Blogs from Nosy Be, Madagascar, Africa

*********Anyone not keen on snakes, please note that the last 4 photos have snakes in them so stop when you get to the dinner at African House After a night in Tana we had to be up at 3am to be at the airport by 4 to check in for a 6am flight. I woke up at 2.50am, thinking firstly, I don’t want to get up, secondly, why do I feel strange? A minute later I knew why as I raced to the bathroom with a very severe bout of vomiting. Eventually, after cleaning up and showering, I put my towel back on the rail, which promptly fell off the wall! Clearly, it was not going to be a good day. I made it downstairs with packed bag, but of course could not eat or drink. ... read more

Yes, OK, I missed posting a blog 2 days ago, and now need to tell you about 4 days. We’ve had a really busy time! The first thing to say is massive congratulations to Collette and Greg. They went for a walk on the beach, he asked and she said yes! They both arrived back from their walk with big smiles on their faces, and Collette wearing a beautiful diamond ring. Such a special place to get engaged 🤗 Anyway, back to our adventure. Saturday was two morning dives for the divers, and the non-divers did a walk on Nosy Sakatia. Unfortunately, Big Paulo gave my dive kit bag to Jessica for snorkeling instead of hers, so I had to use her boots and fins. She has bigger feet than me, and the boots were a ... read more

We’re now two days into the diving part of the trip. Well it’s been pretty special so far! Manta Dive Centre are looking after us very well. We’re collected by boat from the hotel beach in the morning and taken to the dive sitesbefore being dropped off again on the beach. A great service! Yesterday we did three dives from Nosy Tanikely, a national park which opened specially for us and another dive boat. We were based on the beautiful beach for drinks, snacks, and a picnic at lunchtime. The first dive was a site called Aquarium in crystal clear water just offshore. There were loads of different corals, small reef fish, a grouper, an octopus and a turtle. What a fabulous start! The other two dives at Smurfland and West Point were equally as special, ... read more

Volunteering was a blast! Nosy Komba, or Lemur Island, was where we based ourselves for a month. It is a small, road-free, volcanic island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, a few km boat ride from Hell-ville. Our time there working with the Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute (MRCI) was a bit of a flashback to our Junior Ranger days. Some hard work but loads of fun and lots of good people, from all around the world. There were four different volunteer projects going on at the Institute: Marine Conservation, Construction, Teaching English, and Forest Conservation. We'd both picked Forest Conservation before our arrival and ended up very were glad we did. A typical volunteer day at 'camp' went something like this: We'd wake up (in our separate huts -- boys with boys and girls with ... read more

Ankarafantsika National Park to Hell-ville, Nosy Be Our steady stream of good travel luck finally ran out. Nancy blamed it on the fact that we didn't use the flower power magic potion from Peru. The trip didn't start off very well: we had to wait outside for two hours in a drenching monsoon-like thunderstorm in the dark for a late taxi-brousse to pick us up from the park. After many worrisome thoughts that it wasn't coming at all, the already fully packed van finally showed up and we loaded our soaked selves and luggage. There was no mistaking this for a luxury van: we were jammed in like sardines and forced to keep our substantial dripping backpacks on our laps. But we were happy to be picked up nonetheless. The happiness didn't last too long though ... read more