Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Where to stay and eat
Noor
(14 rooms)
m
032 42 509 00. Behind the Jovenna fuel station at the north of
town. It's a pleasant old-fashioned place built around a courtyard with en-suite bathrooms
& some AC rooms; a few have hot water & TV. €€€
National
(10 rooms) 82 065 41;
m
032 42 577 84. Good en-suite dbl rooms, some
with AC & TV. €€-€€€
Diana
(14 bungalows)
m
032 43 055 33/032 45 921 10. Dbl rooms with en-suite cold
showers; some with AC & TV. Situated 2.5km from centre (towards Ambanja) so more
peaceful. Restaurant (
06.00-late
). €€-€€€
Amicale
(16 rooms)
m
032 02 902 61. Very noisy with cold water only & poor secur-
ity - but cheap. €
Coco Pizza
By far the best eatery; opposite Jovenna. Range of delicious thin-crust piz-
zas cooked in a wood-fired oven.
Escargot
An acceptable restaurant down a side street in the centre.
DARAINA
Daraina is a small town 56km northwest of Iharana (3 hours), or 114km (5
hours) from Ambilobe. If you are taking that road anyway, it makes the whole journey
worthwhile; if you're in Iharana it's worth making it a day's excursion.
The reason to go here is to see the beautiful golden-crowned sifaka (
Propithecus tat-
tersalli
),oneofthe rarest ofall lemurs andlisted asoneofthe 25most threatened primates
in the world. Yet you
will
see the sifaka, and close-up (see box below) and this is probably
the only place in Madagascar where you can have this sort of experience without crowds
sharingitwithyou.Thesifakatendtosleepintheheatofmidday(andit'smurderouslyhot
then for humans too) so if coming for a day trip make a really early start.
A Malagasy NGO called FANAMBY is working with the local communities to preserve
the forests and the sifakas. The region has deposits of gold and is rich in semi-precious
stones - one of the factors causing conflict with the establishment of a protected reserve.
Guides charge 25,000Ar. Allow about three hours for a visit to the sifakas. It takes an
hour to reach them: drive 20 minutes west from Daraina then turn right onto a very bad
trackforafurther20minutes.It'sthena20-minutewalkthroughforesttoAndranotsimaty,
where you'll start seeing sifakas and as soon as they see you watching them they'll come
down to investigate.
SEEING SOME OF THE RAREST PRIMATES IN THE WORLD
Lee Miller
OnarrivinginDaraina,wefindaguideandheadtotheforest.Theforestfloorispock-
marked with holes in the ground, five feet across and equally deep. We realise that
