NORDLYS - Madagascar experience

Madagascar experience

NORDLYS

David and Annette Ridout

Mon 3 Sep 2007 07:38

A Madagascan experience

13:43S 48:11E

Mamoko anchorage

3rd September 2007

The half mile wide entrance gave onto an inland sea that reached over three miles into the scrubby countryside that makes up the coastline of north west Madagascar. A bay to our right was fringed with either mangrove or yellow sand. To our left it was just scrub and mangrove right to the water's edge. Ahead the water narrowed before opening up again. Beyond this the hills rose skywards, their surface a mixture of woodland and deforested red earth.

The way point we had been given was on the eastern side of the inner narrows. Here two moorings and through the binoculars some signs of man made habitation were visible. The only reason that this was unlikely to be one of the many small villages that dot this coast was the presence of a solitary pole from which flew the green, red and white of the Madagascan flag and its similar coloured but more intricate South African counterpart. There were no signs of Andrew, a South African we had heard was trying to set up home and to provide some facilities for visiting yachts and their crews. At the suggestion of others we had come to support this enterprise.

Entering a gap in the mangroves in our dinghy I was met by the twin sterns of an old Tahitian catamaran that was hauled up the small beach. Also a tousle haired, T shirt and shorts clad figure in his forties. 'Andrew I presume' were my opening words to one of the stranger and more mysterious characters I have met in my travels. In the last eighteen months Andrew, his wife and a married local couple have turned a scrub covered hillside into a home. Each couple has constructed a house, of sorts. Vegetables, fruit and hen houses abound. A well has been dug and a tank plus pump installed. A few solar panels augmented by a generator, when there is petrol to drive it, are the only power sources. Thus refrigeration is seldom at hand. Showing us around Andrew was obviously knowledgeable about his plants but was increasingly frustrated by the pests and the difficulties in trying to get fruit or veg to mature on the barren earth. Manure was not available except by going over to the other side of the bay and scooping up the droppings of some local cows. Transporting these back in a dug out and hoping they would provide some extra umph to the soil. There is no road within 20km of this hillside. Everything has been or is brought in by local dhow, pirogue or on his own catamaran.

Andrew is friendly, interesting with a good knowledge of national politics and able to speak the local Madagascan language. He admits to being in the South African police before the country changed political tack. After this spell he became a professional yachtsman during which time he came to Madagascar many times and gained a lot of local knowledge before deciding to set up camp here. We dived together, drank together, ate together and partied together when another South African yacht turned up. It was while drinking together with Andrew and two South Africans off the other boat that I realised what a lot of knowledge these people had of poisons, body disposal, knife fights and other less savoury aspects of life. At the end of all this neither Annette nor myself really had any idea what made this far from anti social man lock himself away in such isolation. We did not meet his wife who was away in South Africa but he told Annette that she was as happy or even happier than he was to be there. In Yorkshire we have a saying, 'there's nowt so queer as folk'.

Yesterday we anchored off a village that boasts a small constantly running stream. Going ashore we were met by a local man who obviously expected to do our washing for us. This with Annette's aid he did. He now sports a good shirt that started off life in America, several photos of himself that I took and printed out and we have had yet another interesting 'washing session' to add to the several that Annette wrote about in the Potter ship last year.

So as I wrap this up we are awaiting our good friends from Lymington, Michael and Diana who arrive on the 8th. As I write there is some doubt as to exactly where they are arriving but this minor matter will no doubt get sorted. So far we have joined up in places as diverse as the San Blas Islands of Panama and the many islands of Vanuatu. Not to mention the civilisation of New Zealand. Before then we will tackle the noise heat and dust of Hellville in order to restock.

Happy times

David