This time we adventure to western Madagascar, in our four-part series on this wondrous island. See the resources section at the end of this story for the other three stories in the series. For the last 88 million years, life on Madagascar has been on its own β creating an island of evolutionary oddities and myriad diverse travel experiences.
It is approximately ,km 2 around two and a half times the size of the United Kingdom. All in all, the natural history is unique, shaped by the fascinating and beautiful, isolated island habitats. In an ideal world, a trip to Madagascar would extend over weeks to give the curious traveller every opportunity to explore the magnificent island.
This four-part series is intended to help guide this decision. It is here that the flotsam carrying the earliest lemur ancestors would have washed ashore, while the first chameleons would have taken their initial wobbly steps into a new home on the beaches. Both of these creatures would find themselves with a world all to themselves and would go on to evolve into the myriad species known and some still undiscovered today.
Divided into a northern and southern section with little in the way of roads linking the two, getting to and around western Madagascar requires a degree of patience while travelling through farmlands and sparse savannas. This forbearance will, however, be richly rewarded by the scenery and wildlife on offer. Some of the most iconic images and scenes associated with Madagascar are from its enormous western portion. This exquisite stretch of dusty red road is lined by towering baobabs, some of which are over 2, years old and around 30m in height.
At sunrise and sunset, tourists flock to admire their dramatic shapes in the golden light β their long straight bodies and peculiar crowns like roots planting themselves into the sky create an entirely alien atmosphere. Of the eight species of baobab in the world, six are found only in Madagascar. The legend goes that two people were once desperately in love but were already promised to others.
