Tsingy de Bemaraha 6 days adventure

Tsingy de Bemaraha – Is it worth it? Absolutely yes!

The way to Tsingy de Bemaraha, this truly jawdropping site, is very long and arduous. If you travelling from the capital you are facing 2-3 days of hard core driving to get to the park in the evening. No wonder people are questioning if it is really worth it. We’ve done it with a rented 4×4 and a driver (our good Mr Lai) and our answer is – absolutely yes.

How it was for us

Day 1

We set off from Tana quite late (around noon) so we couldn’t hope to make it further than Antsirabe on Day 1. The winding NR7 road is an attraction on its own – everything seemed out of this world to us:  valeys and mountains terraced with rice patches, tall 2 storey houses perched solo on the barren red hills, postcard villages, and sometimes when the road goes up you marvell all of that as far as the eye can see.  

Stay in Antsirabe was just an overnight, so there is no much impressions of the town itself. 

Day 2

Next day we hit the road at 5 am to make all the way to Morondava, which took us good 9 hours.The landscape is getting more and more dry as we progress further West. And this is where we learned the story of “Zebu stealers” that terrorise these lands since ages.
This explained a bit the security situation in the region and the July attacks on tourist cars that we read about before setting off. Now (in Oct´18) the situation was stable and measures were taken to minimise the risks for tourists.
We spent a great evening in Morondava, had a dip in Mozambique channel and a fantastic fresh sea food for dinner. Getting to know Mr. Lai better we learned a lot about life of Malagasy people. 

Day 3

Next morning at 4:45 am we all jumped in the car again to face another 9 hours drivng. This time 4×4 was a necessity as the road from Morondava to Bekopaka is only passable by such or a zebu cart. 

The day is again full of impressions, as you start with meeting the dawn at the famous Alley of Baobabs which is truly beautiful. 15 min away you can visit the “Lovers Baobabs” and a bit further a real forest of baobabs.

Around noon we reached a ferry crossing and after arrived in town Belo sur Tsiribihina. This is where all the cars are stopping for lunch and at 2pm joining all together in a train to make the last 3-4 hours with a convoy of 2 policemen. We counted 26 cars in our convoy and one of the 2 policemen went with us (i guess because our car was new and with AC). The policeman had a single shot gun from the times of WWI, and thankfully we didn’t have a chance to see it in action.

• 

• 

Day 4

Next Morning we joined up with another couple to share the costs of a guide to visit Tsingy de Bemaraha – the price is the same for a group of 1 to 4 people. We made this crazy 3 day long journey to see this very place, so we were very excited, and OMG it is worth it. 

• 

• 

Visit lasted about 5 hours (we took the full package circuit) and we were lucky to see white lemurs very close as a bonus. We spent the evening by the pool enjoying a beer with our Portuguese friends. What a dream. Cheers guys!

• 

• 

Here is the list of available circuits and tarifs as of Oct 2018

• 

Day 5

Taking the same road to come back to Morondva, visit Alley of Baobabs with different light at sunset.

Day 6

Taking the same road to come back to NR7, then taking it South as far as we could on the same day – to Ambositra – with a plan to hit Ranohira and Isalo park next day.

For the full journey see our full Madagascar 3 weeks itinerary post.