13 September Nosy Komba

13.26.55S 48.21.30E 11m

Nosy Komba is a big island set to the east of Nosy Be and is known for handicrafts and lemur encounters. There is also Chez Yolande, a guest house and restaurant which is known to be cruiser friendly. Yolande is married to a French man and they spent many years cruising. She offers a safe beach to leave your dinghy, showers and free drinking water, free, but v-e-r-y slow internet and good food. Her place is easy to find – two storeys with a red tin roof. We ate at her place a couple of times with our friends and had good meals both times.

In the small village, of which Yolande's is part, is a jumbled collection of wood huts with thatch roofs, simple guest houses, six eating places and more handicraft outlets than you can shake an hand embroidered table cloth at. The speciality of the island is cloth with cut out sections edged in blanket stitch forming images of lemurs, turtles, fish, flowers, etc. They would be attractive if I used tablecloths. However, we did go mad on buying souvenirs, something we do rarely. I bought a table runner with matching place mats. David spotted a painting of stylised men and women walking towards a sunset which he liked and an ebony carving of a chameleon was winking at both of us. As I said, a big day for shopping! I also bought baguettes, tomatoes and bananas.

Early one morning, before 8 o'clock, we went ashore to visit the lemurs. It is a village business. You pay £1 each for a guide who speaks excellent English and a bunch of bananas. (If you keep your entrance ticket it is valid for a year of unlimited visits without a guide.) Dominic led us up the path past yet more handicraft stalls in to the start of the forest. We were the first visitors of the morning and were rewarded with hungry black lemurs ready for breakfast. They jumped on our shoulders, sat on our head and were very appealing. Their hands are soft and they have finger nails, not claws. Their fur is soft and they are surprisingly light. Dominic is knowledgeable and told us that lemurs pre-date primates. Their local name is Maki. These lemurs are black ones, but only the males are black. The females are brown. One who came to see us had a week old baby hanging on to her stomach. When she was sitting on my shoulder I could hear the baby suckling. It was a magical encounter and to see all the lemur was very special.

A week later we came back for a second early morning visit, met another group of animals, and it was just as amazing.

On both visits we saw chameleons and bright green geckos. In the 'park' there are large enclosures with tortoises; 65 year old Carolina from Seychelles, small tortoises from the northern part of Madagascar and the larger striated species from the drier south part of Madagascar.

As we were leaving we met the first of the large tour groups that would be coming at regular intervals during the day.