Experience local culture and Farankaraina wildlife from your base in a beachfront bungalow, then head to a lodge adjacent to the famed Masoala National Park
Note: the suggested itinerary is for 3 nights at the Aye-Aye Forest Camp, and 4 nights in Masoala. Alternately we could arrange 4 nights at the Aye-Aye Forest Camp and 3 nights in Masoala.
Day 1: Transfer to camp - night walk
Your guide will meet you at the airport and transfer you to the marina. During the 45 minute boat ride on the river, look out for the malachite kingfisher, red fody or grey heron. After a 15-minute walk, you will be greeted at the Aye-Aye Forest Camp with a welcome drink, and orientation session. Unpack, enjoy a stroll or even a swim at the beach, before dinner. As the sun sets, head out for a night walk, listening to the chorus of frogs and the scops owls calling each other. Look for dwarf and mouse lemurs, and of course the aye-aye.
Day 2: Birding, lemurs and Village visit
Today we head into the 3000ha Farankaraina forest. The Aye-Aye Forest Camp maintains a network of 10km of trails, each with their own characteristics. Birders may want to head out at sunrise to look for the short-legged ground roller, red-breasted coua or the Madagascar wood-rail and return for a late breakfast. Or, after a hearty breakfast, look for white-fronted brown lemurs and one of the two groups of red-ruffed lemurs. Your guide will be ready at whatever time you would like to leave.
In the afternoon, travel in a pirogue (a local, wooden canoe) to visit the village of Ambodivohangy. A farmer will explain how they grow local crops (vanilla, cloves, peppers, papaya, breadfruit, jackfruit, cacao, rice,...) and then the Women's Association will perform the toka toka, and other traditional dances. Make sure you bring some Ariary to spend on locally made crafts.
In the evening, walk along the beach looking up at the southern hemisphere stars, but keep an eye on the ground as the many ghost crabs skitter along the beach. Occasionally a fossa will make a fleeting appearance.
Day 3: Nosy Mangabe and Nosy Fanihy, and night walk
Head out early to hear the cacophony and watch the activity of the flying foxes nesting in the trees at Nosy Fanihy. Then cross the short distance to Nosy Mangabe, the island jewel of Masoala National Park. The black and white ruffed lemurs are only found on this island in the Antongil Bay. Your guide may also spot a Brookesia peyrierasi, the second smallest chameleon species. Enjoy a picnic lunch packed from our camp, followed by exploring more trails, looking for a well-chamouflaged leaf-tailed gecko, or a pygmy kingfisher.
Head back to the camp mid-afternoon, enjoy a swim or a nap, and then join your guide for another night walk where your flashlight might catch a nose-horned chameleon or the glow from the eyes of a dwarf lemur, and have another chance at finding an aye-aye.
Day 4: Transfer to Masoala
After an early breakfast, the Aye-Aye Forest Camp boat will rendez-vous with another boat for the 2-hour ocean crossing to Masoala. Unpack before lunch, and then your guide will take you into the forest for an afternoon walk.
The bungalows are situated in a large private forest adjacent to the 240,000 ha Masoala National Park. Walk through the private forest which leads into the National Park trails, and look out for a red-tailed mongoose, a Madagascar white-eye, or listen for the mating call of the hook-billed vanga.
After sunset, head out on the forest path next to the ocean looking out for night life such as the woolly and sportif lemurs, a tenrec, a panther chameleon and a variety of different frogs.
Day 5: Nature Walk and river trip
Head back to Masoala Park in the morning when the birds are most active, and look out for the helmet vanga. Helmet vanga are shy birds that dislike disturbance but this is one of the best areas in Madagascar to see them. If you are quiet, you may spot a short-legged ground roller or a long-billed tetraka, and are sure to see bulbul, magpie robins and cuckoo shrike.
In the afternoon your guide will lead the way along the beach past a local village, where you will take a pirogue on a river trip. Look out for malachite kingfisher, or a white-throated rail hiding in the bushes of the riverbank.
Day 6: Nature Walk
Follow the calls of the large group of red-ruffed lemurs which are often found across the river from the lodge. Continue on the highland trail in Masoala National Park where you might see Bernier's vanga and blue coua.
In the afternoon enjoy a swim from the pristine sandy beach by the lodge, and then head out for another night walk before dinner.
Day 7: Nature Walk
Take advantage of your last full day in Masoala to look for wildlife you have not yet seen. Be sure to check around the lodge property, where there is often a group of white-fronted brown lemurs.
After dark, you may find a bamboo lemur in one of the bamboo trees on the property, or a Madagascar scops owl perching in one of the trees at the edge of the forest. Take another night walk to look for woolly or sportif lemurs, or a web-casting spider.
Day 8: Transfer to Maroantsetra
Your transfer to Maroantsetra will depart at least 4 hours before your outbound flight.