Madagascar – Month Two

Our second month in Madagascar was even better than our first.  We had most of the broken boat bits fixed and we could re-visit the best spots in the Nosy Be area.   

We met up again with Peter and Ulla aboard Lovina.  They had researched an inland trip to see more of Madagascar’s wildlife and we discussed logistics.  Since it involved multiple crowded cab rides, water taxis, arduous hiking and sleeping without power or running water, we knew that we had to go!

 I agreed to set our oversize anchor in Crater Bay and have Lovina tied alongside while they took the first trip to the park. I watched over the 50 tons of boat hanging on my single 120lb anchor while Peter and Ulla braved their trip to the park.  Once they figured out all of the logistical details, we would follow their footsteps and journey to the park while they watched the two rafted boats.  Since I am writing this now, somehow we survived and that trip demanded a separate blog post.

We saw more lemurs at Nosy Komba, bought more souvenirs at the gift shops and enjoyed some more SCUBA diving.  One particularly productive spearfishing session resulted in 5 fish for the dinner table and freezer.  

Emily got back into homeschool starting her 7^th grade work and she got some kid-time in with a Australian boat, Mojumbo that is home for Zeke (12) and Nina(10).  They are also headed towards Richards Bay and we expect to stay near enough for play dates along the journey.

We met several cruising boats including Daemon and Cats Paw 4 that were also heading to South Africa and it was nice to finally be on the right timetable. We all shared planning notes and those ahead of us are already sending back reports, tips and advice from Africa.  We stocked up with local rum and vanilla beans (2.2lbs for about $20), checked out of the country and started moving south along the western coast.

Returning to old spots like Russian Bay was made more enjoyable by meeting villagers that fondly remembered us.  Pollin paddled out with his wife to greet us even before we had our anchor down and deliver 10 mud crabs while ignoring the other boats in the harbor. 

Just south of Russian Bay, we spent a few days in Honey River.  We were led on a 4 hour hike by the school teacher, Daniel, and saw several villages in the hills and some nice views.   

We made the mistake of going at low tide, so we had several places in the river where we had to drag or lift the dingys across the shallow water.  For the last 100 meters, we left the dingys and waded through 18” deep, very sticky mud that sucked the shoes off our feet.  We had brought a lot of old clothes that were well received as we gave them out. 

 

And Emily made lots of Origami.

 

On our way back, we gave a local boat a tow back to the village that saved them two hours of paddling against the tide and wind. 

We bought honey for about $2.50 for 1 ½ liter bottles and traded for mud crabs that were delicious.  We also gave Daniel some school supplies and a soccer ball since we had heard that the library had burned down several months ago.  Mojumbo caught up with us there and Emily enjoyed a few more play days.

We did an overnight passage directly to Moramba bay bypassing some rolly anchorages that the other boats were going to day-trip to.  Moramba Bay is very protected and lined with ancient baobab trees and few villages.  We went with Lovina to Sacred Island in the center of the bay and saw a 1500 year old baobab tree with an erotic protuberance.  The Malagasy consider it sacred and several offerings could be seen at its base.  We saw hawks, eagles, parrots and white and brown “Zoomafoo” lemurs and plain brown lemurs.  We hiked around, had a beach barbeque and Emily once again played with the Mojombo Kids.

We had been carrying an inflatable canoe that were given by the crew of Mojo to give away since New Zealand and finally managed to give it to a poor family near our anchorage.  They had 3 children and were all smiles as they paddled away.  I even buckled one of the smaller kids into and old lifejacket even though they probably learned to swim before learning to walk.  We watched them carry their new possession carefully up the beach to a sheltered spot and cover it from the sun.

We made another overnight passage to Baly bay and anchored as far south as the depths would allow.  We found a nice area of about 20 foot depth, but it was a mile from a village to the west and 2 miles from the main village to the east.  The steering on our big dingy had died (frozen with rust) just after our return from Mayotte, so we were using our small “back-up” dingy with oars.  We did not re-commission our little back-up 2 hp outboard and were bumming rides when needed from our cruising friends or rowing.  We even had two longer oars carved for our small dingy (that cost $12 per oar) that work really well to replace the short aluminum oars.  In any event, we only got to shore here by the graces of Lovina and the other boats.  It was just as well since it was quite windy here and we got stopped by some of the local police looking to pad their pockets since we had already checked out in Nosy Be.  It worked out OK since our passports were all back on the boat and we were on our last provisioning trip before leaving for South Africa.

We have really enjoyed our time here in Madagascar, seeing the unique wildlife and interacting with the Malagassy people.  We have pondered whether it was the extended time we had invested here or simply the friendliness of the locals and have not yet decided.  We are in agreement, however, that we will not soon forget this country, its people or the unique wildlife.

Tom