This journey to the far north of Madagascar offers an incredible range of what the country has to offer, including rocky mountains cloaked in rainforest; Indian Ocean islands; caves, caverns and tropical wildlife havens within forests of limestone needles, called tsingy.

One of our main ports of call will be the Amber Mountain National Park (Montagne d'Ambre). This was Madagascar's first national park for good reason: not only it is an island of tropical rainforest within a semi-arid region, but its landscapes are an Eden of waterfalls, volcanic lakes and rocky cliffs covered in luxuriant vegetation. 

This journey will take you on a tour of three magnificent waterfalls within Amber Mountain, at the same time searching for some of Madagascar's classic endemic species. Madagascar is home to about half of the 150 species of chameleons which exist in the world and Montagne d'Ambre has two of its very own endemics: the larger and very attractive Amber Mountain Chameleon (Calumma amber); and one of the tiny Brookesia species, Montagne d'Ambre Leaf Chameleon.

The altitudinal range of Amber Mountain (between 850m and 1475 m) encourages a high diversity of flora, amongst which we can find up to 77 species of bird. Of lemurs, we can find 7 species, including Sanford's Brown Lemur (Eulemur sanfordi) and the Crowned Lemur (Eulemur coronatus).

A book by primatologist Jane Wilson called Lemurs of the Lost World, made the Crowned Lemur best known for our next target of this trip: the Ankarana Reserve. There are two major areas of tsingy in Madagascar and Ankarana is the one most hollowed out from below by underground rivers. In fact, Ankarana has the most extensive system of caves anywhere in Madagascar or continental Africa. Expeditions continue to explore the area, with one of the most recently discovered species being a blind form of Gobi fish. This Ankarana Cavefish makes up for a total lack of vision with a highly sensitive sense of feel achieved through collections of sensory hairs on its scales.

The sharp rocks of Ankarana make it incredibly difficult to move about it, which is why Nature has survived so untouched here for centuries. To help you see it close up and absorb some stunning views, we use a system of suspended rope bridges, which take you above the razor-sharp limestone karst. Below, you will sometimes be able to see how Crowned Lemurs deftly leap from one knife edge to the next.

96 species of bird exist at Ankarana and 14 species of bat, some of which you will be able to see when we take you amongst the stalagmites and stalactites of caves within the limestone massif.

Approaching the Tsingy Massif at Ankarana from bush camp Iharana

Another location we will take you to on this trip is the Red Tsingy, as well the beautiful island of Nosy Be where you will spend your first night of the trip, overlooking turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean.