Our time in Isalo National Park over, we’ve started our long journey back by road to the north. We’ve driven approx. 200km through well made roads and mountainous landscapes to the town of Ambalavao; being quite high in the hills it’s much chillier here, and it’s the first time we’ve had to get our sweaters out since we began our trip.

The hotel here is fairly basic in comparison to most places we’ve stayed (with the obvious exception of l’Ankàrana), but it’s clean and comfortable with hot water and electricity most of the time. Thankfully, the cost of food and accommodation here is in line with the local economy, which is around £8 for the night.

We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant (again, a bargain at about £3.20 for the both of us), after which we met up with our driver, who had arranged an English speaking guide for us. We drove to a mountainous trail a few kilometres out of town, where we would begin the afternoon’s activities at Reserve Villageoise Anja.

This wasn’t so much of a hike like the other places we’ve been to, but more of a easy-going walk past rice paddies, through forrest areas, rocky paths and caves. We got a good chance to see a pack of ring-tailed lemurs, obviously “touristified”  and definitely not afraid to eat bananas from out of the hands of humans. We finally got a chance to see a snake up close in the form of a large boa, who the guide managed to grab and show to us.

Apart from “Madagascar Exotique”, chameleons have been a bit thin on the ground this trip. We did however get to see three species today, even for only a fleeting moment.

We walked through some shady areas where the rocks had come to rest after millions of years, after which we climbed to the top of one of the larger formations. From here we could get a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside - tall mountainous areas on either side with flat and green farmland in the middle. We could see workers in the paddy fields from a distance, the road we came up on and some ringtail Lemurs getting a final ray of sunshine before it went down.