Perinet - See the Indrie and Other Lemurs and other Madagascar Things to Do Tips

Perinet, also called Mantadia-Andasibe, is the place to see the endangered Indrie which is the largest of the Lemurs. The Indries make strange eerie calls and you can hear them for miles in the forest. They live high up in the trees in the rainforest and almost never come down so you need a good zoom lense to get photos through the dense foliage of the rainforest.

There are 8 other species of Lemur to see in Perinet, as well as the Indrie. Some people saw an AYE-AYE on an night walk, but we were unlucky with this one. However a really lovely Lemur is the Wooly Lemur which you may see during the day as well as brown lemur, bamboo lemur and mouse lemur. There are many types of chameleons, frogs and the Tenrec which is a bit like a hedgehog with a mohican!

2 or 3 days is a good amount of time here so you have a good chance of seeing everything.

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Directions: 145km from Antanarivo by car on good roads.
Website: www.rainbowtours.co.uk

Berenty is the best place to see Ringtail Lemurs and Verreaux Sifakas, as well as lots of other Lemurs, birds and reptiles.
It is easy to walk around on your own, with nothing dangerous to worry about.
The reserve is about 250 hectares of mainly spiny forest and dry Tamarind gallery woodland. There are lots of reptiles here and we saw a boa constrictor catch and eat a wood pigeon.
A good place to walk in the afternoons when it is hot is by the small drinking pools along the pathways, as the birds and animals come to drink here.
Berenty is a bridwatcher's paradise with many species to see - if 1 less wood pigeon!
The reserve has accomodation which is comfortable and a restaurant which quite good. 3 days is a good time to spend here. We went in November which was good for seeing lots of lemurs with babies but also lots of mosquitos.

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Directions: Fly from Tana to Fort Dauphin then a car journey.
Website: www.rainbowtours.co.uk

The sisal plantation surrounds Berenty reserve but once you are inside the forest you can't see it.
You can organise a visit to the plantation and the factory which is interesting if you have a few days in Berenty. If you are there for only 1 or 2 days, you wouldn't want to miss the wildlife in order to visit the sisal factory. You are shown how the sisal grows, how it is harvested and cut and then made into ropes. Conditions inside the factory are not up to the standards we are used to, with fibres everywhere it made me think of what it must have been like in the cotton mills in the last centuries.
The Sisal plantation is criticised for its existence next to Berenty reserve - but at least it is a natural product and provides jobs.

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Address: Berenty Reserve
Website: www.rainbowtours.co.uk