Friday 17 May 2019: Ankarana -  Ankify - Hellville/Nosy Be:  ± 50 km, 4 hours, sunny and hot 30ºC

This morning, after getting up, I discover just next to my bed a Giant Madagascar mille-pattes colossobolus giganteus! So we had a good animal collection these last days. At 7:30 drive to Ankify where we took a private express boat (1/2 hour) to Hellville, the main town on Nosy Be. Our hotel Arc en Ciel is on the northwestern side, in Dzamandzar, of the island (about 1/2 hour drive from Hellville). We got the very nice villa #10 with 2 floors and 2 huge beds (2 x 2 m) on 2 floors. Julia went directly to bed, not feeling well with fever. Volker had a sandwich for lunch, in the evening Volker had a shrimps and small octopus for dinner, while Julia had a good vegetable and chicken soup and felt better after that.

 

Saturday 18 May 2019: Nosy Be: sunny and hot

Julia is better, Volker now started with some fever. Good breakfast, relax on our terrace, Julia got a foot massage (Manuela 30 min 40.000 ar) then lunch: we both had the chicken soup this time. After a siesta, we walked through the "village" looking to buy bananas, but nobody had any for sale.

 

Sunday 19 May 2019: Nosy Be: wonderful hot

Another relaxing day. We walked along the beach to the left (south) up to the next village Dzamandzar and the afternoon Volker slept 4 hours while Julia set on the terrace and read and wrote.

 

Monday 20 May 2019: Nosy Be: less hot and cloudy

Walk the other way on the beach (north) up to the hotel Ravintsara Wellness where we were welcomed by a man who immediately said "this is a private hotel". Anyway, we had a drink there (we needed to wash our hands, that's why we "accepted" this welcome speech). The good thing too was that they had good wifi and we were able to call our agency Le Voyageur to ask if we could stay one night more here in Nosy Be and take the plane back to Tana on the next day. And we got the happy news that our flight of tomorrow has been changed by the airline from 8:10 to 18:00! Great, Julia was so happy! Back with a tuk-tuk back to our hotel (5.000 ariary/pax). Back home we arranged for early lunch and with a tuk-tuk we went up to Chanty Beach (15.000 ariary for both) and took a local boat to Nosy Sakatia with Ferdinand to see the giant turtles (60.000 ariary -we gave 10.000 ar more). We got snorkel gear (10.000 ar/pax) and snorkelled at the protected area for these amazing turtles. Back with our tuk-tuk for the same price. A good swim in the pool with a cocktail and then siesta until 20:00 when there will be a Malagasy buffett with typical local music.

 

Tuesday 21 May 2019: Flight Nosy Be - Antananarivo:

This morning we walked into "town" of Dzamandzar. There were all kind of stalls along two roads, and walking back to the beach we crossed through the maze of "streets" between huts with lots of music, people, animals, old railway, rubbish etc. Delicious lunch with ceviche and home made gnocchi a l'arrabiata. We sad goodbye to all the lovely people who spoiled us four days long. A new guide, Mr. Mamo -this time in a nice Hiunday- drove us to the tiny airport Nose Be where we waited 2,5 hours for our flight that departed at 17:50. Arrival in Antananarivo at 19:15. Our new guide for the next 2 days was waiting for us. Drive to the Hotel Belvedere, where we got a superior room #26 (a duplex on the second floor).