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When you arrive in Antsirabe, about 170km from Antananarivo (R.N. 7) you will change direction heading to Miandrivazo, then you have to fill up the gas tank with gas because there is no gas station within a 500 km range. The road is good and panoramic. It crosses vast cultivated plains and picturesque little villages. The wealth of this area is based upon a very developed agriculture, hot thermal springs, a brewery and a big cotton mill. In that part of the high plateau, the landscape is characterized by arid mountain ranges that are crisscrossed with deep cracks caused by geological movements that date back to ancient era. Betafo, about 25 km from Antsirabe, is the fist village you will come upon on the road. It is an important agricultural centre. The village’s streets are decorated with flowers. On Mondays, you can go to the market. You can visit Lake Tatamarina (very close to Betafo). In Mandoto (90 km from Betafo), you will notice a very colourful market (many country men and women come from neighbouring communities). The road has recently been repaired and it is well maintained. You will be able to keep up a good speed even if the landscapes’ beauty sometimes forces you to make stops in order to take pictures. Close to that city, you will cross for the first time the Tsiribihina River.

Baobab Lane

Many animals live in the Tsiribihina River’s ecosystem, particularly birds and crocodiles that you will often see basking in the sun on the river’s banks. They will usually dive into the river’s water as soon as they hear your motorboat approaching. 

Those cruises usually start in Antanambao (28Km from Miandrivazo). It will take you about four days to reach Tsimafana (the end of your cruise). On your way downstream, you will cross the Bemaraha Gorges and the Menabe Plain.
 

Tsingy

From Tsimafana you can continue on towards Morondava or go to the north to Bekopaka on 100 kilometers of poor tracks until you reach the Tsingy de Bemaraha. The hotel Le Relais de Stingy, completed in 2000, is built on a hill in an exceptionally beautiful panoramic position.  The few bungalows overlook the Gorges de la Manambolo. As the sun rises just behind the rock faces of the river, a haze spreads over the plain and covers the trees: a magic show. The ANGAP organization has been very efficient regarding the guides, the boatmen and the laying out of Small Tsingy; the visit has been made easier and safe. The rocky formations of the Tsingy are fascinating, but you must face another hour and a half of poor and hole-pocked roads to visit the karsic peaks and the exceptional vegetation growing in the deep canyons. To organize the visit of the Tsingy from Morondava one can contact a number of very well established organizations such as Menabe Evasion. If you chose not to go down the Tsiribihina after Miandrivazo, a junction takes you to Malaimbandy: the name of the former city means “ the place where King Radama the I waited for his future wife ” whereas the latter means, “ I do no like lies ”, which corresponds to the first sentence Princess Rasalimo said to King Radama the I, her husband, who had been waiting for her in Miandrivazo.

After a ten-hour drive from Antananarivo, you will arrive at Morondava, a city built on the mouth of the river: the roads of Morondava are muddy or inundated with water at high tide. This phenomenon is due to the coast’s instability in the Morondava area, which causes a continuous loss of land surface. It also very causes problems for the port that constitutes the only haven within a 700 km range on the coast between Majunga and Tuléar.
 

Morondava, which means long beaches in Malagasy, is the former Andakabe, the capital of the very rich and powerful Menabe Sakalava Kingdom, created in 1400 by King Andriamisara the I. The city, with its wide boulevards, its spacious houses, equipped with covered verandas to protect people from the sun that shines all year long, is quite pleasant. You can go to the schooner port, one of the quietest picturesque sights in the city, and see the crews of sailing ships load goods that will be delivered to different places along the coast between Majunga and Tuléar. Not so long ago, the city still organized yearly regattas. A great many schooners, representing different coast villages, used to participate in that contest.  Morondava’s beach is quite beautiful but having a dip in the sea, taking into consideration the size of the waves and the short distance that separates the bungalows from the port, is not too attractive.

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This area’s sisal and tobacco production is quite important for the country’s economy. There are many varieties of rich local crafts. Among them, one can, for instance, see silver jewelry (bracelets, necklaces and rings), raffia objects, modern copies of traditional alo alo (exporting ancient alo alo is strictly forbidden and local authorities make sure that law is respected), copies of lances and so on. You can also find erotic little wood statues that people in this area once used to make above ground tombs more attractive. After leaving  Morondava and about 15 km on the road that leads to Antananarivo, you will find a junction on your left hand side that takes you to Belo sur Tsiribihina. You will drive amidst a plain dotted with thorny plants and a great many Baobabs until you reach Baobab Lane, a magic, fascinating place, where the sand road is lined up with dozens and dozens of those imposing trees (Adansonia Grandidieri).

This area is famed for its al alo decorated and painted tombs. Most of them cannot be visited nowadays because the Malagasy authorities have decided to take emergency measures to avoid any further plundering of Madagascar’s cultural heritage. As a matter fact, vandals have been plundering tombs for years in order to find and sell alo alo in tourist shops. For some sakalava or Vezo clans, those alo alo symbolize the link between God and Man or carnal pleasure. Every five years, one of the most interesting and spectacular ceremonies in Madagascar takes place in Belo sur Tsiribihina, the Fitampoha or Royal Bath.
 

Fitampoha Or Royal Bath This ceremony, which falls within the cult dedicated to ancestors, also has a political meaning. For the Sakalavas, the Fitampoha gives them the opportunity of getting together, finding their roots again and reconstituting the historical unity of the former powerful Menabe Kingdom. Sages according to very strict ancestral rules choose the date of this ceremony. It must be on a full moon Friday (the king’s day) in the month of Asaramanitra when buds open up and when the earth smells good - that is to say within a period that goes from the end of August to the beginning of September. The People who take part in this ceremony submit themselves to the Prince and his family. It is for the people of the Menabe area and an opportunity to revive the link of subjection that links them to the Sakalavas; it strengthens their power. The relics of the king that created the Menabe Kingdom are venerated during this ceremony and they constitute an indisputable evidence of this domination. That ceremony therefore has a religious and political significance. Thousands of Sakalavas people come from the around the whole country in order to participate in this rite. They hope that they, too, will benefit from some of the blessings granted during this ceremony, an account of the good services they have done for the Royal family. The Royal Bath is a way to cleanse oneself from one’s faults or to heal clan or family matters.

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The officiating priests all belong to the same family and their duties are hereditary, the building of a temporary village on the river’s banks. They will provide the zebus that will be sacrificed but also prepare and transport the tokadrazana, the ancestral alcohol drunk during the ceremony. As for the Prince, he will provide the cotton bands used by the men that will carry the relics on their shoulders.

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