I must say that my three days spent camping and canoeing on the Tsiribihina River has been one of my favorite travel experiences. The landscape and program was similar to when I was paddling on Orange River in Namibia and the Zambezi River in Zambia, but here we were traveling in comfortable “mokoros”(dugout canoes) where a crew was doing all the work of paddling, cooking and making camps at the nights.
On the way we stopped at villages, camped at sand banks and ate in the canoes, but my favorite stop was the Anosinampela waterfall, where we could have a swim after roasting the whole day in the boats.
I was hoping to see more wildlife, like lemurs and maybe some idris while we were on the river, but all we saw was a freshwater crocodile. The experience was more about finding inner peace while drifting down the river and enjoying the landscape. It’s something I would happily do again, once my sunburn has disappeared of course.