KalahariLog

To get anywhere from Botswana one has to get to Johannesburg and if the flight out of Jo-burg (as it is affectionally known) is before 9am there is no connecting flight from Gaborone. Similarly, if the flight arrives at Jo-burg after 5pm one has to spend the night there. Getting in and out of Madagascar is accomplished almost exclusively by Air Madagascar, also known as AirMad, for the loony way the airline runs their business. We were lucky and only had to deal with delays and stale ham sandwiches. However, their flights to Madagascar are early in the morning and arrive back late in the afternoon. Thus, we decided to drive to Jo-burg one day early, catch a play in town, spend the night in a nearby bed-and-breakfast and reverse the procedure on the way back.

Unfortunately, we must have chosen the worst possible B&B in town, or at least I hope so for the sake of the accommodations business there. One of the smallest problems was that despite having our reservation months in advance they ran out of rooms and ended up placing us in another house nearby. At least the play in a small theater in Sandtown was funny, although not worth the $70 in transportation to get to this relatively-safe suburb and back.

Since this trip was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, our plans for Madagascar were to find a place with a nice beach, go there, and spend a week. The little island of Nosy Be, which naturally means "Big Island" in Malagasy, is of the north-west cost of Madagascar. It is roughly 15x20km with 60,000 residents, in half a dozen towns along the coast. The big town, Hellville, wasn't that hellish, and did have a couple of ATMs and a couple of tourist-shops. It its heyday under French rule, the town had some nice buildings and streets, now in terrible disrepear. The entire island, one of the two prime destinations for international tourists, had maybe 15-20 hotels, ready to accommodate a maximum of 800 visitors.

The on-again-off-again nature of electricity makes air conditioning and fans irrelevant, and with steady 30+C and 90+% humidity, it was difficult to do much when the breeze goes away. The sea temperature was also 30+C, thus providing little cooling effect. But, our B&B on Nosy Be was really very nice. Cool showers helped and our proximity to the water often translated to a nice breeze. Our German host and his Malagasy wife were friendly, accommodating, and good company. Although there was room for about 10 guests, we had the place to ourselves.

The island lacks running water and our host offered us his solution to the problem: only drink beer. The local brew, Three Horses Beer, is a pale lager sold in 1l bottles of which we had quite a few. Luckily, our host had a generator which kept the beer cool. Cold beer or not, we soon succumbed to the usual 2 days of vomiting and fever, courtesy of the local bugs. This, and the lack of TV, radio, or other entertainment, gave us a chance to finish all the books we had brought with us and a few borrowed from the B&B, and enjoy as best the view from our room.


Malaria is a big problem in Madagascar and we were taking our prophylactic medications. On Nosy Be there were countless mosquitos and all sorts of creepy crawly critters. On the bigger side of local fauna there were dozens of lizards and geckos, hopefully reducing the number of the insects, but fighting a hopeless battle.

From our B&B we could walk along the beach to three other hotels with nice restaurants and a couple of snack-bars too. Every night there was a spectacular sunset, each different from the previous one. The walk was a great deal of fun in the dark, with only a LED flashlight to help us avoid the stray cows. Jogging along the single road that nearly (but not completely) circles the island, provided nice views of an old volcano, sugar-cane fields, and secluded beaches.


Nosy Be is near a half dozen other islands, one of which was right across from our B&B. It took about half an hour with the paddle boat to get there and it was well worth braving the Mozambique Channel chop to get to a beach with nobody but us on it. Mango trees, growing everywhere were laden with fruit; we ate countless of them. Sugar-cane sticks and the occasional fresh coconut were quite tasty too.

One day we rented a scooter and putt-putted around the islands. The scooter was way under-powered and, with Tanya and me on it, had a hard time on the hilly sections. Outside of Hellville, driving was a lot of fun, as the roads (I should say road) were free of traffic. Unlike Botswana, walking and bicycling is the main mode of transport in Madagascar. In the main town cars were struggling to navigate the narrow streets. Nearly all the cars on the island were Reno 4s. The scene reminded me a little bit of Eastern Europe where in the 80's there were usually only a couple of types of Soviet cars on the roads.

We also took an organized day-trip to a nearby island, Nosy Kumba, which has a nature reserve where one is likely to see lemurs and chameleons. The day that we went we saw many quite tame lemurs who had learned to go on the shoulder of visitors waiting for a banana treat. This was a bit weird but the lemur couple that lived in the mango trees near our B&B wouldn't come as close, so it was a good chance to see these creatures up close. In most lemurs the males and the females differ and in this particular type the males were all black whereas the females were orange-brown. Even if we hadn't done anything else, this would have been worth the trip.

The chameleons also come in pairs with the males usually bright green and the noticeably smaller females more brownish in color. Other than those in the reserve, we only saw one other male chameleon. But then again, they are tricky to see when they don't want to be seen. It was quite a sight to see these guys move around slowly, while scanning the vicinity with their independently controlled eyes.

Upon our return to Botswana it struck us how friendly the Malagasy were. Most people we passed would say Bonjour and smile, most staff at restaurants and snack-bars were eager to please, and in general most interactions with people were pleasant. They say Botswana is "Africa for beginners" but while the roads are good, the supermarkets well stocked, and the malls buzzing with shoppers, the people are different from most other places we've visited.