{"id":4109,"date":"2016-12-24T16:36:42","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T15:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:13:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:13:42","slug":"madagascar-visiting-the-tsingy-de-bemaraha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=4109","title":{"rendered":"Madagascar: Visiting the Tsingy de Bemaraha (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travel and Leisure has listed Madagascar<\/a> as one of its 50 places to visit in 2017. \u00a0Since we’re talking about a country that would stretch from New York City to the tip of Florida, I’ll help narrow things down a bit. \u00a0Despite the hassle of getting there, the Tsingy the Bemaraha National Park<\/a> is one of the places you should see if you make your way out to the red island in the future. \u00a0This post is chock full of lessons learned and travel tips in case you plan to go!<\/p>\n

\"Tsingy<\/a><\/p>\n

A Unesco World Heritage Site, the Tsingy National Park and Strict Nature Reserve are a geologist’s and a plant and animal biologist’s paradise. \u00a0Encompassing large areas of extremely eroded limestone karst, resulting in sharp, knife-edged rocks interspersed with deep crevasses, the area is also home to a wide variety of highly specialized plants and animals, nearly half of which are locally endemic – i.e. occur nowhere else. \u00a0Depending on whom you consult, the word “tsingy” either means “where you can’t walk” or “where you walk on your toes” but you get the idea. \u00a0There are a number of “tsingy” parks in Madagascar, but this is the most spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Loading<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting there is a bit of a chore, and there are a few tricks I’ll share. \u00a0As we live in Antananarivo, we rented a car and driver from there, and drove to Morondava (on the west coast) over the course of two days. \u00a0But many people take a flight and rent a driver from Morondava. \u00a0The flights are not always reliable or the cheapest, but you save some time as the scenery along the way is not super-exciting, and there’s a lot of driving to be done once you’re in Morondava.<\/p>\n

You can see my previous post on what to do in Morondava. \u00a0From there, it’s only 70 km – but all of it on dusty dirt roads and you’ll have to take two ferry crossings. \u00a0So leave early and plan on being on the road all day – after you’ve seen the baobabs, of course!<\/p>\n

\"Overloaded\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a steady stream of tourists and rented 4-by-4s on the road between Morondava and Bekopaka, the entrance to the park. \u00a0Not all of them know what they’re doing, but you’ll want to focus on two choke points: \u00a0the ferry crossings. An experienced driver will keep you on your time schedule. \u00a0The first crossing is the Mania River, just south of Belo Tsiribihina. \u00a0On the way north, you’ll want to hit that early and get across – and then you can take a break for lunch. \u00a0We stopped at the Mad Zebu, which is popular, not cheap, but very tasty. \u00a0Your driver will likely grab lunch elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"Boy<\/a><\/p>\n

The ferry ride is an experience in itself, as you’ve probably realized from the photos above. The ferry consists of a couple of metal riverboats with planking on top of them. \u00a0Metal ramps which beeeeeennnd are used to get the cars on and off the ferry. \u00a0They lash two ferries to each other sometimes for loading and unloading. \u00a0Then we set off for a 4-km trip downstream to the offloading point. \u00a0For the unitiated, it can be a bit scary. \u00a0I took a collection of footage from our various ferry rides and stitched them together below. \u00a0Watch toward the end – we were delayed waiting for a ferry with a single 4×4 that wouldn’t start. \u00a0Successfully lashed to another ferry, the crew push-started the 4×4, and when it started, it literally ran into the car in front of it. \u00a0Success!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yVCxgwS2GaQAfter this experience, we continued for another 4 hours or so – endless red dirt dusty roads with the windows down because our air conditioner had broken upon leaving Antananarivo – until we reached the Manambolo River. \u00a0Another ferry! \u00a0This one had additional excitement.<\/p>\n

\"Ferry\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you visit the Tsingy, one thing you’ll want to do is ensure you arrive well before 5 pm at the park office, and buy your entry tickets the day before, to avoid a long wait the next morning. \u00a0We were pretty sure we would juuustt make it in time, when we hit the ferry. \u00a0It turns out that our rented Mitsubishi with the broken air conditioning lacked the clearance to make it on the ferry at the normal landing – so the crew gestured him off and we had to wait a couple of iterations before they would pull off to the side and we finally got on board. \u00a0You can actually see this on the video above. \u00a0Needless to say, we were annoyed – our Land Cruiser with good clearance, also with broken air conditioning, was at home. \u00a0We made it to our Hotel, the Orchidee de Bemaraha, in time for dinner. \u00a0While we waited for the ferry, however, I decided to send up the drone for a bit.<\/p>\n