Adventure in Madagascar, 1/13/24 to 1/26/24 aboard Le Champlain

[vjt]

Adventure in Madagascar, 1/13/24 to 1/28/4 aboard Le Champlain

     As we were finishing up our wonderful Arctic cruise aboard Le Commandant Charcot, I wrote that we had already reserved this trip. Although we have traveled extensively throughout Southern Africa, we had never made it to Madagascar despite the promise of magnificent vegetation, animals and the opportunities to acquaint ourselves with the cultures there.

   As to the cruise itself, I do have a few worries. The Commandant Charcot is an extremely hard act to follow, especially on our cruise because the ship was half empty. No lines, always could find a seat wherever you wanted among the many, many public places. Very quiet and pleasant evenings where there was always a choice of table sizes. Le  Champlain is totally booked for this trip, so I have some fear that there might be a group tour aboard. Anyway, we shall see.

   Typically for Ponant, there is virtually no information posted about our embarkation point, other than it is in Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles.

     Finding an airline that goes both to Victoria and Port Louis, Mauritius was a true exercise in travel and keyboard expertise. For our trip, it was Emirates. We dove into this experience with total abandon.  Very fancy champagne, caviar, delicious food, with about 50 items to be served when we like. Best of all…real beds. In Dubai, we were unexpectedly greeted at the gate with a sign attached to a uniformed gentleman who thought we might need help with our change of concourse and the short layover!

  After the usual tropical airport immigration (very relaxed and terribly chatty with their fellow immigration workers) we had arranged a car to take us to the dock, for The Enchanted Island Resort. That took ten minutes and the boat ride through the islands offshore Mahe took fifteen. Soon we arrived at the most marvelous place…natural landscaping, privacy, wonderful views, our own cool plunge pool and our own steps to “our beach”. Unless asked for more information, I will only say that this was the best way we could rest, swim and tour Mahe for the five days before boarding. With the fine service, we will once again board their boat, and ride to look around for Le Champlain. Boarding begins at four.

 

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[jpalbny]

Wonderful! Wishing you a pleasant cruise. Our two trips on the Ponant Explorers were both fully booked and we didn't feel as if it was too crowded.

 

If you can't find the ship, she is at Latitude -4.62529, Longitude 55.46234, according to the Ponant website. Have a fantastic voyage and post some updated along the way if you can.

 

Madagascar is a unique destination and one that we enjoyed very much. I'll be interested in how your cruise ship visit compares.

Edited January 13 by jpalbny

[vjt]

     Yesterday we embarked onboard Le  Champlain. Because we were staying outside of Victoria on a small island and because I am very cautious about travel times, we were at the dock early. Of course we were never notified of the ship’s location….but she was easy to spot. So there we were in 90 degree heat and 2000% humidity under a flimsy white canopy with an appalling odor of dead fish, two hours before boarding. Slowly a few other couples turned up, and one gentleman with a cowboy hat kept complaining that they had just flown in and were exhausted. Unfortunately, a French couple turned up who were met with loads of kisses by an officer and he ushered them up the gangway amid great enthusiasm. So the man in the cowboy hat got very exercised indeed and marched up the gangway to exercise his “rights”. As a result, another officer came down to offer to have our luggage taken to our cabins so we could wander about town, and even gave us an earlier boarding time. Although folks were glad to give up their luggage, they all remained in that awful place. We walked a hundred meters and found a very nice air conditioned cafe and had some really delicious and fruity mocktails.

     After that, boarding went very smoothly. There was nothing of the ceremonial welcoming of us fancy dancy suite occupiers, but our butler showed up right away. Cabin 621 takes up half of the stern, and has a 90 degree outlook, and a huge balcony-deck with lots of comfortable furniture. If it’s affordable, snag one of these!

     Shortly after arriving at our cabin we were summoned to the auditorium for several briefings.   Captain Provost seems very charming, but he was incomprehensible in either French or English. Fortunately he was not responsible for the safety drill.

     I guess we were terribly tired from all this excitement…so we had a very nice meal in our cabin to go with the champagne, and went to sleep by 10.

     This morning we were moored just outside of La Digue. This is an exceptionally picturesque island, full of sort of themed houses, shops, restaurants and guides.  We tendered in, separated by language, and were given a super well organized tour which lasted until noon. There was a visit to an old colonial-era coconut plantation where we were shown how the coconuts were processed, saw tortoises large and small and toured the main house. Then we went to a large beach with white sand. Walter and I snorkeled. The grass flats were interesting to us biologists…but I really don’t think normal people would have seen anything but a few small sharks and an occasional tiny fish. But the swimming was great.  Then we had a “welcome drink” ( that’s what they called it) and visited the famous Anse Chastanet beach, the one with The Rocks. It’s a pretty dangerous beach for swimming, so we were advised to only take pictures of aforesaid rocks. We then bumped our way back to the port in our open bench-seated conveyance.  Back on board we ran to grab a-g and-t. The tender was available to return to town for those wanting to. This was a very low -key day.

   I am not really ready to give my first impressions of our experience so far. It is miles different from Le Commandant Charcot, so it has to be seen as a different concept. As a trivial example, most of the liquor we drink at home is extra. For a mere 25 euros a day, a person would be entitled to whatever they like. On Le Commandant Charcot, most of this stuff would be included. Most everyone on board has taken at least one Ponant cruise, and they do like the company.

     We have two sea days coming up as we steam to Madagascar. I will write next when there is something to report.

[highplanesdrifters]

On 1/12/2024 at 11:48 PM, vjt said:

After the usual tropical airport immigration (very relaxed and terribly chatty with their fellow immigration workers) we had arranged a car to take us to the dock, for The Enchanted Island Resort. That took ten minutes and the boat ride through the islands offshore Mahe took fifteen. Soon we arrived at the most marvelous place…natural landscaping, privacy, wonderful views, our own cool plunge pool and our own steps to “our beach”.

 

Sounds pretty perfect! Thanks for your report. Look forward to following along. 

Was there any snorkeling from the beach?

 

[vjt]

     Thank you,  jpnalbny and highplanesdrifter.  I will try to get a handle on land versus sea tour. My initial feeling is that a land tour, with a visit to one of the karst islands would be great.

     Yesterday was our first At Sea day on our way to Nosy Hara, Madagascar.  It started well with a really neat presentation about boats in the Indian Ocean. The talk was a combination of history (2000 years’ worth), evolution of navigation, and the design of boats and ships over this time. I learned a lot about things I never knew I was interested in! In the afternoon we learned about the giant land tortoises common in the Seychelles.

     The evening was the Captain’s welcome gala. We could have our pictures taken with Captain Provost, but sailed away to the Champagne instead. The Captain’s diction was fine this time…maybe better amplification, but we couldn’t tolerate the introduction of the entire crew as we were all on the toasty pool deck with scarce seating, So, we stepped inside and had a cool drink.  I have to admit that I was disappointed with the cooking. So far, in general, the food has been distinctly inferior to Le Commandant Charcot. I don’t want to belabor this point, but if anyone wants details, I will certainly respond. Anyway, dinner consisted of various things thrown together with very questionable results and a boring main course.

    Afterward we had our first show in the Main Lounge. There were three lady dancers, a singer, and a musician who played a keyboard and managed the backup music. The theme was “The 70’s”. Sort of a Las Vegas style and sound. Then, to our total amazement, a huge group of mostly French passengers got up and did american line dances! Wild enthusiasm. That section of the evening ended with the same folks dancing to YMCA complete with arm waving! We were impressed and flabbergasted at the same time.  A much less serious crowd than the Arctic one.

     We are about to leave for a talk on Madagascar. This morning’s briefing included the safety stuff…such as how to get in and out of a zodiac and so on, and a summary of excursions to come. However, there is a low pressure area which will remain over Madagascar for the duration of our trip, alas. This is not related to Typhoon Belal which has just crushed Reunion. We don’t know how that will impact us, although of course that doesn’t matter a whit compared to the hardships for the islanders. So, if the Captain can find a safe spot to shelter tomorrow, we will take a hike into the woods in the morning, and snorkel in the afternoon on the fringing reef which is supposed to be excellent.

    A few words about the ship. She seems very well built, with quality fittings, very, very quiet and smooth. There is no sound from our nextdoor neighbors. The public furnishings are kind of rumpled and casual…like older yachts. There isn’t really enough outdoor seating, but to be fair, sitting outdoors in the heat and humidity longer than half an hour would be unpleasant.

     Oops, the typhoon glanced Mauritius. Airport for return is closed for now.

     Footnote: after today, sunnier report about food and two great expeditions. More to come.

 

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[vjt]

     Today is another sea day so here I am. Wednesday we made our first stop at Nosy Hara. Not surprisingly, around here everything is “Nosy” as that means island, we are told. The seas were fairly rough here, so we splashed around a bit in our zodiacs getting to land. What they call a “wet landing”.  On offer were two levels of hikes to see the forest and the views. We took the shorter hike up into the forest. I found it to be very beautiful. There was a local guide to show is the spectacular lizard, and the other ( sorry, no idea of the name) lizard and information about local plants and their uses. The island itself is topped by these craggy solution-formed limestone formations which are very striking. As the wind picked up in the afternoon, it was a bit rough, but they offered a zodiac tour and extremely good snorkeling. This was laid out in the open water, so you jumped off the zodiac, slowly drifted to the downstream zodiac and clambered up a sort of ladder back into the boat. This was not really a vertebrate-rich environment…of course there were fish and a sting ray or two, but an incredible assortment of corals, a true coral garden.

     We had reservations in The Grill. This is quite a small space, not really a second restaurant in the normal sense. In the evening there are starters laid out on the buffet counter, mostly with the same things as at lunch. The server asks which of the five or six choices for the main course you might want. A short while later, she serves that directly to you. Then for desert, it’s back to the same buffet. For the most part, the food is quite disappointing. The lettuce is sort of limp, the caesar salad dressing is sour and tastes a bit like mayonnaise. The cut salad vegetables are pretty good. There is also sushi and the trimming to go with that, sausages, pate and so on. However, so far we have enjoyed two of the entrees. If you stick to the meatier options, these are really quite good. I think the draw is outside, small venue and less formality.

     

     Our first stop Thursday was Nosy Tanikely, still off Northern Madagascar. Here there was a hike up to a lighthouse and a shorter walk that went part way up the hill.  It was stifling, humid and hot, so I opted for the shorter walk. To be honest, although the walk was very interesting, with plenty to learn and admire, there were lots of slippery steps, mud and  and I did have a lot of trouble with it. But most people were just fine. Although I did bring rain gear on this trip, I found out I preferred to get soaking wet and be cooler. On many days we had so much rain that everyone wound up soaked anyway. This is the rainy season in Madagascar and anyone thinking of this trip at this time of year should take notice. But, it is also the lush and green time and that made it lovely.

     Snorkeling was cancelled as the onshore winds were mushing everything up, and even swimming was banned because there was all kinds of debris slashing around in the water.

     But that was ok because we had a second stop on Nosy Komba nearby. It is a volcanic island, near the mainland. And what fun that was! There were orange and black lemurs everywhere! They are in family groups, with about five on this small island. Now these lemurs are not shy at all. They rush over and hang around in the trees staring at you. The females are dominant and not at all shy. Our guide carried a banana. He gave us a piece and one or two lemurs immediately jumped onto our heads and shoulders to have a snack or two. They are so soft and amazingly gentle. Unfortunately I was told I couldn’t take one home even though there seemed to be quite enough on the island. We also saw Madagascar Radiated Tortoises and Aldabra Giant Tortoises, a boa and geckos.  Although our expedition leader wrote that it is a rare visitor who makes it to the island, 4000 people live there, most of whom seemed to be selling handicrafts. There were the usual T-shirt’s, but also fine embroidery and neat animals made from dried and colored plant matter.

     We skipped the karaoke in the evening.

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Enjoying your report. Thamks for taking us along.

[jpalbny]

Sounds like a great trip so far! Agree that the grill is nothing special but the atmosphere is nice. We prefer the outdoor tables at the restaurant though, when we want to dine al fresco.

 

Looking forward to your next post.

[vjt]

     Folks, I do need to apologize for these late entries.  We’ve been home for a week, and I promise to finish over the next few days.  The trip became challenging for me as I unfortunately got ill, twice.  All I can say about that is that the origins were a mystery and that the ship’s doctor and nurse were incredibly helpful, and followed up regularly. Perhaps unrelatedly, I had underestimated the effect the heat and humidity would have on me and feel a bit stupid about that.  I was able to participate in just about everything, but could only complete about half the walks.  There were plenty of local guides and the ship’s naturalists as well, and they always insisted on keeping me company.  I never made any kind of scene, so I didn’t bother the others, but nevertheless hated to make a nuisance of myself.

 

     Friday, January 19, was our stop in Majunga, in the Gulf of Mozambique (i.e. the northwest corner of Madagascar) crammed with people with origins from everywhere.  During the seventeenth century, Majunga was the capital of an ancient kingdom, becoming a major trading port between the African coastline and the Middle East.  The French showed up in the 19^th century and I didn’t see that they had much of an impact, as all you can still see is their 19^th century colonial houses, and that’s about it.  We chose a tour to the “Sacred Lake by 4WD” (as they put it).  Er, yes, much of the roads were basically muddy ruts and 4WD was absolutely essential.  But lest you get the idea that there was a hint of luxury, you might want to know that these vehicles were, for the most part, dampish wrecks with three rows of seats, and an air conditioner stuck on “heat”.  Our poor driver took about twenty minutes trying to turn off the loud radio music! 

     Turning the clock back, we disembarked from the ship in zodiacs.  It was a dry landing to a pier loaded with carts full of stuff, with beloved zebu (local bovine) acting as the engines.  These carts, which included animals and all kinds of other goods were plying for their place on line to load their contents on the most disreputable boat I have ever seen.  When we returned in the late afternoon, they were still at it, so I guess the boat was pretty sturdy after all.  Anyway, we dodged carts and zebu, and were welcomed by singing and dancing costumed residents on a street lined by pop-up craft stores.  The car-trucks were lined up a short distance away.  Incomprehensible orders were being shouted to everyone including us.  There was a sort of random scramble of passengers to the vehicles which resulted in couples being separated to their discomfort, discussions of whether three to a seat was possible and much delay.  The English speakers and French speakers were kept separated, and the general idea was to have about six people in each guided group.  So, we were a bit late, a bit disheveled and already sticky before we set out.  All the vehicles appeared to have safe bottled water, but Ponant insisted that we bring specially purified water in their twenty-pound ¾ liter steel containers.  Fortunately, Walter is quite strong, so he carried that stuff.  

     I loved the drive to the lake.  We passed miles of city streets jammed full of cars, carts, taxis and mainly these little bicycle rickshaws.  The passengers and drivers of these were very brave as we found out later in the cruise.  But the hundreds of little stores were jammed with customers, many without shoes.  Looking inside, these could be butchers, locksmiths, seafood stalls, beauty salons and the largest of all, the automated auto wash places! Then city turned to country and we were in very rural, agricultural areas, with villages every kilometer or so.  Most of these seemed to have a shared central well and the occasional outhouse.  There were scattered parochial and public schools. The houses were of stick and thatch construction for the most part. Along the roads there were zebu carts of course, but some (men and women) were simply carrying their own loads of sticks, charcoal, grains, or whatever.  The day grew rainier and rainier which made the drive pretty slippery but our driver was very skilled.  We observed that everywhere we looked, there were little children and we were mindful that firewood was disappearing rapidly, with evidence of deforestation everywhere and that the people were largely dependent on grains shipped from overseas.  On top of that, zebu are not only work animals earning their keep, but also cherished animals kept as large herds by the wealthy villagers.  These animals are clearing grasslands and shrubs with no real benefit to anyone.  With the luxury of our privileged forward-thinking, we could see the time-limited future for this way of life and this made us a bit sad.

     Down still even more muddy tracks, we broke into the open at the reception area for touring the sacred lake.  This involved a bit of a walk through the green forest with some nature comments and beautiful black and white lemurs and then we were at a small lake.  The lake had its very own crocodile. We walked around this lake, listening to a rather involved story of the sacred lake’s formation and then visited the shrine itself.  The shrine gives the opportunity to ask the sacred ancestor for help by first assessing the magnitude of the request, and then making the appropriate sacrifice to receive it.  Unfortunately, by that time, the cloth décor of the shrine had been rendered limp and unattractive by the soaking rain, so we retreated back up the hill rather unceremoniously and jumped into our vehicles rather than visit the gift stalls and take the offered soft drinks.

     The return ride allowed us to have another look at the villages and the people, and then get to town at rush hour where everything got still more hectic.  I think I will post a video or two of the drive.

 

     Back on Le Champlain, we quickly washed up and made a beeline for the delicious mojitos the bartender at the observation lounge made for us!

     

                                                                      

[Becky2010]

Glad you're home safely and hope you're feeling better!

 

[jpalbny]

Welcome home! Madagascar is a challenge to visit, for sure. Those "roads" sure are sketchy!

 

Update when you can, and I also hope you're on the mend.

[vjt]

Come ride with us to the Sacred Lake!

[vjt]

 

 

Downtown Majunga!

[highplanesdrifters]

14 hours ago, vjt said:

Come ride with us to the Sacred Lake!

IMG_1697.mov

Hope the Sacred Lake was worth the ride!

[jpalbny]

Thanks for the videos! That is the real Madagascar.

 

The "RN" roads (rue nationale) are numbered highways. They were in such bad shape in many places that the top speed is 20-25 miles per hour, and it's better to drive on the unpaved shoulder than to drive on the "paved" sections. I loved our time there.

 

And your video of downtown Majunga reminded me of most other bigger towns. So many roadside stalls. Meat baking in the sun. Flies everywhere. Yeah, you definitely don't want to order your meat rare. And bring your ciprofloxacin.

 

If you don't mind I will attach two photos for you - one is a typical RN, and the other is an aerial view of the coast a little bit north of the town of Mahajunga. Just to give you a different perspective of where you were - you probably sailed by this river!

 

 

 

 

[World Traveler]

Hello all,

I have signed up for this same Ponant itinerary for January 2024. Thank you for the detailed review and information. My biggest concern is the weather and hope there are some moments of blue sky and ocean - or is it constantly overcast in January?

[vjt]

 

Hello, World Traveler!  No worries, I think you can expect every kind of hot and humid weather.  We had plenty of sun, some overcast skies, usually on rainy days, windy, still, and some rough seas.  This is officially the wet season, and as I might have mentioned, typhoon season.  Fortunately for this tour, western Madagascar seems not to suffer these on the western side, even though there was a typhoon over Reunion and Mauritius while we were onboard.  In a way, not the best time to be there, but it was lush a nd green in many places which was quite beautiful.  Here is a giant Baobab in the Green Spiny Forest.

 

[vjt]

     Saturday, January 20, was an At Sea Day.  We had a couple of great lectures.  The first was on Zebu and Man in Madagascar, given to us by one of the Malagasy guides.  I have already given you the shorthand version of this, but it was striking how plainly and down-to-earth he spoke about these quasi-sacred animals, their importance to the welfare of each family, but also the enormous numbers of the lazy “wealth Zebus.”  Somehow, I became entranced and less-questioning about the animals as I listened to the simple explanations of the local customs.  There was also a lecture on the geologic origins of Madagascar and its islands, which Walter said was excellent...unfortunately my sick days off began about then.  So, I also missed the Ponant White Night Gala with the Officers, but Walter enjoyed that very much.

 

     I will take this opportunity to discuss shipboard life on Le Champlain.  I would say that the cruise was about ¼ Anglophones, consisting of Americans, Australians and Germans.  All of the cruisers were polite and friendly, but we were actually quite segregated according to language.  The talks were given separately in French and in English.  (The English was “sort-of” for the most part.  The French are notorious for speaking English as though it were French, and it was certainly a challenge for native creole speakers to speak English as they had been instructed by their teachers whose second language was French.  (Here I am just describing the realities of these lectures…and not in any way excusing us Americans for our pitiful abilities in foreign languages!)

     The tours were also segregated by language, for good reason.  I think each group was only six to eight people, so therefore were very personalized and the logistics were generally done so well that we never had to even think about them.  And, inevitably the social interactions were between language compatriots.  I did have one chance to really speak French I will come back to when we get to that day. 

     I had one treatment at the spa, and it was excellent.  It’s always tricky to schedule these things as we only knew what the schedule would be the night before (and even then, the weather often required a change of plans!)  The suites have butlers, and I really appreciated all the things that Hasan did for us.  He really smoothed the way for any requests, and we loved the wheeled-in table beautifully set for breakfast each morning.

    The food.  The cheese and pastries were uniformly excellent.  At the Grill for lunch and dinner and the Main Restaurant for lunch, for 19 days, the starters were buffet style and almost the same every single day. It got tedious.  At the Grill in the evening, there were several different choices for the main course, and also an excellent “Butchers offering”.  It was there that lunchtime might also bring a Paella or a shellfish feast.  There were usually more French folks there than Americans as it was pretty sticky and wind-still there.  In both places, anything that was very traditionally old-fashioned French was greatly appreciated by all.

 

Edited February 10 by vjt
Duplicate

[jpalbny]

Oh zebu! We ate that a few times on our Madagascar trip. Tolerable if you like your beef well-done. They said that you have to cook it to that temperature, in order to not consume (live) parasites. 🤢

 

Nice baobab! And looking forward to the rest of the journey. 

Edited February 10 by jpalbny

[vjt]

 

jpalbny, I have enjoyed your comments so much.  Without any editorial comments, I will simply say that we had no opportunity to enjoy Zebu meat.

 

Sunday, January 21.  This day’s report is based on Walter’s experiences in Belo sur Mer. This is the first village we were able to visit which was steeped in traditional culture, and which relies on the ancient tradition of shipbuilding, in this case, they are called boutres, a type of dhow.  As usual, we were divided into language-based group and made wet landings along the beach.  The heat required early departures and all were back on board by 11:00.

     Here is a boat being renewed by tarring. 

 

 

   

[vjt]

Here is a beautiful completed hull:

 

[vjt]

The local Hotel: The Door

Edited February 18 by vjt
Misspelling

[vjt]

Local Shops:

[vjt]

......And, in  the afternoon, we heard an excellent lecture on the importance of mangroves...but we had already seen the vast destruction of these on our briefly travels, taken for firewood.

[vjt]

     January 22.  This was really a fun day.  We visited Toleara.  It is the capital of the southern part becamof Madagascar, still on the west side.  This town has an interesting history.  It was founded as a Vezo city by the Kings of the 18^th century as fishing village, safely surrounded by a coral reef.  It became a trading post, and by 1897, the French Vice-Residence shifted here.  By 1903, Toleara became a deep seaport from where live Zebus, packaged meat and cassava were exported.  It has now become a center of imports (to me signaling the dependance of this area on the outside world, even for food) and the harbor is largely silted in as it is part of an enormous estuarine system.  It is now a spread-out metropolis of 200,000 people, with the main hope for financial success, an increase in to tourism.  I guess we did our share!

 

     Before we disembarked, we had a truly wonderful lecture on “Customs in Madagascar, then and now.”  It had particular meaning as the speaker, a Malagasy guide, was part of a traditional family.  This helped us put together a lot of things we had learned and seen, and those yet to come.