Day 2: Antananarivo – Andasibe National Park

14 August 2025

Today we make our way towards the eastern side of the island and Andasibe National Park, which is known for its biodiversity. It is an early start: 6.00am wake up for 7.30 departure. Antananarivo traffic is horrendous at any time but it is especially busy today because they are preparing to host the African Leaders conference in a day or so. There are flags from various African countries lining the streets and roundabouts, and police, gendarmes and military everywhere (police are only in cities, gendarmes have military training as well).

As we travel, it is fascinating to see such vibrant life alongside the roads.  75-80% of Malagasy people are farmers. Whole families are out in the fields planting crops. There are masses of rice paddies with people ploughing, planting and weeding rice. People are making mud bricks and building houses. There are many quarries where people are manually breaking up rock of all different sorts for roads houses and more. Washing often looks like it is being done in the paddy fields but there is generally a stream. Laundry spread out over bushes and banks to dry.

Since the coup in 2009, corruption has meant that vital infrastructure has been very neglected – especially the roads as we will discover (a key reason for our early departure). One infrastructure fix that was tried (and mostly failed) was a cable car above the congested city roads. We are heading east on a major road (built by the Chinese) that leads to the main port. Unfortunately that means that there are a huge number of trucks on the road and the potholes are many and enormous. We see a few places where trucks and their containers have tumbled off the road. There is an ingenious use of branches on road to warn people of a breakdown ahead.

Houses in Antananarivo are brick/plaster with high pitched roofs while further east they are wooden. There a few intermediate versions. Only 40% of houses have running water – we see many youths doing the ‘water run’ – either carrying the yellow plastic containers or pushing them on various conveyances. It is noticeable how much is done manually and there is lots of makeshift equipment cobbled together. Rickshaws aren’t allowed in the city because of traffic congestion (but are allowed elsewhere). We see people pushing carts and small motorised carts hauling all sorts of things.

Charcoal making and selling seems to be a big business with the standard flour sack of charcoal being seen all along the roads. It is commonly made of eucalyptus, buried in a pit with green leaves on top, and then all covered by dirt with a couple of holes. The leaves make sure the fire doesn’t’ burn the wood – left for 3 days until there is no more smoke. As well as charcoal, people are selling all sorts of produce (loquats, citrus, pineapples) and various crafts (pottery).

Our first stop is the Reserve Peyrieras Madagascar Exotic. This small privately run reserve at Marozevo is home to many species of reptiles found on the island, including the elusive chameleon! Our guide is Franklin. This reptile park is a bit like a zoo but a fantastic way to be able to see a wide range of different species that we wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Many we might have seen without realising as they are leaf-tailed geckos that are incredibly well camouflaged looking like leaves or lichen.

We saw a range of different chameleons as well, from a tiny adult one, others that were just babies, and many of Panther and Parson’s chameleons in a huge range of different colourways. Franklin has some grasshoppers on sticks that he uses to tempt them to feed – shooting out their tongues that are as long as their bodies.

There are also some snakes. I am delighted to hear that there are no venomous snakes in Madagascar and the ones we see only eat insects. One is a ‘stick snake’ that looks exactly like a stick.

After a lunch stop, we continue to Andasibe National Park. Our rainforest lodge is up a long road past the National Park and just as we work our way through a deep and extremely muddy series of potholes, we are told that the road gets worse from here!!! It has rained quite a bit recently (it is a rainforest) so things are quite sodden. It is only 6km but takes us over 30 mins to drive. On the way we pass a graphite mine also owned by the owners of the lodge we are staying at. The lodge has a magnificent round restaurant and reception area and then lots of bungalows set amongst the forest.

We have a couple of hours to relax and then order our dinner in the restaurant (mine is just plain rice as my gut is not happy). We then head back over our favourite piece of road to Andasibe National Park where we meet guide John for a night walk – we see the world’s smallest chameleon, and the largest Parsons chameleon, a male and female white lipped tree frog, mouse lemurs (smallest lemur), 4 colourful birds sleeping on a branch, and a huge owl moth.

After an hour or so making our way through the forest by torch light, we retrace our now familiar if uncomfortable route back to the lodge for dinner – and an early night.