Our travel report from Madagascar

Madagascar

Our travel report from Madagascar

Madagascar - what a country!

This summer the time had finally come. He has been harbouring this wish in my ears for 5 years! Finally, Thomas' long-cherished dream came true and we visited Madagascar, the second largest island state in the world, for a fortnight.

We left Zurich airport early in the morning on an Air France flight via Paris to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The journey took around 14 hours. We almost missed our connecting flight to Madagascar in Paris, as the departure time in Zurich had been postponed and we were also delayed. But with a little sporty spurt through Paris airport, we were the last to board.

We arrived in Antananarivo late in the evening at 10.00 pm, but unfortunately without our luggage, which had not made it onto the plane in Paris in time! But we had probably already reckoned with this in Paris. Fortunately, we had already loaded some clothes into our hand luggage for just such an eventuality. In Tana, as the capital is affectionately known by the locals, we were taken to our hotel by a driver. Tired, but looking forward to the next day, we went straight to bed.

The next morning, after a tasty breakfast, we first went to a small shop. There we were able to stock up on the essentials, as our luggage would not reach Madagascar until late in the evening. However, we already had a short domestic flight to the west coast scheduled for midday and would only be able to be back in Tana to collect our luggage in three days' time. After shopping, we went straight to the domestic airport where we waited for our flight.

Our domestic flight to Morondava was supposed to leave at 12.30 pm and now it was already 2 pm, but hey, this is Africa and we were prepared for that. As a precaution, I stocked up on four books to read to make waiting times like this a little more exciting. At the time, I didn't realise that I would actually read all four books in the two weeks. At 2.15 pm, things suddenly got hectic at the airport because our flight was simply cancelled and postponed until the next morning. After a long wait, our driver picked us up from the airport again and, as a plan B, took us on a short city tour of Tana before dropping us off at a new hotel in the evening.

The positive side of the whole story was that we were at least able to collect our luggage in the evening and get a first impression of the capital city we were currently in. Madagascar is characterised by great poverty, unfortunately it is also one of the poorest countries in the world. Unfortunately, there is a lack of many things that we take for granted here in Europe. Functioning infrastructure, roads, shoes for walking, houses to live in, schooling and security. Our driver explained to us that it is better not to go into the city just like that and if you do, you should not take any items with you (no money, jewellery, watches, mobile phones, etc.). Not even the local population walk around with money in their pockets, as all sorts of things can be stolen.

However, it should be added that we always felt very safe during our entire trip through Madagascar. Only in the capital did we remain very cautious and never left the hotel with valuables or a lot of money. However, we always received a very warm welcome during the many lovely encounters we had on the trip and were able to share in the local life of the very hard-working and cheerful Madagascans .

In Tana, we stayed in our hotel in the evening and went to bed early, as our delayed flight left at 5.30 in the morning.

In complete darkness and equipped with a breakfast box, we got into our driver's car at 4.00 a.m. and were taken to the same airport again. Fortunately, this time the flight left 20 minutes earlier than planned. We later learnt that the Madagascar airline only has two of its own planes in operation and is only called "maybe airline" by the Madagascans. This is because it is never certain if and when it will fly at all. After a flight of around 1.5 hours, we arrived safely in Morondava at 9.00 am. We were warmly welcomed by our local driver Henry and taken to our hotel.

After a fresh juice and a coffee, we set off on an exploratory tour in a small fishing boat. Following the course of the river, we made many discoveries, mainly of local birds, and ended up on a beautiful sandy beach.

Once we reached the sea, we continued on foot along the beautiful beach, where we greeted the arriving fishermen and marvelled at their catch of the day. More and more villagers from the small fishing village joined the arriving fishermen. All with large baskets full of sugar cane and other fruit. Bartering is the order of the day here. In this case, fish for sugar cane.

From the beach, we then visited the nearby fishing village with its beautiful houses made of mud and thatch. Life out here in the countryside is probably simple, but very familiar and warm.

Later in the afternoon, we set off with our driver along a gravel road to Baobab Avenue. Once there, we enjoyed the impressive sunset and the beauty of the landscape with a drink and snacks. Besides us, there were perhaps 15 other tourists marvelling at the sunset. We had expected many more visitors and were pleasantly surprised.

Baobab Avenue

The impressive landscape attracts travellers from all over the world and makes the avenue one of the most visited places in the region. Along the avenue, 20 to 25 trees of around 30 metres in height, the species Adansonia grandidieri, which is indigenous to Madagascar, are still preserved along a section of around 260 metres. Between 20 and 25 more trees of this species grow in the nearby rice fields and meadows. The baobab trees, which are up to 800 years old and are known here as Renala (Malagasy for "mother of the forest"), still bear witness to the dense tropical forests that once flourished in Madagascar. The trees did not originally tower over the barren scrubland, but stood in a dense forest. Over the years, as the country's population grew, the forests were cleared for agriculture, leaving only the baobab trees, which the locals had preserved both out of respect and for their value as a source of food and building material. The area is not a national park, and the trees are threatened by further deforestation, waste water from rice paddies and sugar cane plantations, and bush and forest fires.

Despite its popularity, the area does not have a visitor centre, nor does it charge entrance fees, and local residents receive little income from tourism.

The next day, we set off early in the morning on an 8-hour drive towards Antsirabe. In between, we had the opportunity to make short stops to enjoy the views of the rice fields, the mountains and the traditional villages of the highlands. Madagascar is a very green and fertile country. Rice is cultivated and harvested by hand by the inhabitants everywhere. The fields are not ploughed by machines or animals (z.B. water buffaloes, as in Asia or Indonesia), but everything is done by hand with a spade. It was impressive to see how hard-working everyone is here. While the men ploughed the rice fields or made bricks, the women were usually not far away washing clothes, planting vegetables or selling various things at street stalls. Most of the rice planted by the inhabitants is sold as an export product. They themselves then buy cheaper rice z.B. from Pakistan for cooking. There are colourful stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables all along the streets.

In Madagascar, you can't just hire a car and go on a round trip yourself. This is simply impossible due to the lack of roads. You can't just drive straight ahead or on one side of the road. The "road" is crumbling apart everywhere and is littered with very large and deep potholes. You often see children, but also adults, equipped with a shovel, trying to fill the large potholes with earth. They want to make driving a little more pleasant. At the same time, they can earn some money from people throwing change out of their car windows.

We reached Antsirabe and our hotel in the late afternoon. There are only a few hotels in Madagascar outside the capital that meet European standards. We mainly ate vegetarian food, mostly dishes with rice, potatoes, vegetables and often soups as starters. We tried a few meat dishes at the beginning, but then gave up very quickly. A typical traditional dish is z.B. Ravitato. This involves cooking crushed manioc leaves, oil and meat (zebu or fatty pork) over a charcoal fire and serving the finished dish with rice. Ravitato is a favourite dish of the Madagascans, as the locals are known here. We ordered and tried this dish on the urgent recommendation of our driver, because the crushed manioc leaves look like spinach. And well, what can I say, it looks like spinach but it tastes like you're eating boiled black tea and is very bitter. We never ordered it again after that.

The next day, we set off early in the morning to explore Antsirabe. We were transported through the city in a typical rickshaw on a short journey. We then went to a zebu horn workshop, where various decorative items and cooking accessories were made from zebu horns.

After visiting a local gemstone processing centre and the local market, we left the town of Antsirabe a little later. Together with our driver Henry, we then travelled towards Andasibe (not to be confused with Antsirabe, everything here has almost the same name). The anticipation for Andasibe was great, because Andasibe is located in the middle of the rainforest, where the famous lemurs live. A species of monkey that only lives in Madagascar.

On the journey there, none of us had any idea that our car would break down twice today.

As we drove towards the Andasibe rainforest, more and more clouds gathered in the sky. Most of the day we had temperatures between 24 - 34°C and then it cooled down quite a bit at night and it was only 14°C. It started to rain a little. It started to rain a little and suddenly a dull, steady noise could be heard on the right-hand side of our car. A tyre had burst in the middle of a steep road. However, we weren't really surprised given the poor road conditions. I only got a little nervous when our driver told us that he had only changed a tyre once in his life. It really was the first time for us. And while our driver and Thomas tried to remove the broken wheel, I made sure that we would never forget this experience and took photos and videos. Everyone does what they can.

Thanks to a kind resident who lived right next to our broken-down car, it worked and we were able to continue our journey after an hour.

The weather got worse and worse, the roads became increasingly slippery and you never knew how deep the next water-filled pothole would be. The traffic increased and the road became steeper and more winding. A lorry was suddenly parked across the whole road. Our driver tried to brake, but our car skidded on the wet road. There was a collision and a fender bender. Fortunately, nothing happened to us. But our driver's world collapsed. He was crying and was afraid that he would now lose his job. We tried to calm him down. Because not much had been broken on the car, just the one light and some bodywork damage. We were able to drive on without any problems. A little later, we phoned the boss of our travel agency and the boss of Henry, our driver. We described the incident in detail and everything was sorted out.

These two mishaps meant that we arrived at our hotel two hours later, but nothing had happened to us. Our Henry had gradually calmed down a bit and we invited him to dinner at our hotel that evening. Fortunately, he hadn't got in trouble from his boss for this little accident. What's more, he was still able to keep his job there, which was also very important to us.

After this somewhat exhausting and adventurous long car journey, we were very happy to have finally arrived in the rainforest for the next two days and went to bed tired.

We got up with the sun the next morning and admired our view from the pool. What a beautiful place. Our hotel was in the middle of the rainforest on a small hill and we had a wonderful view over the forests and the breathtaking nature. However, it was too cool to swim in this beautiful pool, as it is wintertime here in Madagascar in summer (around 20-25°C during the day).

After a very tasty French breakfast, we set off at 7.30 am. Equipped with mosquito suits and sprayed with antibrum, we set off on foot to the Analamazaota reserve. There we were warmly welcomed by Jackie, a local guide. She set off with us in search of the lemurs living in the wild here in the rainforest. There are so many different species of lemur. But we were looking for the largest lemur in Madagascar, the famous "Indri Indri" (the black and white one). This lemur is native to this place and has made its emblem. And after a short time we saw the first specimens in the trees. The animals live here in the wild. During the almost four-hour journey of discovery in the rainforest, time flew by. We were lucky enough to be able to observe many different species of lemur.

The great thing about Madagascar is that there are very few tourists. No matter where you are, you are almost always travelling alone.

Our travel agent advised us not to take a large camera with us. And so we were only equipped with our mobile phones. So all the pictures, including those in this blog, were taken with our mobile phones. However, in hindsight, I have to say that it really wouldn't have been a problem to take a large camera with us, except perhaps in the capital.

As the lemur monkeys are fortunately not very shy animals, with a little patience you can observe and photograph them up close. There is no need to be afraid of these beautiful animals, as they will not attack, bite or take anything from you.

As the lemurs are always travelling in family groups, there is always something going on. They jump, climb, eat, screech and play with each other. It's so nice to watch the lemurs. Of course I would have loved to take them all home, they are so cute.

After this incredible experience, we went back to the hotel for lunch. The hotel is owned by a Frenchman and was one of the nicest hotels on our entire trip.

The fact that Madagascar was once a French colony is still very much in evidence. Both in the language and the food. Many local Madagascans do not speak English, but only French, if at all. However, all of our local guides spoke excellent English. In the restaurants, however, we regularly had to communicate in French as otherwise we would not have been understood.

After a delicious lunch, we headed back into the rainforest. We wanted to discover even more lemur species, such as the brown lemur, bamboo lemur or the golden lemur. In addition to the many lemurs, we also saw various birds, chameleons, small snakes and interesting plants.

In the evening, we then set off on a night walk through the Voimma reserve. In the pitch dark, we set off behind Jackie, equipped with a small torch, in search of the smallest lemur living here. The mouse lemur is really only as small as a mouse and difficult to find as it is nocturnal and sleeps during the day.

The reserve also offers something for reptile and amphibian lovers. Along its crystal-clear river, there are countless frogs and various chameleons that find shelter in the forest. This is also a place where the unique satanic leaf-tailed gecko can be found. I have to say, it was definitely an exciting experience to walk through the rainforest in the dark and look out for animals. However, I was really glad that we weren't travelling alone, but with someone who knows the area. On our night-time walk, we actually saw mouse lemurs, chameleons and geckos. Fortunately, Thomas didn't realise how many large and small snakes there were here at the time, as he doesn't like these animals at all.

The next day, we travelled back towards the capital Antananarivo. In between, we made several stops to admire the landscape and an additional stop at a butterfly farm for peyrieras.

This is a small, privately run reserve in Marozevo, between the towns of Manjakandriana and Moramanga. It was founded by the French entomologist and naturalist André Peyriéras, which is why it is also known as the Peyrieras Reserve. The collection includes numerous reptiles (chameleons, iguanas, geckos, frogs), batraciens (bats) and papillons (butterflies). Here you can see and observe the various reptiles at close quarters.

When we arrived in Antananarivo, we said goodbye to our driver Henry. The next day we would take a short domestic flight to Nosy Be in the north of Madagascar and stay there for several days.

The flight to Nosy Be was postponed from midday to the early evening. This left us with no other option than to read something in the hotel, work on our laptops and answer emails. But if we have learnt one word from Madagascar, it is mora mora. Which means as much as slowly slowly.

In the evening, we finally set off for Nosy Be, an archipelago of small islands off the north-west coast of Madagascar. The island is covered with sugar cane fields, coffee, but also sesame, rice, cocoa trees, vanilla, corn, sweet potatoes and manioc. The island owes its nickname "Island of Perfumes" to the plantations of ylang-ylang flowers that began around 1910.

As our hotel was right by the sea, we enjoyed a fish dish with rice, potatoes or vegetables almost every day. Fortunately, we never had any problems with the food as we always made sure that it was either boiled, fried or peeled. We avoided ice cream in the water, cocktails, desserts and salads. Madagascar was certainly good for our figure. But in Madagascar you will search in vain for good wine or coffee, although coffee is grown in Madagascar. We really missed it.

There in Nosy Be, we spent three days on a beach holiday with swimming and diving. We then went on a voyage of discovery to the various surrounding islands. Here we visited various vanilla, ylang-ylang and cocoa plantations. We also went back into the somewhat more tropical forest in search of more lemurs.

The highlight of the trip was, of course, the visit to the cocoa plantations in the Sambirano region. I have to be careful not to go into too much detail here, because I could fill several pages about this region and the visit there alone. We travelled by boat from Nosy Be to Ankify in around 1.5 hours, where our driver and the 4x4 SUV we needed were already waiting for us. Back on the mainland, it was only a few minutes' drive and I could already hear an overly euphoric exclamation of "cocoa trees" from Thomas. The first individual trees were visible in the forest and cocoa trees soon became part of the usual landscape.

The region is known for its high-quality cocoa and various plantations grow cocoa here. Our destination was the Millot plantation, which supplies its cocoa beans exclusively to Valrhona and is extremely professionally organised. We had rarely visited a plantation with this level of infrastructure and local knowledge, but one thing at a time. After a very short time, actually it was probably about 45 minutes, it felt more like 10 minutes with the many cocoa trees to look at, we reached the centre of the plantation. We even got lost briefly on the way, as the plantation, with over 600 hectares, is only slightly smaller than the municipality of Adliswil (around 780 hectares).

Once there, we immediately started our tour of the plantation, beginning with the research centre and the cultivation of the seedlings. We hardly got away from there because of Thomas' many questions, as he naturally wanted to know everything in detail. Later, we were also shown all the other native plants and the many different crops. Fortunately, there are no monocultures here. The trees are felled, reforested and replanted in as balanced a way as possible and with a great deal of strategy and knowledge. The different lifespans of the trees and the time it takes for them to reach harvesting age are also taken into account. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the harvest, as we were too late for that, as this is always done in the early hours of the morning. However, some of the fermentation boxes were in use and so we were able to experience the fermentation process live. Up to now, we have usually only seen it in the classic and rather rudimentary version. In piles on the floor, wrapped in banana leaves. Here, however, an entire building was equipped with the fermentation boxes and the entire fermentation process was carried out strictly according to protocol. Depending on the season, mashed bananas are added to the beans to add extra flavour. Drying takes place on extendable wooden tables, which can be immediately moved into a covered building when it rains. Otherwise, the beans are usually simply dried on the floor. So in this area, too, the process is progressive and designed to maximise the quality of the beans. We were then able to visit certain areas of the plantation in more detail and learnt that the climatic conditions in the region are truly unique. Together with the mountainous landscape, this created a perfect area for cocoa cultivation. It is much more tropical there than anywhere else in Madagascar. The equator is actually almost too far away for traditional cocoa cultivation. So it's no wonder that practically all fine cocoa processors produce a couverture from the beans of the Sambirano region. This is because this chocolate is very fruity, full-bodied and has a rather light acidity.

Sambirano is also the name of the river that rises in the mountains and meanders through the region before flowing into the sea. The river is the lifeline of the entire region. Hence the name. The second major item on our programme was, of course, a visit to a vanilla plantation. We had never seen vanilla in large quantities before, only individual plants in parks or for illustrative purposes. It was therefore extraordinary to see and learn how vanilla grows and how complex the process behind it is. Unfortunately, we were not able to see the processing of the raw pods ready for sale as they were not in season at the time. But it was fascinating to see how the plant is cultivated and that it is actually just a "climbing plant" that needs the trunk of another tree to thrive. It is also quite easy to grow. You simply cut off the top part of the plant, about the length of 3-4 leaves, and plant it back into the ground. Of course, we also stocked up on vanilla pods for home use. They are simply fantastic.

On the way back, we made a detour to a distillery, where not only herbal oils but also essences for the perfume industry are produced. How many of you know the "ylang-ylang" tree? Known in Latin as Cananga odorata. Well, we didn't know the tree, nor the oil extracted from it. However, everyone knows the perfume that made the oil world-famous, namely Chanel No 5. The tree is not endemic to Madagascar, but the French brought it from the Philippines. It is still an important export product in the north and on Nosy Be. Here is a picture of the yellow blossom of the ylang-ylang tree in the background,

Full of impressions and exciting experiences, we then had to slowly leave the region again and make our way back. The end of the trip was a day in the jungle with more lemur sightings and a visit to another reserve in the Nosy Be region. There we also had the opportunity to feed wild lemurs with fresh bananas.

In the rainforest, in addition to the various wild lemurs, we also saw many different snake species. With 80 species, Madagascar's snake fauna is relatively well represented. The best-known snakes in Madagascar are the boas, which are giant snakes. However, not a single snake in Madagascar is a venomous snake. Fortunately, there are no poisonous animals such as snakes, frogs or spiders in Madagascar.

I went ahead in the rainforest and as soon as I shouted to Thomas, "Look at this big snake!", he made a gigantic arc around me and stomped away with loud steps so that no snake would come near him.

Conclusion: Madagascar was definitely worth the trip for us. We were able to take away many impressions and wonderful encounters and had the unique opportunity to visit the famous cocoa-growing region of Sambirano. Madagascar's vanilla is also world-famous and seeing the cultivation live on site was a fantastic experience and a wonderful feeling. Of course, I also really liked the lemurs and enjoyed seeing them. The people everywhere were very helpful and we had some interesting encounters. We also felt safe for the most part. Of course, Tana as the capital should be enjoyed with great caution, but otherwise it really wasn't a problem. However, I wouldn't recommend it as a pure holiday destination at the moment, as the journey times from one place to the next are really long and quite arduous. Unfortunately, the means of transport, primarily aeroplanes, are not at all reliable, but there is usually no alternative. As a result, you sometimes lose whole days when you can hardly visit anything and simply have to spend too much time travelling. I very much hope that the new government, which will be elected in the autumn, will be able to do more for its people, upgrade the infrastructure and thus primarily improve the lives of the population. This would also make travelling much easier and offer a better experience. If I leave out my subjective view because of the cocoa and vanilla, I would unfortunately not recommend Madagascar as a travel destination. It's better to wait a few more years and give the country a little more time to develop. Then I would also consider visiting again. I really hope you enjoyed my travelogue and I would be delighted if you would leave a comment!

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Madagaskar
By: Petra On 2025-01-27
Rating:
★★★★★ (5.0)

Hallo liebe Rebecca, hallo lieber Thomas,

ich habe Euren tollen Reisebericht zufällig entdeckt . Wir sind gerade dabei unsere Madagaskarreise zu planen. Könnt Ihr uns eine Tipp geben, wie /wo man einen Fahrer organisieren kann ?

Viele Grüße
aus der Pfalz von Petra

Replied by: Thomas Ramseier On 2025-01-27 Hallo Petra
Besten Dank für die Rückmeldung. Wir hatten über eine Agentur gebucht und diese gibt es leider nicht mehr und direkte Nummern haben wir leider nicht zu den Fahrern. Auf jeden Fall gan viel Spass und eine gute Reise!
Süsse Grüsse vom miniSchoggi-Team
Reisebericht
By: Margaritta Eccel On 2023-11-13
Rating:
★★★★★ (5.0)

Liebe Rebecca

endlich habe ich deinen Reisebericht in Ruhe gelesen. Er ist unglaublich spannend geschrieben! Die vielen Fotos sind toll, es muss eine wunderbare Reise mit unglaublich vielen neuen Eindrücken gewesen sein.
Vielen Dank das du eure Erlebnisse in diesem wunderbaren Bericht mit uns teilst.

Das verfassen solcher Berichte scheint neben deinen tollen Schoggikreationen,ein weiteres Talent von dir zu sein :-)

Liebe Grüsse, Margaritta
Reisebericht
By: Heidi Knobel On 2023-10-09
Rating:
★★★★★ (5.0)

Grüezi Frau Odermatt,

herzlichen Dank für Ihren spannenden und wunderschön illustrierten Reisebericht. Es hat mich beeindruckt, dass die Madagassen in aufwendiger Arbeit Reis anbauen, selbst aber importierten Reis essen. Persönliche Gedanken - wie die Emotionen aller Beteiligten nach dem Unfall, oder Ihr Reise-Fazit - machen den Text sehr lebendig.
Mir gefallen die schönen Fotos z.B. auch dasjenige mit dem grünen Chamäleon.

Liebe Grüsse
Heidi Knobel

Replied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2023-10-09 Guten Tag Frau Knobel
Besten Dank für Ihren Kommentar. Es freut mich sehr, dass Ihnen mein Reisebericht gefallen hat.

Freundliche Grüsse
Rebecca
Reisebericht
By: Judith On 2023-10-09
Rating:
★★★★★ (5.0)

Liebe rebbeca,
Ich habe deine schilderungen mit großem interesse gelesen.
Die fotos sind großartig !
Danke für das teilen!
Alles liebe judith

Replied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2023-10-09 Das freut mich sehr :-) Vielen lieben Dank. Freundliche Grüsse Rebecca
Reisebericht Madagaskar
By: Irene Traversa On 2023-10-08
Rating:
★★★★★ (5.0)

Liebe Rebecca
vielen herzlichen Dank für diesen tollen Bericht. Die Schilderungen waren so faszinierend zu lesen, danke, dass Du uns an eurer Reise teilhaben lässt. Auch die wunderbaren Bilder von der ganzen Reise sind sehr eindrücklich. Vielen Dank dafür. liebe Grüsse Irene Traversa

Replied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2023-10-09 Liebe Irene, vielen Dank für das Feedback, es freut mich sehr, dass dir der Bericht gefallen hat! Süsse Grüsse Rebecca

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