▪️All transfers by road

▪️Meals according to itinerary (B-Breakfast, L-Lunch, D-Dinner)

▪️Activities (according to itinerary)

▪️Park entry fees

▪️Conservation fee

▪️Tips, except for Raw Africa Eco-Tours Local Leader

▪️International airfares

▪️Travel insurance

▪️Country entry visas

▪️Beverages other than water

▪️Laundry

▪️Personal spending

Dates: September 2027.

🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️ Double/Twin Share Occupancy - AU $1495 per person

🧍‍♂️ Single Occupancy - AU $1650 per person

Group Size: Min 6 pax

• Return Flight Antananarivo to Morondava

• Accommodation

• Meals according to itinerary (B-Breakfast, L-Lunch, D-Dinner)

• Drinking water

• Activities according to itinerary

• Park entry fees

• Plant your own baobab

• Tips, except for Raw Africa Eco-Tours Local Leader

You arrive into Madagascar’s capital, where the rhythm of daily life immediately sets the tone for the journey ahead. This is not a remote wilderness country, this is a place where people and landscape are deeply interconnected.

As you settle in, your first impressions begin to form. The density, the movement, the pace of life, all offer an early glimpse into the human systems that shape Madagascar’s environments.

Tomorrow, you will head west to the land of giants.

Meals: D

A Different Kind of Forest

This morning you fly west to Morondava.

From here, you travel north to Kirindy Reserve, entering Madagascar’s dry deciduous forest, shaped by strong seasonal change and limited water availability.

Alongside lemurs, you may encounter birdlife such as the giant coua, well suited to these drier conditions.

After dark, you return for a night walk. As the temperature drops, the forest becomes active, revealing a different set of species and behaviours adapted to surviving in this more seasonal system.

Tomorrow you will return to Baobab Alley

Meals: B L D

Diurnal Lemur Species: Verreaux's sifaka

Nocturnal Lemur Species: Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, pale fork-marked lemur, Coquerel's giant mouse lemur,  red-tailed sportive lemur,  fat-tailed dwarf lemur.

Cathemeral Lemur Species: Red-fronted brown lemur. 

And then there's the fossa!

Key predator: Fossa (cryptoprocta ferox - which literally means hidden anus fierce!). The fossa is a member of the family Eupleridae and is key for ecosystem function, as the apex predator in Madagascar. The decline in fossa population numbers is largely due to its preference for undisturbed forest habitat and the decline in its prey base - particularly mouse lemur and sifaka species.

Deep Time and Lost Connections

You return to the forest early, when activity is at its peak. With patience, you may encounter the fossa—Madagascar’s top predator—moving quietly through its territory. Even when unseen, its presence shapes the system.

Leaving Kirindy, you travel south towards Morondava as the landscape opens out. Along the way, you stop at several baobab trees, each reflecting both natural history and human connection to the land.

Later, you arrive at the Avenue of the Baobabs.

These iconic trees tell a deeper ecological story. Some evolved alongside now-extinct lemurs that once dispersed their seeds—relationships that no longer exist. Here, you plant your own baobab, contributing in a small but meaningful way to the restoration of these systems.

You end the day in Morondava.

Tomorrow you will fly back to Antananarivo

Meals: B L D

A moment to reset.

This morning you fly back to Antananarivo and meet your fellow travellers arriving in Madagascar today.

After time in the west, the afternoon is left open, a chance to pause, reflect, and begin to bring together what you’ve experienced so far.

From the dry Kirindy forest to baobab landscapes, the journey has already started to reveal how different systems function across Madagascar.

Tomorrow, you continue into the rainforest systems that define the next stage of the Madagascar journey.

Meals: B L D

Changing Landscapes

Travel deep into eastern Madagascar, where we start to get a sense of fragmented landscapes and community land use.

Along the way, the story becomes more complex. You’ll begin to see how agriculture, and daily life shape the forest edges.

We will spend the next few days at La Mananara, one of Wildlife Madagascar's key research sites

This is where the journey starts - not just seeing wildlife but understanding the systems they depend on.

Meals: B L D

Living Within the Forest

Today you spend time in a working conservation landscape supported by Wildlife Madagascar. You may be involved in community work, vegetation assessments, or wildlife transects. What you will quickly see is that the forest is part of daily community life. Understanding the realities behind land use, food systems, resource needs, will allow you to see how community needs and environmental pressures are closely connected.

This is where conservation becomes tangible, not as an idea, but as something that must work within shared landscape systems.

Meals: B L D

Living at the Edge of the Forest

Today you spend time with the Wildlife Madagascar team and the community, to understand how conservation is closely connected to daily life.

One of the key species at the La Mananara site is the Indri. As the largest lemur species, the Indri is a target for poachers. In an environment where 70% of the population live in a state of poverty, species such as the Indri can rapidly decline. One of the key programs to reduce this threat to the Indri and other lemur species is the Sakondry Project. Sakondry are an insect species native to Madagascar, and a sustainable protein source for communities.

After spending time with the Wildlife Madagascar team, what becomes clear is that conservation is not simply about protecting habitat, it is about supporting systems that allow both people and ecosystems to persist.

Tomorrow travel deeper into the forests of the east to Andasibe

Meals: B L D

1. TAVY: Understanding Land Use in Madagascar - Species Impact: Golden and Greater Bamboo Lemur

Across Madagascar, much of the landscape you travel through has been shaped by a traditional agricultural practice known as tavy, or slash-and-burn farming.

Small areas of forest are cleared and burned to create fertile ground for rice cultivation. For a short period, the soil supports crops. But over time, nutrients are depleted, yields decline, and new areas must be cleared to continue farming.

2. Habitat Fragmentation - Species Impact: Black and White Ruffed Lemur

As forests are converted into agricultural land, remaining habitat becomes divided into smaller, isolated patches. This fragmentation makes it more difficult for lemurs to move, find food, and maintain healthy populations, increasing their vulnerability over time.

3. Extraction of Precious Timbers - Species Impact: Diademed Sifaka

High-value hardwoods such as rosewood and ebony are selectively logged from Madagascar’s forests. Removing these key tree species alters forest structure, reduces biodiversity, and weakens the ecological systems that lemurs depend on.

4. Hunting for Bushmeat - Species Impact: Indri

In some regions, lemurs are hunted as a source of protein. While often driven by food insecurity, this adds pressure to already vulnerable populations, particularly where traditional protections have weakened.

5. Cultural Beliefs - Species Impact: Aye Aye

Certain species, such as the aye-aye, are sometimes feared due to local beliefs and associations with bad luck. This can lead to individuals being killed on sight, highlighting how perception and misunderstanding can directly affect survival.

Analmazoatra & Mantadia National Park

Leaving La Mananara, you travel further east into Madagascar’s rainforest corridor.

As the landscape changes, so does the environment around you. The air becomes more humid, vegetation thickens, and the road begins to wind through increasingly dense forest. This transition is gradual, but unmistakable, you are moving into one of Madagascar’s most important ecological systems.

Arriving in Andasibe, you take your first walk into the Analmazoatra National Park. This is not about covering distance, but about slowing down, listening, adjusting your pace, and allowing the forest to reveal itself, on its own terms. Listen for the haunting call of the Indri, the rustle of the nocturnal lemurs, the sound of frogs. This is a forest that is full of life.

Tomorrow, you begin to encounter the species that define the forest of Analmazoatra National Park and Mantadia National Park

Meals: B L D

Understanding Lemurs and the Forest

Today you spend time in the forest focusing on two of Madagascar’s most iconic species - the indri and diademed sifaka.

By observing both species, you will begin to understand how behaviour reflects survival. Movement, feeding, and social interaction are shaped by the structure of the forest and the resources available. This is where seeing becomes understanding.

In the afternoon you will visit Lemur Island, a refuge for confiscated lemur species.

In the evening, you will enter the forest using a different set of senses. The nocturnal species of lemur are completely different physiologically and behaviourally to their diurnal cousins.

Tomorrow you will travel further east to Palmarium Reserve.

Meals: B L D

Know your Lemurs of Analamazoatra/ Mantadia

Diurnal Lemur Species: Indri, Diademed Sifaka, eastern lesser bamboo lemur, balck and white ruffed lemur.

Nocturnal Lemur Species: Eastern woolly lemur, greater dwarf lemur, rufous mouse lemur, Goodman's mouse lemur, aye aye

Cathemeral Lemur Species: Common brown lemur, red bellied lemur,

The Art of Seeing is a guiding principle used on RAW journeys to deepen how travellers engage with wildlife and landscapes. Rather than focusing only on dramatic sightings, this approach encourages careful observation of behaviour, relationships and subtle ecological interactions. By slowing down and learning to read the landscape, noticing animal movements, tracks, sounds and environmental signals, travellers begin to understand how species interact with each other and with their environment.

Between Land and Water

Continuing along Madagascar’s eastern corridor, you travel towards Palmarium Reserve, a unique environment set between forest and water. As you travel through the Canals de Pangalanes, you will see communities who have made a living from the waterways and coconut plantations.

Arriving at Palmarium, the setting feels different again. More contained and where lemurs are more closely connected to human presence.

Tomorrow, you explore one of Madagascar’s most distinctive species.

Meals: B L D

Cultural Beliefs & Conservation

Palmarium Reserve is a 50 acre private protected area, on the shore of Lake Ampitabe.

The reserve has 10 lemur species, including the rare aye aye. During the day you will explore the reserve and get to know the various lemur species, many of whom are not native to this part of Madagascar. You will understand how the various species came to Palmarium and how they have adapted to a new environment, particualarly to other species of lemur they would otherwise not come into contact with.

After dark, you head across the lake to aye aye island.

Seeing an aye aye is a rare experience. Its behaviour is highly specialised, using sound and touch to locate food hidden within trees. Yet this same behaviour has led to misunderstanding. In some areas, the aye-aye is feared and associated with bad luck and often persecuted because of local beliefs.

This is where culture and myth becomes part of the conservation story, and where reserves such as Palmarium become imperative for aye aye conservation.

Tomorrow you will continue to explore the complex story of Palmarium's lemurs.

Meals: B L D

When Systems Are Altered

Today you continue exploring Palmarium and its surrounding environments.

This reserve offers a different perspective on Madagascar’s wildlife. Multiple species exist within a relatively small area, including several hybrid lemur, raising questions about how lemur systems function when space is limited.The hybrids highlight how evolution continues when systems experience different pressures. This situation leads to interesting discussion of whether such hybrids should be able to continue evolving in these environments, and what survival strategies do these new "types" of lemurs develop.

This shows us that not all conservation landscapes are the same, and not all solutions are simple.

We will also spend time on a night walk in the reserve. This will be a red light only walk.

Tomorrow, you will begin to move south into one of Madagascar’s most important rainforest systems.

Meals: B L D

Observing Without Disturbing

Much of Madagascar’s biodiversity is nocturnal. Night walks offer the opportunity to encounter, lemur species such as the mouse lemur, dwarf lemur and aye aye.

But night is also when animals are most sensitive to disturbance. Light, noise, and movement can alter behaviour, interrupt feeding, and increase stress.

For this reason, we follow a strict approach to night observation:

• use red light wherever possible

• avoid bright white light and sudden exposure

• keep noise to a minimum

• limit time with each individual

• never pursue or corner an animal

• allow natural behaviour to continue uninterrupted

These practices allow us to observe without changing what we are observing.

A landscape of Movement

Today you will leave Palmarium Reserve through the Canals and return to Andasibe for the night. This is a brief stop before continuing to Antsirabe.

For generations, the central region of Madagascar has connected the highlands with other parts of the island - with goods, resources, and people moving through these landscapes. This flow continues today, shaping how communities live, work, and use the land.

It’s a reminder that conservation does not happen in isolation, but within systems shaped by people, connection, and change.

Tomorrow you will explore the artisan trades of Antsirabe.

Meals: B L D

Craft, Rhythm & Daily Life

Today you spend time in Antsirabe, a city shaped as much by its people as by its history of movement and trade.

Through visits to local workshops and artisan spaces, you begin to see how daily life unfolds here, through craft, skill, and small-scale enterprise. Materials are shaped by hand, techniques passed between generations, and livelihoods built through patience and precision.

This is a quieter kind of insight, one that reveals how culture, resourcefulness, and daily practice continue to shape life in Madagascar.

Meals: B L D

Into a Living Laboratory

Today you travel south into Ranomafana National Park, one of Madagascar’s most important rainforest systems.

As you move into this region, the forest feels different, denser, more complex, and deeply studied. This is a place where conservation, research, and biodiversity come together in the programs run by Centre ValBio.

Ranomafana ( Malagasy for "hot water") is not just a protected area. It is a landscape shaped by the discovery of the Greater and Golden Bamboo Lemurs, and where long-term research continues to inform how conservation is approached.

Tomorrow you will explore Ranomafana National Park.

Meals: B L D

Specialisation in Action

Today you explore the forest in search of some of Madagascar’s most specialised lemur species, including the golden bamboo lemur. Observing bamboo lemur behaviour reveals just how precise survival strategies are. Diet, movement, and habitat use are all tightly linked to specific environmental conditions.

This is also ideal habitat for black and white ruffed lemurs and the Milne Edward's sifaka.

As night falls, the forest reveals a different world.

On your night walk, you encounter a remarkable diversity of smaller species, rufous mouse lemur, chameleons, amphibians, and, with luck, the extraordinary satanic leaf-tailed gecko.

Tomorrow you will learn about the work of Centre ValBio

Meals: B L D

Science and Communities

Today you spend time at Centre ValBio, where long-term research underpins conservation in the park.

Here, you gain insight into how science informs real-world decisions, from biodiversity monitoring to community health and environmental education.

In the afternoon you will visit a community project initiated by Centre ValBio, the women weavers of Ranomafana. This project was established to provide the women living on the edge of the forest with a sustainable income stream.

You will also have the opportunity to be part of the tree planting project. This activity is not simply about adding trees back into the landscape, but about understanding how forests are structured. Through this process, degraded areas can begin to recover.

Tomorrow you will begin to head back to where your journey started.

Meals: B L D

Know your Lemurs of Ranomafana

Diurnal Lemur Species: Milne Edward's Sifaka, greater bamboo lemur, golden bamboo lemur, black and white ruffed lemur.

Nocturnal Lemur Species: weasel sportive, rufous mouse lemur, aye aye

Cathemeral Lemur Species: Red fronted brown lemur, red bellied lemur.

The greatest threat to the critically endangered Milne Edwards, greater and golden bamboo lemurs is habitat fragmentation. The key program to reverse this conservation threat is working with the community to create more productive land systems, reducing forest being removed to increase farm land. At the same time restoring forests through tree planting and protection.

One of the long term projects at Ranamafana involves the local population of rufous mouse lemur. The project focusses on mapping the genome sequence and underlying mutations in hundreds of wild mouse lemurs. This Madagascar wide project has produced evidence of ongoing diversification of mouse lemur species with four new species discovered in the last 10 years.

A System Still Unfolding

This morning you start your journey back Antsirabe for the night, then onto Antananarivo for late afternoon flight on the 7th Oct.

You leave Madagascar with more than just wildlife sightings.

You leave with an understanding of how evolution shapes life, how systems support it, how those systems are changing, and the conservation actions needed to ensure lemur species continue to be a part of the Madagascar landscape.

This is not a finished story.

It is one that is still evolving.

Meals: B L D

As your journey comes to a close, the landscapes, species, and stories you’ve encountered will stay in your memory.

Through time spent in Madagascar's forests, landscapes, and communities, you’ve gained a deeper understanding of the systems that shape wildlife and the environments they depend on. Madagascar's story is not finished.

Act for Wildlife, Travel for Change

Where Your Journey Continues

Throughout this journey, you have seen that Madagascar’s lemurs do not survive in isolation.

Their future is shaped by:

• forests

• food systems

• land use

• community health

• and the people who live within these landscapes

The pressures affecting these systems are complex.
But throughout Madagascar, organisations are developing practical, locally grounded responses that work to reduce those pressures while supporting both wildlife and communities.

Act for wildlife. Travel for change.

Reducing Pressure on Forest Systems

Through your time in the La Mananara Research Site with Wildlife Madagascar, you encountered conservation at a landscape level.

Here, protecting lemurs means addressing the pressures driving habitat loss and hunting in the first place.

Wildlife Madagascar projects are designed to reduce dependence on forest resources while improving long-term resilience for local communities.

You can stay involved by supporting:

• Reforestation programs
  → restoring habitat connectivity for lemurs and other endemic species

• Food security and Sakondry farming initiatives
  → reducing pressure on wildlife through sustainable protein alternatives

• Community-based conservation partnerships
  → supporting locally driven conservation solutions

These initiatives directly address the drivers behind:

• forest fragmentation

• bushmeat hunting

• and habitat degradation.

Science, Health & Conservation

At Centre ValBio, conservation is approached as a connected system where research, ecosystem health, and human wellbeing all influence one another.

Long-term programs include:

• biodiversity research

• reforestation using native species

• conservation education

• community outreach

• public health initiatives

• sustainable agriculture support

The work at Centre ValBio reflects a simple reality:
healthy ecosystems are closely linked to healthy communities.

You can stay involved by supporting:

• Long-term biodiversity research
  → helping scientists better understand Madagascar’s rapidly changing systems

• Native reforestation programs
  → restoring ecological function and habitat structure

• Community health and education initiatives
  → reducing pressures that indirectly affect forest systems and wildlife

• Scientific training and conservation outreach
  → supporting future conservation capacity in Madagascar.

Responsible Travel

Throughout the journey, guests are also encouraged to reduce their own impact through simple but meaningful practices:

• avoid single-use plastic bottles - bring your own drink bottle from home and we will refill it.

• refuse plastic straws - we will teach you how to say "no straws thank you" in Malagasy!

• reducing food waste by sharing a plate or ordering smaller sized meals

• purchase a locally made bag and avoid single use plastic

• not purchasing products made from endangered hardwoods such as palisandre

These actions may seem small, but they add up to make a difference.

King Radama the 1st, famously once said "The only protection for Madagascar from colonisation are our mosquitoes and our roads".

Road travel can be a challenge in Madagascar. While many of the tarmac areas are being repaired, it does take time to move across this stunning island. Most roads are one lane either way, and many have potholes large enough to swallow a car! Travelling by road requires patience and a sense of adventure, however the stunning landscapes far outweigh the challenges of travelling on Madagascan roads.

In Madagascar we use a Toyota Hiace van or equivalent, with A/C.

Jessica McKelson brings over 22 years of global conservation experience, working across wildlife welfare, conservation strategy, alternative livelihoods, and natural resource management in complex and evolving environments.

She is widely recognised for her work in primate conservation in Indonesia, where she spent six years managing the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of more than 120 orangutans in Sumatra. She continues to support primate welfare and rehabilitation initiatives in Kalimantan, maintaining close connections with field-based conservation programs.

In Madagascar, Jess’s experience takes on a different dimension. Here, primates are not just part of an ecosystem—they are the result of millions of years of isolated evolution, expressed through highly specialised behaviours and ecological roles.

Her approach focuses on observation as the foundation for understanding—connecting behaviour, habitat, and the systems that shape survival. Through time in the field, she helps guests move beyond simply seeing lemurs, to recognising patterns, relationships, and the conditions that allow species to persist.

The RAW Guide Promise

Every RAW Africa Eco-Tours journey is led by our local leaders - guides who share a deep respect for wildlife, landscapes and the communities who call these places home.

Our leaders guide with patience, curiosity and care, helping travellers learn how to observe wildlife responsibly while sharing the science, conservation efforts and cultural knowledge that shape these landscapes.

Because when people truly see the natural world, they begin to care.

Brooke Squires is the founder and director of RAW Africa Eco-Tours. She holds a degree in Biology and a Master’s in International Community Development, and has spent her career working at the intersection of wildlife conservation, community partnerships and conservation education.

Brooke spent 17 years as a rhino keeper at Zoos Victoria’s Werribee Open Range Zoo before joining the Wildlife Conservation and Science team at Zoos Victoria. In this role she helped develop international conservation partnerships and programs in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, working with organisations and communities on the frontline of wildlife conservation.

In 2012, Brooke established RAW Africa Eco-Tours based on a passionate belief that sustainable tourism can support both wildlife and the communities who share their landscapes. RAW journeys are designed to bring travellers into direct contact with conservation programs, researchers and community initiatives, offering insight into the complex realities of protecting wildlife in Africa today.

For Brooke, the most powerful moment of every journey comes when travellers realise they are not separate from the landscapes they visit — that wildlife, people and ecosystems are all part of the same living system. Creating those moments of connection, understanding and action lies at the heart of RAW’s conservation journeys.

“When people arrive in Africa you can often see the moment it clicks — the wildlife is breathing the same air they are, walking on the same ground they do. Suddenly you realise we are not separate from nature. We are part of the same beautiful system.”

Creating those moments of connection, understanding and responsibility lies at the heart of RAW’s conservation journeys.

Benja is RAW Africa Eco-Tours manager in Madagascar. Benja is passionate about his island home and his enthusiasm will ensure that Madagascar and its unique wildlife leave a lasting impression.

“When people think of Madagascar they think of lemurs and Baobabs. What I love most about my country is the landscape. The deep forests, the long lonely beaches, rocky tsingy, spiny forests. We pack a lot into our island. Its a country that is magnificent and so unexpected.”