The Land of Lemurs and Baobabs
29 October 2016 | Moramba Bay,Madagascar
Kim
Last night at dinner we watched a National Geographic video on Madagascar, we often watch documentaries about the countries we are visiting. It is fun to see if we recognize any of the places shown on the videos. Well, last night the video starts rolling and lo and behold, the first scenes were shot in the bay we are currently anchored in. We had spent the afternoon playing on the beach, swimming and watching the lemurs dance through the trees. The crew from National Geographic did take a bit of liberty with the splicing, because the waves they show crashing onto the beach are from the other side of the island but we could recognize each of the Baobab trees as the camera panned the island. If we had been here during filming we may have become famous, maybe next time.
We plan to leave Madagascar to head for South Africa in the next couple of days. We are watching the weather and preparing food for the passage. Well, David's watching weather and I am preparing food. Zack is trying to get some school work caught up as he doesn't like to do it on passage. We have had a great time here and have seen a few new and exciting things. Save for the corrupt officials who make you pay bribes checking into and out of the country, the people have been lovely. The corruption is so bad that we know of one boat that did not bother to even check in and many are not bothering to check out. We hear it's not such a big problem when you check into South Africa. We chose the legal route but given another go at it, we would probably opt out of the formalities. It would have made provisioning and refueling a bit tedious but not impossible.
There have been many highlights, but Nosy Antosha is a stand out. It is a reserve island where lemurs have been introduced for tourism. Sounds bad, but it is really well done. The lemurs are free to roam the small island, but they come out when called to feast on bananas. We went twice. There are 5 types of lemurs on the island and they climb all over you in order to get at the banana offerings. It is a guided tour and the guide provides the bananas. He gives you pieces and you can feed the lemur or you can position the banana so the lemur needs to climb onto your shoulders to get it. The lemurs are not shy and they are quite used to people. They will jump on you and use you as a stepping stone to get to the person with the banana. The whole thing is chaos, but cute fun chaos. Zack was the only kid so he got more than his fair share of bananas and lemur time, really exciting. The island is small and the tour is about an hour with a hike that takes you to the different groups of lemurs. They are building an open air rental on the island so that one lucky couple will be able to stay each night. It's a cool set up and I would have loved to stay for a night, but it's not quite done. The anchorage was awful, too rolly to even contemplate staying a night. Nosy Antosha is 5 miles from Russian Bay so it is an easy day excursion.
Another of our favorite day excursions was Nosy Tanilely. It is also a nature reserve and you are only allowed to anchor for the day. We came over from Crater Bay which is about 6 miles away. We dropped anchor in a patch of sand, grabbed our snorkel gear and we were off. We spent about 3 hours in the water. Poor Zack, there were so many fish. So many edible fish, and they were huge, some of the biggest we have ever seen. The snappers, groupers, and trevally were everywhere. Some were over three feet! Being a national park there was no spear fishing allowed, it was almost too much for Zack. He has become an avid spear fisher since Cocos Keeling, and was sure he could have filled the entire freezer for us given his gun and half an hour. Zack's disappointment aside, it was great to see such healthy reefs and a healthy fish population. It is not often that we see that out here, and it was our first really good snorkeling in Madagascar. After our snorkel and some lunch we made our way to shore to pay the park fees and to do the hike. The fees have recently gone up to 20,000 Airiary a person, which is about $6, Zack was free so not too bad. The hike was short and up a concrete trail. You are not allowed to feed the lemurs here so we didn't see much. But a lovely day was had by all. We went back to Crater Bay for the night as you are not allowed to anchor here either. Tanikely is so lovely you could do it a couple of times.
On our way south we stopped at Nosy Iranji. The "anchorage" here is in sand, so the holding is great but it is so rolly it is just about untenable. It is also to far from a decent anchorage to make it a day trip. We left Russian Bay very early so that we could spend the day and then move down to Honey River for the night. We anchored on the wrong side of the island to go snorkeling and we didn't want to launch our dinghy, so we decided to kayak in for a look at some waves that were crashing on the corner of the island. They weren't any good for surfing but we brought a boogie board in and had a great day playing in the waves. We were sunburned and tired when we arrived in Honey River. We were ready for dinner and bed but we were assailed with canoes trying to sell us honey, crabs and tours. We declined on all fronts, but Karen got a bottle of honey and said it was excellent. One gentleman was selling tours and seemed to be scoping our boat as David spoke to him. We have heard that four dinghy motors have gone missing in Honey River this year so we did not want to stay, we left early the next morning.
We don't want to sail overnight in Madagascar as we head south, so our next stop was Nosy Lava. Nosy Lava was once a prison island and the old buildings are still there in varying states of decay. We went in for an early morning look around. We were greeted on the beach by a local gentleman and Will had had the foresight to bring a t-shirt for a gift. He said it was ok if we looked around a bit. He followed us for a while but soon got tired and left us be. A few more men from the village came to ask for gifts but as we had nothing with us they soon left as well. It was not all that exciting and we left after an hour ourselves.
We had a lovely sail down to Moramba Bay. The sailing on the west coast of Madagascar is top notch with flat seas and light but sailable winds. David saw a whale but by the time Zack and I came up it was gone and did not resurface. We have been having fishing competitions onboard Flour Girl. We each get a fishing line and we chose the type of fish we want to catch. If you are the first to catch a fish on your line and it is the type of fish you said you would catch then you have won the trifecta and the other two have to do all of your chores the next day. There have been no winners so far. Zack did catch a small Spanish Mackerel on the way to Moramba Bay. Unfortunately Zack had wanted to include Chantey in our contest and they caught 2 fish. He was dumbfounded to lose. We never lose at fishing. The boys drag the "wall of Death" behind the boat, but lose we did and we had to pay the price. We had to make them a dessert. Zack made humble pie. Basically a banana cream pie with chocolate drizzle instead of whipped cream. Provisions are getting low out here!
We are now in Maramba Bay waiting for a weather window to South Africa. We are glad we left some time in our schedule to explore this lovely place. The kayaking is amazing with lots to see. Some paddle through overhangs and lots of huge baobab trees growing out of some wild rock formations. We spent a day hiking to the baobab forest. It is a fairly short hike but there are lots of wild lemurs hopping through the trees above you. They don't sit on your shoulders but it's better to see them in nature doing their own thing, and playing with each other. We also saw some amazing baobab trees. One had a circumference of about 20 feet! There are several varieties of baobab in Moramba Bay and to stand under one of these magnificent giants is awe inspiring. We will wait here for a weather window and will be traveling hopefully direct to Richard's Bay South Africa. If the weather goes bad we will pull into Mozambique. so we will not have communication for at least 10 days. We will be traveling with Chantey and most likely Calypso and Zoorana. So not to worry we won't be alone.
One more thing to mention before I blog off is the canoes we have encountered here. The local population hand build several types of boats. It is great to see a local community that embraces sailing, they really seem to enjoy sailing the bays and not just as a means of transport. In Russian Bay and Moramba bay the locals carve canoes out of trees. They use them to get around but also to come to boats to sell and trade. We have bought crabs, eggs, tomatoes, eggplant, bok choy and lots of mangoes, limes and bananas. Mostly people want to trade. My friend Mina would be horrified to see me trading the clothes she gave me to give away in Vanuatu. They were a bit too stylish for the ladies in Vanuatu who seem to prefer wearing tents. The ladies in Madagascar are loving them. I have also cleaned out all of our closets and Zack had some great clothes that were too small for him. I am a horrible negotiator, not that I want to ask for much from these people who have so little. It is also not good to just give things out because it encourages people to ask for everything you have. Everyone goes away smiling so that is what it is really all about, and you get a few veggies in exchange, win -win. We have not been offered anything too crazy but Chantey has been offered live chickens and even a live small crocodile. The crocodile guy came by our boat but he just showed it to us. His brother was later cooked up for a dinner at Andre's bar that a few of the cruisers went to. They said it was delicious. We gave it a skip. Madagascar has been a grand adventure and we are glad we have come this way, keep us in your thoughts as we head to South Africa.