MANAMBOLA TREK

Your trip in Madagascar

The approach day in 4 × 4 sets the tone. It is the excess of the Bongolava plateau that first strikes, torn apart by the “lavakas”, these ravines of collapse due to erosion that devours the country. The following two days are done on foot, with the caravan of porters.
Still on Bongolava, we follow the western edge of the plateau, where it gives access to the Manambolo river, near the small village of Ankavandra, forgotten by the world. So, we can navigate on muddy and red laterite water but perfectly clean to wash.
Three and a half days of navigation punctuated by meetings allow you to reach the Tsingy de Bemaraha natural park, a “must” in Madagascar.
The gorges which give access to it are spectacular, and in the end this river is much more beautiful than the neighboring Tsirihibina crossed by hundreds of travelers…
Here, we are in the rare and beautiful that is deserved, by the effort and the discomfort of five days of the bush of the west. On the way back, the stop at the baobab alley punctuates this rare and wild journey if any.

DAY 1

Antananarivo – Tsiromandidy

• You are leaving Antananarivo for the west.
  Picnic lunch on the way.
  Transfer by vehicle on a good road very suitable for photo stops to Ampefy and Tsiromandidy.
  Walking: 0.
• Night local spartan comfort hotel rooms DBL and TWN
• Type of transfer: Minibus vehicle + 4 × 4.
  Transfer time: 5 hours on a good road
  Transfer distance: 270 km

DAY 2 – 3

Plateau du Bongolava – Ankavandra


• Two days of trek to cross the tabular massif of Bongolava; we walk, in the company of our guide and our porters, in the grassy savannahs of the Highlands, lacerated with “lavakas”, these impressive blood-red crevices, gaping wounds due to soil erosion, following the massive deforestation of the ‘Isle.
  The charm of this trek is to meet the inhabitants of the villages who carry on their backs, sometimes in carts, the goods bought in town, or the pigs that they will sell … Some lonely gendarmes patrol because of the thieves of Zebu ! On the last day, a steep descent takes us from this high plateau to the Manambolo plain. It is also the limit of the Merina ethnic group (“those of the high country”), the dominant ethnic group of the Highlands.
  The camps of J1 and J2 on the windswept plateau, cooking over a wood fire.
  The last camp (J3) is planted next to the village of Ankavandra (“where hail falls”), on the bank of the Manambolo river (large sandy beach).
• Overnight camping in 2-person igloo tents.
• Duration of transfer: 7 h on track
  Hike : 3 hours of easy walking the first day and 4 hours the second.

DAY 4 – 5 – 6

Manambolo
 river

• Three and a half days of canoe descent from 5 to 6 hours / day.
  You will leave the porters to get to know the Sakalava boatmen (“those of the long plain”), the ethnicity of this whole region of western Menabe. Change of team but also of scenery, pace … You embark in their traditional wooden canoes, to sail quietly at the option of the Manambolo. These dugout canoes may seem unstable but they are not!
  You are comfortably installed there by two by dugout with a local guide. A paddle is at your disposal if you want to participate but what a joy to let yourself slide lazily along the river, to observe the many birds (fluorescent blue kingfisher, raptors, waders …), greet the children playing in the water, or buy freshly caught “tilapia” …
  The noises are limited to the thrill of the paddle in the water, a soft air whispered by the boatman, or the muffled flight of a duck in the distance …
  Depending on the water level, it may be useful to descend and walk with your feet in the water due to grounding on a sandbank! In any case a rare experience, in an intact nature …
  You set up the camps of J4, J5 and J6 on the magnificent sandy beaches which border the river, cooking over a wood fire …
• Overnight camping in 2-person igloo tents.
• Canoe: 6 hours of navigation per day

DAY 7

Manambolo river – Bekopaka

• Last step in the morning to reach Bekopaka and its few gargottes where we find cool drinks! You paddle all morning in the gorges, meandering between the steep cliffs whose vegetation is intact.
  Here, the man has not yet destroyed the forest, because it is too inaccessible.
  Here and there we meet families of “hunter-gatherers who live far from everything and offer us wild honey not to be missed. But the place is frankly unique and very nice, it is the entrance to Tsingy National Park!
  We leave the boatmen here.
  Installation at the hotel and afternoon rest by the pool, because the stage is short and the afternoon will be spent resting in the swimming pool.
• Night hotel in DBL or TWN rooms.
• Canoe: 4 hours of navigation

DAY 8

Tsingys of Bemaraha

• Transfer by 4 × 4 (more or less an hour, depending on the condition of the track) to reach the entrance to Tsingy du Bemahara, National Park classified as Unesco heritage in 1990. Unique in the world, references and superlatives are not not lacking to describe these karst formations in the form of sharp needles.
  You visit the tsingy (“where you can’t walk barefoot”) by taking the spectacular via-ferrata arranged for this purpose: it takes a few hours of walking without difficulty, to explore this fantastic karst relief, but the real difficulty here is the heat because the rock radiates.
  In the afternoon You will reach our hotel and enjoy its swimming pool.
• Night hotel in DBL or TWN rooms.
• Hike : 4h00

DAY 9

Bekopaka – Morondava

• Early in the morning we cross the Manambolo with the ferry.
  The journey is long to Morondava and the track can be difficult if the rains at the start of the year were heavy. Lunch in Belo sur Tsiribihina in the gourmet restaurant worthy of a star chef. Then, shortly before Morondava, we will cross the famous baobab alley. Sacred trees for the Madagascans, a legend tells how the Gods of the sky, offended to see this tree so tall towards their home, decided to return it to the ground, roots to the sky…
  It’s cute and plausible… End of the stage in Morondava, facing the Mozambique Channel.
  Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
• Night hotel in DBL or TWN rooms.
• Duration of transfer in 4 × 4: 7h00

DAY 10

Morondava

• After breakfast, shopping in town, lunch and airport transfer.
  End of our services.