 |
| 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 |
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. 
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. 
1 comment:
Good luck with the trip.
Post a Comment