10.29.08
Madagascar: 2- Nosy Komba
Wednesday the 29 October – Nosy be and Nosy Komba
We arrived at seven in the morning in Ambilobe where we had to change taxibrousee.
School taxi and banana shop.
Between Tana and Majunga the weather had changed from cold to hot. This time, on one night it was the natures turn to change - from brown and try to green and humid.
We took a boat out to nosy be. In Hell-Ville all prices are at least twice as expensive than we’ve seen before. We ate lunch in a restaurant, it was nice to relax after so many hours of bus, change of bus, and then the boat, not to forget the super-heavy bags we had with us. Full with climbing shoes, tent and sleeping bags… which in the end we didn’t use.We soon learnt that there were no boats out to Nosy Komba after lunch (our selected island which should be a bit less touristic than Nosy Be), because then the waves were becoming higher. We hurried down and found a small boat. It took us half an hour to negotiate a reasonable price. Only people and bags on this one, no furniture. Anthony was a bit worried when the waves got higher, but I felt safe. Once I got a wave up on my back and was all wet but what does that matter when the water is 27 degrees? We discussed with a student who knew both French and English, who came from the island.
Finally we arrived to our paradise island. White sand, turquoise water, pirogues along the village beach, smiling people, broderies hanging for sale, moving in the wind. And, the best of all – no cars, no electricity, no noise.
I guarded the bags on the beach while Anthony walked around in the village and watched the different rooms available. Unfortunately we didn’t find one with both see view and private duch/wc, so in the end we took a room in the middle of the village, it was the most fresh one.
Slowly a new feeling filled me. A feeling of calm. After 24 hours of traveling we were finally installed. We found a restaurant with sea view and one tourist in which we ate with and discussed all the evening. He had been traveling a lot in his life and had lots of stories to tell. We ate shrimps and fried vegetables. Delicious. And much less expensive. At lunch they had had 60 people eating (compared us three in the evening), it’s because the tourists comes out to the island from Nosy Be in the morning and returns in the afternoon. We actually saw them and their flashy plastic motor boats just leaving when we came in.
The house in the corner is our favourite restaurant and to the right is our favourite food shop. What do you need more than fruits and rum?
During the night I had problems to sleep, even though I was so tired. First it was the mice eating on the roof, then the fact of being so far from the civilization, surrounded by people and a culture you don’t know, and then a then a tropical thunderstorm with enormous amounts of rain.
Thursday the 30 October
A day in relax mode. Walking around in the village, eating some fruits, swimming a bit.
Nosy Komba is famous for it’s broderies, there were women sitting everywhere making those cloths.
Friday the 31 october – mountain trip on Nosy Komba
Yvonne is an old woman specialized in guiding the tourists up through the jungle to the top of the island, 600 in altitude. When asking someone in the village who to take as guide, everyone talks about Yvonne.
We had appointment 7.30 but we had put the alarm wrongly and left an hour later. Even in the morning it was killing hot outside. Imagine then the big mountain shoes, long pants and long sleeved shirt. We walked very slowly.
Every ten meters Yvonne stopped to show us a new plant and each one had different medical powers. She gave us a leave of this, a leave of that, some seeds and then lots of flowers in all possible colors. Our pockets and hands were completely full.
Every 100 meters she told us how high we were. Sometimes a breath of fresh air came, but most of the time it was only this heavy air.
Funny to think of Anthony going up so many thousands of meters on Alaska and here it was so hard to go up 600. In the end I was so tired and hungry that I could hardly walk or listen to the explanations.
Finally we reached a village, one of the cutest ones we’ve seen. There were chickens in all sizes, ducks and a cat walking around, all in a good health. We sat down at t table in the shadow and watched the whole village preparing us a meal.
No half fabricate here, no, all was from scratch: we saw them bring away one of the hens, then prepare it, take of feathers etc. They dipped the hen in boiling hot water to make the feathers etc.
An hour later the most fantastic meal was served, just for us two. The guide and the people of the village ate after us, next to the houses. For dessert they came with a whole ananas (that Yvonne had bought from a girl on the way up) and it was full of flowers in it’s ‘hat’. Taking of the hat it was an ‘ananas-papaye-soup’ inside. They had taken all the ananas out, prepared it and put it back again. It was very sweet, we thought they had added a lot of sugare but a day after, when tasting an ananas we opened ourselves we understood that they really are that sweet. Anthony was surprised I could eat so much of it, about two thirds. Mjam.
Then we started the way down. This time with more speed since we had started late in the morning. Yvonne still stopped often to explain things but right after she said ‘on avance’ and we had to go on.
Jackfruit (Jaquier in french and Jackfrukt in swedish), like chewing gum to eat. Ananas on his plant. It produces one ananas, then it dies.
Pepper and Vanilla.
Cacao trees.
Clove, (Girofle in french, Kryddnejlika in swedish).
Traveller’s Tree (Arbre a Voyageur, De Resandes Träd). There is always water inside, and from the leaves you can make a roof to protect you from weather and wind. The plant is originally from Madagascar and the latin name is Ravenala Madagascariensis. It’s often used to build roofs.
In a small shed, Yvonne called in a bell and two girls came to show us how they make syrup from sugar plants. We got to taste both the plant itself and the syrup. Very sweet, of course.
Further down we passed a village where they were preparing coffe and insects.
Down at the sea again we saw a nice school house. We tasted one of the funny big fruits. It was too dark to take a picture of the inside of it. It was like a chewing gum in taste and consistency, but quite good. We also saw our first lemurian.
The last part from the small village to our own village was with a boat with oars. There were no paths along the coast of this island, only up on the top and down from there to the different villages. The people took the boat like we in france take the car.
Tiering day, full of impressions. We ate crab for dinner.
Saturday the 1 November – Nosy Tanikile
Today we wanted to go around the island but Raymond-Papa was already taken. We started to ask for someone that could take us to Tanikile and at once there was a guy who took us across the village to another guy who proposed us to go with him and his boat for 60 000 Ar.
So peaceful and beautiful to be on the sea. Just before starting we bought a beach bag. In the shop I managed to be eaten five times on the legs by mosquitoes, didn’t expect to find them like that in the morning. They left big marks on my legs, very itching. We put cream on. Then when putting sun cream I avoided the bites to not remove the other cream – resulting in funny sun burns after…
It took maybe one hour with the boat. On the island we put our towel under a palm and went into the water with mask and feet. It was like an aquarium, full of fish and coral. We saw several sea turtles. One big bläckfisk. There were so many things to look at! The guide told us the fish hade been really tame before, eating bread directly from the hand but now there were people who were fishing illegally at night, so they went more wild.
We stayed all day, which is up to two, because then the waves get higher. We ate ananas and mango for lunch. The guide had brought a plate and he cut and prepared the fruit for us without asking, I found that nice.
Sunday the 2 November
We went on the blue plastic boat around the island. The first stop was not on a beach, but I and Anthony wanted to snorkel a bit from the boat. There were some coral but not a lot and not so many fishes.
We swam into a small, beautiful and completely empty beach, sat down for some minutes, then went back to the boat.
The second stop was on a big beach, here they told us we would eat. We went for a walk and visited the hotel “Jardin Vanille” which is also in the guide with a very good note. Guide says 65eur for half pension, but the price was 80eur in reality. Per person. Seemed like a really nice place and the view was magnifique.
Then we went snorkeling and found a really beautiful coral reef. Not as many fishes. There was a current sideways that went stronger later on in the day, so the next time we went in the water we only could swim in one direction. Didn’t feel dangerous though, we could always easily swim into land.
The tree guys we had with us didn’t talk much, I think they were young and shy, and not enough good in French. However they knew what they were doing when cooking. The meal they served us under a big tree was consisting of a salad carrot/mange/cucumber as starter, then rice cooked in coconut milk with prawns in sauce – which Anthony found as one of the best made things we’ve eaten in all our time on Mada. I agree with him that it was very tasty. And then they grilled fresh fish, also really good. Mini-bananas for desert.
We made some more snorkeling after having eaten, but this time we didn’t find the coral reef, it was gone, very strange. I think we were fooled by the tide and the current was so strong that we decided to stop searching. In the end Anthony held on to a ‘boy’ and me in Anthony and we were ‘flying’ like a flag… hm, not the clearest explanation there.
We stopped in a small village on the way back where they were constructing pirogues. Fun to see them from the very early steps, to half finished and finished boats.