Private Park with fascinating Tingys, Flora and Fauna juste beside Ankarana Reserve and Ankarana Lodge
Our park is a small part of the mountain range of Ankarana, an old reef of coral which was formed over 100 million years ago and now on a higher level we can admire his bizare geological forms. In the for human inaccessible landscape of Tsingys , a fascinating flora and fauna has been preserved in its original form. The largest part of this mountain is protected by a national park . A small unprotected foothills of this mountain range , we have acquired , to protect also this particularly local flora and fauna.
Our history
We discovered this area in 1998 because two Swiss botanist wanted to collect plants and seeds. This is forbidden in the national park and our local travel agency, King de la Piste, propose to study and explore this area, just 1 km away from the park entrance. We were very successful and found even two unknown plants which got the name of the botanist (Aloes Röösli) and our family name (Kalanchoe pareikiana). My Malagasy woman decided to acquire this land in order to protect it. We engaged several guards but they was not very successful. Several bushfires and people continue destroying the nature. So we decided to live here themselves and to build a lodge. We are more successful, but there are still bushfires and wood thieves. 2008 our guest F. Glaw, specialist for reptiles, and his team found also an unknown Gecko (phesulma roesleri), and we are sure that there is more to discover.
2011 our Ankarana Lodge burned down completly and we built it up again.
As our roofs no longer made ​​of palm leaves , we are better protected against forest fires. Ankarana Lodge has also a large swimming pool and so 150 000. l water for to fight against bushfire.
Gondwana Park
Opening hours: all year 24/24h
2015 decided the Direction of the National Park that the Ankarana Reserve will open only from 8:00 till 16.00 and prohibited night walks.
Our visitors coming from Nosy Be or Diego/Mt d'Ambre can reach us only in the early afternoon and therefore a tour of this park on the same day is not possible. Therefore we decided to create a separate site, so that our customers have the opportunity to make a hike at the cooler afternoon until late evening.
Night walks are also possible.
Advantages are that you can leave directly from the restaurant of Ankarana Lodge and arrive after one or more hours trip at the bar or the pool. No additional drive or longer walks to the actual locations as in the NP are necessary. In short visit times you will get an impression of this amazing and diverse nature of the flora and fauna and the bizare rock formations (called Tsingy).
Only caving we can not offer.