East Madagascar with Palmarium

Meeting at Ivato international airport and transfer to the chosen hotel. Overnight at the hotel

(140 Km about 3,5 hours drive)
After breakfast, drive east by car, through a landscape characterized by its nested rice fields and wooded hills. In Marozevo visit the Exotic Park (also called Peyrieras Park after its founder), where you can see many chameleons from close up, as well as butterflies, frogs and other amphibians. Then on to Andasibe, the place looks more like a poor wooden shack village, it is the starting point for the visit of the national park, the realm of the legendary Indris. Once the only hotel in Andasibe was in the mighty train station building with a few bungalows opposite on the hillside. But in the course of the years, thanks to the visitors from all over the world, numerous new hotel complexes were opened, in which a lot of jobs were created. Possibility to walk with a local guide along the road near the National Park Perinet-Analamazaotra in search of nocturnal animals before dinner. With a little luck you will see wool and mouse makis, chameleons etc. Overnight stay at the hotel.

(125 km of ordinary road, then 7 km of earth road (about 4 to 5 hours drive in total), then about one and a half hours by boat on the canal).

After breakfast, an early morning visit to the 810 hectare reserve of Analamazaotra (930 to 1000 meters altitude), the realm of the mysterious Indri lemurs with their distinctive calls heard for miles around, and 13 other species of lemurs. You can also find various species of birds, chameleons etc. This hike on the Trail “Indri II” takes about three hours and leads on paths first in an upward gradient, and is then mostly flat. After the visit, you drive on the national road 2 about 113 km into the sugar cane and fruit growing area around Brickaville. After a few kilometres, the road turns right onto a 7 km long dirt road to the formerly busy holiday resort of Manambato. There we board a covered motorboat and transfer on the Pangalanes Canal (about 20 km) to the hotel in the middle of beautiful nature in Akanin’ny Nofy at Lake Ampitabe.  Overnight stay there.

The  Pangalanes Canal is considered to be the second longest canal in the world. It is a continuous waterway of about 645 km in length, which leads from Tamatave, the northernmost end point, to the village of Farafangana in the south, running parallel to the Indian Ocean. The distance to the sea is sometimes only a few meters, at some points it also touches the sea, and therefore the water is slightly salty. During the colonial period, eight years of construction work created artificial connections between the naturally formed lakes and river courses, which are fed with water from wooded elevations. Artificially constructed branch canals were used to create connections to the nearest standing or flowing water sources.

A whole day to discover the surroundings of the hotel on the shores of Lake Ampitabe. Among other things, you can visit the private Palmarium Park with a great variety of lemurs during a hike lasting several hours, or you can explore the area by canoe or on foot. A nocturnal excursion is planned, partly by boat, in search of the rare and endangered Aye Aye lemurs (Daubentonia madagascariensis) with their unusual appearance. These strange lemurs have been settled on the island and are guarded around the clock. In the evening during the Aye Aye stalking, coconuts are clamped between two tree trunks, and one can watch how they are opened by these creatures with the beaver-like teeth and spooned out with the long middle finger. Overnight stay at the hotel.

(265km around 6 hours)

Today you will have a motorboat transfer back to Manambato where the car will be waiting for you before the drive back to the Capital city. Overnight at the hotel.

Depending on the departure time of your international flight, you may be able to visit the historical sites of Ambohimanga (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001). It is the holy city of Merina, and was once the residence of the most powerful of all Merina princes, King Andrianampoinimerina. Until the conquest and final subjugation by the French in 1896, no foreigner was allowed to enter it. It had seven city gates, and the most powerful of them still serves as the entrance gate to the place today. Next to the gate there is a huge, smoothly polished and almost circular stone slab. In former times it was rolled every evening in front of the entrance gate. From the top of the “Blue Hill” – that is the translation of Ambohimanga – at 1468 meters of altitude, you have a beautiful view of Tana and the surrounding area.

Afterwards visit a market with Malagasy handicrafts to buy last souvenirs and transfer to the airport and check-in for departure for departure for the flight home.