coffee and an early lunch. Then, it’s a 2-hour ride to Chute de Lily, one of Madagascar’s biggest waterfalls. After this, we backtrack for a bit before heading south where we stay overnight in the tiny village of Ampefy. The quality of the guest house here certainly leaves a bit to be desired, but we’ll make up for that with some good hotels later on in the trip.

Day 5 - Ampefy - Antsirabe
A few 50 kilometres after we leave Ampefy, the road becomes unpaved. The first off-road part of this trip! It’s about 80 kilometres. We ride through beautiful areas with some rice fields every once in a while. It’s green in the rainy periods and brown in the dry seasons. After the off-road part, we ride a paved road to Antsirable. This sweet town is the main city of the pousse pousse: a bright coloured rickshaw pulled by man power. This is a nice place to stop on our way south because of some historical colonial buildings.

Day 6 - Antsirabe - Miandrivazo
A short trip today, but plenty to do once we reach our destination. We carry on over the paved road we started on yesterday, but we’re now on a descent. We leave the higher regions of the island and enter a rolling landscape. It’s a good 200 km to Miandrivazo. Here we park the bikes, take our time for lunch and get on a boat for a trip through the gorge. Late afternoon, we’re back at Mandrivazo looking for a nice place to eat.

Day 7 - Miandrivazo - Morondava
We descend further still. First towards the south for 120 km. Then we have lunch in Malaimbandy where we find many tiny uncluttered places to eat. Lucky for us, Malagasy cuisine reflects a wealth of influences, firstly from Southeast Asia, secondly from France and thirdly the island of Madagascar itself, with of course plentiful supplies of fish and beef. You can eat great meals in the smallest of places. After lunch, we take the asphalt main road to the coast to Morodova - a cozy little coastal place and a small beach. These were our first 4 days on the bike, primarily over asphalted roads. This is not be the case for the next few days.

Day 8 - Morondava - Bekopaka
We leave very early for one of the most amazing things we see on this trip: the sunrise on Avenue de Baobab. For the photographers among us, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Picture the scene: bikes covered in the dust of unpaved roads, bathed in the orange light of the sunrise against a backdrop of dozens of beautiful baobab trees. Next, we ride through the private nature reserve Kirindy. After a 90 km unpaved and often dusty dirt road, we arrive in Belo Tsiribihina beside one of the widest rivers on the island. Here we cross by ferry. After lunch, we ride a further 100km over unpaved gravel tracks to the entrance of Tsingy National Park where we stay overnight.

Day 9 - Bekopaka - Daytrip Tsingy
Tsingy National Park is the most bizarre park of the island. The park consists of countless sharp limestone peaks making up bizarre formations. A walking route connects some peaks with hanging bridges – not for people with a fear of heights. If we have any time left there’s a second walking route through the park further north. We stay for a second night in Bekopaka.

Day 10 - Bekopaka - Morondava
We ride the same unpaved road back the way we came- all of it. We have no choice. We lunch again in Belo Tsiribihina and then get back on the ferry. The fun part of today is experiencing Avenue de Baobab but at sunset this time. Again, this means some beautiful photos but of course also a late arrival at the hotel.

Day 11 - Morondava - stay
Today we can rest. While the mechanic checks the motorcycles, we enjoy the beach, different restaurants and bars that Morondava has plenty of. If you would like to you can visit Baobab Avenue around sunset.

Day 12 and 13 - Morondava - Manja, Manja - Toliara
These be the 2 most difficult days of the tour. This region has no main roads, and all we come across are tiny hamlets. We aim for an overnight stay in Manja but let this depend on the state of the roads, whether they are more or less difficult than expected. Even though we won’t spend time at the sea, the first part of the road in question does run alongside the coast. It then swerves slowly inland, following the river. Manja is located quite a bit further inland and approx. 150 km from Morondava. For the second part of the route, we remain in the lowlands and cross the Mangoky river, which we have to cross with small ferries. After this, it’s still a good 180 km before we hit the coast again. These are two long days where the weather, to a certain extent, determines how difficult the trip will be, whether it’ll be mud or loose sand. Whichever, we at least have a really good hotel in the harbour town of Toliara, with lovely warm showers and a good restaurant. We stay here for 2 days.

Day 14 - Toliara - Daytrip
We use this day for a daytrip to visit the whales. There is a certain amount of luck involved in them being there at the time of our visit, so there is no absolute guarantee we will see them. The boat trip starts south of Toliara. We go there by bike. If for whatever reason the boat trip is cancelled, we will visit the caves of Sarodrano, also south of Toliara.

Day 15 - Toliara - Ranohira
We follow the really excellent highway, the N7, on a slow ascend back up into the mountains; we even have a proper 1.056 meters high mountain pass to cross. Around noon, we stop at Ilakaka, sapphire boomtown where we have lunch. We visit the mines and do a workshop. Next, it is only a one-hour ride to Ranohira, where we spend the night.

Day 16 - Ranohira - visit Isalo National Park
Isalo National Park kind of resembles the Grand Canyon of America. This park is not about animals but about landscapes and unique rock formations. Today we enjoy this park with a guide. We discover the waterfalls, natural pools and adventurous canyons. In the middle of the wilderness we have a barbecue lunch while lemurs play in the bushes around us.

Day 17 - Ranohira - Ambalavao
We continue our travel over Highway number 7 untill Ambalavao. Around lunch time, we check in at a beautiful hotel near park Anja. A short trip brings us to a big group of ring-tailed lemurs, perhaps the most famous kind of lemur.

Day 18 - Ambalavo - Ranomafana
Today, we enter the mountain area and zigzag our way north. You’ll have plenty of time to take pictures and stop in the small villages. We have lunch somewhere near Fianarantsoa. North of this city, we head east and stop at the Namorona waterfalls. We spend the night in the small town of Ranomafana.

Day 19 - Ranomafana - Antsirable
In the morning, we visit Ranomafana National Park. After the visit, we take a different road to the main road than we came on yesterday. This one is unpaved. From there we get back onto highway 7 and carry on northwards. After lunch in Ambositra, it is a further 80 km to today’s final destination. We ride all day through the highest parts of the island, enjoying beautiful roads and wonderful views.

Day 20 - Antsirable - Antananarivo - Departure
Today we follow a  beautiful zigzag route back to the capital of Madagascar. The closer we get, the busier traffic becomes. We hope to arrive in the city centre before the early morning traffic jams. We leave the motorcycles at the hotel and say goodbye to the driver and mechanic. If your departure is in the evening, you have plenty of time to discover the city and buy some last souvenirs. We end this trip in a lovely restaurant, and late in the evening we ride to the airport to depart home. If your flight departs in the afternoon, we will find a solution to arrive at city in time so you’ll have enough time to take a shower, get dressed and get to the airport.