Day 103 - Nosy Be / Nosy Kemba, Madagascar

 Date: 4/17/2024   Day 103  Port Day: Nosy Be / Nosy Kemba, Madagascar

Description: Discover exotic Nosy Be with its rich air fragrant from native spices and flowers and, neighboring Nosy Komba with its lemur population found only in this part of the world. Beginwith a stroll around the city center of Hellville in Nosy Be, visiting the open marketplace. Then hire a driver to take you on an island tour to see the bright blue volcanic lakes, or hire a boat to take you to Nosy Komba to visit the lemurs. Back in Nosy Be, shop for locally made perfume, distilled rum, finelinens and hand carved wooden art. Enjoy some of the fresh local seafood prepared with the local spices in this colorful and aromatic destination.

Planned Excursion: A GLIMPSE OF NOSY BE

4.5 Hours    Moderate Activity    # NOS-005: Free

Drive through Hell-Ville, the island’s colonial capital, named for 19th-century French Admiral Louis de Hell.  Tour an ylang-ylang distillery, where oil is extracted from these sweet-smelling flowers for the creation of perfumes and lotions.  Inhale the pleasing aromas produced by abundant crops of fruit, spices and sugar as you traverse the beguiling countryside.  Marvel at expansive views from Mont Passot, overlooking the glistening twin lakes of Sakatia Island.

Morning Update: We arrive at our anchorage at 10 AM.  We then go ashore on the ship's lifeboats or tenders to go on our excursion.  As I write this update we are about an hour to when we drop anchor.  Usually by now we have lost our StarLink Internet signal.  So far our Internet holding. The sea's were pretty rough last night but now as we approach Nosy Be the sea's are very calm, which is good for tendering ashore.  Hopefully this afternoon I can post a timely update.  

Evening Update: Much to everyone's surprise our first stop on our excursion was to a private wildlife park.  We saw four species of lemur's, turtles and other various wildlife.  This stop was the highlight of the day.  This country is extremely poor with many living in bamboo huts, dirt floors and tin roofs.  The roads were extremely narrow with these huts lining close to the roadway.  Even though this is an impoverish  country the roadsides were not littered with trash as in India.  We would see some children with no clothing and mother's wearing only a single garment.  As we toured around in the bus we view sites from the bus stopped at the local central market, very nosey and crowded.  We then drove to the far northern side of the island and stopped at a beach resort for a 45 minute refreshment break and swimming.  Then the long drive back to the pier to take the tender back to the ship.  

Click here --> NOSY BE pictures 

Take notice how many cruise ships are going around Africa. Our ship is circled.