Madagascar

Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. Ringed by golden beaches and palm trees, it has variety from grassy plateaus to volcanoes and opaque forests to natural reserves. Since it split from the mainland 165 million years ago, many species are unique to the island, in fact 80% of the plant and animal life cannot be found elsewhere!  Madagascar is so unique that some have classed it as the eighth continent.

• Antananarivo, the capital, often abbreviated to Tana, has a distinctively French flavor and atmosphere and French is widely spoken.
• Two great mountains dominate the lush north. Tsarantanana, the island's highest at 2880m is covered with the giant ferns and lichens peculiar to high-altitude rainforests. Montagne d'Arbre at 1500m is a national park and is famous for its orchids and lemurs.
• The arid south is noted for its many remarkable species of cactus and baobab-like plants and for the highly developed funerary art of its inhabitants, past and present.
• Ranomafana National Park is a beautiful reserve, which protects a humid rainforest that is teeming with a vast array of wildlife.
• Isalo National Park has rocks dating from the Jurassic period. These rocks (known as 'ruiniformes') have been sculpted over the centuries, by wind and rain, into incredible and unusual shapes cut through by impressive gorges and canyons.
• One of the world's largest barrier reefs runs all the way around the south-west coastline of Madagascar.
• Madagascar, along with Mauritania are the only countries not to use a decimal currency.