Madagascar - Rock Down To Baobab Avenue

June 26

Hello everyone!

Favourite trees? In a line? With the Sun setting behind them? Yes please!

Avenue of the Baobabs

The Sun setting with a stunning view before it

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Madagascar was to see something I first found in a book called Atlas Obscura. This fascinating book highlights remote, mesmeric and often strange places which are free from throngs of tourists. In the book there was a beautiful picture of a place in Madagascar. They called it ‘The Avenue of the Baobabs’.

Quite a few places in the book are very difficult to get to

The site name in French

I booked a group trip to western Madagascar primarily to see this street lined with big baobab trees. Getting there from the Tsingy, however, is a laborious task. Though not far on a map, we had to leave early in the morning in order to have a chance of making it to the avenue for sunset.

We were very close to the coast, staying the night after in Morondava

The quality of the roads led to a very bumpy ride

One car's 'track rod' had broken - lots of drivers stopped to help

We had to cross two rivers with our 4x4 vehicles. To do this, the car drives onto a set of wooden slabs which rest on canoes. A petrol engine emitting foul fumes then fires up and drives the cars, which are held on by carefully-placed stones, across the murky waters.

The loading bay

Before crossing the larger Tsiribiniha river, we stopped for lunch in the town of Belo-sur-Tsiribiniha. We had passed through this place on the way and had noticed a fun-sounding restaurant called Mad Zebu. Turns out this place has quite the story.

Often described as having the best food in the country

The son of the owner moved to France when quite young and became quite the competent chef, ending up working in a Michelin-star restaurant. Those skills have now been transferred back to Belo. The result is a small restaurant, in the middle of nowhere, which serves dishes which wouldn’t look out of place in the fine dining halls of Paris.

A starter of crab, avocado and fish eggs

Giant shrimp

As the hours passed and the Sun began to head west, lonely baobabs began to emerge in the parched fields in ever-increasing numbers.

6 of the 9 species of baobab are from Madagascar

Some baobabs are seen as particularly important in Malagasy culture, containing spirits and powers. We stopped at two particularly interesting trees which you can see below.

At this sacred baobab, which is well over 1000 years old,
locals will offer rum to the spirits for good fortune

This is the 'Baobab Lovers' tree, which is reminiscient
of the Dancing Houses building in Prague

From here, as the number of fazhady (foreigners) started to increase, we turned right down another sandy track. The car pulled in on the side of the road and we got out to walk towards the Avenue of the Baobabs.

Walking up to the 'Avenue' - it's actually the same road

It is a fascinating sight. My first impression was that this has to be man-made; essentially a regular dirt road with gigantic, ancient trees replacing skinny streetlights. 

Baobabs can be up to 50 metres in circumference

To have this many in such close proximity is rare

Maybe it is - maybe the road was steered through this particular route. I also felt that ithe avenue was shorter than I had hyped up in my mind. I should temper any disappoint though. To have this many baobabs in close proximity is rare enough; to have them in more or less in two straight and parallel lines less than 10 metres apart is pretty special.

The bark looks very smooth

The branches at the top evoke an image of Medusa

Most people - and there were the best part of 100 visitors - come for sunset. The late afternoon light colours the baobabs in beautiful golds and reds. 

Lovely colours as the Sun dips

The shadows became very long

An increasingly common annoyance at places of wonder around the world, the peaceful silence was unfortunately interrupted by the buzzing of drones hovering above. 

Can you see the drone in the top right corner?

Still, the silhouettes of the old trees as the Sun dips behind them is a lovely thing to witness. Today was Madagascar’s Independence Day - the top-quality food of Mad Zebu and the wonder of the Avenue of the Baobabs showed the country at its best.

Love you all,

Matt