You might have guessed from the title, there is a rather famous link to my final destination…Zanzibar! Zanzibar was where the lead singer Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) of the famous rock group Queen, was born. Part of my tour on this island would take me to his hometown. We will get to that… Departing Nairobi,…
The title of this piece refers to the sign (photographed), that imitates that of the Hollywood sign, yet it appears to be shrouded in mystery as does Madagascar itself… Madagascar the island of immense history, has a biodiversity like no other and the title of a Dreamworks movie that had every potential of putting this…
I arrive late afternoon at Lake Mantasoa and the view from the hotel of the surroundings are that of beautiful old country. The thing with Madagascar is some of the landscape looks like it’s had old fashioned American influence. The only way I can describe it is like the Wild West. Like the scenes of…
Waking up in Andasibe (Perinet) things weren’t so great as my guide was still missing and so I headed to the lodge’s restaurant area to grab a little breakfast and figure out from my Brandt guide what to do. One of the things you get very familiar with in Madagascar is the food and this…
The following morning, I was driven to a place just outside of Vakona where there is an island called “Lemur Island”. Lemur Island is a project that exists to rescue lemurs, who have been taken from the wild with the sole purposes of exploitation by the captive wildlife trade and or illegally kept captive as…
As I walk onto the next area I am greeted with a wooden sign with an arrow pointing to the left… It reads “Crocodiles this way”… I look at my guide bearing in mind this Nile crocodile is in front of me having a break and there is literally nothing to prevent it suddenly running…
Back on the road and there is a change of plan which I hadn’t anticipated. I would be heading to Mahajanga with a brief unplanned stop to the region of Vakinankaratra and then Fianarantsoa. My driver was still on the driving like a bat out of hell mission and the journey on the way to…
Showdown complete, I meet my new and improved guide Vula. Vula was incredibly understanding and equally appalled by what I had been put through. My final week in Madagascar meant my remaining itinerary was revised and tailored to my choosing. As I’d missed out on Ampijoroa National Park, we changed the final week whereby, I’d…
I head into the rainforest and as you will see from my photography, Ranomafana is nothing short of spectacular. It is picturesque and the biodiversity is incredible. If I honestly add anymore of my photography, it will mean the text is a little shorter but the photography speaks volumes. I have aimed to name as…
“This is the story of what happens when a set of animals and plants are cast away on an island for millions of years. This is how this curious wonderland came into being. Madagascar is an unrepeatable experiment, a set of animals and plants evolving in isolation for over 60 million years. We’re still trying…