4 September Nosy Be island tour part 1

Today was a short tour because we started late and discovered hiring a motorbike for a day is for The Day and not for 24 hours as we'd wrongly assumed.

The bike was the economy version with a 50cc engine and a seat of the ample dimensions for two 10 year olds. For two adult British people it was uncomfortable; David barely perched on the front, me barely perched on the back. Nevertheless we set off on the road from Dar Es Salam to Hell-Ville. The road had once been tarmac all the way, but heavy use, rain and no maintenance has left ruts, wheel grabbing potholes and areas of dusty sand.

gecko

police station

We called in to a sail repair loft to make enquiries about re-stitching our main sail. It's far larger than we expected, professionally run and ready to do the job. We'll drop the sail off in a couple of days.

Our first tourist stop was Lemurialand north of Hell-Ville to see different species of lemur and wildlife of Madagascar. There is also a distillery which processes ylang-ylang leaves for perfumes to visit at the same place. The distillery tour was short and informative. Seeing the lemurs (including ring tailed) and sifikas (white, dancing lemurs) in small cages didn't make for comfortable viewing. Our guide told us these animals had been brought from the forest and in six months they would think of this as home and be free to run around the trees.

In the park they had three giant tortoises from Seychelles, five freshwater crocodiles from Nosy Be, a small glass cage with a boa constrictor, two chameleons in a large run and sad looking red lemurs on an island surrounded by water. The free roaming lemurs were snoozing in the tree tops. It's a personal thing, but I felt guilty for paying to see wild animals held captive in cages that were too small. They'd been caught for people like me to pay to see and I had perpetuated it. I am not against zoos and wildlife parks per se. I've visited many where the animals comfort and sympathetic environment have been paramount. My reflections on Lemurialand are how I felt on the day.

Lemurs at sacred banyan

colonial architecture in Hell-Ville

Time to get off my high moral horse and back on the motorbike for the rest of our day trip.

We went back in to Hell-Ville to see the old colonial buildings, stop for coffee and cake at Oasis restaurant, before setting off to find the sacred banyan tree. Off the main road and a couple of miles bumping down to the sea we came to the largest, oldest (?) banyan tree in the world. We were told it was planted in the mid nineteenth century and has grown to cover 5 hectares. We paid our money, took off our shoes and were dressed in sarongs ready to enter the paths under the great tree. Our guide explained it was fady, or taboo, to enter leading with your left foot. It was right foot first. Under the spreading branches and arterial roots is a small shrine for offerings and red and white cloths. As our guide spoke only French I didn't understand why the sheets of colour. I did understand that the Queen of the Sakalava people comes here each year to make sacrifice of a zebu. Fortunately the lemurs are free to roam here.

The afternoon was late by now so we made our way back to Dar Es Salam and returned our small, but sure, motorbike, found a convivial cafe with cushioned seats and ordered a cold beer to wash away the dust of the day and rest our sore bums.