Saha forest camp … A good choice for this long week-end

Tomorrow is a holiday in Madagascar in observance of the workday. Thus, we have a long week-end, and I know most of us want to discover new places to be. This post will be a photographic narration of the way to Saha Forest Camp lodge, a quiet and wonderful place to be for nature lovers and those who want to escape from this busy/noisy town that is Antananarivo.

entry village of the reserve

Anjozorobe is 90 km from Antananarivo, and the road although not really good

accross rice fields

(for those of you used to highways) is in good shape with some trepidations ahead, but consider these  the beginning of a  radical scenery change.

One thing shocked me while we arrived at Anjozorobe: this is the first time that I arrived to an “end of the road” that do not lead to the sea, but in the middle of hills and forests. Finally, Anjozorobe is a small town (I’ll come back to it on another post).

So, let’s head west (hmmm, was it actually west?) on a “community-maintained secondary/muddy road” for 9.5 km for aha Forest Camp (almost the same for Mananara Lodge).

After 5km, Mananara Lodge and Saha Forest Camp goes on separate ways. As I said in a previous post, we drove on a sedan-like car (a peugeot 405). Few kilometers after driving through hills and valleys, we arrive to the entry of the preserved area.

Advice: there is a kind of office at the entry of the reserve but the road goes down to get there. I strongly advise you to either leave your car at the intersection and walk  300meters to the office, or drive down with your car, but don’t try to do a U-turn. At the back of the office, you have another road (not in good shape), but it’s more practical to follow this road than do a U-turn then have to negotiate the spinned-arrow corner ahead.

the luxury parking

After some interesting wandering up to the hills and down to the valleys, you end

quest for saha forest camp

up at the luxury parking of Saha-Forest Camp lodge, approximately 400 meters walk from the lodge.

Hey, you’re in for an eco-tourism experience, right? Why would you want to have the parking right before the entry of the lodge.

Get ready for an interesting walk, cross some “tanimbary” (rice field) via the muddy “tahalaka” (a kind of separator between rice-fields), walk along a well-designed go-through allées, … this is the interesting experience.

gate to saha forest camp

As if it shows from nowhere, after going through a rambo-movie-like vegetation,

entry of Saha forest camp

you can see a gate that makes you think that you’ve almost arrived to destination. This experience is almost unreal as few minutes ago, you drove through some almost “shaved” hills to end up in a luxury primary forest. Now, after crossing another rice field, you arrive on this gate, then I personnally felt as if I were a monk in a kung-fu-like film that saves some years away from everything in a “lost” place.

Yes, here we are, finally arrived. I strongly suggest you forget all your urban-way of thinking when going to Saha Forest Camp and let yourself be surprised.

Those are only parts of the lovely experience we had… Now’s your turn to go there and share… If you are interested, get in touch with the NGO Fanamby who is the promoter of this lovely concept.

FANAMBY
Lot II K 40 bis, Ankadivato
101 Antananarivo
MADAGASCAR
PoBox 8434
Phone: +261 20 22 288 78
Fax: +261 20 22 636 61
Mobile : +261 32 04 557 22
e-mail : fanamby@fanamby.org.mg

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