Baly Bay (Baie de Baly) National Park – the extraordinary beauty of the wildnature
Discover the Baly bay. Baly Bay is still little known to tourists but will not stay long!
The name of the Bay of Baly, Eastern-sounding, evokes unknown myths. The place has nothing of mythical, If the extraordinary beauty of the wild and secular nature that prevails. Rare are the rich sites of such diversity with landscapes to cut the breath and an incredible rare wildlife and endangered.
The Baly Bay (Baie de Baly) National Park comprises a total surface of 58 km². It was created in 1997 and identified as an Important Bird Area in 1999.
The Park is very rich in terms of biodiversity since it includes both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, such as dense dry forests, mangroves, rivers and lakes, white-sand beaches, dunes and impressive coral reefs.
The main attraction of the park is the extremely rare and endangered ploughshare tortoise (locally known as angonoka), he largest of the four endemic tortoises found in Madagascar, which is endemic to the park. Nowadays there are just 2000 individuals living in the wild.
From the floristic point of view, the Bay of Baly is a rare variety with its impressive dense forest and dry, Shaggy his thicket vegetation, its mangrove which runs such a green carpet in front of the sea...
Furthermore there are 13 mammal species, among them 8 of lemur, such as the Decken’s sifaka and the western bamboo lemurs, which share their habitat with 120 bird species and more than 35 reptiles, such as chameleons and terrestrial tortoises.
Green, hawksbill, Madagascar big-headed and loggerhead turtles lay their eggs on the beaches, whilst dolphins and dugongs swim in the swallow bay waters. With a little luck, the mysterious dugong will be at the rendezvous of divers during their explorations.
More than 50 water bird species have been observed in the park, being five of them extremely endangered. The rare fish eagle, several heron species, sacred ibises, plovers and pink and greater flamingos are common sights in the park.
Discovery circuits, idyllic beaches, scuba diving in the coral reefs...
Come and you'll see! Local cultures and stories of local people are also very interesting out there! Ancestor worship is very much alive in the region with the ceremonies as "Fanompoana" (annual) during which offerings are placed on the royal tombs, or "Fitampoha" (every 5 or 7 years) characterized by immersing relics in large rivers.
Watch more photos about Baly Bay (Baie de Baly) National Park here.