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Tsingy RougeMADAGASIKARA

Sahafary plateau · DIANA region

Red Tsingy

Sixty kilometres south of Antsiranana, the Irodo has cut a canyon out of laterite, sand and iron. Every rainy season redraws it. We guide it, feed you on the rim, and put you to bed under the darkest sky in the north.

Choose a circuitWhat a day looks like

On the plateau right now

Season
Sep
Track from Saharenana
Open, dry
Best light today
05:38 · 17:42
Expected high
30 °C
Laterite crust

Four beds, read from the top

The canyon wall is a section through the plateau. Your guide will point at each of these before you have finished your first bottle of water.

  1. 0–4 m

    Laterite crust

    Iron oxide and clay, hard enough to cap a column and keep it standing. Everything red you photograph is this.

  2. 4–15 m

    Isalo sandstone

    Ochre, coarse, and the body of most of the pinnacles. It erodes evenly, which is why the columns taper rather than break.

  3. 15–22 m

    Pale marl

    The soft bed. It undercuts faster than the rock above, which is what topples a column when it finally goes.

  4. 22 m

    The Irodo

    The floor, and the reason for all of it. Dry most of the year, and then not: every wet season the river takes a little more.

Circuits

Half a day on the rim, or six days across the whole north. Every one of them is guided by someone who grew up under this plateau.

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1 day · Easy

The Red Tsingy in a day

The classic run: the RN6 north, the track through Sadjoavato, three hours on the rim while the light is still low, and lunch at La Rouge before the drive back.

From€62

The shaded terrace at La Rouge, tables laid under the trees

La Rouge

Eighty metres from the main viewpoint, on the terrace. Malagasy cooking, a welcome cocktail on the house, and rice that arrives before anything else because that is the correct order.

  • Plateau lunch

    Welcome cocktail, one starter, one main, one dessert, ranovola.

    €14.42

  • Camp dinner

    Everything off the coals, served at the long table, eaten after dark.

    €16.92

  • Garden menu

    Fully vegetarian, mostly vegan, built from what the Irodo gardens sent up that morning.

    €13.08
See the menu

Sleeping on the rim

Six tents, two bungalows and eight pitches, all set back from the edge. The site empties at four in the afternoon and does not fill again until nine the next morning.

See where to sleep

The place, in order of light

Open the gallery

What people said afterwards

Reviews are shown in the language they were written in.

  • 5.0
    Nous sommes restés pour la nuit et c'est ce qui change tout. À seize heures il n'y avait plus personne, et à cinq heures le lendemain nous étions seuls avec le lever de soleil. Le dîner sur braises valait à lui seul le déplacement.

    Marie-Claude B. · FR

  • 5.0
    Six of us, two guides, and someone who genuinely knew where the shadow line would fall. I have been on a lot of photo trips where the guide is a driver with a camera. This was not that.

    Tom H. · GB

  • 5.0
    Partiti alle sei da Antsiranana, tornati nel pomeriggio. La pista è dura ma l'autista la conosce a memoria. Il pranzo a La Rouge è stato molto meglio di quanto mi aspettassi da un ristorante in mezzo al nulla.

    Silvia R. · IT

Where the money goes

The association posts its accounts at the gate every quarter. These are the headline numbers.

31
people from Sadjoavato on the payroll
100%
of the conservation fee stays on the plateau
4 200
trees planted on the eroded slopes since 2021
0
single-use plastic bottles sold on site

From the plateau

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Before you come

Access, season, what to bring, and what the conservation fee pays for.

Plan your visit