Thursday, October 20: Ile Ste-Marie
We slept a little later than usual and eventually dragged ourselves over to breakfast. Our plan as of yesterday had been to do nothing at all today except lounge around and enjoy our nice hotel, but after doing that yesterday, we weren't sure if that plan would fly today.
We don't like to sit still on vacation, and our original plan had been to try to go to the little island off to the south (Ile aux Nattes) to see what was there. The only problem was that it might be a little tricky to get there.
Ile aux Nattes is separated from Ile Ste-Marie by a small channel, maybe a few hundred yards wide. Our guidebook was maddeningly nonspecific, saying something like, "head to the southern tip of the island and ask someone in a boat to row you across. Or you can try to swim if you want, at low tide, but watch the currents." It's supposed to be easy to get there, I guess, but who knows?
So, we thought about it over breakfast, and of course, we decided to go with the non-relaxing plan. We finished breakfast by 9:15 and headed back to the room to prepare. After covering ourselves with sunscreen, and packing our hats, off we were to Ile aux Nattes.
We stopped by the front desk to talk to the staff, and confirm that our plan wasn't sheer lunacy, and the nice girl there said it would be easy. Then she gave us a few bottles of water to help with the trip.
It turned out that making the crossing was no problem at all. Before we even got halfway to the tip of the island (maybe 15 minutes walk in total), someone latched on to us and offered us a round trip boat ride. It was exactly what we wanted, so of course we said yes.
He wanted to give us a tour too, which we declined, so once we reached the southern shore of Ile Ste-Marie, we climbed into his brightly painted dugout boat and it was a quick crossing. Much easier than swimming it. And our backpack stayed dry.
The fare wasn’t too bad; 20,000 Ar (about $6) for round-trip passage for the two of us, and we were very surprised that he said we could pay after the return trip. We figured that would be a good incentive for him to be waiting for us, so we agreed. We told him that we'd be about three hours, and headed off on our seat-of-the-pants adventure into the (largely) unknown.
I should mention at this point that the guidebook's map was so useless that we didn't bother bringing it along on the trip, and Google's map was even less useful. Google's map of Ile Ste-Marie [as of 2016] showed it as one contiguous island with Ile aux Nattes, and the borders are completely inaccurate. There are no road or path markings whatsoever on Google either. The satellite map is more accurate with regard to the shape of the island, but still has no paths marked, and none of the attractions are labeled.
I guess we will have to rely on road signs?
I had downloaded the satellite view of the island in my phone' Google Maps app while we were still at the hotel this morning, and hoped that if I kept the app open, this would keep us from getting too lost. We knew that there were a few points of interest, and I had tried to mark their location on my phone app, but finding any information about this island was next to impossible. So, we figured we'd have to wing it.
We started out walking down the east coast of the island and it was deserted, but beautiful.
A tropical paradise, though it was quite hot in the full sun.
We had the place almost all to ourselves. We alternated between walking along the beach, taking in the scenery while frying in the sun,
and walking along the "road" which was really just a dirt path a little bit inland, with some shade. No cars on this road!
About halfway down the coast, we cut further inland through a tiny town, and wandered through a more residential area, complete with a Catholic church.
But then we worked our way back to the beach.
As we went further south, we passed by a few "resorts" which were pretty small by the standards we were used to. And more beaches.
We even saw a few houses for sale! This one actually looked pretty nice.
We eventually reached the southern tip of the island and gazed out at the beautiful calm lagoon. There was supposed to be good snorkeling here, but we hadn't wanted to lug all that equipment along for the trip, so we weren't planning on that.
A bit further down the beach, we walked right into Le Lemurien, a hotel and restaurant resort at the southern tip of the island.
Their namesake (a lemur) is shown here playing pool with a blue whale. The whale is hard to see in this picture.
The place was painfully empty, but there were waitstaff in the restaurant, so we decided to stop for a drink. How often will we be back here, and why not take a break?
We had a nice private table for two under a thatched roof, with a beautiful view of the beach. I had a THB and Chris had sparkling water. It doesn't get better than this.
The view from our table was gorgeous, and to top it off, two black and white ruffed lemurs stopped by to visit!
They chased each other around the edge of the restaurant,
then passed right by our table,
and headed over to the main lawn of the resort where they proceeded to wrestle, jump around, and act like the cute little lemurs that they were. We got lots of nice photos and video of their antics.
But we had to get a move on, as we were far from our boat ride back to Ile Ste-Marie. It was all the way at the other end of the island!
So, one last longing look at the beautiful empty beach, and we were off to cross the island again.
We left the coastal route and started walking back, heading northward through the center of the island. It was a bit of a climb, but it looked like we were heading roughly in the right direction, towards where I thought our next targets were.
There were so many different paths to follow that it was tough to figure out which was the "main" road, and which was someone's private property. But nobody hassled us, and with only one wrong turn, a quick backtrack, and a few more minutes walking, we made it to the landmark that we thought would be the hardest to find - L'espace vert.
This was mentioned in our guidebook as a store with locally produced spices, and a place that you must visit, but it didn't give you any helpful information on how to actually do so. I had guessed at the location from the Google satellite view, along what appeared to be a path through the forest, and my guess turned out to be fairly accurate. We spent a few minutes chatting with the owner, who was shocked to find a few tourists from New York walking up to check out his little wooden stand. He wanted to know how we had found him, and was super excited to hear that he was listed in a guidebook. We bought a bit of dried wild lemongrass that's used to make tea, and then headed to our second point of interest - the lighthouse.
This was comparatively easier to find, as I had been able to actually see the lighthouse on Google's satellite view, even though it wasn't labeled as such. So I had the exact POI saved on my phone app. L'espace vert was situated at a junction of two paths, and at the junction, there was a sign pointing to the lighthouse! Soon we saw it.
We walked over and met the caretaker, who spoke no English, but did speak some French. Since French was also his second language, he was easy for me to understand and we were able to talk with him for a bit. Then we had a brief visit at the lighthouse. This cost 15.000 Ar per person, but you can actually climb inside, up to the top, and walk around the catwalk at the top, which is nice.
The view is only OK, because the lighthouse is fairly inland. So you can't see as much of the coast from here, compared to some other lighthouses that we've visited. But, it sure wasn't crowded! We were the only ones there.
The weather is spectacular. What a day for a walk in a tropical paradise!
From here, we walked further north along the island's spine, past the health clinic, then turned west when we had a chance and walked back to the opposite coast.
After reaching the beach, we walked along the west coast, all the way back to our meeting place.
The walk back up the coast got long and very hot by the end of the journey, but we made it back to our meeting point at the time we expected, and our boat driver was waiting for us. Before we reached the rendezvous point, we had to fend off a lot of other boat drivers who wanted to take us across, but we did so successfully. I became very proficient at saying (in French), "No, thank you, we already have a boat..."
On the way back across, the boat driver asked if we wanted him to take us directly back to the hotel, instead of dropping us off at the beach, but we declined as that would have doubled the fare. So we were dropped off where we started, and we walked past the airport to our hotel.
As we passed the airport, we saw a small blue and yellow plane. We figured some rich guest had flown in for a visit. That story continues later, though we didn't know it at the time.
It wasn't a bad walk from the beach to the hotel, though we were warm and thirsty by now. It was nothing that a nice lunch drink wouldn't cure! So, we ordered some more mojitos, but they gave us Caipirinhas instead. They were a little stronger than we had wanted, but we managed to cope with it.
We ordered two nice sandwiches for lunch and got some great news from our travel companions! Our 10:30 flight back to Tana tomorrow, on Air Mad, was now pushed back to 2:55. What could be better - that gave us a few hours of extra time to spend here on this island paradise. Tomorrow is a throwaway day in Tana anyway, so the longer we can delay that, the better.
That good news recharged us enough to make us want to venture into town. We asked the front desk to arrange a tuk-tuk to town and back, so that we could visit the pirate cemetery. It was about a 10km ride, and there must have been some misunderstanding, because our driver took us to the town market instead. Once we corrected him, he backtracked to the right place, and dropped us off for the visit.
This church looks a little larger than the one on Ile aux Nattes. But not too much.
We bought tickets which included a guide, and we set out for the almost 1km walk. The guide was an unexpected addition, but we were glad to have him, as it was a longer walk than we expected and not well marked. Our guidebook mentioned that the trail floods at high tide, but clearly someone had built up the trail in the low-lying areas so it was still passable, because it was high tide now and our feet stayed quite dry.
Our guide was pretty good, and showed us local plants along the way, pointed out a number of sights, and the walk passed quickly. We met two of our fellow travelers along the way; they had just finished visiting and were returning along the trail as we walked out.
At the end of the walk, the trail climbs up steeply into the cemetery, and you notice that it is actually quite small. That's because the sea has washed parts of it away over the centuries!
There are only a few legible gravestones, but the history was interesting enough. After spending a few minutes enjoying the view, and soaking in the ambience, we headed back to the entrance.
When we returned, we found that our tuk-tuk driver had left. This was quite odd, we thought, since we hadn't paid him anything yet. The fare was to be paid after the trip was completed!
After we waited a while, the guide who had walked us to the cemetery found us another driver. We had to pay him the same price as we would have paid for the round trip, so it all worked out the same in the end. But we made it back to the hotel while it was still light, and had time for a late afternoon swim in their beautiful pool.
There was a beautiful sunset tonight, which we got to enjoy from our vantage point in the pool. The sun set over the mainland, which was illuminated beautifully as the fiery globe descended over the endless rows of mountains, and illuminated the sky with an orange glow. Unfortunately our cameras were safely tucked away in the room. So the sunset will remain only in our memories.
We reluctantly left the pool and got ready for dinner. There was live music at the bar tonight, so we went there early for drinks, and the music, which was very enjoyable. Dinner was equally good.
The hotel owner was around, having just flown in today, and he came over to our table to say hello. He ended up sitting down and chatting with us for quite a while, and donating a bottle of wine from the cellar which we all shared together.
The conversation got interesting. One of our companions had been out diving today. He mentioned that the dive boat had been buzzed by a blue and yellow plane. Oh, we said. We saw that plane at the airport this afternoon! Ha ha, said the owner. That was me, saying hi to my friend who owns the dive boat! More laughs and more wine followed.
He told us some interesting history about shipwrecks in the area – including the HMS Serapis, of British, then US Naval fame. It was the ship captured by John Paul Jones during the American Revolution, and its wreck is off the coast of this island.
Food tonight was again very nice. Entrees were pumpkin soup and crab-broccoli tart, and the mains were white tuna with parsley sauce, and roast chicken with mushroom sauce.
Desserts were dark chocolate tart with coconut, and fried banana with wild Madagascar pepper. The wild Madagascar pepper was an interesting ingredient in an otherwise sweet dessert dish reminiscent of bananas foster, but it worked. It is less hot than regular black pepper, still a little spicy, and has sweet undertones. I was disappointed that I hadn't bought any earlier today at L'espace vert. I will have to find some later.
Off to bed after a wonderful day, full of exploration and great fun! We remarked that we had explored a tiny island, off the coast of a small island, off the coast of an island, off the coast of Africa. Not a real third-order island but it still sounded neat.
Tomorrow, we fly out on Air Mad, hopefully in the afternoon still, back to Tana where we spend one last night in a hotel near the airport, before flying out to South Africa. We can't believe that this Madagascar adventure is almost over.
Despite the full day, we woke up frequently because the AC temperature in the room was still tough to control, and we went through the too hot - too cold cycle again. At least there were fewer mosquitos tonight!
We slept a little later than usual and eventually dragged ourselves over to breakfast. Our plan as of yesterday had been to do nothing at all today except lounge around and enjoy our nice hotel, but after doing that yesterday, we weren't sure if that plan would fly today.
We don't like to sit still on vacation, and our original plan had been to try to go to the little island off to the south (Ile aux Nattes) to see what was there. The only problem was that it might be a little tricky to get there.
Ile aux Nattes is separated from Ile Ste-Marie by a small channel, maybe a few hundred yards wide. Our guidebook was maddeningly nonspecific, saying something like, "head to the southern tip of the island and ask someone in a boat to row you across. Or you can try to swim if you want, at low tide, but watch the currents." It's supposed to be easy to get there, I guess, but who knows?
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| Our Bungalow. Should we stay here all day and relax? |
We stopped by the front desk to talk to the staff, and confirm that our plan wasn't sheer lunacy, and the nice girl there said it would be easy. Then she gave us a few bottles of water to help with the trip.
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| The Channel between Ile Ste-Marie and Ile aux Nattes |
It turned out that making the crossing was no problem at all. Before we even got halfway to the tip of the island (maybe 15 minutes walk in total), someone latched on to us and offered us a round trip boat ride. It was exactly what we wanted, so of course we said yes.
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| Crossing the Channel |
He wanted to give us a tour too, which we declined, so once we reached the southern shore of Ile Ste-Marie, we climbed into his brightly painted dugout boat and it was a quick crossing. Much easier than swimming it. And our backpack stayed dry.
The fare wasn’t too bad; 20,000 Ar (about $6) for round-trip passage for the two of us, and we were very surprised that he said we could pay after the return trip. We figured that would be a good incentive for him to be waiting for us, so we agreed. We told him that we'd be about three hours, and headed off on our seat-of-the-pants adventure into the (largely) unknown.
I should mention at this point that the guidebook's map was so useless that we didn't bother bringing it along on the trip, and Google's map was even less useful. Google's map of Ile Ste-Marie [as of 2016] showed it as one contiguous island with Ile aux Nattes, and the borders are completely inaccurate. There are no road or path markings whatsoever on Google either. The satellite map is more accurate with regard to the shape of the island, but still has no paths marked, and none of the attractions are labeled.
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| Island Directory! Ile aux Nattes. |
I guess we will have to rely on road signs?
I had downloaded the satellite view of the island in my phone' Google Maps app while we were still at the hotel this morning, and hoped that if I kept the app open, this would keep us from getting too lost. We knew that there were a few points of interest, and I had tried to mark their location on my phone app, but finding any information about this island was next to impossible. So, we figured we'd have to wing it.
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| Deserted tropical beach, all to ourselves. Ile aux Nattes |
We started out walking down the east coast of the island and it was deserted, but beautiful.
A tropical paradise, though it was quite hot in the full sun.
We had the place almost all to ourselves. We alternated between walking along the beach, taking in the scenery while frying in the sun,
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| Main Road. Ile aux Nattes. |
and walking along the "road" which was really just a dirt path a little bit inland, with some shade. No cars on this road!
About halfway down the coast, we cut further inland through a tiny town, and wandered through a more residential area, complete with a Catholic church.
But then we worked our way back to the beach.
As we went further south, we passed by a few "resorts" which were pretty small by the standards we were used to. And more beaches.
We even saw a few houses for sale! This one actually looked pretty nice.
We eventually reached the southern tip of the island and gazed out at the beautiful calm lagoon. There was supposed to be good snorkeling here, but we hadn't wanted to lug all that equipment along for the trip, so we weren't planning on that.
A bit further down the beach, we walked right into Le Lemurien, a hotel and restaurant resort at the southern tip of the island.
Their namesake (a lemur) is shown here playing pool with a blue whale. The whale is hard to see in this picture.
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| Drinks with a view at Le Lemurien, Ile aux Nattes. |
The place was painfully empty, but there were waitstaff in the restaurant, so we decided to stop for a drink. How often will we be back here, and why not take a break?
We had a nice private table for two under a thatched roof, with a beautiful view of the beach. I had a THB and Chris had sparkling water. It doesn't get better than this.
The view from our table was gorgeous, and to top it off, two black and white ruffed lemurs stopped by to visit!
They chased each other around the edge of the restaurant,
then passed right by our table,
and headed over to the main lawn of the resort where they proceeded to wrestle, jump around, and act like the cute little lemurs that they were. We got lots of nice photos and video of their antics.
But we had to get a move on, as we were far from our boat ride back to Ile Ste-Marie. It was all the way at the other end of the island!
So, one last longing look at the beautiful empty beach, and we were off to cross the island again.
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| Just another road, Ile aux Nattes |
We left the coastal route and started walking back, heading northward through the center of the island. It was a bit of a climb, but it looked like we were heading roughly in the right direction, towards where I thought our next targets were.
There were so many different paths to follow that it was tough to figure out which was the "main" road, and which was someone's private property. But nobody hassled us, and with only one wrong turn, a quick backtrack, and a few more minutes walking, we made it to the landmark that we thought would be the hardest to find - L'espace vert.
This was mentioned in our guidebook as a store with locally produced spices, and a place that you must visit, but it didn't give you any helpful information on how to actually do so. I had guessed at the location from the Google satellite view, along what appeared to be a path through the forest, and my guess turned out to be fairly accurate. We spent a few minutes chatting with the owner, who was shocked to find a few tourists from New York walking up to check out his little wooden stand. He wanted to know how we had found him, and was super excited to hear that he was listed in a guidebook. We bought a bit of dried wild lemongrass that's used to make tea, and then headed to our second point of interest - the lighthouse.
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| Lighthouse, Ile aux Nattes |
We walked over and met the caretaker, who spoke no English, but did speak some French. Since French was also his second language, he was easy for me to understand and we were able to talk with him for a bit. Then we had a brief visit at the lighthouse. This cost 15.000 Ar per person, but you can actually climb inside, up to the top, and walk around the catwalk at the top, which is nice.
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| View from the Lighthouse, Ile aux Nattes |
The view is only OK, because the lighthouse is fairly inland. So you can't see as much of the coast from here, compared to some other lighthouses that we've visited. But, it sure wasn't crowded! We were the only ones there.
The weather is spectacular. What a day for a walk in a tropical paradise!
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| Main East-West Road, Ile aux Nattes |
From here, we walked further north along the island's spine, past the health clinic, then turned west when we had a chance and walked back to the opposite coast.
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| Another beautiful empty beach, West Coast, Ile aux Nattes |
After reaching the beach, we walked along the west coast, all the way back to our meeting place.
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| Airport, Ile Ste-Marie |
On the way back across, the boat driver asked if we wanted him to take us directly back to the hotel, instead of dropping us off at the beach, but we declined as that would have doubled the fare. So we were dropped off where we started, and we walked past the airport to our hotel.
As we passed the airport, we saw a small blue and yellow plane. We figured some rich guest had flown in for a visit. That story continues later, though we didn't know it at the time.
It wasn't a bad walk from the beach to the hotel, though we were warm and thirsty by now. It was nothing that a nice lunch drink wouldn't cure! So, we ordered some more mojitos, but they gave us Caipirinhas instead. They were a little stronger than we had wanted, but we managed to cope with it.
We ordered two nice sandwiches for lunch and got some great news from our travel companions! Our 10:30 flight back to Tana tomorrow, on Air Mad, was now pushed back to 2:55. What could be better - that gave us a few hours of extra time to spend here on this island paradise. Tomorrow is a throwaway day in Tana anyway, so the longer we can delay that, the better.
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| Catholic Church, Ambodifotatra, Ile Ste-Marie |
This church looks a little larger than the one on Ile aux Nattes. But not too much.
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| I don't think this pirate is buried at this cemetery! |
We bought tickets which included a guide, and we set out for the almost 1km walk. The guide was an unexpected addition, but we were glad to have him, as it was a longer walk than we expected and not well marked. Our guidebook mentioned that the trail floods at high tide, but clearly someone had built up the trail in the low-lying areas so it was still passable, because it was high tide now and our feet stayed quite dry.
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| Mangroves along the trail |
Our guide was pretty good, and showed us local plants along the way, pointed out a number of sights, and the walk passed quickly. We met two of our fellow travelers along the way; they had just finished visiting and were returning along the trail as we walked out.
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| Pirate Cemetery. Ile Ste-Marie |
At the end of the walk, the trail climbs up steeply into the cemetery, and you notice that it is actually quite small. That's because the sea has washed parts of it away over the centuries!
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| Skull and Crossbones |
There are only a few legible gravestones, but the history was interesting enough. After spending a few minutes enjoying the view, and soaking in the ambience, we headed back to the entrance.
When we returned, we found that our tuk-tuk driver had left. This was quite odd, we thought, since we hadn't paid him anything yet. The fare was to be paid after the trip was completed!
After we waited a while, the guide who had walked us to the cemetery found us another driver. We had to pay him the same price as we would have paid for the round trip, so it all worked out the same in the end. But we made it back to the hotel while it was still light, and had time for a late afternoon swim in their beautiful pool.
There was a beautiful sunset tonight, which we got to enjoy from our vantage point in the pool. The sun set over the mainland, which was illuminated beautifully as the fiery globe descended over the endless rows of mountains, and illuminated the sky with an orange glow. Unfortunately our cameras were safely tucked away in the room. So the sunset will remain only in our memories.
We reluctantly left the pool and got ready for dinner. There was live music at the bar tonight, so we went there early for drinks, and the music, which was very enjoyable. Dinner was equally good.
The hotel owner was around, having just flown in today, and he came over to our table to say hello. He ended up sitting down and chatting with us for quite a while, and donating a bottle of wine from the cellar which we all shared together.
The conversation got interesting. One of our companions had been out diving today. He mentioned that the dive boat had been buzzed by a blue and yellow plane. Oh, we said. We saw that plane at the airport this afternoon! Ha ha, said the owner. That was me, saying hi to my friend who owns the dive boat! More laughs and more wine followed.
He told us some interesting history about shipwrecks in the area – including the HMS Serapis, of British, then US Naval fame. It was the ship captured by John Paul Jones during the American Revolution, and its wreck is off the coast of this island.
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| White Tuna with parsley sauce |
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| Fried banana with Madagascar wild black pepper |
Desserts were dark chocolate tart with coconut, and fried banana with wild Madagascar pepper. The wild Madagascar pepper was an interesting ingredient in an otherwise sweet dessert dish reminiscent of bananas foster, but it worked. It is less hot than regular black pepper, still a little spicy, and has sweet undertones. I was disappointed that I hadn't bought any earlier today at L'espace vert. I will have to find some later.
Off to bed after a wonderful day, full of exploration and great fun! We remarked that we had explored a tiny island, off the coast of a small island, off the coast of an island, off the coast of Africa. Not a real third-order island but it still sounded neat.
Tomorrow, we fly out on Air Mad, hopefully in the afternoon still, back to Tana where we spend one last night in a hotel near the airport, before flying out to South Africa. We can't believe that this Madagascar adventure is almost over.
Despite the full day, we woke up frequently because the AC temperature in the room was still tough to control, and we went through the too hot - too cold cycle again. At least there were fewer mosquitos tonight!
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