The 3 bays of Diego Suarez (22 May 2010)
The next day we had the luxury of a lie-in as we didn’t have to leave till 9am. We were going to explore some secluded beaches and see some boababs too. I really love baobabs so I was as excited about them even more so than about the water colour. We passed quite a few areas with mangrove and their version of ‘sugar loaf’ and it was very pretty, with the boababs scattered around the hills to make it all look ‘extra exotic’ and more African (you don’t find them on any other continent I believe). They have 8 species of baobabs in Madagascar but one was endemic to the Diego Suarez area.
The first two beaches we went to were a bit disappointing, the sea was too rough. Quite a few people were actually doing some kind of ‘para-gliding’ where you surf with a parachute and let the wind drag you along... it was just too windy for my taste so I didn’t want to go in. My companions felt the same.
Our guide then said ‘ok, I know just the place then’ and he drove us to this totally deserted beach, with no wind (because it was on another side) and not a ripple. It was a-ma-zing. Like standing inside a blue pancake – that’s the best way I can describe its “stillness” quality -- the water hardly moved. If it had not been salty you could have thought it was a huge lake instead. And, bliss of bliss, there was absolutely no one else around. When I questioned why not, our guide said that it’s an ex-military base and they charge 70 cts to get on it and as most families earn 1 euro equivalent per day, if you have 2-4 kids, it’s just unaffordable.
But 70cts to a tourist is nothing (the price of an air-mail postage stamp !) so we were delighted. I took some fantastic shots there, with my polarizer helping cut the reflection in the water... and I realised there, more than anywhere else along the trip I guess, how very different it would have been if we had been the maximum allowed, i.e. 18 people instead of 3. My shots would have looked a lot less ‘peaceful’ with another 16 people in the water. What made this beach extra special was... its silence. Not even the sound of waves as there were none. It was so warm too, it was like stepping into bath water, about 28C water temperature. The sand was so white and fine and the water so clear that I even took my water shoes off because I wanted to feel the sand between my toes and I could clearly see there was no urchin or any pebble even.
In the afternoon we just drove around Diego Suarez, had lunch in another open-air restaurant and we went back to our hotel for 5pm as we wanted to make the most of Le Grand Hotel as it was so nice. In fact, we agreed that it was worth paying a bit more to have such a gorgeous decor, with tables set by the illuminated pool. The menu had ‘fish with vanilla sauce’ and as Madagascar is the ‘vanilla island’ I just had to try this out. It was delicious and beautifully presented, as you’d expect from a 4* hotel, but I didn’t really taste the vanilla much as such, if I’m honest. We tried ice-cream for dessert but every scoop I had (hazelnut, vanilla, pistachio) didn’t taste quite right due to being made with zebu milk. Pity to end on a ‘sour’ note. I did eat it (it was too much of an ‘ice-cream’ weather not to), but I did not enjoy it as much as I’d have done a ‘real’ ice cream – I know that much.
The next day we had the luxury of a lie-in as we didn’t have to leave till 9am. We were going to explore some secluded beaches and see some boababs too. I really love baobabs so I was as excited about them even more so than about the water colour. We passed quite a few areas with mangrove and their version of ‘sugar loaf’ and it was very pretty, with the boababs scattered around the hills to make it all look ‘extra exotic’ and more African (you don’t find them on any other continent I believe). They have 8 species of baobabs in Madagascar but one was endemic to the Diego Suarez area.
The first two beaches we went to were a bit disappointing, the sea was too rough. Quite a few people were actually doing some kind of ‘para-gliding’ where you surf with a parachute and let the wind drag you along... it was just too windy for my taste so I didn’t want to go in. My companions felt the same.
Our guide then said ‘ok, I know just the place then’ and he drove us to this totally deserted beach, with no wind (because it was on another side) and not a ripple. It was a-ma-zing. Like standing inside a blue pancake – that’s the best way I can describe its “stillness” quality -- the water hardly moved. If it had not been salty you could have thought it was a huge lake instead. And, bliss of bliss, there was absolutely no one else around. When I questioned why not, our guide said that it’s an ex-military base and they charge 70 cts to get on it and as most families earn 1 euro equivalent per day, if you have 2-4 kids, it’s just unaffordable.
But 70cts to a tourist is nothing (the price of an air-mail postage stamp !) so we were delighted. I took some fantastic shots there, with my polarizer helping cut the reflection in the water... and I realised there, more than anywhere else along the trip I guess, how very different it would have been if we had been the maximum allowed, i.e. 18 people instead of 3. My shots would have looked a lot less ‘peaceful’ with another 16 people in the water. What made this beach extra special was... its silence. Not even the sound of waves as there were none. It was so warm too, it was like stepping into bath water, about 28C water temperature. The sand was so white and fine and the water so clear that I even took my water shoes off because I wanted to feel the sand between my toes and I could clearly see there was no urchin or any pebble even.
In the afternoon we just drove around Diego Suarez, had lunch in another open-air restaurant and we went back to our hotel for 5pm as we wanted to make the most of Le Grand Hotel as it was so nice. In fact, we agreed that it was worth paying a bit more to have such a gorgeous decor, with tables set by the illuminated pool. The menu had ‘fish with vanilla sauce’ and as Madagascar is the ‘vanilla island’ I just had to try this out. It was delicious and beautifully presented, as you’d expect from a 4* hotel, but I didn’t really taste the vanilla much as such, if I’m honest. We tried ice-cream for dessert but every scoop I had (hazelnut, vanilla, pistachio) didn’t taste quite right due to being made with zebu milk. Pity to end on a ‘sour’ note. I did eat it (it was too much of an ‘ice-cream’ weather not to), but I did not enjoy it as much as I’d have done a ‘real’ ice cream – I know that much.
posted by Sylvie at 9:58 PM
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