October, 2023

After spending a week traveling around the capital of Madagascar, we flew down to to Tulear located in the southwest corner of the country.

In comparison, Madagascar is about the same size as California. So you just don’t move from location to location quickly. Couple the bad roads with an island airline that cancels flights almost more than it flies, and travel becomes a bit more difficult.

Tulear to Nosy Ve

Our first adventure upon arriving in Tulear was to head to the island of Nosy Ve. We will be looking for some shore birds that are endemic to that region. Up bright and early we headed into town and to the boat dock to catch our high speed boat out to Nosy Ve.

The trip across the water will take almost 2 hours to reach our destination. The coral reef of the shore extends for almost 12 miles and the water is crystal clear. But, before we can even get to our boat, we must wait for the ox cart to pick us up and drive us through the water to our boat.

Once we landed on Nosy Ve, we met our local guide at the park and started our journey across the island. We saw many nesting red tailed tropic birds, whimbrels, Kittlitz’s plovers, caspian terns and the crab plover – found only in Madagascar.

Of course I could hardly look at the birds for all of the amazing shells along the shoreline. Oh my, these shells were truly unbelievable. If Madagascar was our only location, my suitcase would have been full with Indian Ocean finds. Sadly, I was only able to leave with this picture.

After a full day in this ocean paradise, we boarded our speedboat and headed back to Tulear. This time the tide was out and we were quite a distance from shore. No worries as our zebu cart came to our rescue and took us back to shore.

Handmade in Madagascar

The Karenjy is the only car that was designed and built in Madagascar. There is no mass production and no assembly line as each car is made by hand. Between 1994-2009 the car company was shuttered.

Now back in production, they produce about 100 cars each year with a staff of 15 employees. You can select from three different models and they come in only screaming colors. It is designed to look like a bull and the paint job feels like an orange peel. Perfect for driving through spiny forests.

The Spiny Forest

The Spiny Forest is like no place on earth and is home to so many species of plants and animals. This area is very dry and in an area of Madagascar that is quite impoverished. Most people in this area live off the land and have cut down much of the forest to make charcoal.

Thankfully, it is now a National Park and many conservation organizations such as WWF are working to help the government with its amazing natural resources. This was evident by the number of Discovery Channel, USAid and National Geographic vehicles we saw in the area. Hopefully with all of the new parks that the Madagascar government has created, they can start to turn the tide of loosing their endemic species.

Daily Life

Life is tough in this part of the country. Roadside markets are plentiful in the early morning when it’s nice and cool. At midday, the streets are extremely quiet and you will find lots of the locals taking an afternoon nap.

Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, rice, lettuce, carrots are the main produce that these people sell along the roadside.