Madagascar RN5

In November 2025, Nomadic Road's Madagascar RN5 expedition took a group of overlanders along one of the most demanding stretches of road in the world. The RN5, on paper a national road on Madagascar's east coast, is in practice a 822-kilometre obstacle course of broken tarmac, deep mud sections, river crossings and tracks where dirt is the most reliable surface. November sits at the end of the dry season, with the first storms starting to arrive, which is exactly when the route delivers its full personality. Madagascar is not what most travellers expect. Far beyond the postcard image of jungles and lemurs, the country is culturally dense, ethnically diverse, and on the RN5 specifically, it is hard. Villages line the route, with markets, zebu carts and children waving from every doorway. The Indian Ocean appears on the right side of the road for long stretches, with empty beaches and small fishing communities living in the shadow of palm groves. Participants drove 4x4 vehicles built for the terrain, with regular stops to check tyres, recover stuck vehicles and recalibrate routes around new washouts. Evenings were spent in small lodges and guesthouses, with local food and the unmistakable rhythm of Malagasy evenings. The convoy moved at the pace the RN5 demanded, which is rarely fast. The November 2025 edition delivered the RN5 as Nomadic Road sees it: a route that strips travel back to its slow, rough, genuinely adventurous core, in one of the least understood corners of the Indian Ocean. For Nomadic Road, the November 2025 RN5 edition reinforced the route's reputation as one of the toughest national roads in the world, and one of the most rewarding for travellers who want Madagascar at its rawest and most honest.