Your solidarity travel in Madagascar
Localisation
Fianarantsoa-Ambalavao-Tulear
Duration
14 days
Arrival at Ivato airport , welcome by your guide and transfer to your hotel. Overnight in BB
Departure to Antsirabe and stop at Ambatolampy wellkown for the making of the traditional pot, visit of the factory. Then continuation to Antsirabe, city tour with a rickshaw. Arriving at Manandona at the end of the afternoon. Welcome and meeting with the members of an association that promotes the development of local activities in the region (agriculture, livestock, crafts) Dinner and overnight in a local’s house where you will prepare together of the dinner.
After your breakfast, departure by bicycle to visit the village and its surroundings, participation in activities in the fields with the farmers (rice or potato etc., it changes according to the season). Visit and initiation to silk weaving (domestic silk). Cultural exchanges with the members of the association. You will prepare the dinner with them. A moment of sharing experiences.
Early departure for a hike to Mount Ibity, which peaks at more than 2500 meters. Composed mainly of granite and basalt rocks, this mountain give a very beautiful panoramic and a unique biodiversity. With your local guide, you will discover postcard landscapes.
Among the para-agricultural activities highly valued by the local population, silkworm rearing is a real source of additional income for the farmers there. Moreover, this region is also rich, mineralogically : During the walk,we may meet miners, who, according to their luck, will find their happiness in the exploitation of the quarries of semi-precious stones; the less fortunate ones will only get a talcum powder.
We can also find on our way, the vestige of the old villages, with its earthen « tamboho » (wall), as well as endemic plants like pachypodiums, high palm trees.
Duration : about 06 hours
Level : fairly steep slopes in some places – slippery course in rainy periods, crossing of irrigation canals – passages on stones in some places (wide passages)
Vertical rise : around 550m
With a medium level of difficulty, this hike is possible for many people, you just have a minimum of physical condition. Cultural exchanges and animation with the villagers and members of the association in the evening. Participation in the preparation of your dinner
Breakfast and departure for Fianarantsoa, the cradle of Malagasy culture. Arrival and possibility to visit the photographic laboratory of Pierrot Men, world-renowned and considered the greatest photographer of Madagascar. Snapshots, taken on the spot, full of life and light, poetry and melancholy are his main topic. Continuation in the hotel and overnight in BB
After breakfast, early transfer for about 1 hour in the eastern part of the Betsileo’s capital.Beginning of the hike for 5 hours crossing Betsileo villages, rice fields, we will meet locals and discover their daily life. Lunch at the local’s house. Late afternoon arrival at Tambonenjanana the village where we install our bivouac.
After the breakast , let’s prepare for the descent by a traditional pirogue to the village of Iseta. Meeting with the local people along the 2hours of navigation. When the descent is finished we have 2 hours walk for SAHAMBAVY with a stop to visit schools and the unique tea plantations in the whole island. Picnic lunch and return to Fianarantsoa. Overnight in BB at the hotel
Breakfast at the hotel and road to Ambalavao. Visit of the Antaimoro paper workshop, the silk workshop and the showroom. Then visit of the market and the city center of Ambalavao.
Departure to Anja reserve which counts some colonies of makis catta (ringtailed lemurs) composed with about 80 individuals, divided into several families. It’s also possible to find reptiles like chameleons.
Continuation for Ihosy and Ranohira. Crossing the ruiniform plateau of Horombe passing the through the savannah. Arriving at Ranohira and overnight in BB at your hotel.
Breakfast and easy trekking in the park. Opened in 1962, the Isalo National Park (pronounce « ish-ah-loo ») covers 81 540 ha of the eroded jurassic sandstone of the same name, and stretches from 180 km long with an average of 25 km wide.
Departure for a walk in the Isalo National Park ,located in Bara Zafimanelo territory till the Canyon entrance. Start of the walk in the canyon (do not forget trekking shoes, hat and binoculars). Pic nic lunch,in the afternoon, riding (according to everybody physical capacity) in direction of the « piscine naturelle » (« Natural swimming pool » about 90 minutes walk approximately on outward journey but less than this time in the return), bathing in a crystalline water prettily surrounded with pandanus. Overnight in BB at your hotel.
Early breakfast and early morning departure for Tulear (means the place where we are arriving) passing through Ilakaka, which was in the past a small village became today a real « far west town » with the discovery in 1998 of the one of the bigger sapphire deposit in the world …
Discovery of the Southern funeral art : the Antandroy tombs, with overview on the Mahafaly tombstones. The Antandroy tombs are componed with « Valavato », a kind of rocks pile, whom sizes could reach 50 meters side and 1,50 meters high for royal lates. Body is buried in a coffin formed with two hollowed out half-trunks.
The landscape still changes, the steppe turned russet by the sun leaves place at a dry forest punctuated of baobab trees. This tree symbolizes Madagascar, with its thick trunk, its big fruits in the form of gourd and its branches look like to roots growing up towards the sky. The island counts seven species of baobab trees and some specimens would exceed the 1000 years of age.
Small Andosonia fony, with « only » 5m top, grows up close to Morondava. More imposing, Adansonia Grandidieri, real monument with its 30 to 40 meters high is also in this area.
You will leave Tuléar and continue the journey to Ifaty, a fishermen’s village by the sea. Overnight in BB at your hotel.
Beach stay at Ifaty . You can participate with various activities that the hotel proposes: diving, deep-sea fishing, trips in « Vezo » canoes to the coral reef, massage, whale safari if period (from July to the end of September), etc.
Breakfast and early departure for Fianarantsoa. Arrival at the end of the day, overnight in BB at your hotel
Breakfast and early departure to get back on the road to reach Antananarivo. Arriving and overnight in BB at your hotel.
Breakfast and sightseeing tour at Antananarivo (The Queen’s Palace, the flower market etc.). On the road to the airport we will have a stop at the craft market for purchases of Malagasy handicrafts. Transfer to the airport and assistance with check-in formalities and boarding to your flight back .Night on board.
Price from 885€ per person
– All transfer from and to airports /hotels
– Overnight in BB in standard hotel
– Full board sistem during hiking and local’s house.
– Rental car with english speaking driver
– From 5 pax , english speaking guide during the tour
– All visits mentionned in the program except excursions at Ifaty
– Local guides in the parc and reserves
– 24/7 english or spanish speaking hotline Support
– Liability insurance to which our Agency is suscribed
– International flight
– The visa entry ( around 32€ / pax)
– Lunches (pic nic or in restaurants)
– Drinks
– All the activities you will organize at Ifaty during beach stay
– All the tips for guides and driver
– Personal purchases
– Multirisk insurance
Images gallery
