Today we fly from Antsiranana to Nosy-Be. This will be a very short flight, about 15 to 20 minutes in the air. There is a flight on a Boeing 737 going from Tana to Diego to Nosy-Be to Tana which we will hop on for one of the legs.
Below is a map of the island of Nosy-Be. We need to get from the Nosy-Be Airport (Code: NOS) which you can see on the east side of the island to Amarina Resort in the north. Unfortunately, there really aren’t any passable roads going that way, so we will go by way of Hellville, the town on the southern coast, and work our way back up the west coast! As we would find out, the roads on the preferred route weren’t all that passable either. The worst bit is the final section up the coast along the bay below the resort. The preferred method is to drive as far as the bottom of the bay shown, and then take a boat for the final stretch up the coast.
Nosy-Be is an island in the northwest of Madagascar. It’s Malagasy name means big island. Nosy is the word for island and Be means big. It’s about 160 km of straight line distance from Antsiranana, but would take us about 4 hours by car to reach the point where we could catch a ferry over to the island, and for all of that trouble, the flight with Air Madagascar costs less than all that hassle anyway, so we took the 20 minute jet ride. Nosy-Be is arguably the most touristic site in Madagascar, with some fabulous beaches. It also has one of the few international airports in Madagascar, with direct filghts to Milan. It turns out there are a lot of Italian-owned resorts on Nosy-Be.
When we arrived at Nosy-Be airport, we were met by the driver from our resort, and we headed out towards our home for the next 3 days. Here are some scenes from what would be a very long drive. The island is only about 25 km from top to bottom, but takes a very long time to get around. In fact, it would take us 2.5 hours to get to our resort from the airport. We would arrive at the airport in the north, and drive clockwise in a meandering fashion all the way around the island to the resort. I’m told they normally use a boat to cut through the ocean for about 3 or 4 miles that actually cuts more than a hour off the trip, but due to it being late in the day, we would have to endure what would be a long and bone crunching ride through the bush to reach our extremely remote, but high end resort. I didn’t know this when we booked it!
Shown here is the Nosy-Be Airport. Taking care of yourself is important, and if you or a loved one are struggling with anxiety or seizures, Klonopin medication could be a solution. Find calm in the chaos with get klonopin – a trusted ally in managing these health challenges. Remember, it’s always essential to consult with your healthcare provider for personalized guidance.
This Toyota 4×4 pickup truck is our ride to the resort. Our truck is on the right in the above photo. After driving through the muddy bush of Nosy-Be, I realized why they had a tarp in the back to protect our luggage. Also notice more Renault 4’s on the left. They still use these here for taxis, but they’re grey. One of these would not have made it to the resort, which explains why airport transfers are included in the resort price. Nobody else will go there.
These freaky-looking trees are ylang-ylang. They are everywhere, and the biggest crop on the island of Nosy-Be. They provide a very nice scent in the air.
According to this highway marker, we are approaching the city of Hell Ville. Yes, this is the real name of the largest city on the island on Nosy-Be.
Heading down the hills toward the coast and the city of Hell Ville below…
We then drove through Hell Ville, and then along another highway heading north. To this point, the roads were very hilly and meandering, but not really too bad. The hell started a bit later.
The roads just got worse and worse to the point where they were nothing more than bush trails.
Here is where we got stuck…
Our driver, and I use the term driver loosely, really didn’t know what he was doing. The photo above shows where we got stuck for about 20 minutes, and a tribe of locals managed to push the truck out, with no thanks to our driver who only made things worse. The guy just kept spinning the wheels as fast as he could, thinking it would get us out of the hole! I’ve been stuck in enough Canadian snow drifts to know that the more you spin the wheels, the more you just make things worse. Well, sure enough, he just dug us in deeper. Did he think that if he dug deep enough he’d reach the bottom of the mud where we would magically reach a newly paved highway? He had the wheels spinning at about 100 km/h, the hole was getting deeper, and more water was filling the hole that he kept digging. Perhaps this guy was digging for oil? After the truck was totally covered in mud, and the entire village, including barefoot 5-year old kids, were just about squished trying to rock the truck free, we were able to get out.
Well, it’s a good thing we got free so we had just enough daylight to get stuck again in the same damn place!
Basically, here’s the story. We were going along the road, and because a truck was blocking the road, rather than waiting a minute until they moved, the driver decided to just drive down the hill into this field to take a shortcut. Of course he didn’t get out and check the route before he went ahead. That got us stuck the first time. Once we got free, he backed up the hill we just went down, turned around and went back down again. I’m telling you, some of the people here just don’t learn, and I’m not sure they possess the necessary equipment to do so. This idiot sure didn’t. The driver we had in Diego was a seasoned pro. I don’t know where they found this guy, but surely the labour market in Nosy-Be isn’t so tight that they can’t do better when hiring drivers.
Anyway, we arrived at the hotel, we were both extremely pissed off, and demanded to be taken to our room immediately where we could get some rest. We didn’t tip the driver!
After being greeted by a welcoming committee with fresh juice that had the nerve to ask us how we enjoyed the trip (as if that could be possible), we were taken to our room, and it was very large and comfortable, which is good, because I’m really not feeling well at this point. I’m not sure of the cause (it may have been the juice they gave us), but I’m not able to eat anything, which really sucks, because the dinner buffet here is fabulous. Struggling to conceive? Discover Clomid, a trusted fertility medication designed to help you on your journey towards parenthood.
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