Isalo National Park, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar

5Rainforests & Rollercoasters 5:00 PM Apr 21, 2020

thoroughly recommend isalo
Great national park with Like most others you need a national guide to take you round the park and we had Jose. The park its self if stunning, parts of it look like Mars (or how i imagine Mars to look like!). We saw a wide variety of birds and by the picnic area there are lots of cheeky lemurs! We decided not to walk to the main pools and instead took a much quieter path through the park, it was incredibly peaceful and serene. Before we stopped for lunch we walked to the black and blue pools. The walk to get to them involves clambering over rocks, walking through river beds, walking between boulders , slippery in some places but feels very tropical. I took a dip in the black pool and its very refreshing! No where to change so you just need someone to hold a towel for you whilst you make a quick change of outfits. We had lunch cooked for us at the picnic spot which included zebu kebabs with salad followed by pineapple. We organised this through our main tour guide and we paid 70,000 including soft drinks. The ring tail lemurs make lunch very entertaining!

5Dirk W 5:00 PM Jan 19, 2020

Nice hike in Isalo National Park
Isalo National Park; the second largest and one of the most visited national parks in Madagascar. There are already a number of other cars in the parking lot, but fortunately it is not yet a busy affair. First we walk a bit past the beautiful arched rock formations and in the meantime Hery starts telling about the local fauna and flora. Afterwards we dive into the dry forest and we immediately come across a group of ring-tailed lemurs. That's the jackpot right away, so again we take full pictures of our new favorite animal. Since we cannot get enough of these cuddly critters, we are stuck here for a long time and are already hopelessly behind our timetable. Once we say goodbye to the ring-tailed lemurs, we descend further to the bottom of the canyon and walk along and over the small stream towards Blue and Black Pool. This walk is again not a 'walk in the park' because we again have to cross an obstacle course of various boulders, rocks and narrow ridges. However, the views of the exuberant green vegetation that we now get are more than worth the effort. No large animal species can be found at the bottom of the canyon, but we do see some beautiful dragonflies, colorful butterflies and several birds. Near the picnic area where you can also admire a number of large chameleons, boa and sifakas.