AN OVERLAND EXPEDITION ALONG MADAGASCAR’S FORGOTTEN EAST COAST
Between the rainforest of the eastern highlands and the Indian Ocean runs a coast the country itself has half forgotten: a road that was built, then left, threaded between the sea and the Pangalanes, the chain of lakes and canals that once carried everything this coast produced. Today it carries almost nothing, and the villages along it live the way they did before the road came. This crossing runs south along it: two days in the rainforest with the indri, the largest lemur alive, then the coast, the canal country, river mouths crossed on ferries, and five nights in the wild where the road gives out, to the town where it ends and a flight carries you home over all of it. A coterie of twelve, chosen carefully, from different corners of the world, who chose the same road you did.
First edition, 2027. Our founder leads it, with Swithun, Head of Africa Operations.
What This Journey Holds
Max 28°C l Min 20°C
Ineos Grenadier AT
Muddy trails, sand and river crossings
EXPEDITION DIFFICULTY
Two kinds of expedition. The terrain, the weather and the altitude decide which.
Tough & Challenging: The country sets the pace and the plan bends to it.
– Long driving days, with journey times the road decides
– Trails that ask something of you
– Weather that can turn, and altitude that slows everything down
– Breakdowns, fixed on the road
– Basic stays, with little around them, and shared facilities at camp
Moderate & Comfortable: The same country, an easier line through it.
– Steadier days, journey times that hold
– More road under the wheels
– Beds with walls and doors
– Amenities within reach
Neither is the soft version. The difference is how much the country is allowed to decide.
MAX GROUP SIZE
Small groups, always. Twelve at most on a Signature expedition, fourteen on a Classic.
– Small enough to move as one convoy
– A camp that fits around one fire
– No one becomes a passenger in their own expedition
– Many join solo. No one finishes that way.
Choose Your Edition
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Venky
Founder
Venky spent a decade in the automobile industry, where people bonded over machines and the roads beneath them, and where he realised that what they were really looking for lay further out. In 2016 he founded Nomadic Road in India, convinced that the oldest human instinct, to move, deserved better than sightseeing. The premise was simple: make the world small enough for strangers to cross its remotest corners together, because no one returns from the frontier unchanged. Ten years and four continents later, it holds, proven on every crossing by one belief: the bond between man, machine and Mother Nature is a powerful one.
Prices are per person, in US dollars, and exclude your international flights. Dates and prices are
set in good faith, and two things beyond our control can move them: a domestic flight schedule
that changes can shift the dates by a day, and a sharp move in fuel prices can change the price. If
either happens after you book, we tell you first, and why.
This ground, your dates, your circle? That’s Privé →
Nothing Discovered Later
Where You’re Headed
Your Journey, in Movements
70% of every Signature expedition is planned to the hour. What follows is the seventy. The thirty, the road decides.
The Beginning · The Capital
Antananarivo, a welcome dinner, and the briefing that sets the road ahead.
The Rainforest · Endemic Wildlife
East out of the city into the rainforest, an easy first drive to learn the machine, and a day inside the primary forest on dirt: misty trails, chameleons and orchids, and the indri, the largest lemur alive, singing across the trees at dawn.
The Canal Country · Where the Tarmac Gives Out
Down out of the highlands to the Indian Ocean, with the Pangalanes beside the road, a chain of lakes and canals running behind the beach. Then the road stops pretending: mud, beach sand, and the first three nights in remote camps we raise ourselves, in places where no hotel has ever existed.
The Wild · The Forgotten Coast
The heart of the crossing. River mouths crossed on ferries, trails the rain owns, villages that see a vehicle a few times a season, and two more nights in the wild with the ocean close enough to hear.
The End · The End of the Road and the Flight to the Capital
The last stretch south to the town where the coast road ends. The machines are handed back, and the farewell dinner closes the crossing. Then a charter flight back over everything you drove, and a night in Antananarivo that is yours before the flight home.
The Drive
An Ineos Grenadier with automatic transmission, built for this and nothing else, on dirt that the map still calls a road, beach sand, river mouths crossed by ferry, and a rainforest highway to begin. Long days where the distance tells you nothing.
The Landscape
Primary rainforest first, then a coast of lakes and canals running behind the beach for hundreds of kilometres, river mouths, fishing villages, and the Indian Ocean on your left the whole way south.
The Nights
Hotels in the capital, the forest and the coastal towns. Where the road gives out, five nights in remote camps we raise ourselves, in places where no hotel has ever existed: a proper tent, carpet underfoot, mattress, bedding and towels, and a field shower and ablution block for the group.
The Table
Local and international cooking at the hotels. In the wild, curated meals from our own field kitchen, with fresh seafood off the coast, cooked at the end of the day.
The Culture
The indri calling across the rainforest at dawn. Remote villages along the coast that the road never quite reached, canal boats, fishing pirogues, and a way of life that runs on water.
The People Who Travel With You
Founder. First into every crossing, and the last one to call it a day.
Venky
Founder
Venky spent a decade in the automobile industry, where people bonded over machines and the roads beneath them, and where he realised that what they were really looking for lay further out. In 2016 he founded Nomadic Road in India, convinced that the oldest human instinct, to move, deserved better than sightseeing. The premise was simple: make the world small enough for strangers to cross its remotest corners together, because no one returns from the frontier unchanged. Ten years and four continents later, it holds, proven on every crossing by one belief: the bond between man, machine and Mother Nature is a powerful one.
Rides with the convoy, camera up. Films what happens, not what’s staged, so it comes home with you.
Filmmaker - andean plaeteau equatorial affair Forgotten coast
Filmmaker
Rides with the convoy, camera up. Films what happens, not what’s staged, so it comes home with you.
Behind the convoy with the tools and the backup vehicles. What breaks on the road gets fixed on the road.
Field Mechanics - RN5 Forgotten coast Red island
Field Mechanics
Behind the convoy with the tools and the backup vehicles. What breaks on the road gets fixed on the road.
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: the camp raised before you arrive, beds made, and the fire already lit.
Hospitality crew - RN5 Forgotten coast Red island
Hospitality Crew
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: the camp raised before you arrive, beds made, and the fire already lit.
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: cooking before you wake, and hot food in the middle of nowhere.
Field chefs - RN5 Forgotten coast Red island
Field Chefs
Wherever the route sleeps in the wild: cooking before you wake, and hot food in the middle of nowhere.