Comfortable accommodation near wonderful Kirindy
When visiting the hottest region of Madagascar, with temperatures frequently around 40 degrees, this new lodge with a swimming pool is a perfect base from which to explore the Kirindy Forest.
Opened in 2017, this new lodge is about 25 minutes drive from the fascinating Kirindy Forest, one of the key attractions of Western Madagascar's Menabe region. What strikes people immediately about this 10,000ha dry deciduous forest and the surrounding area (including Marofandila Forest) is the presence of three of the island’s endemic Baobabs, including the largest of all, the Adansonia grandieri.
The lodge has twenty en-suite bungalows built of wood and natural materials. Windows are netted so in very hot weather, guests can open them to let draughts in. Each has a shower and in the front, a porch with comfortable chairs. The main building has a large, open-air restaurant where good meals are served. All dietary needs are catered for. A big plus point for this lodge is the very welcome swimming pool - spring and summer days in the Menabe can be very hot, with temperatures frequently hovering around the 40 degrees mark.
Kirindy’s mammals include smallest primate, Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur. Two larger nocturnal lemurs resident here include are Coquerel’s giant mouse lemur and pale fork-marked lemur. By day look for Verreaux’s sifaka and red-fronted brown lemur. Kirindy is the best site in which to look for the fosa, Madagascar’s largest and most formidable carnivore. Fosa lose their fear of people during their mating season, usually in the first week of November. Another attraction is the gravely endangered giant jumping rat, Madagascar’s largest rodent: the size of a hare, it sometimes hops around the baobab forest like a little kangaroo.