Cap Sainte Marie Special Reserve

Madagascar’s Land’s End

Here on Madagascar’s southernmost tip, you’ll feel like you’ve reached one of the most remote places on Earth. It’s a long, rough, two-day drive to get here from the nearest paved road, and the security situation can be a concern. There’s not a whole lot to see here, save for a lonely lighthouse along a stretch of wild and windy coast. And yet, and yet … that feeling of being somewhere truly remote does carry a certain importance. There is an awareness here of clean air and big horizons far from the rest of the world and its noise. From the headland you might see whales between July and November. And down on the beach, you’ll almost certainly find underfoot shell fragments from the extinct elephant bird, a species made famous by Sir David Attenborough in his early years. Cap Sainte Marie is not for everyone. But it’s one of my favorite places in Madagascar’s south.