Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Eastern Madagascar
Includes ยป
Why Go?
Eastern Madagascar is travel the way it used to be. There is a wildness here of primordial
allure, from the misty mountains of Masoala, down the huge coastline with its pounding sea
and overhanging palms, to the lush alleyways of the Pangalanes Lakes. When you arrive
back home, it all has the quality of a dream. This part of the country is largely cut off from
the rest, and from itself, by a degraded transportation network, including some roads out
of an engineer's nightmare. Travelling here requires a combination of plane, car, 4WD, dirt
bike, scooter, pirogue (dugout canoe), ferry, cargo boat, taxi-brousse (bush taxi), and mo-
torboat. This inaccessibility results in isolated communities and, for the traveller, a con-
stant sense of coming upon undiscovered locales, including entire national parks. There's no
doubt it can be frustrating at times, but Eastern Madagascar produces more traveller's tales
than anywhere else. If you value that, come here first.
