Day 103/ 137
Cruise Ship Mooring off of Nosy Be, Madagascar
Nosy Be is an island off the Northern Tip of Madagascar
The excursion today takes us to Nosy Komba which in Malagasy translates to "lemur island". We awake up to find the Mariner anchoring off of a beautiful island. Our excursion isn’t until 10:40 so we have time for breakfast. From La Veranda looking our through the windows it looks like the island as totally uninhabited. We can see a few small outrigger canoes gliding through the water. They appear to be fisherman going to a fro from their fishing grounds.
Finishing breakfast, we head back to the suite for our safari hats and sunglasses. We are told we will be talking a local tender to Nosy Kombe. Apparently, it takes to much time to go to and fro and they don’t want to tie up one of the Mariner’s tenders for that long. The local tender is actually a bit nicer than the ones the Mariner has. It is open and the seats are far enough apart you can actually sit comfortably.
It is a little disconcerting to start this adventure with a maritime safety instruction lecture and being told to put on our lifejackets. But that is why they call it an adventure. The water is peaceful, and a beautiful color, and we glide through it effortlessly. We are passing few vessels and there isn’t another cruise ship in sight. We do we more outrigger canoes with fisherman. A few of them have outboard motors but most of the are being paddled.
As we pull into Ampangorinana beach, we learn what a “wet landing” means. It means there is no dock and the water is too shallow for the boats to pull into the shore. Which translates into take off your shoes and socks, roll up your pant legs you are walking through the water to get to the beach. Now we understand why a few of the guests were taking towels from the ship. Next time we will also.
On the beach we wash our feet and dry them as best we can before putting our shoes and sock back on. It is hot and humid. We don’t see to many male adults, but we do see a lot of women and children. We begin our trek into the Parc di Lemuriens with a walk through the village, which from this vantage points consists of a gauntlet of ramshackle buildings with tin and thatched roofs. Each little “shop” consists of a young woman, more often than not, accompanied by an equally young child.
We do pass the elementary school it appears that the learning day is taking a break for lunch. The children are in a variety of dress from virtual rags to school uniforms complete with smocks. The children don’t really appear take notice of clothing difference. In the play yard there is a wooden slide. It consists to 2 by 6 boards at a 40 degree angle suspended between two palm trees. There is no ladder so in order to do down the slide you have to climb up the slide. The children are having great fun with it.
There are a couple girls playing hopscotch. Another group using strings and playing jump rope. Others are just running round, perhaps playing tag. It is hot. Probably close to 32 and the humidity is probably 90 percent. We have just left the beach as we entered the gauntlet and we are already dripping wet.
We has another slightly large ramshackle building with a sign hanging on the side of it which says, guess here, hospital. The guide then confirms this is the children’s hospital. We continue on a little bit further to the Bureau des Entrees Dur Parc Lemuriens. Here they are handing out walking sticks to everyone. Is this a safety thing to help people transverse the rocky pathway or a self-defense things to keep wild animals away?
The pathway so far has been packed sand with a few stones here and there. After the “official” entrance, the pathway becomes paved with very uneven cobble stones mixed with patches of packed sand. Occasionally it looks like to was once paving stones set in concrete, but was probably forty or fifty years ago. Or, knowing the weather here, last year. We have passed probably 100 “shops” selling tourist trinkets before we actually entered the park.
Not only is the path very uneven it is somewhat steep. We are now maybe 100 or 200 meters above the beach. Everyone is struggling with the combination of the heat, humidity, uneven surface and somewhat steep climb. We finally reach the point of the whole thing, the lemurs. For the inhabitants of the island, they are considered a sacred animal. They are undeniably cute little bundles of fur. They maybe wild animals, but they seem to get much less wild when you are sharing your banana with them. The guide brought the appropriate dishes to entice these small gourmands to join us. They are more than happy to sit on your shoulder or head if you are going to feed them some fruit.
Nature girl is finding every uneven path in the trail, but she is toughing it out. She does manage to find one spot in the trail to take her down. Fortunately, this is an expected occurrence and there is a medic there within seconds. We didn’t notice the medic on the way up, but apparently, she was position exactly where most of the issues occur. Nature girl is a little more bruised but gets up and pushes on. She takes her turn feeding and allowing the lemurs to climb all over her. What a trooper!
A little further on there is a guide Boa Constructor. We each take a turn getting our photograph with the Boa. Not nearly as creepy as we thought it would be. Then a little further on there are tortoises. Been there done that. Finally we reach to apex of the tour and start back down. Thank goodness. The one good thing about being higher up is it to cooler and there is a slight breeze. Still hot and humid however.
We pass a chameleon on the way down. The guide points it out abut it does take a few minutes to actually “see” it. Good thing it moved slightly or I am not sure we would have seen it. As we walk back down, we now notice the lemurs more and more. Beginning to wonder if we really needed to climb all the way up.
It is back through the gauntlet of little shops before we reach the beach. The guide gives us coupon for drinks. Cold water! Just as important is a chair to sit in. They have some local girls doing a dance on the sand to a band with improvised instruments. The trinket hawkers walking among us trying to get us to buy something, anything.
Walking though the water we get back on the boat. My socks stay on this time. They can go in the washer when we get back to the ship. Much easier than getting the sand out from between your toes. There are little outcroppings in the sea. They aren’t really big enough to be islands, and not small enough to qualify as a coral reef. They do that vegetation on them, but they are too small to be inhabited. This makes for a great protected bay or lagoon.
Now back aboard the Mariner. The air conditioning feels really cold, but very nice. In the suite it is time for a shower. We remove our sweat filled clothing, throw on a bathrobe, take the clothes to the launderette and put them in the washer. Back to the suite and shower. Somehow the water can’t get cold enough, most of the time it can’t get hot enough, but this afternoon it is just too hot.
After the shower the clothes in the launderette are transferred into the dryer. A trip to the Coffee Connection to grab some sandwiches for lunch. Cold drinks are pulled from the refrigerator, and we collapse on the couch. After a while I head down to the cigar lounge to relax with a cigar. Mary watches her political shows.
When the clothes are done they are folded and returned to the suite. We continue to regain our strength before heading up to the pool grill for dinner. Not really hungry but should eat something or we will want to too late to get anything. They have chicken satay. That some rice and a salad and we are done.
Honestly we are done. We are worn out and head to bed at 21:30.
Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico e Maria
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