Monthly Archives: September 2016
More Madagascar
The yachts in Russian bay
This is the same blog but I’ve added the photos
After a great dive with the divemaster at Sakatia lodge on Monday 12th September, Norsa and Camomile along with Tintin and Solstice sailed across to Russian bay on Tuesday 13th .
Paul’s Dhow
Bill helped me in then climbed the ladder too.
While there a group of us went for a sail with a local guy called Paul in his traditional dhow to the other side of the bay for a wonderful walk.
Paul punted his dhow into deeper water
Then raised his sail
Fairly second hand but Paul still managed to sail his dhow pretty efficiently
Norman looks happy
It was very basic and just held together with bits of wood and string but felt very secure
After about an hour the sail was taken down, wrapped up and Paul paddled the last bit
While we went for our walk the dhow just sat waiting for us with a large rock as an anchor.
The dhow waiting
We came across a group of houses but everyone was out leaving just their herd of zebu’s behind
We continued on up the hill
We came across another little house on the top of the hill
Despite being at the top of the hill the guy was building himself a canoe
Ug and Ugg offered to get some coconuts for us
so we followed them
Once in the coconut plantation one of them climbed a tree and cut down coconuts for everyone
The tops were cut off the coconuts so we could drink the delicious liquid inside
Very refreshing
A collection of feet. We all just perched on the side and across the branches laid across the outrigger.
We walked back to the dhow and sailed back to the anchorage for lunch cooked by Paul’s wife. A really great day.
Camomile sailing along
The beautiful lemurs
On the Saturday Camomile and Norsa sailed to Nosy Komba for Norman and Sara to see the little village there. Sara and I went up into the lemur forest to see the lemurs again.
Sunday we headed back to Hellville to meet up with Solstice and Tintin ready for our day trip around the island of nosy Be.
Monday 19th saw the 8 of us going ashore and getting into a reasonable 10 seater minibus with air-conditioning for our day trip. It had been arranged through Roland, the guy who runs the chandlery in Crater bay.
A beautiful Sifaka
More Sifakas
First we went to Lemuria land where we saw several types of Lemur such as ring tailed lemurs, crowned, and black and white ruffed lemurs.
Ring tailed lemurs
Such beautiful faces
A Crocodile
There were also crocodiles, chameleons, iguanas, tortoises, to name but a few.
A Chameleon
Another chameleon
A leaf-tailed gecko
and this horrid spider which was about the size of my palm
The girls waiting to have their bags weighed
The group continued on to the ylang ylang distillery where girls had picked sacks full of the flowers to be weighed and registered to their name. They are expected to pick in the region of 20kgs a day, which is a lot of flowers, and they would be paid the princely sum of the equivalent of $5! It would take them most of the day to do this so very low wages. The flowers are distilled into essential oils and of course there was the obligatory shop where we were offered a juice and some little tidbits while we looked around. The prices were very reasonable so I treated myself to a few things.
A 20kg bag of petals
The group covered up to visit the sacred tree
Back on the bus and on to the ancient sacred banyan tree. It was necessary to be covered for the visit and we were all ceremoniously wrapped in sarongs before we could enter the grounds. The tree covered a vast area, it was difficult to find the original trunk. Many of the branches had sent out shoots which hang down towards the ground and take root forming branches of their own. It was eerily quiet as we walked around the path in between the many branches with our guide.
After that we drove north to see more of the island before stopping for lunch at the north of the island in the tourist area which also had tourist prices.
Looking down on the rice paddy fields
The last item on our itinerary for the day was Mont Passot, the islands highest point. On the way up we passed a series of deep blue crater lakes said to be the homes of the spirits of the Sakalava and Antakrana princes and some rice paddy fields. We stopped to take photos but sadly the area had been taken over by tourist stalls.
Continuing to the summit of 326m which gave us the most amazing views. The last section was walked and led to a series of platforms so that you could get clear views in all directions. (Although the photos didn’t come out very clear) There was a bit of an afternoon heat haze but it was possible to see all the way north to Nosy Mitsio and south west to Russian bay and beyond. Stunning views.
During the drive back our guide was able to give us lots of information about the Malagasy people, it was a great day out. The average life expectancy is 62 for men and 65 for women. 1 in 5 children die before the age of 5. There’s no welfare state and school in not compulsory. Many families can’t afford to send their children to school and there’s a 35% illiteracy rate. It was a interesting day.
The whole trip for 8 of us including the van and driver, English speaking guide, and entrances fees but not the lunch cost 210 euros which was 53E per couple plus some tips which we all agreed was good value. Roland’s details are adventuretoursmada@yahoo.com (photos for all this when we get to south Africa)
Bill and I spent Tuesday getting fuel and provisions enough to last us to south Africa because there wouldn’t be any where else to stock up further down the coast. On Wednesday 21st we checked out. The options are domestic check out in Hellville then full check out in Mahajanga or full check out in Hellville. We chose the latter mostly because a lot has been said about Mahajanga, some of which may or may not be true, but mostly because we didn’t want to HAVE to go in if we had a good window to keep going. (Later Adina checked out in Mahajanga and had no problems.)
Goodbye to Hellville
In the afternoon we left Hellville for the last time and sailed back to Russian bay. Our anchorage there was 13 32.19S
047 59.95Ein 14.4M of water. Good holding over sand.
Russian bay is named as such because in 1905 during the Russo – Japanese war a Russian fleet spent nine weeks harboured there. The crew of one of the ships are buried in the cemetery up behind Hellville. A beautiful and remote place opposite Nosy Be the bay provides excellent, all-round shelter. One morning Bill and I took the dinghy for a ride around the bay and were amazed by the bird life in the trees. Just outside the entrance is a beautiful beach which we sat on for an hour or so and swam in the sea. (Camera had another wobble and lost photos) We stayed there for the rest of the week and by the weekend there were 34 boats anchored in the bay because there was a regatta that weekend. Everyone had a great evening on the saturday and Andre worked hard putting on a bbq. The party continued Sunday morning as Andre was selling scrambled eggs and fresh bread with jam and coffee. I passed on the coffee but the bread was nice. There were games organised on the beach and then at midday a dozen or so of the yachts took part in a race back to Crater bay. The following day we started our passage south.
Dinghies on the beach in Russian bay
More Madagascar
A sailing dhow
The people in Madagascar are very poor but resourceful. They build their houses from materials gathered from the forest and their boats are totally made of natural materials. With a few exceptions the boats or dhows don’t have any engines and rely on the wind. Fortunately there are good winds here. In the early morning there’s the last of the night breeze blowing offshore and then most mornings a sea breeze strikes up towards the land at about 10am or 11am and goes on as late as 5pm or 6pm so the fishermen go out with one and come back with the other. Their sails are made of anything from rice bags sewn together to traditional heavy cotton sails with lots of varieties in between. Some have been fortunate to be given an old sail from a yacht and I say to those following us ‘don’t throw away any sails or sail material, bring it here’. Our friends on Adina gave away a sail and were given a live chicken in exchange! The Malagasy are very accomplished sailors and we often find they will try and race us when we’re sailing off shore and one of them very nearly beat us!
Can he see?
They use their dhows for fishing but also as transportation as the roads here are fairly basic or nonexistent.
This dhow is so heavily loaded the guy on the tiller can’t see where he’s going but relies on his fellow sailors to keep a look out. They were fairly close to shore where there was very little fetch because I could see it capsizing in any kind of sea.
Crater bay ‘marina’
Sunday 4th September we left Sakatia for Crater bay. There is a small ‘marina’ there that has quite a few charter boats on buoys. They offer a pontoon for your dinghy (but you need to lock it on) and the marina manager Rudi is Austrian and often able to help if you have a problem on board. We anchored outside the buoys at
13 24.023S
048 13.151E with 14.9M under our keel.
The marina bar.
Ashore there is a small bar built around some old engines that were probably in use here many years ago. It has cold beer with a limited selection of food and is a good yachtie meeting place. Note the bananas growing above the tables on the left hand side, now that’s fresh!
(For yachts following on behind us, this is the only place that had a theft this year but they were caught and punished and all was well after that. It’s important to lock up your boat and dinghy here but don’t be put off coming, it’s an interesting place.)
A zebu cart
Monday morning we went in search of fresh supplies. It’s a 20 minute walk to the road along a dirt track. The houses were very primitive. Zebu carts were being used again.
A home stall
This lady had set up a stall outside her house to sell some fresh produce. I try and buy one or two things from each person rather than everything from one. It spreads the wealth a bit.
This is their water supply.
water supply
outside kitchen
Again their kitchens are outside.
Main road
We reached the town and found it quite busy. This is the main road.
Oddly enough one of the busiest shops was the Orange phone shop. Mobiles are becoming popular in the towns where there are phone masts but away from the towns they can’t afford such luxuries as a phone.
The Orange shop
The butchers
Next door was the butcher – unbelievable! The meat was covered in flies and we were told if you buy it early enough before the flies get on it , it’s ok! Err no, call me old fashioned but I would rather not share my meat with the flies. Not sure if it’s put in a fridge overnight because it looked fairly fresh but it wasn’t going to be good for our western stomachs.
A bit further down the road was a supermarket called the big bazaar which had reasonable supplies but across the road was the reason to come to crater bay…. a chandler.
Bill in heaven
It’s run by an Austrian guy called Roland Kofler his email address is adventuretoursmada@yahoo.com really helpful and speaks good English. It was surprisingly well stocked. Bill was able to buy some parts he’d been looking for.
After we’d had a look around, stocked up on provisions and had a nice lunch at the Catalan restaurant, we headed back to the boat again.
Bill with the shopping trolley
Dear little chaps
The thing that saddens me most about these remote countries is the children. These little chaps were playing in the dirt with a handmade toy and a broken one. They seemed happy enough but it breaks my heart. When I think of what the children have back home and how these children would really appreciate a tine bit of it. The odds aren’t good for them, 1 in 5 dies before the age of 5 but the ones we met seemed happy.
Looking after his little brother
This chap was all smiles
One of the few children we saw with shoes on.
Glimpses of yachts
As we walked back down the lane we could see the boats in the anchorage over the top of the buildings. On a closer look of the buildings we realised it was some kind of builders merchant. There were roof sections made of palm leaves, different sized logs for the frame work and sides of buildings made of split bamboo.
Building materials
Heavy load
This poor man was struggling, the logs must have been very heavy.
It would have been interesting to know the prices they were charging for the materials, although the average income is US$5 a day. No minimum wage here.
These dhows were waiting for the tide to re-float them. They are very striking.
Dhows waiting for the tide
Little puppy
Back at the marina this is one of the puppies I wanted to take with me. So beautiful but full of fleas. He’s only this big because he’s feeding from his mother, she on the other hand was skin and bone. Difficult.
Norsa arrives with Solstice behind them.
Tuesday we motored back to Hellville to see our friends on Norsa and Solstice arrive from Mayotte. We all went ashore so they could check in and then met up later for lunch at our favourite cafe called the Oasis. Built in a Parisian street cafe kind of style the food is very good but the best are the chocolate brownies with a nice cappuccino. Yum
Bill, Sue, Phyllis, Sara, Don and Norman at the Oasis
Kevin, Don, Norman and Bill
The following day Tintin joined us from the islands and we had drinks on Camomile in the evening to celebrate. Rather a lot of drinks….
Happy people
…. which resulted in Norman falling in the water! No photos available. Haha
Ready for dinner
Thursday we motored back to Crater bay for a few days so the others could visit the chandler.
Saturday we sailed back to Sakatia lodge for more delicious food.
A note about Sakatia lodge, it isn’t a restaurant it’s a dining room for guests, which we were welcome to join but the meal is a set meal. We were very lucky that night.
Our crab starter
Delicious lobster
There were two plates this size for the six of us, wonderful food.
It was finished with homemade orange ice cream with an orange liqueur.
Now remember we aren’t on holiday!
Cruisers relaxing
Magical Madagascar
Hellville waterfront
Our first full week in Madagascar started with the chaos that is Hellville, the biggest town on the island of Nosy Be. The name means ‘big island’ and is pronounced ‘nossy bay’. It’s thought it was settled as long ago as 1649 by the English but the colony failed due to hostile natives and disease. They have had various arrivals since, Arabs and Comorans, but it finally came under the protection of the French in 1841. More recently Europeans have created a holiday resort of the island with many French and Italians settling there. We anchored at
13 24.375S
048 17.059E
The dock in Hellville
Hellville was named after Admiral de Hell a former governor of Reunion island further south rather than an evocation of the state of the town. It’s one of the places yachts can check in. A lot has been said about the government officials here and it’s very difficult finding any common ground. There are two locals here called Jimmy and Cool, Jimmy will walk you around the various officials which, if you don’t speak French, is necessary and Cool will mind your dinghy for you as there’s no dinghy dock. It will be moved around but we felt they needed to be trusted and we had no complaints. We work on 4,000 Ariary to 1GBP and Jimmy charges 30,000 and Cool 10,000 for the day to look after your dinghy so we aren’t talking big money. Unfortunately our photo of Jimmy didn’t come out but he’s on the left of this photo in the the red t-shirt. This also shows the chaos where you have to come ashore.
Tuk tuk driver
We went ashore first thing on the morning of Monday 29th August and the fun began!!
The first people to see are the police, they have an office/portacabin on the waterfront. They filled in an arrival form for us then said the person to stamp the visa wasn’t there so Jimmy took us to their office in the town. The tuktuk fares are 500AR per person for any journey which was 25p for the two of us. We got off at the bank to get some money out of the ATM. It issued us with 10,000AR notes which are worth about 2.50 so Bill ended up with wads of money in his pocket which is never a good idea. Continuing on to the visa office but the guy we needed to see wasn’t there either. A little word about tuk tuks, forget doors and windows, forget MOTs, forget health and safety, just go for a ride!
Old colonial building
We went back to the police dock and said we couldn’t find him and, after various suggestions, all of which would have cost ‘bribe’ money, it was agreed we would go back later. Then it was onto port control who were very efficient and it cost AR61,000 for a 1 month cruising permit for the Nosy Be area. (Note to sailors following us , you only need a permit for the month you’ll be in this area even if you have a visa for 2 months as we did.)
Prison entrance
The next stop was the Orange shop to set up a sim for the phone with internet access passing the local prison on the way. Remind me to behave here, can’t imagine the squalor that would be behind these walls.
Continuing along to the market.
Meat market
Quite a sight. This meat is just sitting out in the open and was covered in flies, fortunately you can’t smell the smells. Needless to say we didn’t buy any. A bit further along the dried fish stalls were just as bad.
Dried fish stall
The salad was better
Beautiful pineapples
The fruit on this stall was very good and I bought a bundle of these lettuces for about 75p.
Hoisting the Madagascar flag
We made our way back to the port to meet Jimmy at 2.30 to get our visas stamped. The guy still wasn’t anywhere to be seen and it was suggested we go to the airport to find him. I refused that because it wasn’t a weekend and I knew it could cost 30,000 plus in a taxi each way. The police were also after their ‘payment’ asking first for 120,000 but we refused saying other cruisers have paid 80,000 which they accepted. This is only about GBP20 but as we knew it was simply a ‘bribe’ we weren’t happy about paying but you have no choice. If you don’t pay they won’t check you in and can then arrest you – having seen the prison, we paid. We went back to the boat and finally at 4pm he turned up and we were able to get our visas which cost AR100,000 per person. At the end of the day we paid less than GBP100 for the whole thing which was far less than the other countries in the Indian ocean but it all felt a bit tacky. At last we were able to host the Madagascan flag I had made.
A zebu cart
The next morning it was back into town for shopping. This is the car park outside the supermarket. Isn’t he lovely? Its called a zebu and they are every where including on the meat counters for sale!
The supermarket had a lot of French products and wine so we had a little stock up. The fruit and veg weren’t as good as the market but we found in the following days that certain days after a delivery the stock was better.
Then it was on to …… guess where?
The hard ware store
Bill found some tubing
We’ve got various leaks in Camomile’s water system and Bill needed some tubing. This man was very helpful with his little bit of English and Bill using a little bit of french he managed to get what he needed.
The traffic is a bit chaotic here with a mixture of cars, tuk tuks and zebu carts.
Street life with the market on the right and a roundabout in front of me
Loading a truck onto the ferry
Back at the port we watched the most extraordinary scene where they were loading cars and fairly big trucks onto a local ferry. I’ll try and post a video on facebook. How they didn’t sink I’ll never know. Jimmy was watching and our dinghy had been pulled up onto the side. This is why you need to pay Cool his AR10,000 to watch your dinghy. The truck was held up while our dinghy was launched.
Later that afternoon we motored the 10 miles around to Nosy Komba and arrived just in time to see this stunning sunset behind one of the off shore islands.
Stunning sunset
Beautiful tablecloths for sale.
The next morning we went ashore with Kevin and Jacqui of Tintin to explore. The village was very authentic and pretty. At first it looked like peoples washing blowing in the wind but we realised it was beautiful hand embroidered tablecloths for sale.
More tablecloths under the bougainvillea flowers
Ladies doing their washing
These ladies are doing their washing in one of the troughs that has a fresh water fill from the mountain above. Their houses don’t have electricity or running water. We didn’t ask about the toilets!
Bathtime
This little chap was being given a shower in front of the water trough.
Local house
This is one of the local houses. This isn’t one of those contrived villages where every one goes home after work, these are really houses where they all live. It looks like one decent puff of wind and they would be blown down but they are fairly strong. All the cooking is done outside on open fires. This is her kitchen in front of her house. They were so lovely, its a bit touristy but very pretty.
Our view from the bar at lunchtime
Ylang ylang flowers
After lunch we took a guide up into the forest to find some lemurs. The first thing we were shown was a ylang ylang tree whose flowers are used to make perfume namely Channel No5 they had a delightful aroma.
A chameleon
We walked further up and saw this beautiful chameleon on a tree.
wild pineapple
and wild pineapples growing alongside the path.
Black male lemur
Our guide was calling’ maki, maki, maki’ and opening a banana he had brought with us. Then they appeared, first two, then two more and four above us. Such gentle creatures. Lemurs, roughly cat sized, are well known in northern Madagascar. The males are black and the females are chestnut brown.
Male brown lemur
Male brown lemur, you can tell because of his beautiful white ear tufts and side whiskers.
The guide was holding out banana to them and gave me some to hold up ready to give them. Soon I had a couple on my shoulders looking for their piece of banana, they were very gentle.
I had two on my shoulders
back up in the tree
Such delicate sweet creatures.
they love banana
There were some mums with babies further up the tree but they didn’t want to come down.
It was very funny watching them jump from tree to tree. So many of our photos have half a lemur in them.
Giant tortoise
We were also taken to see some tortoises……
…… and a boa constrictor
Bill was very brave
and so was I
a local boat
Line of the bow ready to cut
Back on the beach this local boat was anchored. It’s made almost entirely in local materials, the hull is made of wood, the mast is a tree trunk and the sail is made of a very tough cotton. Further up the beach was a local boat builder and Bill was fascinated to see the various stages of build.
Building up the sides
These are in the middle of their build
A new build
We headed back to the dinghies. On the beach there were some men building a local house, bet they don’t have a risk assessment!
Not a hard hat, safety shoe or high vis jacket in sight.
Anchored on the south side of the island
Thursday 1st September Camomile left Nosy Komba for Nosy Sakatia stopping at Nosy Tanikeli on the way. It’s part of the national park and you have to pay AR10,000 per person. We anchored at
13 29.275S
048 14.209E on a bit of a shelf. We had 16.5m under our keel but only intended to stay for a few hours so weren’t too concerned.
Nice brain coral with an angel fish
There aren’t many places to snorkel in Madagascar and the coral has been bleached but we decided to get in. This would probably be our last snorkel until the Caribbean next year. The first thing that struck us was the water was quite chilly compared to the Seychelles or Maldives
Beautiful giant clam
Beautiful turtle
Then I spotted a turtle swimming gracefully around the coral looking for tasty morsels. At first I didn’t want to go too close and frighten it but it wasn’t bothered about us. I was able to get closer and closer. It was almost a metre long from head to tail. I swam with it for about 20 minutes just watching it. Magical.
I could reach out and touch it.
The beach and village next to the lodge
After our swim we carried onto Nosy Sakatia and anchored at
13 18.926S
048 09.680E with 9m under our keel. This is the beach in front of us, the Sakatia Lodge is right up in the corner to the left of this beach and very welcoming to yachties. The food is more expensive than the rest of Madagascar but was excellent.
Our lovely bar lady
The following day we celebrated our 38th wedding Anniversary. We went over to the lodge for lunch then returned in the evening for a delicious meal. This lady made the most fantastic mojito and they were only AR8,000 or GBP2 each
Our meal started with chilled cucumber soup.
Chilled cucumber soup
Our main course
It was followed by Calamari with peas in a delicious sauce and duchess potatoes.
Bon appetite
When the meal was booked in the morning the staff were told it was our anniversary. When the dessert came the chief had very kindly made a lovely cake for us. It was absolutely laced with rum and delicious. What a wonderful celebration. Next year – Boston!
The end to a beautiful evening
Camomile 