The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is a national park located in Melaky Region of western Madagascar. The national park centres on two geological formations: the Great Tsingy and the Little Tsingy. Together with the adjacent Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, the National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Tsingys are karstic plateaus in which groundwater has undercut the elevated uplands, and has gouged caverns and fissures into the limestone. Because of local conditions, the erosion is patterned vertically as well as horizontally. The superposition of vertical and horizontal erosion patterns has created dramatic "forests" of limestone needles. The word tsingy is indigenous to the Malagasy language as a description of the karst badlands of Madagascar. The word can be translated into English as "where one cannot walk barefoot".
Along with the Great and Little Tsingys, the other tourist attraction is the Manambolo River Gorge. Just upstream from the ferry crossing the river has carved a gorge with steep sided cliffs through the limestone bedrock. At the time of our visit the river level was very low but in flood conditions the river can be several metres deep at this point. The nearby village of Bekopaka has various hotels and shops. The Little Tsingy lies right behind the National Park office at the ferry crossing whilst the Great Tsingy is about an hours drive away to the north.
From a birding perspective, we had terrific views of Madagascar Pratincole in the gorge and Madagascar Fish Eagle on a nest close to our hotel. In one of the gullies at Great Tsingy we managed to find a Schlegel's Asity. Also we managed to track down the endemic and only recently described Tsingy Wood Rail in the wood at the edge of Little Tsingy.