2 September Crater Bay, Nosy Be

Our next stop after Mitsio was an over night on the north east end of Nosy Sakatia. We dropped the dinghy to explore ashore hoping to find a restaurant but I think we are too early in the season and no-one was open for business. It was another delightfully quiet night and in the morning we watched the pirogues sailing up the channel between Sakatia and Nosy Be.

sailing dhows - no motors

sugar cane train at marina

I read that Nosy Be is the premier holiday destination in Madagascar with many hotels and tourist related industries. It also has a small marina / yacht club (only mooring balls) facility in Crater Bay which serves the yacht charter business. This is where we anchored outside the mooring field in about 10m. It was coming up to spring tides when there is a 3.5m tidal range.

Ashore the yacht club, Quay 13 48, serves cool, not cold beers, and food. The zebu steak with creamy green pepper sauce was tasty. And if you turn right out of the gates you are in Africa, a dusty, rocky, rutted lane leads through a builders yard, past houses where the ladies sell tomatoes, eggs, onions and fast food for half a mile until you reach a tarmacced road and the town of Dar Es Salem. Same name, different country.

Quay 13 48 restuarant

cargo carrying dhows

geese in the road

hand stitiching a dhow sail

The single road town is bustling; zebus pulling carts, bicycles, motorbikes, battered cars and smart four wheel drives from the smart hotels, clothes stores, expat restaurants, more clothes stores, shacks that sell everything, one relatively well stocked supermarket and ladies of the night (and day). There is also a small yacht chandlery run by an Austrian man called Roland.