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| TUESDAY FLIGHT TO: |
NO same day connection for Nosy Be or Sainte Marie
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| TUESDAY FLIGHT FROM: |
SAME day connection from Nosy Be / NO same day connection for Sainte Marie
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| SATURDAY FLIGHT TO: |
Fly directly into Nosy Be – flight then continues to Tana / NO same day connection for Sainte Marie |
| SATURDAY FLIGHT FROM: |
SAME day connection from Nosy Be / NO same day connection for Sainte Marie |
| Your flight time is 4 hours and Madagascar is 1 hour ahead of SA. |
Madagascar's ever-changing features amaze tourist and nature seekers who yearn for
the unusual and the never before seen. Everything remains to be discovered, nothing
is commonplace and all seems new.
The Island:
The world’s 4th largest island. A mountainous central ‘spine’ separates the
permanently damp east from the drier west and sub-desert south. Because of
dramatically contrasting climatic zones, it’s as though Madagascar is composed of a
few very different countries crammed into one island. Each region has its own
compliment of plants and often decidedly odd animals. Nearly everything you’ll see
and touch on Madagascar is found nowhere else.
Madagascar has its share of beautiful beaches and magnificent coral reefs.
The Northwest is the domain of the bays, white-sandy beaches and some coral islets
with names such as Nosy Komba, Sakatia, Iranja, Mitsio, Tanikely and indeed Nosy Be. These islands, lost to the outside world, are only visited by fishermen on board their
pole pirogues. From June to September, the humpback whales come back from
the Antarctic to reproduce and give birth around Sainte Marie Island, formerly a
pirate’s colony.
Afro-Asian:
The 17 million Malagasy constitute the world’s only Afro-Asian nation. Man arrived at
most 2000 years ago by means of outrigger canoes from Melanesia, Polynesia,
Indonesia and Africa. The contemporary Malagasy, separated into 16 major tribes
are united by language and culture. Best known of the Malagasy ceremonies is the ‘bone-turning’ or ‘famadihana’, held from June to August.
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The animals:
Madagascar has been separated from Africa mainland and India for 160 million years.
This long history of isolation and over water colonisation has meant that numerous
groups of mammals have not made it to the island. Of all the different groups of
mammals on the island, lemurs have been studied the most intensively and have
received much attention from the conservation community and tourists. Among the
35 varieties the Propitheque of Tattersall and the Hapalemur have only been
discovered recently.
How to speak in a few lines about 19000 listed vegetal species, among them
1 000 varieties of orchids, knowing that this is not the final list? The invertebrates
count over 100 000 specials, at least 3 000 of them are butterflies. Descendants
of antediluvian monsters, the Malagasy chameleons represent two thirds of the
species known in the world. |
