Safari in South Africa & lemurs in Madagascar

Today, you will depart from your chosen airport with connecting flight(s) along the way. The course is set for Johannesburg in South Africa.

Upon arrival in South Africa, you will be met at the airport by our local partner. From Johannesburg, the tour heads through the South African landscape to the east and the fantastic Kruger National Park.

You will spend four nights at Kruger National Park, which is South Africa’s largest national park.

Use the rest of the day to settle into your new surroundings.

You will wake up at one of the world’s largest national parks – so you are obviously going on a safari today!

You will depart after breakfast, and the whole day will be spent in Kruger.

The wildlife population is large. For instance, in the national park, which covers an area of just under 20,000 km2, it is estimated that there are more than 15,000 elephants, 27,000 buffaloes, about 90,000 impalas, and around 1,500 lions. There are consequently good chances of seeing some of the ‘Big 5’ animals: elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, and rhinos.

Giraffes and zebras are, of course, also present in large numbers here, and the park also has many different bird species. Feel free to bring binoculars so that you can help the guide keep an eye out for the animals.

As always with wildlife, it is completely impossible to know what you will see, but that is precisely what makes a safari so amazing. Here, man is small, and nature is big, and, for many travellers, a safari is a reminder that we must remember to look after the world’s unique animals and nature.

During the day, there will be time for a lunch stop somewhere in the park. There are several camp sites with cafés where you can buy lunch.

Towards the end of the day, you will return to the camp, where you can enjoy the sunset from the terrace before dinner is served.

In the coming days, you can help make your own mark on the tour and buy precisely the excursions and experiences you dream of as add-ons.

South Africa is, in fact, not just a safari. The country also offers unique nature experiences for example, the scenic Panorama Route. There are beautiful vantage points, fascinating rock formations, and stunning waterfalls.

It may, of course, be that you have primarily travelled to South Africa to go on a safari – and there is obviously plenty of opportunity for that as well.

Last, but not least, you can also simply choose to relax in the camp, swim in the pool, read a good book, get a massage, and enjoy the exotic surroundings. The choice is yours!

You will depart from Kruger National Park, and the tour will head back through the South African landscape to Johannesburg. Here, you will check in at your airport hotel for a single night.

You will depart from Johannesburg in South Africa to Antananarivo in Madagascar.

Upon arrival in Madagascar, you will be met at the airport by our local partner. We recommend that you exchange some euros into the local currency, Ariary, as there are only a few places where you can pay by card. Our partner can help you with this.

You will be driven to your hotel in Antananarivo, where you will spend one night.

You will wake up on the world’s fourth-largest island, and it is a world quite unlike anything you have ever seen before.

The two primary languages are Malagasy and – as a former French colony – French.

Madagascar officially belongs to the African continent and shares a tectonic plate with East Africa. However, the country has been separated from (the rest of) Africa for more than 160 million years and has therefore developed a completely unique flora and fauna. In fact, it is estimated that 90% of Madagascar’s animals and plants are unique to the island.

Many people probably associate Madagascar with the half-monkey species, the lemur. They are endemic to Madagascar, and there are more than 100 different lemur species here. Besides the unique lemurs, the country also has many other things to offer!

There are 18 official tribes, all of which have their own customs and traditions. The Merina tribe is the largest and most significant tribe in Madagascar. The tribe belongs to the indigenous population group that came from Southeast Asia. They settled in the central highlands of Madagascar, where they constructed neatly carved rice fields on every vacant spot and hillside. You can still see them everywhere in this region of Madagascar.

‘Tana’, as the capital is often called colloquially, was founded in the early 1600s by the local Merina king, King Andrianjaka. He ousted a rival ethnic group and slowly began to build his kingdom. In 1787, through cunning alliances and shrewd political moves, his successor, King Andrianampoinimerina, succeeded in uniting the entire country under him and becoming the first king of all of Madagascar.

Today, you will go on a guided tour of the Queen’s Palace, which is Tana’s biggest attraction.

Already under King Andrianjaka, the first stones were laid for a palace on Antananarivo’s highest hill. But it was not until under the reign of Queen Ranavalona I that the most prominent building was added. She is also known, not very flatteringly, as ‘the Mad Queen’, and you can look forward to hearing more about her today! You will also meet the country’s last queen, Queen Ranavalona III, who was sent into exile when the French invaded and colonised Madagascar in the late 19th century.

The guided tour of the palace is very interesting and provides good insight into Madagascar’s history.

After lunch at the hotel, the tour heads out of the city towards one of Madagascar’s most famous national parks, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. The national park is one of the best places in the country to spot lemurs – because you should obviously also see lemurs now that you have arrived in Madagascar!

Enjoy the drive and notice how – even very close to the centre of Tana – you can see rice fields and Zebu cattle with the characteristic humps. As you approach the Alaotra-Mangor region, the hills become higher, the forests denser, and here and there you can glimpse a river at the bottom of the valleys.

You will arrive at Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in the late afternoon, where you will check into your hotel for the next three nights.

Already after sunset, the first guided walk awaits you, where you will look for the nocturnal lemurs. Mouse lemurs in particular are the focus of this walk. These are tiny creatures – the size of a small mouse – and they jump quickly and elegantly between the branches of the trees as if they were squirrels. It is no wonder that one of the species, the Goodman’s mouse lemur, was only discovered in 2005! Keep an eye out too for stick insects, frogs, and chameleons.

The seeds of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park were sown by the French in 1970. They created the Analamazoatra Special Reserve to preserve the forest and the area’s unique biodiversity. In 1989, Mantadia National Park was established next to the reserve, and together, the two areas are now called Andasibe-Mantadia National Park.

One of the absolute highlights of the national park is the Indri lemur. It is the largest of all the lemur species, and, in Malagasy, it is called Babakoto. It means – somewhat freely translated – ‘ancestor’. There are many legends about how the animal got the name Babakoto, but common to them all is that the lemur in some way acts as a kind of spiritual companion to humans. It is therefore not surprising that in Madagascar, it brings you luck if you live close to the Indri lemurs. Today, therefore, you will obviously go looking for the Indri lemur!

Together with a local guide and a ‘spotter’, you will set off into the national park from early morning. The spotter runs ahead to locate the lemurs. Often, they sit relatively high up in the treetops, so it can be a good idea to bring binoculars with you.

It is very likely that you will hear the Indri lemurs before you see them. Their call sounds like a cross between screaming and singing, and it can be heard at a distance of up to 5 km. The sound is penetrating and absolutely magical. It’s hard not to get goosepimples when they start singing. It is almost as if, immediately after sunrise, with their piercing singing voices, they are checking to see how each of them is doing – whether everything has gone as it should during the night.

Of course, there are lots of other animals in the national park as well. You might, for example, be lucky enough to see bamboo lemurs, Sifaka lemurs, brown lemurs, chameleons, and a rich bird life.

You will have a packed lunch with you today, so that you can make the most of your time in the park. After the morning’s hike, there is time to relax at a waterfall, where you will eat your packed lunch and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Depending on what shape you are in, you can continue the hike in the afternoon, or you can choose to head back to the lodge and relax for the rest of the day.

The day begins with another guided walk in the national park. You are unlikely to be tired of seeing lemurs yet, but remember to also enjoy the park’s many other fascinating animals and plants. It is always fun to see stick insects, which we usually associate with terrariums. And you should also keep an eye out for the funny giraffe weevil, which has a long neck like a giraffe and the most beautiful bright red body!

Perhaps you will be lucky enough to see the stunning and colourful kingfisher, or the paradise flycatcher with its elegant and impressively long tail.

If you have any special requests, please let your guide know. The local guide who accompanies you in the rainforest knows everything about the forest’s animals and plants, and he is very happy to share his knowledge!

Back at the hotel, lunch and perhaps a dip in the pool await you.

The afternoon offers a visit to the V.O.I.M.M.A Reserve, which is a privately owned reserve established in connection with the national park. In the V.O.I.M.M.A Reserve, locals from the Andasibe village have joined forces and established the reserve. Here, they offer guided tours for both locals and visitors. In addition to being a source of income for the village, which has, for example, paid for a hospital and running water, the project helps ensure that the local inhabitants of the area acquire greater insight into nature and the importance of preserving it. The reserve thus contributes both to expanding the natural habitats of the endangered lemurs and to the survival of the village community.

After visiting the reserve, dinner is served at the hotel before a good night’s sleep beckons.

You will depart from Andasibe and return to the capital Antananarivo. Here, we have made sure that you can use the pool at a hotel near the airport, have a shower, and eat dinner before the return journey starts with connecting flight(s) along the way.

You can also choose to extend your tour with a beach holiday extension at either Nosy Be or Sainte-Marie.

You will land at your chosen airport after an adventurous tour.