Madagascar Blog Welcome

Home safe!  The audacity of man to think he could invent a vessel to carry people 40,000+ feet in the air, above the clouds for over 19 hrs! 2 flights- from JFK to Johannesburg (around 16 hrs; 15th longest flight in the world)  then to Antananarivo, Madagascar (3 hrs ). and now back again. Back on American soil, grateful.

As you will see to the right and below if you continue to scroll, there are 7 posts of our journey in Madagascar, all coming to you at once!  Click on one or scroll down for all- as much as you are intrigued to learn about. Enjoy!

Thank you! Thanks again to Dee & Brian for making it such a wonderful experience.

Ranomafana National Park- Flora & Fauna

Ranomafana National Park. Click on the wiki link to learn so much about this place.


Wow!  worth the 10 hr  trek on long winding sometimes pothole ridden roads through dirt path to experience. I highly recommend a visit to this national park of Madagascar, on of their treasures, one that has species of great significance, being studied all over the world. For a list of the lemurs and other wildlife and their endangered status and more, click here

start of the day hike through the rain forest of Ranomafana

view at the height of our hike. you can see if you look close, where we began on the other side.

This is the plant Ravenala madagascariensis or "Travellers Tree" that was part of King Julian's headdress in animated movie Madagascar

this is what the night hike looked like, shining flash lights on the nocturnal animals

View of the national park and rain forest from our lodge

Flora of Ranomafana

ICTE's research campus, Centre ValBio (CVB), is located adjacent to Ranomafana National Park, a 41,601ha protected area in Madagascar's south-eastern rainforest. RNP was established in 1991 and declared a World Heritage Site in July 2007. Dr. Patricia Wright, Founder and Executive Director of ICTE/CVB, has been conducting research in the area since 1986. Learn more.

View of national park from valbio balcony

The Road to Ranomafana- Scenery & People

The trek to Ranomafana was a long winding and bumpy at times. A usual 8 hr drive took over 10. Nearing what we thought was the end of the journey our path of paved winding "highway" turned into an unpaved dirt road, for many kilometers. We were met with night fall and some rain, but made it to the lodge without incident. Although we could not "see" anything, i knew we were in the midst of a rain forest and that there was a lot of nocturnal activity stirring. i could not wait to wake up the next morning, like a child on Xmas Eve. For this post i am sharing the road to and from - some of the things we saw along the way.