My wonderful journey to Morondava, Madagascar

Morondava is a famous city for the “Baobab Alley ” in a southwestern area of Madagascar. Located at 700 km or so from Antananarivo, it is on the edge of the Mozambique channel side. You will do great discoveries there as it is one of the most fascinating sites in Madagascar.

In mid July, we left Antananarivo the capital very early in the morning to avoid the heavy traffic jam at the rush hours and we proceed to the national road 7 ( RN7 ,in short). The travel will take approximately 12 or 13 hours so it is necessary to split the trip in 2 days. Along the road we admired the villages of Upper land with their red-clay roof houses alternating with many rice fields.

We arrived at 11 am in Antsirabe where we were going to stay overnight, another popular city for tourism as it is not far from Antananarivo . It is well known for its thermal springs and spa. The gastronomy is fabulous also. After enjoying a nice lunch , and homemade cake called “Mofo Gasy” with house coffee, we were hanging around this charming touristic town. We took the road again the next morning: it will take 8 hours driving or so from here to Morondava.

The great landscape with a various vegetation around makes you to forget about the increasing temperature.We noticed that the fauna and flora changed gradually from green and abundant plants to rare and thorny ones. Under the hot sun, we stopped at noon at Miandrivazo, the border town between Antananarivo and Morondava county. At lunch time, we met many other tourists . Morondava is very famous city with its Avenue of the Baobabs and National Park of lemurs and many endemic species.

Once again, we had enjoyed a delicious lunch , mostly bio , and restarted our road trip along the captivating National Road 34 (RN 34, in short). About four hours later, the baobab trees began to appear gradually around. Morondava , the capital of Menabe region , is an animated small city. We settled in our hotel , a cosy bungalow in front of the Mozambique Channel. The nice breeze was cooling down the hot temperature, as we enjoyed our sea food dinner.

So , on day 3, we planned to visit a national park called “Kirindy“, situated at 60km from Morondava. The road leads to the fascinating Baobab Alley . It’s a breathtaking landscape with these huge and majestic trees on sides of the driveway ! Of course, we took a lot of pictures and videos. After this unforgettable break, we arrived one hour later at the gate of “Kirindy reserve National Park”. Here, you can meet lemurs , catlike “fosas”, endemic species of fauna and flora , dry forest type, and also giant baobab trees. A local touristic guide will explain lots about the park’s habitat to you. So we learnt that with their massive trunk which has little wood fiber , baobab can store up to 300 liters of water. That is the reason Baobabs can survive in dry environment and most of them live over 500 years. Accommodations for researchers or students are available inside the park . On our way back to Morondava town, we had the opportunity to admire the beautiful and spectacular sunset on the Baobab Alley.

On day 4, we drove to Kimony. a white Sand beach , 15 km from Morondava town. It will make you relax , forget about your stress and make you admit that sometimes a simple nature, a small thing would do better than any medicines.

The next morning, we were heading back to Antananarivo , after enjoying this wonderful journey at Morondava. Of course, with this feeling that we have had experienced something very special in our life!

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