Insight Guides Madagascar by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Madagascar
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2018-07-26T16:00:00+00:00

The Tsingy of Bemaraha

North of Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, the RN8 deteriorates to become a rough 4x4-only track that emerges after 90km (55 miles) at the south bank of the Manambolo River opposite Bekopaka. More overgrown village than town, Bekopaka is of note primarily as the gateway to the Parc National des Tsingy de Bemaraha, but also as the terminus of the thrillingly remote three- to five- boat trips that follow the Manambolo downriver from Ankavandra. Coming by road from Morondava, the track north of Belo-sur-Tsiribihina is usually impassable during the rainy season (November to March) and even when it is dry, you are looking at up to 10 hours’ drive to cover the full 190km (115 miles) in a private 4x4, and at least two days by taxi-brousse.

Ample justification for this energy-sapping drive comes in the form of the singularly spectacular 725-sq-km (280-sq-mile) Parc National des Tsingy de Bemaraha 7 [map] (www.parcs-madagascar.com; May–Nov 6.30am–4.30pm) which was inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1990, together with the bordering 666-sq-km (257-sq-mile) Réserve Naturelle Intégrale des Tsingy de Bemaraha. The centrepiece of this vast protected area is the world’s largest ‘stone forest’, the so-called Grand Tsingy, a labyrinthine karstic formation that stretches almost 100km (60 miles) from north to south, and whose jagged black limestone pinnacles are incised with neat linear valleys to resemble endless rows of city blocks when viewed from the air. Despite being referred to as a stone forest, the Tsingy of Bemaraha possesses many desert-like qualities, with daytime temperatures on the exposed stone canopy frequently soaring above 50°C (122°F) and what little rain does fall tending to put straight down the bare rock slopes into tall narrow valleys up to 100m (330ft) deep. In recent centuries, the formation has been practically unpopulated, but in times gone by it was home to Vazimba hunter-gatherers whose sculpted katrafay-wood coffins are still found on the more remote caves and ledges.

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