The time has come the walrus said..........

Unbelievably, we are on our way back to the African continent after 12 years! 

We are leaving, along with three other boats, at first light tomorrow morning to make the 1300 nautical mile journey to Richard's Bay on the Kwa-Zulu Natal coast.  If all goes well, we'll go directly there but if things go a bit awry with a southwest wind heading our way, we may have to take refuge somewhere along the Mozambique coastline.  This particular trip is notorious for its incredible currents and counter currents as well as weather fronts coming up from the south just waiting to give you a nasty smack.  At the moment, there is very little wind which may necessitate some motor sailing but that, at least, is preferable to some of the stuff we endured crossing the Indian Ocean recently.

We no longer have the means to send email or blog updates en route except through some accommodating friends who I may ask to just send a short message a couple of times giving our position and the conditions.  Otherwise, as soon as we get to Richard's Bay, I will be back on email and can update then.

Our last dinner in Madagascar was a five-star feast.  We indulged ourselves with two fresh crabs and several dozen fresh prawns sitting on our back "veranda" sipping a glass of wine,.  We're almost out of wine now but this meal demanded a little celebration.  Not too shabby.

Cheers and we'll next be writing from Africa!

Moramba Bay

The first village we found

14°58.414S and 47°20.489E

Moramba Bay, a large shallowish and protected bay with some beautiful anchorages.  The region is extremely dry and is home to many, and I mean MANY, baobab trees.  We'd seen baobabs in South Africa but, in comparison, they are few and far between.  Here, these gnarled "upside-down" trees are abundant.  We took one hike into the woods to the baobab 'forest' where there are some enormous and old specimens.  There are also many of the black and white sifaka lemurs here, bouncing around the trees nearby.  Although they have many similarities to the monkey, their movements are quite different and the distances that they can jump from branch to branch are staggering. 

Here was our last chance to distribute all the clothing we'd collected, both our own and a lot of the children's clothing we received from Sophie and Hervé in Mauritius.  The tiny villages around the shores here are extremely poor.  Paul and I climbed into our dinghy to go in search of these hidden homes working our way through thick mangroves and sand that would frizzle an egg to ash within seconds.  We had a wonderful morning visiting a total of four remote villages handing out these clothes, pencils and papers, bonbons for the children, soaps for the women, fish hooks for the men as well as very popular empty glass jars and odd kitchen paraphernalia.  Some of them had no more than half a dozen grass huts and, seemingly, no means of survival other than dried fish.  When we visited the fourth village, the straps on my flip-flops broke and, with the heat of the ground, there was no way I could go to the village.  No problem, Paul went in with some offerings and then brought the village to me.  He looked like the Pied Piper as he approached with all his followers.  

As we got to chatting (well, more like sign language really), we asked a couple of the chaps to bring us crabs which they duly delivered to our boat several hours later.  Six large crabs which we immediately boiled up but not before two of them took a very painful hold of Paul's fingers.  That evening, we sat on our "bumpkin" (veranda) at the stern where we could easily avoid the inevitable mess simply by tossing the shells etc overboard and washing it all down afterwards.  Oh how we love crab!

Shopping in Moramba?  Nope, no shops of any size or description.  For the first time in our travelling, we are seriously short of food.  However, all is not lost.  Every day, several dugouts, usually with women paddling out with several babies in tow, arrive at our boat wanting to trade a tomato (yes, usually a single little tomato), mangoes, papayas, limes, onions or the like, one or two at a time.  We've even been offered bok choy, a pineapple and duck eggs and, the pièce de résistance was a melon.   All in all, we've managed to get a reasonable supply of fresh goodies to keep the scurvy away.  After visiting the nearby villages and not seeing a single bit of evidence that they grow anything at all, this definitely came as a bit of a surprise.

Another surprise came in the form of an eco lodge, for want of any other name to call it.  It is just on the other side of the peninsula and is an effort by a lone French lady, Brigitte, who is building simple accommodation out of totally local materials.  She didn't speak any English so we weren't really sure what her plans for this project are but had to admire her endeavours in such a remote location.  Given several days notice, she would serve up a meal, so Zorana and ourselves booked for lunch a few days later. 

Considering that nothing seems to be grown here at all, she conjured up a three-course meal from 100% locally obtained ingredients.  She served snacks while we waited which included fresh coconut drinks, barbequed crab with spicy pickled lime rinds and escargot de mer (something like cockles).  The next course was grilled fish, crab, more escargot, coconut salad and a tiny green succulent type plant which was surprisingly tasty.  This was followed by more fish cooked up differently with coconut milk and the same little green things, brown rice and haricot beans.  Dessert was manioc cooked in coconut milk and honey.  All in all, it was a fabulous experience in a beautiful outdoor setting looking out over the white sandy beaches which, in turn, overlooked the turquoise sea dotted with a myriad of small rocky islands.  No complaints about our life right now!

Our days in Madagascar are numbered.  We haven't totally decided whether or not we'll carry on down to Mahajanga or not.  The advantage of doing so would be that we could get some food and extra fuel prior to making the notorious jump over the Mozambigue Channel;  the disadvantage being that we never did check in and would be concerned about getting approached by the authorities.  Although unlikely, we have heard that it has happened in the past. The thought of spending my remaining years in a Madagascar penitentiary leave a lot to be desired.

Update:  we definitely will NOT be visiting Mahajanga as we had word that the harbour master's chaps commandeered a local boat to visit a few of the yachts to check their papers.  Nope, not going there!  At this stage, it looks promising that we'll leave on Monday the 31st October.

  


PHOTO ALBUM: 

(Note:  I have tried for days to upload some photos but no go.  If and when we get somewhere with a better connection, I'll update this as I really want to include the baobab trees and lemurs we see here)

Baobabs silhouetted in the sunset

Mom, do I have to?!

Happy with the handouts but a bit wary of the camera

They loved the sweeties

A new dress

 

Paul, the "Pied Piper"

Who will these fit?

Trying on for size

What else do we have in here?

Gorgeous

This lovely lady rowed out from a distant village to trade a few welcome veggies

And so we move on south

Hopping down the west coast, we dropped the hook at six islands, some a bit too open to the waves or swells, others quite calm.  We managed a few snorkel sessions namely at Nosy Iranje and Nosy Saba as well as some nice, albeit hot, hikes.  Nosy Saba was the tiniest island where, surprisingly, we found a fairly substantial and luxurious resort; it even had a small runway to bring in the guests.  The buildings, facilities and individual cottage units were quite spectacular but the island is extremely dry and void of any of the draw cards we would have thought essential for a tropical hideaway.  Even the snorkelling, which we found to be fairly good, was not near the resort but rather on the side of the island where we were anchored.

We spent a couple of nights there as the holding was excellent and the anchorage well protected behind a long white sandy spit.  We discovered some fascinating rock formations with interesting striations on the northern end of the island then lava-like mounds throughout the remainder.  We would have loved to have had a geologist with us to explain the islands geological history; it looked intriguing.

The following stop, Nosy Lava, was horrible; bouncy in the extreme and very uncomfortable.  It did settle a little through the night however we weren't tempted to go ashore but rather left at first light to make the forty-odd nautical mile passage to Moramba Bay where we knew we'd be in more comfortable conditions.

The winds are amazingly predictable all around here with the offshore breezes helping us along in the mornings.  By midday, they switch and an onshore breeze takes over.  These have been some of the most pleasant sailing conditions we've ever encountered.  If it was always like this, you'd be hard-pressed to get me off the boat.

Every single day, we watch the fisherman sailing out in their dugouts or dhows, off to more favoured fishing grounds then, right on cue, they return in the late afternoons.  Very few have any means of propulsion other than sewn-together rice bags on the dug-outs and huge heavy canvas sails straight out of biblical times for the larger wooden dhows.  They create a wonderful sight as they fill their sails and ride their outriggers.

Just as we were to round the corner into Moramba Bay, we broke our fishing drought by catching a lovely 15kg wahoo!  Paul suddenly became a very happy camper as he was beginning to despair after hearing how many fish some of our predecessor's had caught this time last year.  

Yum, sashimi for dinner that night and a topped up freezer!

PHOTO ALBUM: *

* incomplete as the poor internet connection would not allow me to finish.

 

We thoroughly approved of the restaurant's name

Mangoes, bananas, bread and crocodiles

 


We are happily still at anchor in Russian Bay enjoying a very pleasant and relaxing time.  

The locals arrive at our boat each morning selling or trading whatever they have, mainly bananas, mangoes, limes or fish.  One lady has taken to baking fresh bread rolls then she paddles out to all boats to sell them, a very welcome offer indeed.  However, the other morning we were woken to something a little out of the ordinary.  An old man came bearing, not only the usual fruits, but a live crocodile as well!  We're not sure if he seriously thought he could sell it to one of us but he was a very resourceful and wily bloke as he knew we'd all want to take photos.  He only came close enough once he'd negotiated a deal, either financial or trade; smart fellow.  As none of us were about to take a live croc on board, he then took to over to André to sell it to him.

André, the owner of the plâce de rassemblement (social gathering and drinking establishment), has kept us well fed once he returned from a trip over to Nosy Be to replenish his larder.  His mode of transport is a traditional dhow; no fancy power boat for him.  He even brought back ice to keep his meats cold which meant cold beers the first night.  We'd given our old torn genniker to him to use as a shade cloth for his vegetable garden.  In return, he gave us our dinners for free.  

One meal was a zebu casserole dish which was very tasty, another was a pork dish and, you guessed it, the third was the crocodile.  He fried some up a bit like a schnitzel and the remainder done in the style of a Hungarian goulash.  The meat itself was fairly tasteless but he created a very enjoyable meal.  We tried to establish whether the crocs here are salties or fresh water crocs; we think and hope that they're probably the latter as we're all swimming in the bay every day.

We have no internet on the boat here but if we dinghy out towards the entrance to the bay, we can occasionally pick up a signal.  Connecting further south sounds as though it might be an issue as well but we'll probably leave here in the morning to start working our way down through some of the other islands and anchorages.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Lemurs galore

Only an eighteen mile trip from Hellville is a huge protected bay commonly known as Russian Bay.  It's correct name is Baie d'Ambavatoby but it got its nickname from the time of the war between the Japanese and the Russians back in 1905 when the Russian navy stopped there for several months.   In case of a cyclone, it offers a very sheltered anchorage with excellent holding in sand.

An Austrian chap, André, set up home on the beach a few years back and has built a yachty-friendly pub and restaurant as well as a little shop where the locals can purchase some basic commodities.   We arrived too late on the first evening when he had put on a fabulous spread for all the yachts in the bay but we enjoyed a delicious, albeit messy, crab dinner the following night.  His home is rather primitive without electricity therefore there's no refrigeration but he allows the guys to bring and drink their own cold beers on condition that they purchase warm ones from him to replace these, then return with them the following night once they've been chilled back aboard.  It all works very well and certainly not a hardship as his price for a bottle of beer is no more than we'd paid in the supermarket.

Just before we left Hellville, we heard that Zorana had lost their dinghy the previous evening.  It appears that it broke loose while they were having their sundowners and drifted off. They spent many hours the following day, searching in and out of all the nooks and crannies of the bay as well as outside but to no avail.  The word was out that he would offer a reward but after three days, there was still no sign of it.  But miracles do happen!  Two yacht left Russian Bay to head southwards and thought they saw a pirogue dragging a dinghy.  Out with the binoculars and they felt sure it was Zorana's so one of them changed course to follow the pirogue and yes, it was indeed.  Financial negotiations took place and they retrieved it.  Meanwhile, Jack and Sandy were just anchoring back in Crater Bay near Hellville in the hopes of putting out the word there when they heard the conversations on the radio.  They immediately did a quick u-turn (well, maybe not quite so quick as its 18nm) back to Russian Bay so they could set off early the following morning to meet up with the rescue team.  Needless to say, they were thrilled.

Four of us left the bay early the following morning to visit Nosy Antsoha, a national park island just five miles away which is also known as Lemur Island for a very good reason.  There are four different varieties of lemurs resident there and plenty of them.  We certainly got our lemur-fix in this beautiful spot; thoroughly enjoyable.  The lemurs are friendly and curious and always looking for a banana handout.  Many of them had babies and quite happily would land on our shoulders to receive their treats.  We're still amazed that there are so many different varieties in Madagascar and ONLY in Madagascar!











On our way back to Russian Bay, we stopped at another island where there were loads of crystal rocks but most had been chipped away by previous visitors.  It's now a national park and removal of any stones is strictly prohibited.


PHOTO GALLERY:

A loo with a view

Crystal rocks