June 23-25
Hello everyone!
If I had actually come to Madagascar last Christmas, there is quite a lot of the country that I wouldn’t have been able to see. When it rains here, it rains hard. Combined with the quality of the roads, it makes many places inaccessible between November and April. My next destination, the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, is one that can’t be visited for almost half of the year.
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| Some very big tsingy |
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| Viewing platforms give some pretty good views |
Tsingy is a Malagasy word which roughly translates as ‘where one cannot walk barefoot’. You will see why in the pictures. A tsingy is a large pinnacle of limestone rock which has been naturally carved and hewn over millions of years by acidic rain and weathering from the wind. This national park, far away from any notable towns, protects over 150,000 hectares of them.
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| Some fossils suggest the presence of life forms here millions of years ago |
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| It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 |
And boy are they tall. Access to the park is generally split into two sections: the ‘Petit Tsingy’ and the ‘Grand Tsingy’. We visited the smaller park first - it would make the relatively small tsingy seem a bit underwhelming if we went there second, but it’s also far easier to access.
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| Driving from the river to the park area took an afternoon of bumpy roads |
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| Lots of clambering and climbing for 2 days |
Before entering the park we had the chance to view the tsingy from a pirogue. After having to switch boats as ours was sinking, we glided quietly down the small river, admiring the scale of the rocks and burning under the glare of the Sun.
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| There wasn't much margin for error! |
Being on the boat also shows you another effect of erosion. The annual rising of the river has, over a long period of time, chipped away at the lower part of the rock. This has created some small caves to explore. The video will show you the interesting noise made by some of the rocks inside the caves.
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| The entrance to a cave |
The little tsingy was our introduction to clambering over, under and through the limestone. Amongst the rocks were many trees, vines and flowers.
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| Cactus-style plants climb from some of the rocks |
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| Rocks in the Small Tsingy rise up to 30 metres tall |
The wildlife wasn’t just restricted to plants...
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| Quite a large spider - luckily far away from us! |
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| Gecko |
The largest animal was found at the end, when we spotted a sifaka lemur hopping around. The only predator for the lemurs, the fosa, is present in the park but stays very hidden.
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| The second largest species of lemur |
The following day we woke early, seeing a magically misty sunrise, before driving for an hour on what the locals here class as a road before finding the entrance to the Grand Tsingy. With spires reaching up towards 100 metres from the ground, we were instructed to put harnesses on.
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| Sunrise with a morning mist |
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| Testing our harnesses |
For a rocky place, it has a lot of trees. Surprised me a bit, that, though it does give a place for lemurs to live.
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| Common brown lemur |
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| Like the rocks, the trees soar high above the floor |
After traipsing through a small forest, we started our attack on the Grand Tsingy. There is a route which is quite easy to follow and has climbers in mind. Some of the gaps are quite narrow…
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| More difficult to climb, these ones... |
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| Good trainers are necessary for hiking along some quite sharp points |
Some sections are quite steep…
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| Leading the charge up the tsingy |
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This section required the harness - the
drop was pretty big! |
But all of the views are jaw-droppers.
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| Grand Tsingy |
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| Not for people with a fear of heights, this place |
Connecting two sections of the park is a long, hanging bridge, with a drop exceeding 25 metres. Being the sensible person that I am, I decided to run across without attaching my harness. It’s quite difficult to run when it’s bouncing so much!
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| Harness: optional |
I find it amazing that there is life here in what can look like an alien landscape. Under the rocks we saw many beautiful reptiles and shared our lunch with a mongoose, whose long, fluffy tail was a lovely red and black.
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| The surprising colours found in the Grand Tsingy |
After four days either sat in a car or on a boat, it was nice to do something active. Scrambling around the spiky rocks was a real treat.
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| Our group atop the Grand Tsingy |
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| Well-deserved beers after! |
Love you all,
Matt
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