The Great Escape!: Settling In

You'll know you've done something really wrong in this life, when you come back
in your next life as a Zebu.

Zebu's are the cows in Madagascar. They have a huge hump on their backs and
have the jobs of oxen in days gone by, spending most of their days hauling carts
with goods and people around. One Zebu to one cart, however, the carts
sometimes are carrying things like reems of rebar plus two people. They don't
seem to moan too much or put up too much grief while working, a rope through
their noses to steer and control them, plodding along in the heat and dust.
I can think of better things I'd like to be doing.

I guess you know you're settling in somewhere when the weeks start sliding past
and we look at each other and go - Shit! Its been a whole month already. It can't
have gone by so fast! But it has and thats a good sign that we're settling in.
Heading into Hellville town on a weekend we're delighted to bump into Ryan, have
a quick chat, walk along further and toot, toot from Mohammed in his car, with
two guests of Ross's that we introduced ourselves to earlier in the week at
Manga Be - the resort down the beach from us which is the starting point for all
Ross and Mohammeds guests, walking out of the supermarket - there's Monique
who owns Anjiamaranga where we stayed when we came here in August and
have stayed in touch with, getting advice on moving over from her. Walking up to
catch a taxi we stop for a chat with Kyle whose stocking up for an 11 day
charter, and make plans with him to catch up for a beer when he gets back. Yes,
we're starting to feel like locals.

I did my first shop in the Hellville market in the centre of the town. We've usually
been to the much smaller market in Dzamandzar, about the same distance away
from us but without the hustle and bustle of a town as its a village.

The market is A - MAAAZING! Just rows and rows of stalls with veg and fruit and
spices and baskets and woven mats and fish and meat and massive mud crabs
and bags of rice and flour and kids playing in the aisles .. some of the little girls
were painting each others faces and arms and legs with this stuff that looked like
putty, but when dried rubbed off like chalk, I know because of course I thought it
was awesome and got involved, to much giggling while the girls put spots all over
my hand! It was great when I was buying off one stall and the lady had her face
painted, I showed her my hand and she cracked up and threw in a few extra
green beans.

The word for gift here, is Cadeau. Like when someone does something for you,
you give them cadeau or when you spend a lot in a store you get cadeau - a free
mango or other strange fruit! We usually think its because we barter for 10 limes,
bring their price down and agree, pay them and then chat and learn some
Malagas words, and they feel bad for ripping us off in the first place so give us 6
more limes LOL!

It certainly beats the cadeau we used to get at Barracuda - the booze shop in
Dubai - where you'd spend a small fortune and get a bottle of blackberry wine
and a case of paint stripper beer!

The other day David and I split up to get the chores done - he was running
around trying to sort the payment for our container which had finally arrived in
port, so I said I'd do the grocery shop to save us time - everything kinda shuts
down in town every day from 12 to 3.
After I finished in the market I was waiting for David to meet me back at the
rendezvous point - basically any shady spot across the road from the market. Its
not hard to spot the whitey! So across the road is a table, chair and beach
umbrella set up, like an office desk with a beach umbrella! Its set up in front of
the only pay phone / call box I've seen in town. So no one can actually access the
call box, and there sitting under the umbrella is Madame Top Up. She has about 6
mobile phones on the table and people keep coming up to her and - I gathered -
paying her to top up their phones from hers, or to make a quick call or send a
text to people. It was fascinating to watch. She was probably in her mid 20's and
had her gorgeous little daugter with her who couldn't have been more than 8
months old. I was pleased to see they have a strong ethic of having your kids at
work!!
Anyway - I plonked myself down at a bench next to her table and just sat there
watching the goings on. It was great, she never questioned why I sat
there or was bothered, we played with her baby, laughed and chatted in broken
french about the people walking by and the goings on of town. Other patrons
would come along, chat to her, chat to me, she'd explain I was english and they
would then greet me in English and come round for a chat. At 12 on the dot, her
husband arrived, he put a chain around the chair and table chaining them
together, said I should sit there as it was more comfy than the bench, she said
bye bye and off they went! Shop is now closed until later!

David and I decided we needed to see what all the hype was about Nosy
Sakatia, one of the larger small islands (if that makes sense) where a lot of diving
and spear fishing tour operators are located. We've still not made it to the land
itself, but have heard a lot about the South Africans running some of the spots
there and are pretty sure we'll get some Dive Master opportunitues there once
we learn a few of the dive spots. But before we explored the terra firma there,
we wanted to check out the fish life around it.

We asked a few different people - locals and vassas (foreigners / white people) -
what the closest point is from Nosy Be to Nosy Sakatia, so we could go across.
They all asked why, as a boat takes you whichever route ... No, no - we're
swimming! But the shortest gap is 1km ... And so ...?
So we were told Shanty Beach - well thats what it sounded like to us, so we
thought it must be Sandy Beach ... makes more sense to us. So we hopped into
a taxi brusse (collective style with spear guns and fins) and asked to go to Sandy
Beach. Lucky the whole accent thing is on our side, as it
turns out, Sandy Beach is actually Chanty Beach Hotel! And to get there, the taxi
just pulled off the main road onto a mud road (we'd had a LOT of rain the night
before) and was literally skidding and sliding along this road. We kept saying - no
problem, thank you, we can walk, but he replied - (he spoke great English) my
friend works at Chanty Beach so I can go see him ... and took us all the way.
As soon as we walked to the water, we had a guy offering to take us in his boat.
Now bear in mind, when we go on a spear fish, we have a back pack that can
get wet that holds: our flip flops, sunglasses, peak caps and a water bottle as its
going to be on my back while we snorkell. We are wearing baggies and rash
vests. We look great, I'm sure its a trend thats going to catch on outside of the
beach!

So in my baggies pocket, I have Ar 4000 for our return taxi and Ar 2000 I keep
as emergency money in case we need to buy a water or something!
We chat with this guy about the boat ride and ask him how much? He says Ar 40,
000. We freak - what??? He says - each way!
We start laughing, as it was always our intention to swim. We tell him don't
worry, we're swimming. He looked totally perplexed and did not really believe us
for an instant.
So we step forward, scan the two coatlines and find the spot thats the shortest
distance to swim between the two islands. It takes us about 40 mins to walk
there, over rocks and sand and crossing little mangrove streams. We get to our
point and start getting ready for the water, and of course get offered a ride in a
pirogue to get there - for a price of course! We again decline and say we're
swimming. All of them looked at us like we were mad.
So we hit the water, swam out and across - not much to see but sandy bottoms
for most of it and then much excitement about 10m from the island - CORAL! And
so much of it .... we swam and checked it all out, towards the Nosy Ratsy side
and thought that as we looped around, we'd be on the seaward side of the island
and probably see much bigger fish. NOT! Just more island. So we pulled up on a
beach for about ten minutes to drink some water and feel land after 2.5 hours of
swimming, and then started the journey back. So 5 hours in the water that day,
we only covered about 4km's though. Thats the day our waterproof camera
broke. They say its water proof to 10m, but they don't give a time allocation on
how long it can stay in the water - and I swam with it on my head a lot of the time
to keep it out the water. Grrrr.
Just before we started the swim back across to Nosy Be, some young Malagas
guys in a pirogue shouted to us to see our fish. David held up a couple of nice
dinner sized meals and these guys showed us they had one slightly bigger! They
usually only catch tiny tiny reef fish so a big fish is something special to them! We
all laughed and shouted how good it will be for us to eat these guys and well
done.
We climbed out of the water and then commenced our 40 min walk back to the
drop off point, and then had to walk all the way back to the main road - no taxis
just pass by Chanty Beach Hotel.
I can tell you now, it was bloody hot, we'd had one 1.5 litre bottle of water
between us from 9am, it was now long past 3 pm, and we were battling. We got
to the main road (I say main, but its the only road around Nosy Be!), found a
shady spot and plonked ourselves down to wait for a taxi brusse to pass, no idea
how busy it was at this part of the road as it was our first time there.
Well we didn't have to wait too long, as one pulled up - this was styled like a mini
bus, with two rows of normal mini bus style seats in the front and then two
benches in the back that faced each other. Low and behold, there in the back
where we climbed in were the guys from the pirogue! So we all had a good laugh
and compared fish and masks and snorkells and fins and had a good old chuckle
about what the chances were of comparing fish in the middle of the ocean to
being on the same taxi brusse nearly 2 hours later! All via gesturing and pointing
and some words thrown in as they spoke as much french as us!

Walking back from the beach one afternoon we see this youngster carrying a
huge big speaker on his shoulder. We say hi and ask him where the party is! He
asks us in slow, steady English, if we're English ... I guess he could tell from our
fluent, well accented French!
We chatted for a bit and he introduced himself as Pierrot. He finished his delivery
job and then popped in to ours for a more formal get to know you! he's a
youngster, 19, just finished school in Dzamandzar. His mom, brother and older
sister live on the mainland but he was sent to school here, but now he has to fend
for himself, find what jobs he can to live and pay his rent. Not once or ever told
like a sob story - this is just his lot, but he'd like to learn more English. He learned
some at school and would like to carry on and improve. So the next day he came
over with his school book and dictionary, and him and David sat for a couple of
hours doing English / French lessons!
He did tell us though, when we were flipping through some of our photos to show
him, that he quite fancies our friend Colleen! Asked if we could give her his
number. We tried to explain that she lives in America, but that didn't phase him,
so we've let Leen know that he's expecting her call!!!
He pops in every now and then for a chat, and told us he was entering the dance
competition in Dzamandzar. We'd seen the notice in town and he told us we
should come along. Its at 2pm on Saturday. Cool!
So we turn up at 2pm on Saturday and there is no action going down. We take a
walk around town, buy some samoosa's, find the poster - yes, still the same, ask
around, yes, 2pm .... by now its closer to 3. So we find the venue go inside and
order a beer. A guy called Odon, the MC for the compo comes over for a chat,
tells us it will start closer to 4. I guess they were waiting for Jirama (electricity)
but it never came so they cranked up the
generator and got underway.

I can truly say, I was impressed, and in some instances totally blown away. OK,
we were the only white people and the only people over the age of 21, but the
dancers, the choreography - coming from people who have never had any
profesional training - were incredible. Solo acts and some up to at least 12 in a
group, one even had 10 of them dancing to Gangnam Style - brilliant! Pierrot was
stoked to see us there, and did a number with some of his friends. He had
planned to do a routine on his own to Michael Jacksons "Billy Jean" and the kid
had worked so hard, but because of the delay in starting and no sign of power
and with the sun fading outside, they had to cut the competition short as it got too
dark to see, so he never got his chance!
We were totally excited when we got the call from our friends Ryan and Cath that
they were back in town! David and Ryan had been at school together and hadn't
seen each other since then (a mere couple of years ago of course) and we had
first met Cath last August when we came to scope out Madagascar as a place to
live - Cath is the sister of one half of some of our Dubai besties and all out
hooligan (pre 5 month old Dylan's arrival of course), Geoff Ford!

We met up with them in Oasis cafe and made plans for us to go and spend the
weekend with them. They live on Nosy Komba, the small island across from Nosy
Be.
Ryan picked us up in his boat Lounasea and we headed back to theirs. You can
only access Nosy Komba via boat.
We picked up some supplies in town and were over at Nosy Komba by 10am!
The draw card for NK is that it is what you expect from idyllic Madagascar. Its
stunning. Private access to each home, no roads or shops. Blue and turquoise
water surrounds you with mountains of coral and views towards Nosy Tanikely,
the main land and Nosy Be. Looking out from Ryan and Caths you can't help but
stare at how exquisite it is and feel you've just landed in the lap of luxury for a
couple of days ... and thats before Catherine even starts to feed you!
Wow! After a month of the simple life it was so good to be with good friends,
relaxing, chatting in proper South African english, drinking beer and gin and tonics
and just catching up. For lunch Cath made a salad with roasted butternut, feta,
beetroot and steak. Ah! The flavours! Every mouthful had a different texture and
flavour, utter gluttony! David and I headed down to the sea for a snorkell to check
out the local coral and fish while the sun was setting. Perfection! Dinner was
Cath's famous Tamarin Duck. Oh my gosh! The sweet and tart combined with the
rich duck and roasted veg .... seriously spoilt Kitchings! We went to bed very full
and ready for an early start to go out spear fishing for the day.
The boat staff have Sundays off, so I elected myself to be boat boy / topman for
the day. David, Ryan and Antoinin would be the spearo's. We were up at 6 (me
6:30 - I obviously can get ready faster than the boys) and we were off to fetch
Antoinin at 7am.

I can honestly say I achieved some great feat on Sunday - I finally mastered and
overcame my sea sickness. I usually suffer really badly, but on Sunday, I spent 9
hours on a bobbing boat, watching the guys in the water, drifting from the marker
buoy, driving back to get closer to keep an eye on them, picking them up with
their mahusive catches (I'll need to do a fair amount more gardening to biuld the
muscles to pull their huge fish on board), but I didn't feel queasy even once.
Woop Woop! It was an awesome day out, and we were due to head home
Sunday, but as it got dark and fairly choppy, Ryan suggested we just stay at
theirs for another night, and we were stoked!
The only draw back and the reason we chose Nosy Be instead of Nosy Komba is
that to get to your place, you can't really launch a boat in due to rocks and
waves, so you have to moore far out and get a pirogue to transport you and your
stuff in / out and hope like hell it doesn't flip or you drop your only working
camera in etc - hence we never took it. Also, you can't walk to a shop or walk to
the beach or anywhere, its all access and travel by boat. Its a perfect holiday
destination and stunning for sure, but just not practical enough for David and I. So
we swap the sea views for green lush rice paddies and a 2 min walk to the sea.
But we won't say no to more weekend stays, thats for sure!
There is little more that a novice spearfisherman can ask for than an invitation
from a Springbok spearo to go diving with him and ones of his mates that
practically lives spearfishing in an area teaming with all sorts of game fish and
prize catches. We were lucky enough to be invited to join Ryan and Antonin to go
out for a days fishing off Ryan's boat, Lounasea. As always with fishing we're up
early at 6am and get the boat packed and head out. We leave the Nosy Be
archipelago and head to Mitsio Islands about 55 km away. All along the way
we're watching the charts and the echo-sounder to find new locations to fish
while checking out some of the spots that Ryan and Antonin have spent literally
100s of hours locating, which makes these fishing spots a closely gaurded secret
and I had to promise not to use a GPS to mark the spots. I replied laughing,
"even with a GPS mark I probably couldn't find them again!" These locations are
seriously in the middle of the ocean!
So with Alison taking on the duties of skipper or boat boy, dropping us at dive
spots and then returing with the boat to pick us up and re-deposit us up-current
from the spot as well as helping haul the fish we caught onboard. Alison did an
epic job and might have a long term career over here as skipper!
The first place we stopped was in 35 meters of water and the experts were
nailing big Spanish Mackrel (Coutta/kingfish) but I didn't see anything and for a
while I thought I was seriously out of my depth, pardon the pun! Still I persisited
and watched my mentors to try and learn as much as possible. At the next stop I
saw 100s of fish but none of species that we were hunting for, until I saw a big
Brassy Kingfish, well I thought it was a Travalley but was corrected later on. I
was at 21.1 meters and nearing the end of my bottom time when he came into
view, I tracked him briefly and let the spear go nailing him right in the gill plate, a
sure shot. I finned to the surface for air and grabbed on the flotation buoy that
was now attached to the fish - a little exhausted, but stoked with my biggest fish
ever and free-diving personal best. I got congrats and quiet warning to be careful
from the other 2 spearo's who said I looked a little blue when I got to the top.
At another location, the edge of a trench that went from 30m to 65m deep, there
were so many fish like Surgeon Fish and Unicorn fish that we couldn't see the
bottom through them! Suddenly I hear Antonin's speargun shoot and swim over to
see what he's caught. I still don't know because as I get there 2 white tip reef
sharks come up and smash into the fish tearing it apart in 2 seconds leaving
murky bloody water and the fish's head floating silently to the bottom. Now I'm
both nervous and super excited having never seen a live shark attack on a fish
before. I'm shouting to Alison about the sharks and trying to get Ryan or Ant to
pay attention, but they are so blase and as a third white tip swims up to see the
action Ryan simply ducks his head under and dives right between them to go
shoot another fish! These 2 guys didn't even mention or pay one seconds
attention to the 3 sharks! One swam right up to me while I kept my speargun
pointed at its head, he was no more than half a meter from my speartip at one
point! Anyway once I get the chance to ask Ryan if its safe to dive with the
sharks there and he says, "Come on man, those sharks are only the length of
your fins!" It was such an exhillarating experience and one I won't forget!
We continued with dives at various spots and lots of big Spanish Mackrel and
other fish. I went on to shoot a big Queenfish and a Barracuda. After 9 hours at
sea, an epic day's fishing we headed back to Nosy Komba, one last stop on the
way home was a small wreck that Ryan found and marked on his GPS and
named after Alison and I, so somewhere out there, between the archipelagos of
Mitsio and Nosy Be is a previously unknown wreck now called "Dave n Al".

Thanks Ryan and Antonin for teaching me so much!

Its been great having our 'stuff' here the last couple of weeks. We have gone
cycling on our bikes exploring more, played tennis on the beach, I've done a few
SUP's - like yesterday, David took the quad to go spearing and I paddled round
to him - 42 mins there, and then back into the wind, 50 mins back!!
Its great having the quad too, we are in Hellville this morning to pick up our
insurance papers and then we will be able to go all over the island and explore
more, can't wait!

Next step - buy a boat!

I've only managed to load 3 of the 40 odd pics! Seriously - never take your first world IT and internet for granted, its the only thing that frustrates me, hence we don't attempt it more than once a month or so lol!!! Will try and update with more later!