Africa / Avenue de Baobab / Madagascar

This is what trees along an avenue should look like

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You can find baobab trees many places on southern and western Madagascar – but if you only seen pictures of one place with baobabs in Madagascar it is most likely from a little stretch of road outside Morondava in the far west of the island. Here you will find some big trees. It may not be the biggest trees on the island but they line up right next to the road forming a perfect avenue. It almost look like the trees are planted but given they are more than a thousand years old and the road is somewhat newer it is unlike they have been planted.

The trees may be very famous but the stretch of road with these road side giants is pretty short – you can walk it in a few minutes. But it is still impressive. The road is only half an hour drive away from Morondava so it is easy to get out here – and many people come to watch the sunset.

Kirindy village
Locals at kirindy village

Fortunately we have been driving up and down the road a couple of times when we went to the Kirindy Forest so we had been by during the day. Happily we stopped here on that occasion and we had the avenue to ourselves we could just walk up and down the street with nobody else around. There were several booth selling the fruits of the baobab trees and wooden baobab figures – but these shops were closed during the day – they only open at night time.

Bike at the avenue
Truck at the avenue
Local car
Fire woods transported at the avenue
Truck at the avenue
Truck at the avenue

When you arrive at night it is completely different. There are maybe a hundred cars with several hundred of people walking around the trees. And there is even a charge for the parking – this is the only place on the entire island I saw paid parking. When we arrive at night we can still walk around the avenue to look at the trees. But the serenity of the visit during the middle of the day is completely gone by now.

Kids playing football next to the trees
The football

The trees do look nice as the sun set. The colours of the setting sun change the colours of the large trunks and you can watch for a while. It is nice to see the place at sunset – but I think I prefer the quite visit during the middle of the day where you could just walk around the area with nobody disturbing you or obscuring your pictures. So if you got the chance to go here consider going twice – during the day and a sunset.

52 comments

      5. It’s good to have the contrast to illustrate how large the trees are. We went to North Carolina and have some photos taken for the lighthouse. I stood under the lighthouse for one shot.

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  5. By the way, I just upgraded my WordPress plan and now searching for a different theme. My current theme has limited functions. Do you mind letting me know what theme you use for this blog?

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      2. It is. Along with Australia and a few other islands it has developed a wildlife Unique because of isolation for millions of years. So nowhere else in the World is quite the same. There is actually 8 species of baobab trees in the World – 6 of which are native to Madagascar only.

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      4. I wouldn’t be able to tell them appart anyway. At least not in the dry season where they have no leaves. Maybe you can see the difference in the wet season with the leaves on the trees.

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