We had a fabulous time!

Here’s my 2 cents worth, Ingrid will pass on some pictures for you in due course:

• Ile aux Nattes is extremely beautiful; with some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen definitively top 3 at least. It’s great to just walk around and adventure on your own without having to go on an excursion. We did lots of exploring and hanging around at no cost. Malagasies are as charming as always and we met lots of interesting people, also did some great shopping in Tana. Weather was very kind to us. We loved Residence Lapasoa – would definitely recommend that hotel! Very authentic and well situated.
• The diving & snorkeling was disappointing – Ingrid can tell you more about this, but it seems all of the dive operators on Ile St Marie have closed except 1. So they charge huge prices and it wasn’t very organized. Ingrid & Willem didn’t see much and even aborted 1 of the 2 dives. We also heard more than 1 story of leaky bottles, damaged equipment etc. So we didn’t spend much time or money on this.
• In general the island was VERY quiet – Okkie said that some weeks there wasn’t a single visitor on the whole island. He also told us that he doesn’t have a single booking for the next 2 weeks. So lots of “ghost” bungalows and abandoned hotels. Great for us, as it was very quiet and peaceful, but you can’t help wondering how long they’re going to last. No one seemed to know if it was the economic downturn or the general economy. Probably both in my opinion.
• The transfers were always excellent – particularly the guys in Tana (even when we were delayed)
• Flight to Tana there and back was very empty – the one to the island was 100% full. Nothing much to say about the flight, it was fine
• La Petite Traversee was generally great – loved the position, the food was really good (a superb and bright-eyed chef Olivier!) and overall it was beautiful. Except for an interesting characterful place at the end of the beach (Andalasara?) I wouldn’t stay anywhere else. Baboo Village also looked perfectly kept and bright, but the no-hot-water-thing is a bit of a turn off!

Overall as always the organisation and everything was great. And having spent the day in JHB all I can say is that I miss it already!

Feel free to give me a ring if you’d like more detail on anything…

Thanks as always, Ed
Andrea.

Hope you ladies are well and having a good week so far up in Durbs…

Sorry I’ve not gotten back to you sooner, been off from work this week as well, and actually redoing my garden, so been slaving away the last couple days… nothing like manually moving 1.5 tons of gravel and stone around by hand!! J

We had an amazing trip to Madagascar, despite the luggage loss… of course for me it was bitterly disappointing as I couldn’t fish, which I am sure you’ve realised by now is my life blood. But the place and people really were amazing, so that made up for it.

Sakatia Lodge, Jose and Isabella and their staff are absolutely incredible, so much more than we expected! Hopefully we’ll be returning soon, because we absolutely loved it! Perfect weather too, so a great time to be there.

Many Thanks and chat soon.
Andre

Just a short note to let you know that we had a most wonderful holiday, Sakatia is really fantastic. Everything went off smoothly, we had no problems with delays in leaving and arriving there. We were warmly greeted by Jose, Isabella and Jacque. The food was great and the accommodation was lovely. The kids had a fantastic time snorkelling and learning to dive with Jacque. The water was 30C. Nothing was too much effort. We would recommend going there to anyone. The excursions were great, the diving was good, and all round it was a very good holiday. The new family bungalow is absolutely fantastic! The staff were really special to the children

Iranja, was also lovely, but different. Also nothing was spared in making sure that the stay was a good one. We all got to see the turtles, from the laying, to the hatching, to the dash to the sea. The children were kept busy learning to ski, ride the banana boat and knee board. The diving was also good. It was quiet evident that a smattering of French will make a whole lot of difference.

Enclosed are some photos and a link to a few more.

Kind Regards,
Denis and Karen

Overall the vacation was excellent. Arrival at Fascene at Nosy Be was smooth, the local operator was helpful and efficient and got us to Shany Beach without a hiccup. The trip by piroque to Sakatia lodge was an experience for the girls. We were met by Isobella at Sakatia. The lodge is fantastic – note I’m not one for hyperbole. The diving in the area, both in the ‘bay’ and on the western side of the island is some of the best I’ve experienced. Water temp was at worst 28 degrees and viz was at worst 15m (I estimate we had 50m on one of the dives). The lodge only has 4 dive torches so I’d recommend that keen divers take a small torch with so as not to miss on night dives. The dive club has 12 lt steels as standard and has 2x 15 lt steels for the heavy breathers. My eldest started by not even making 30 minutes on a 12 lt and did her last dive with me using a 12 lt and doing 90 minutes. Isobella was most accommodating – I have a shellfish allergy :-( and my eldest is vegan but we were sorted from a food perspective. I suggest that people take a DBB as opposed to a BB option; there isn’t really another eatery nearby unless you
choose a nighttime piroque trip.

Dive costs are expensive (twice the price of ZA), that’s to be expected everything has to be brought in so I’m not complaining, just be aware. I took 1100.00 euro in cash with; it wasn’t enough and I put the tab onto my VISA card instead (better in fact ‘cause I’ve got only one currency conversion fee Alairy to ZAR and not two [ZAR -> Euro -> Alairy]).

Downsides: The airport visa’s are damn expensive (171.00 euro for the 3 of us) and they now only give 3 month visas) previously the 1 month visas were 19 euro each. Try and get visas via the Pretoria consulate. The Tana travel operative was a little inefficient; Monika’s transfer from the airport to the Hotel wasn’t organized and they had 4 of us booked into 1 room; they replaced the vouchers you provided with ones they printed and on the return there was only a single room [hence my call to you]. We had to organize a separate room directly with the hotel! The IC hotel doesn’t have hot water and the loos are a little inefficient (didn’t flush), the service and food was pleasant enough though and the pool was most welcome. As a one night stopover, it’s good enough.

• Sakatia Lodge 5 out of 5
• Nosy Be logistics 5 out of 5
• Diving 5 out of 5
• Tana Logistics 2 out of 5 – local operator and airport porters
• IC Hotel 3 out of 5
• Air Madagascar 2.5 out of 5 – ran late, check-in inefficiencies, poor in-flight service
• SAA 2.5 out of 5 – no vegan meals for my daughter and they ran late
• Webtours 4.9 out of 5 – I’ve not yet received the Madagascar book!

Finally, the airport porters at Tana are pushy and want big money. On arrival two of them wanted 10 euro each for pushing two trolleys 100 meters. Then it was 5 euros each and when they finally figured by my glare that dying would be quick if they pissed me off any further they settled for 2 euros each (change from the visas). I suggest that people have about 3000 to 4000 Alairy in cash for the tip else tell them in no uncertain terms to stuff off. Maybe the local operator should organize a standard fee for doing this – it left a poor taste. There was none of this in Fascene.

Regards