Vohemar (Iharana) → Ambilobe transfer
| Distance | 155 km |
|---|---|
| Travel time | 2.5 h |
155 km on the RN5a, repaved in 2022 — an easy ride of about three hours. Ambilobe is the crossroads of the north: the junction for Diego Suarez, the Ankarana tsingy and the road to Ankify port for Nosy Be. A practical leg that fits almost any northern plan.
Price per person
| 1 traveller* | €98 · 490 000 Ar /person |
|---|---|
| 2 travellers | €49 · 245 000 Ar /person |
| 3 travellers | €32 · 163 000 Ar /person |
| 4 travellers | €24 · 122 500 Ar /person |
| Whole car (up to 4) | €98 · 490 000 Ar |
* Travelling alone? The whole car is yours — a private trip costs the same in total. Bring a travel companion and the price per person halves.
Zebu on the road are part of driving here. Herds cross the national roads and rest on the warm tarmac, and after dark they are genuinely hard to see even on full beam — which is one reason we do not drive between towns at night. A zebu is worth around 400,000 to 500,000 Ariary, more than a month's wages for most people in this region, so an animal on the road is somebody's livelihood rather than an obstacle. Knowing which stretches carry herds, and at what hour, is exactly the kind of thing a driver who runs these roads every month knows and a rented car does not come with.
Chameleons cross these roads, slowly and without looking, and your driver will stop for them. In much of northern Madagascar it is fady — taboo — to kill or even touch one, and that belief is the reason the big Oustalet's chameleon is still common here when it has thinned out elsewhere. In many villages they are held to carry the spirits of the ancestors, so harming one, even accidentally at the wheel, is not a small thing. One piece of advice a visitor would never guess: in traditional belief even pointing at a chameleon is a bad omen, and the misfortune is held to fall on the person and their family rather than on the animal. Admire it, keep your hand down, and let your driver decide what happens next. Fady varies from region to region and sometimes from village to village, which is another reason to travel with somebody who knows which one he is in.
Prices are per person. Full car = cheapest per seat. Children under 3 travel free on a lap. The price covers the booked travellers only — every traveller in the car pays.
Read first: driving in northern Madagascar — night, zebu, fuel and the rains →