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| Viewing: Photo Madagascar Tour |
Package ID: 1544 |
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| Photo Madagascar Tour |
You get the chance for a few thousands good shots!’
This tour is designed for keen private photographers – if you are a professional and you want to ‘Photo Madagascar’ please let us know and we will be happy to arrange a tour for you.
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We have a confirmed group for Photo Madagascar:
From / to Antananarivo airport, start on 4th October 2008 – 37 days / 36 nights
If 37 days seems too long for you – it is possible to join the tour partly
Maximum number of participants: eight photographers – some seats remaining
This tour is designed for private photographers – if you are a professional and you want to ‘Photo Madagascar’ please let us know and we will be happy to arrange a tour for you.
Your tour manager is a native German, who lives since 2000 in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. He says: ‘I think you get the chance for a few thousands good shots!’
Photo Madagascar
From / to Antananarivo airport, 21 days / 20 nights
You get the chance for a few thousands good shots!’
This tour is designed for keen private photographers – if you are a professional and you want to ‘Photo Madagascar’ please let us know and we will be happy to arrange a tour for you.
Highlights:
Andasibe-Mantadia NP – Indri reserve –
Ny Hary ONG –
Antsirabe – Antoetra – Iafasina –
Jungle express to the East coast (FCE) –
Ranomafana NP – Isalo NP –
Ifaty beach – Berenty reserve –
Towns:
Antananarivo– Antsirabe – Ampefy – Ambositra – Fianarantsoa – Manakara – Ambalavao – Toliara (Tuléar) – Tolagnaro (Fort Dauphin)
It has been called the eighth continent because of its unique wildlife that has evolved in isolation for 165 million years. Madagascar's treasures include dozens of species of lemurs - a family of primates older than the monkey and a distant relative of humans - as well as several endemic birds and a colorful cast of chameleons. Three-quarters are found nowhere else in the world and are the product of millions of years of separate evolution since Madagascar broke away from Africa when the continents first formed.
Day 1 – Antananarivo – Andasibe-Perinet
The eastern rainforest Reserve of Andasibe-Mantadia is one of the last strongholds of the mythical Indri-Indri lemur, the largest of all lemurs. The animals and birds are most active in the early morning and there should be good opportunities to see and hear the lemurs. The black and white coated Indri-Indri is an extraordinary Lemur, known for its wailing call. Indris are active on and off throughout the day but are best seen in the morning. Your afternoon and evening is then at leisure to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Before dinner we have another nocturnal walk out for mousemakis (microcebus).
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La
Day 2 – Andasibe-Perinet
This morning we will also rise up early to visit Mantadia National Park that is as well in the region to see the diadema Sifaka – a rare Lemur of the island. Mantadia also contains a wide variety of fauna and flora in the moist mountain forest, including beautiful and varied insects, spiders, butterflies, reptiles and many orchids. After searching for the lemurs and other fauna we walk into the orchid park to admire Madagascar's beautiful flora.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La
Day 3 – Andasibe-Perinet – Ampefy
Drive to Ampefy. Close to the town we visit the large and impressive waterfall called Lily. There is a lively small village around at the falls and local people offer some handicraft. We stay in hotel Le Relais de la vierge this night.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C
Day 4 – Ampefy – Miarinarivo – Antananarivo
After breakfast we start to Miarinarivo. Here we visit the Ny Hary NGO. Their project is called Antseranantsoa – a save harbour. Its aim is to give access to education for children living in rural regions of the mid-west of Madagascar. The centre provides housing, proper drinking water, healthy nutrition, hygienic conditions and medical surveillance. By satisfying the basic needs of the children they are enabled to study up to 200km afar from their home villages where the schools attended does not exist. The centre is placed on a hillside and is in short reach from all schools and the central marketplace. It is 148-acre surface contents rice-fields, fruit- and vegetable gardens, a basketball- and volleyball court and several fishponds. In Tana we stay in Le Relais des Plateaux.
Included meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C
Day 5 – Antananarivo – Antsirabe
Drive to the spa of Antsirabe. Antsirabe known as the city where we can find much minerals, across the highland landscape with its beautiful rice fields and its spectacular eroded hills called ‘lavaka’. The drive takes in lush green landscape where vegetables and fruits are farmed. En-route we stop in Ambatolampy for a short visit, a huge agricultural city and very well known as capital bay-foot production. Antsirabe, founded by Norwegian missionaries as a health retreat, is an industrial and agricultural center. Also we find here the Star brewery, the only brewery in Madagascar. We stay at colonial style hotel des Thermes, where in former year French planters from the East coast relaxed.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C F
Day 6 – Antsirabe – Ambositra
From Antsirabe we drive to Ambositra, the capital of the art Zafimaniry. Their carvings got recently UNESCO cultural heritage. They are reputedly the best sculptors and workers in marquetry. We visit some ateliers where we can see the artwork they do. Angelino hotel for two nights.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C
Day 7 – Antoetra – Ifasina
Starting from Ambositra we join the village of Antoetra. Deep in the heart of the Tanala forest in southeast Madagascar, Antoetra lives in drizzle and fog for much of the year. Antoetra is the main gateway to Zafimaniry country, an area of about 100 villages. This community is the last to practice woodcraft, previously widespread on the island. Antoetra is linked by forest tracks to the other villages. We continue to Ifasina. Later in the afternoon we come back to Ambositra.
Included meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C
Day 8 – Ambositra – Fianarantsoa
Leaving Ambositra we drive through a number of small villages including a village of 'blacksmith' before reaching Sahambavy Tea Estate. The tea estate created in 1970, set in a pretty valley beside Lake Sahambavy, produces large quantities of tea for both export and for local consumption. A tour of the tea estate will take us through all aspects from picking to packaging. Leaving Sahambavy we drive to the nearby city of Fianarantsoa where the jungle-express-train to the sunny East coast leaves. Here we stay in Soafia hotel, a good example for Chinese architecture.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: La P/C
Day 9 – FCE Train Fianarantsoa – Manakara (Jungle express)
The spectacular FCE train line links the highland city of Fianarantsoa with the east coast town of Manakara. It traverses some of Madagascar's most scenic countryside on its path from the high plateau to the sea. The line, which is one of the three steepest in the world, has no fewer than 67 bridges and 48 tunnels and offers the traveller magnificent vistas and photo opportunities as it descends the escarpment east of Fianarantsoa. Two nights in Sidi hotel in Manakara.
Included meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Photo opportunities: La V S
Day 10 – Manakara
The lovely town of Manakara offers a wide sand strip with an offshore reef. An alley with colonial-style buildings is running to the ocean waterfront in the old district of Manakara-Be. If time allows we hire a pirogue for a tour around the lagoon.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: S
Day 11 – Manakara – Ranomafana
Going to Ranomafana to see the Ranomafana rainforest. In the afternoon we visit the thermal bath and the Information centre. Night in Tropic village.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 12 – Ranomafana – Andringitra
Visit of the Ranomafana rainforest. Probably we will find lots of birds, frogs, lemurs and other species. We hope to see red-bellied lemurs, red-fronted lemurs, and diadema Sifakas. Although present, the golden bamboo Lemur and the broad-nosed gentle Lemur, are more difficult to find. The park is also flora rich with orchids, tree ferns, palms mosses, trumpet flowers and stands of giant bamboo. After lunch drive to Andringitra NP, passing Ambalavao to visit the Antaimoro Paper factory. The paper factory is a vestige of the Arabian civilisation in the island. Here paper is made from scratch using the bark of the avoha bush. After a series of steps, fresh flowers are pressed into the paper to make attractive cards, envelopes and picture frames. Two nights in Camp Catta.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 13 – Andringitra NP
The Andringitra mountain range acts as a topographic barrier and this dictates the main characteristics of the area. Within a few kilometres there are very pronounced climatic differences between the windward, humid, flank to the east and the dry flank to the west. These differences are combined with a ranging altitude from tropical lowland to highland. The changing landscape is reflected in cultural and socio-economic diversity.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 14 – Andringitra NP – Ranohira
We continue to the sleepy town of Ihosy which is the capital of Bara tribes. Ihosy serves as a transition between the dry south and green highlands of central Madagascar. The Bara tribes are a cattle rearing (Zebu) tribe who shepherd their zebu through the mountain chain of Andringitra. We will see the ‘3 hillocks' and the 'Bishop's Hat', which is a sacred place for the local people, as it is a place where their ancestors preferred to make a collective suicide rather than to render to the Merina tribes. We then enter the huge 'plateaux de Horombe', characterised by its very spacious red soil and straws locally known as bozaka’, before arriving in Ranohira. If time allows we catch sunset at the window of Isalo. Two nights in Le Relais de la Reine.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 15 – Isalo NP
This park is fiercely beautiful with golden plains punctuated by craggy pinnacles of terracotta rock, valleys, canyons and waterfalls. The Isalo National Park comprises the entire stretch of the Isalo massif. This huge mountain is spectacular with its eroded sandstone mountain. Our adventure begins with a trek in the Park. We trek through landscapes formed by centuries of erosion and fascinating sandstone formations. We walk to the canyon des singes and the canyon des rats to look for ring-tailed and other lemurs. In the afternoon we pass the piscine naturelle for a bath.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 16 – Isalo – Toliara-Ifaty
Drive to Toliara (Tuléar), the terminal of the National road N° 7. We experience new scenery that is comprised of the dry forest of the west, the spiny desert of the south and the spectacular baobabs. Tuléar, the biggest province in Madagascar, is the driest part of the country. The landscape is dominated by spiny forest-like cactus and different euphorbia plants. We stop at the Mahafaly and Antandroy tombs. These tombs are works of art, constructed by the community, to honour the deceased. Toliara is a lively city. We take a short tour to the town, looking at the colonial architecture with its huge villas; we visit the busy the market place where thousands of people are shopping. From there we take a drive north along the coast to Ifaty to Hotel Le Paradisier, our accommodation for the next two nights.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C S
Day 17 – Ifaty
After breakfast we do a ‘snorkelling tour’. The crystal clear water of the ocean attracts a range of wonderful coloured fish. Later we visit the ‘village des tortues’ an observation station for tortoises. In a natural park east of the lagoon of Ranobe this village develops, among other activities, reproduction programs. Another highlight is the opportunity to admire and photograph the strange looking Baobab Trees of Madagascar as well as some succulents. We visit also the small museum.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W S Fv
Day 18 – Toliara (Tuléar) – Tolagnaro – Berenty reserve
Transfer to the airport of Toliara and flight to Tolagnaro. Upon arrival we travel to Berenty Reserve, where we spend two nights in bungalows on the edge of the forest. The journey to Berenty takes us through various vegetation zones including high mountains, thick thorn scrubs and groves of pitcher plants. Berenty Reserve is a private 260-hectare reserve offering the chance to experience the forest. The opportunities to photograph lemurs here are great as many of the lemurs are habituated to humans. Two nights Berenty reserve.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 19 – Berenty
Full day exploring is taken from the lodge into the primary forest area of the reserve along well-maintained trails, with the chance to see lemurs and dancing Sifakas. At night we also embark on an evening walk using flashlights to see the nocturnal life of the forest. This reserve is famous for its population of ring-tailed lemurs and Sifakas. There are as well endemic plants, chameleons and more than 80 species of birds.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 20 – Berenty – Tolagnaro (Fort Dauphin)
This morning we take another walk into a secondary section of forest. We will also spend time at the Antandroy Museum, which showcases the life of the Antandroy people. The sisal factory can also be visited. We travel back to Tolagnaro and stay at Le Dauphin hotel for the night.
Included meals: breakfast, dinner
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Day 21 Tolagnaro (Fort Dauphin) – Antananarivo
Built on a small peninsula, Tolagnaro is bordered on three sides by beaches and backed by green mountains. Transfer to the airport where we check in for our flight to Antananarivo. – End of the tour at the airport. – We arrange any transfer required. –
Included meals: breakfast
Photo opportunities: W La P/C
Legend:
La Landscape
P/C People/Culture
W Wildlife
F Flora
Fv Fishing village
M Market
S seascape
V Various
Complementary Information:
Duration of the tour: 21 days
Car or minibus: 7 days
Trekking: 4 days, mostly half-day tours plus several tours of two or three hours
Train: 1 day
Included services: overnight in the mentioned or similar hotels in double room, during the river tour and in the Tsingy in tent, meals as mentioned above including 1 ½ l of mineral water per person per day, going by traditional pirogue, car or coach or 4WD, all transfers, all entrance fees, English / German speaking tour manager, who is a well known photographer, local guides at the visited parks, tip for drivers, local guides, porters, waiters etc. The tour can be changed according to circumstances.
Not included: flights, drinks except mentioned, additional beach activities, private expenses.
Please note: for this tour are inbound flights required that is not included in the tour price.
Prices: best price you can get if you go with one of our groups. Price is 2150 Euro per person.
2 persons - 3750 Euro
3 persons - 3425 Euro
4 persons - 3100 Euro
5 persons - 2850 Euro
6 persons - 2625 Euro
7 or 8 persons - 2400 Euro
9 or 10 persons 2290 Euro
11 or 12 persons - 2150 Euro
Single room surcharge - 600 Euro
Prices in Euro per person.
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