Madagascar: Not Just Lemurs!
Madagascar is a beautiful, tropical, enormous island – in fact, it’s the fourth-largest island in the world. It’s located off the south-east coast of Africa and covers just shy of 595,000 square kilometres.
The most famous attribute that this country boasts is its wide variety of animals, flora and fauna uniquely native to its shores. The most famous inhabitants of the island are, of course, the lemurs, thanks to the Dreamworks film ‘Madagascar’.
Despite its proximity to Africa, its heritage is largely Asian in origin, as a result of the traders from the Middle East who settled there in the 7th Century. However, years of French governance has given the island a language that makes it easily accessible to the West.
Along the middle of the country is a high ridge, reaching three thousand metres above sea-level at its highest peak (mount Maromokotro), dipping on either side down to the sea. On the eastern side of the ridge, the rainforests abound and the western side of the ridge is taken up with dry, tropical forests and even desert. Many tourists favour Antsiranana on the north-west coast, where they can enjoy the beauty of the harbour bay and visit the small, volcanic islands nearby and then return to the picture-postcard sandy beaches.
The capital, Antananarivo, is a quaint town that is most picturesque at sunset. If you prefer to see a little nature instead of beaches and towns, then organised trips into the forests on either side of the ridge are available: see the lemurs and fossa, lizards and birds (eighty per cent of which are endemic to Madagascar). Safari in Madagascar and really experience the journey of a lifetime.