Isalo National Park

Madagascar is a truly special place and this trip is a real adventure. I have heard Madagascar described as one for the “seasoned traveller” and this is pretty accurate – certainly it is somewhere that you should go with your eyes and mind open and prepare for the rugged terrain and slightly uncomfortable journeys. That said, I would not trade a thing as the experiences are all part of its charm and more than made up for by the beautiful scenery and amazing wildlife.

I loved the entire trip and thoroughly enjoyed the variety of experiences, from the slightly chaotic capital Tana, to the jagged UNESCO site of the Grand Tsingy, to the peace and tranquillity of Ifaty, all interspersed with amazing national parks and wildlife including lemurs, chameleons, fossa and owls.

We were incredibly lucky with our wildlife viewings, with red-fronted brown lemurs, greater bamboo lemur, Goodman’s mouse lemur, dwarf lemur, grey mouse lemur, sportive lemur, ring-tailed lemur, indri, diademed sifaka, Verreaux’s sifaka, Milne-Edwards sifaka and many many more. We went in October and the babies were out in force – so many incredibly playful young lemur could be seen and photographed, all apparently quite indifferent to our presence. The day and night walks were all very well organised and provided plenty of opportunity to just stand back and observe these creatures in their natural habitat. We were rarely rushed on the walks (only when the guides had heard tell of something else exciting up ahead) and the local guides were expert at finding the best angles and lighting for some great photographs, even in challenging conditions.

I found the hotels to be of a general good standard and, as a solo traveller, did not feel as though I was in any way penalised by room size or quality. In fact, by luck of the draw, in one location I ended up with the suite! We had at least warm water most of the time and the food was generally good if a little repetitive after a while. Breakfast was generally fruit, breads, jams, and eggs cooked to order. Where there was nowhere appropriate to stop for lunch, we were able to order sandwiches to go so we never went hungry on the long drive days.

Angela Beckwith Madagascan Discoverer

This was my second wildlife oriented trip with Exodus and it did not disappoint. There is some long travel days but necessary to include as many wildlife opportunities as possible. The variety of landscapes from one park to the next is diverse and with the help of great guides we were able to see a wide variety of Chameleons ,Lemurs and reptiles and birds. Photography was challenging but still able to come home with a selection of nice images. Madagascar was a bucket list trip for the opportunity to see wildlife that can not be found anywhere else in the world . Ending the trip with some beach time and wildlife was perfect.

Cindy Sigalet Highlights of Madagascar

Wow where do I start?! I have dreamed of visiting Madagascar for many years now and it didn’t disappoint. There were a few unfortunate moments along the way, but I’m so chuffed I got to experience this truly unique destination. I wanted to visit Madagascar due to how biodiverse the country is, animals found nowhere else and bizarre trees and plants, but not only did these astonish me but the people too are also very unique. 18 different ethnic groups listening to different music, living in different houses and dressing really brightly and uniquely. Just watching them as we travelled was captivating. The children were so sweet, not having much but making the most out of playing with stones and making little boats out of wood and plastic, laughing with their friends was heartwarming to see. I’m not going to lie though the poverty was really hard to witness, I have never seen poverty like it, just wishing there was something I could do to help. Witnessing the devastation of slash and burn, loss of wonderful rainforests and with that many of the unique wildlife disappearing too, is utterly devastating. Only 30 years ago was Madagascar called the green Island, its now named the red island due to such a huge area of forest disappearing. No wildlife outside of the national parks, once it would have been abundant with many wonderful species.
The trip itself was amazing, however I do think you have to be a hardened traveller. There are some really long days in the van (which I did know about) but it can be quite difficult, due to the fact our van was inadequate, it wasn’t made for those roads and had NO air-con which was unbearable on some of the hotter days! I would suggest reading the trip notes and day to day itinerary THOUROUGLY to make sure you can handle it, not just for yourself but also your fellow travellers. Some of the days i.e the day in Ranomafana was tough, looking for lemurs in thick bushes and on steep ledges, if you’re not fit it would be quite dangerous. Early starts and long days travelling can affect anyone no matter how fit you are. Make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. Not only were the long drives tough, all of us on our trip got bad sickness bugs, I think your bound to get one, prepare for it with the correct medication etc. Thankfully I was bedbound on one of the beach days, as not sure what I would have done if it was a ten-hour drive, stopping every ten minutes ha-ha! Please also bare in mind you don’t get told what time your internal flight is until the day before, we got told at dinner time we had to get up and ready for our speed boat transfer at 4am. Not ideal and it put a dampener on our final meal together! I mean funny looking back, on a speed boat with no lights, whilst feeling sick! I can laugh now as I’m all comfy and well! ha-ha :).
Also, I would like to add on day 8 where is says: Full-day trek in Isalo National Park visiting Monkey Canyon and natural swimming pools. Was very misleading, our guide Claudia got me and my partner aside as she knew we had originally booked the trekking trip (which got cancelled) and said she thinks it would be better if we got a private guide which could take us on a longer hike and visit the swimming pools etc, we went ahead with this chuffed at the time. Had a fabulous day, in fact the best on the trip! But we technically paid for what should have been included anyway, so we were a little annoyed. Upon speaking to the rest of the group, we find out all they did was walked in the park for a few hours and didn’t visit the swimming pools then went back to the hotel before 12pm. We felt like they have been robbed of a fabulous day, I know one of the couples could have managed this hike and they were definitely disappointed. I don’t understand why this happened and I feel like Exodus should provide two guides, one guide for the longer hike and one guide for the people who can’t manage it.
All in all, this was a truly amazing adventure of a lifetime. I will never forget it! It was a dream come true. I mean how lucky am I to see sifaka in the wild and spend time with some truly amazing people. Thanks to my group who also made this trip amazing! Great couples and laugher made this trip even better 😊.
If you’re up for an adventure of a lifetime with some mad moments thrown in there, Madagascar is waiting for you to explore it!

Bethany McNally Highlights of Madagascar