Madagascar Encompassed

Madagascar is an extraordinary destination, like the Galapagos Islands it's an example of what happens when an island evolves independently of its nearest continent. Its home to an incredible diversity of endemic flora and fauna including the poster boys (and girls) of the country…lemurs. It's one of my absolute favourite destinations as it's simply like nowhere else on earth. Madagascar's not an obvious stopover on a Round the World trip but it is possible to include it if you fly from either South Africa or Mauritius for an extra £350-£400.

I travelled in May 2007 as part of a small group with GAP Adventures and our 17 day trip was designed to showcase the amazing diversity of the island, our Malagasy guide, Jocelyn, was incredibly helpful and generous with her time and knowledge. We started off in the capital Antananarivo (called Tana by everyone as it's such a mouthful) and headed to the South past gigantic baobab trees to Isalo National Park.

This vast area of grasslands and sandstone gorges is a fantastic place to hike, and a naturalist guide pointed out medicinal plants, well camouflaged stick insects and burial sites as we walked. The Isalo ranch where we stayed had a lovely pool to cool off in with a Three Horses beer after all that exercise.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was Ranomafana up in the rain forested highlands in the central region. We did several guided night time walks during which we saw many different types of chameleon including the tiny inch long "Brookesia minima", leaf tailed geckos and the unfeasibly cute nocturnal mouse lemur. During the 17 day trip we saw 16 different species of lemur including the largest, the Indri (which resembles a 4 year old in a panda suit) and countless reptiles.

The second part of the trip to the North of the island was at a slower pace with less driving. We visited plantations of vanilla, cocoa and raffia, stopped off in colourful market towns and ended with a relaxing beach stay on the island of Nosy Be where I got to do lots of diving and indulge in £10 lobster dinners seasoned with local chilli sauce I'd bought in the markets.

Our group was a mix of Nationalities with people coming from New Zealand, UK, USA, Germany and the Netherlands. Everyone had travelled extensively and had seen that it's time consuming and quite expensive to travel independently in Madagascar. A small group trip provided a great way to see as much as possible on a budget. In the 3 weeks that I was there I definitely saw much more then I would have done if I was travelling on my own. Everyone had a fantastic time and many of us still keep in touch, all in all it really was a fantastic holiday and I can't wait to return!