The time was here. Move on. We've been in Hellville since last Tuesday and we were ready to see more of Madagascar. Yesterday, we went on an all day tour in a hired taxi to see the sights of Nosy Be. We started out at just 0800 as there was a good bit to see and travel. First stop was "Lemurialand". An area set up to see not only Lemurs but other animals of Madagascar. Getting here required our cab to go over some rough dirt roads, all the while trying to not trash is suspension. We were greeted by a guide that spoke quite good English. He told us that the majority of the tourists they get are from Italy so while he spoke English, he was a bit rusty. Seemed fine to us. One of the sidelines or maybe the mainline was that the workers collect flowers(ly'ang) from one of to local trees and they are distilled to make an oil for perfume that is exported to France. Since we were the only people there, we got a nice private tour. All the distilling is done in copper vats. Once we finished that portion of the tour, we were off to see the animals. By far the highlight was of course the Lemurs. Soft cuddly creatures that come right up to you and want to be fed. Our guide got some small bananas and we were set. They would jump in your as arms and try and get any food you had or hang from the tree limbs and put out their hands. It was so cool!!! We saw five different types of them all over the park. If you had nothing in your hand they would try and nibble on your fingers, never biting but just seeing if there was any food there. Off the see the other animals. Alligators, birds and ducks as well as chameleon of many different types. A good 90 minute tour that was well worth the trip. As we continued on, I saw a hardware store and had the driver stop. I needed a part to fix board that got broken on the trip over. I got a new board from Jimmy, our "agent" and the go to guy for any needs you have. Once I showed him the broken 2 x 6, he came back with a magnificent board made of rosewood! A wood almost to pretty to use to hold jerry cans to the stantions. It weighs a ton. Any way, when the board broke, it took out one of the eye bolts that the straps hook to to hold the tanks. I've been carrying the broken one around since we got here. As luck would have it, they had a bolt that will do the job so another problem was solved as we drove around. We continued around the island stopping at times for pictures. Our driver spoke next to no English but he got his point across stopping when he saw something we might want to see. We stopped along the way for lunch at a restaurant that was near one of the tourist resorts. The food was decent though way over priced but at least we figured we would not get sick from it as can be a problem here in Madagascar. In the end, we returned to the docks about 1530. All this for a total of $38.US. A good deal and we got to see the sights of Nosy Be. We were amazed how dry the country side was but it is the dry season. Some areas were quite green but the majority was brown. The rainy season starts in October when we will just be leaving for South Africa. It was time to see more of the area and we had heard about how quiet it is at Russian Bay so we pulled up our anchor and set off early this morning before the afternoon winds kick in. Morning winds blow from the east and afternoon wind comes in from the sea(southwest). With these winds, the fishermen can sail out in the morning and back to shore in the afternoons. We wanted to morning winds to help get us there. In the end, they were just about no winds and we had to motor the 20 miles to get here. It's quiet and peaceful with about 6 boats anchored near the entrance to the bay. We chose to go much further into the bay and have a nice cove all to ourselves. We have a nice ten knot breeze coming through but the water is perfectly calm, a nice improvement from being anchored off Hellville. Now we can get some of the jobs done and explore. --------------020008080609020100050809--