Grand Africa Cruise - Nosy Be, Madagascar Day 2

Cruise Day 38

 Wednesday, November 16, 2022

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.”  -- John Steinbeck

It’s an early morning for us and a short turn-around from yesterday’s tour.  For our second day in Nosy Be, we booked a ship excursion to visit the nearby island of Nosy Komba, called the Isle of Lemurs. Lemurs are small, monkey like animals, and although they are primates like monkeys (and humans), they are not related to monkeys.  They are found only in Madagascar.

From Hell-Ville (the middle center dark red marker) we took a boat to the northern tip of Nosy Komba (the lower right dark red marker).

We were up at six and in the ship’s theater before seven to wait for our tour to be called.  The process was a bit slow because of the tendering situation, but before long our tour was called, and we were led to the tender and on our way.

When we reached the pier, it was a bit chaotic as there were many tours going to nearby islands, all needing boats with only one boat being docked at a time.  We were tour number twelve and were lucky as there was a covered area with some folding chairs that allowed most of us to avoid the heat and sun.  Many of the other groups were standing in the sun while they waited for their tour to be called.

The loading process was slow because it was on the same dock as the tenders and there was just a narrow walkway down to the tender dock.  They had to wait for the tender to empty and the people arriving to get up on the pier and then a tour number would be called and the tour boat loaded.  I didn’t envy the security team in charge of keeping this organized.  One by one, the tours were called and finally it was our turn after almost an hour of waiting.

From the pier where we are waiting for our tour to be called.

We were lucky to get on a nice catamaran with a lot of seating for our trip to Nosy Komba.  After donning the mandatory life jackets, we were speeding over the water to the nearby island.  It was a refreshing escape from the heat with the moving boat making for a cool wind on us.

We're on our way to Nosy Komba and the lemurs.

While we were waiting in the theater this morning before we left the ship, the excursion person in charge of calling out the tours mentioned that some of the boat landings may be wet landings meaning you had to wade ashore.  Unfortunately, this hadn’t been mentioned in the tour description or we would have worn our water shoes.  When we arrived at Nosy Komba it was indeed a water landing so most everyone had to take off their shoes and wade ashore off the front of the boat.  Not a big deal but finding a place to clean the sand off our feet and dry them off was a bit of a problem.

We arrive at Nosy Komba,  This village is where we started our walk to see the lemurs.

Val and I were one of the first ones off.  This is the rest of our group coming ashore.

I thought you only saw African women carrying things on their heads in movies, but we have seen this often in our travels in Africa so far.  That concrete porch in front of the building in the background is the only spot we could find to sit down and dry our feet and put on our shoes.

We had landed in a small village that was the gateway to the park where the lemurs were.  The village was very busy with many tourists as well as inhabitants in the area.  This was a pretty large tour, so we split up into smaller groups with each one having its own guide (and medic) before we started the trek to see the lemurs.

We walked through the village to get to the trail up to the lemurs.

This was a school and we could hear the teacher and children inside.

The first part of the walk was on a cobbled, narrow street through the village with vendors selling their wares on both sides.  Val had forgotten her hat, so she found a straw hat for five dollars to help avoid the sun and heat.

The walk was uphill and a bit more strenuous than advertised.  The cobbles were uneven and easy to trip on, and some people were having a difficult time of it.  Val was doing pretty well, but about halfway up, her back started hurting again and finally she couldn’t go any further.  They must have anticipated some issues as each group had a first aid person with them.  Not only was walking difficult, but it was hot and very humid.  We did see a few lemurs though along the way.

This is the start of the trail up to into the jungle where the lemurs were.

After conferring with our guide, Val and I found a place to sit and rest, while the rest of the group went on.  After sitting for a bit, Val felt better so we tagged along with another group and started on up the hill to what was supposed to be an area full of lemurs.

We saw our first lemurs before we got past the shops lining the walkway.

This lemur jumped on Val's shoulder hoping for some food, but it was out of luck.

Along the way we saw others who had given up and were sitting on low walls on the side of the trail.  Val reached a point where the pain in her back got too bad for her to continue walking and she decided she needed to rest again.  I decided to walk ahead a bit and see how close we were to the end but couldn’t really tell.  I did find a spot where several groups were gathered and there were several lemurs around including a mother with a baby on her back.

This was a baby lemur on its mothers back.

Mother and child.

That may have been the end of the walk, I don’t know, but it was far enough for me.  It was hot and very humid, and I had enough walking for the day, so I went back to Val.  She said she was enjoying just sitting in the shade and that another guide had just passed by and showed her a turtle they had found.

We sat for a bit and then even though we were told to wait for our group to come back, we had no idea when that would be, so we decided to head back on our own.  It took a bit of time, but we eventually made it back to the village.  Along the way Val found a wood carving of a dhow that we liked so we bought that.  Unlike some of the areas we have visited, prices are very low here.  We also saw many others along the way who had given up the walk.

There were other animals besides lemurs in the jungle.

When we got back to the village, we found a café with a shaded verandah looking out at the bay.  We bought a couple of drinks and sat back to enjoy the shade and relaxation, but we had barely started our drinks when our guide came by and told us we had to come with them to another area where we would be provided drinks and some snacks.  We asked if we could just stay there, but she was adamant that we needed to stay with the group.  I guess I can understand that as she was responsible for the group and if someone went missing when it was time to leave it would be a real problem for them.  On the description it did indicate that we would have free time to do what we wanted on the beach, but I guess that wasn’t really the case.

When Val and I got back to the village we sat back down on the cement porch and talked to this man for a while.  He hadn't done the walk and asked us about the lemurs and then told us about the friendly cats they had here.  We had to laugh and he was very surprised to learn that the "cat" sitting next to him was a lemur.

The lemur finally left and Val and I decided to find somewhere more comfortable to sit.

We found this cafe, got a couple of drinks and had just sat down in the shade on the verandah to relax when our guide showed up and told us we had to join the group further on down the beach.

We followed our guide further into the village where we found the rest of our group and a table full of fresh fruit, coconut and snacks.  We were also given a drink ticket and there was a little stand where we could order drinks.  There were chairs in the sand but most of them were taken so we found a wall and sat on that.  Sitting without back support really causes Val’s back to flare up so when a chair became available, she grabbed it.  As people drifted away, I found a spot next to her where we sat and watched some drummers and a dancer doing a traditional dance.  I should say we tried to watch as there were women constantly walking in front of us trying to sell their embroidery that the island is famous for.  Val bought an embroidered blouse that was quite nice, and the price was quite nice too.

We made our way through the village to where the food and drink was.

There was entertainment as well as food, but there were also many women walking around selling their embroidery that the island is known for.

To soon it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Nosy Be and our ship.

Things wound down and it was time to take off our shoes and reboard the boat for the trip back to the tender.  Val and I sat on the back of the boat for the trip back and enjoyed a nice view and an even better cool breeze.  When we reached the tender dock, we had to wait for a tender to be loaded, but then an empty one pulled up and we were able to walk the short distance directly from our boat and onto the tender, great service.

We say goodby to Nosy Komba and the lemurs.

We got back around 1:30 and were hungry for lunch, but we wanted a shower more than we wanted lunch, so we took care of that first.  After showering and getting cleaned up it was too late to go to the Lido, so we headed to the Neptune Lounge for lunch.

Kristine asked us how our tour was, and we told her we had a good time, but the level of difficulty of the walk to see the lemurs was badly misstated in the description.  There’s nothing you can do to make the walk any easier, but you can give people enough information so they can make a wiser decision.  Because of the length of this cruise, most of the people aboard are retired and older, so what may seem an easy walk to a younger person is not so easy as you get older.  Kristine mentioned that several others had told her the same thing and she was going to inform shore excursion staff about the comments she had gotten.

We spent the rest of the afternoon resting; this was our sixth port day in the last seven and we had done something on every one of them.  The lunch we had in the Neptune Lounge was a light one so as dinner neared we were very hungry and got ready early, but remembered we had to send some laundry out so we actually got there a little late.

Maybe it was just because we were so hungry, but dinner was excellent tonight.  Our visit to the casino wasn’t nearly as good although Val had a little luck.  We were very tired and returned to the cabin and went to bed early even though we don’t have to get up early and the clocks are finally going to be set back an hour tonight.

The next two days we will be at sea and then we will arrive in Mozambique, and we will get off the ship and start our safari.  We can’t wait!