"Andringitra National Park" a Andringitra Travel Page by quapaw

Andringitra was probably one the most beautifull places I have been to in Madagascar. It certainly was different. Because of the high altitude, vegetation is totally different and inside the National Park it even reminded me of New Zealand or Tasmania a bit. From Ambalavao I rented a car to get to the Park. Because one of the wheels basically fell off every 15 minutes (just another shabby Malagasy car) we had to stop in almost every town to "fix" it. I didnt mind because this gave me a chance to get a good look at local life in these small villages. People are very friendly and seem like they have never seen Vazaha (white people) before. After driving through a landscape of rice terraces and magnificent rolling hills covered in mist we reached the Park entrance. Thanks to a lot of funding by WWF this is a very new building with good displays on wildlife and the local peoples history.

After obtaining a permit for the Park and finding a guide we headed for National Park on foot. There are no roads here only small trails. From the Park office it is about a two hour walk to the campground inside the park boundries. Almost all people were working in the field as it was rice harvesting time.It was pretty windy and the temperature is not very high. We passed the house you can see on the first picture. The woman is throwing her freshly harvested rice in the wind to seperate the grains from their chaffs. After pitching the tent at the campground the guide cooked the food I brought for us. Rice, ofcourse...

I spend two nights in the National Park. We made long hikes every day. It was going up a lot of the times but it was absolutely stunning. The views are amazing. Weird vegetation and rock formations and I saw a variety of animals that only live here in this park and nowhere else on earth; Camelions, grasshoppers, tenrecs, frogs etc. The huge 80 metre waterfalls tumbling down the cliff are not only beatifull but also have an intruiging history. If you want to get pregnant this is the place to go!You can see them from basically everywhere in the Park, they are massive. It might not be an awfull lot of water but they sure are high. You can also walk to the base of them if you are up for a freezing shower. There are also ancient tombs high up in the rock face and caves in the park.