Le Relais de la Reine Isalo

Found that it gets very hot in the rooms without air conditioning and the only other option is to open the windows and door which of course lets the mosquitoes (and maybe anyone else walking by) into the room while you're sleeping... We were up early and Babba took down the road to the Isalo national park. Again, you must have a "registered guide" to tour the park. It was getting hot by 9am and our guide "Narita" took us out in a ...

We left the hotel at 7:30am as Babba said it would be a long drive today. Leaving the Ranomafano park area we saw 5 brown lemurs in a tree along the road. Babba stopped the car and we watched them jump from tree to tree. Little acrobats they are. We stopped in the city of Ambalavo. This is a very busy city with lots of people and wooden carts filling the street. We visited the Antimoro ...

Nous nous arrêtons au Zahamotel avant de reprendre la route vers Ranomafana. Avant d'arriver là-bas, nous devons traverser l'immense plateau désertique de l'Horombe. La différence de paysages est assez impressionnant. Nous avons de la chance : il y a encore quelques temps, ce trajet pouvait prendre jusqu'à 8h en fonction du guide et de son sens de l'orientation. La construction de la nouvelle route nous permet de traverser l'Horombe en moins d'une heure !

We drove a short distance to Isalo National Park this morning on a very rough road, getting out at one point so that the bus could cross a stream. This national park was different again from the other parks we have been to. Here, we were surrounded by sandstone rocks, eroded into weird and wonderful shapes. We began by walking to a campsite close to the park entrance, looking out for white sifakas as we went. Having ...

We retraced our route back to Ambalavao and after a quick photo stop at the market we continued our journey south on Route Nationale 7. We passed many impressive rock formations, including the 'Bonnet de l'Eveque' (Bishops hat). Lunch was in Ihosy (pronounced Ee-oosh), capital of the Bara, people. The Bara are nomads who make their living from rearing cattle. In these parts, cattle rustling is a ...

We hitched a lift back to Tulear with the hotel owner's elderly father. We had been considering some off road biking in the area but it looked a bit disappointing terrain wise so we abandoned it. Instead we went to Isalo national Park - 250km in a taxi, proper road this time. Someone had ...

GPS Coordinates: S 22°33'50.7" E 045°24'28.7" Temperature: 19.5°C Humidity: 51.1 % Pressure: 92.3 kPa Altitude: 832 m Drive to Ranohira: I have to make these entries shorter cause I won't have time to complete my trip and it will cost millions of dollars (Ariary's that is... 10000 Ar = 4 Euros = 6 CAN$) in Internet cafe fees...! The drive to Ranohira showed a ...

... the island which is now Madagascar left the main African continent many eons ago. The rock faces seem like clouds where you can almost see them changing into recognizable shapes depending how you look at them. We stopped in Ambositra. By the way, in Malagasy o=ou; tr=tch; and the a at the end is silent. We toured a shop specialized in working rare and valuable woods present in Madagascar. Didi explained how they make the ...

The place looked run-down by day, but now it's just spooky. Like so many of my hotel experiences here, Chez Momo is strongly reminiscent of The Shining. A collection of red mud bungalows, linked by perfectly groomed paths, all empty. A restaurant, tables set; a bar, fully stocked; No one in sight but an over attentive bartendress, a mangy cat, and me. Walking home in the dark after dinner, I saw the specter that I had watched from the bar: An old man with a ...