Feb 19, Nosy Be Madagascar
We arrived at our anchorage about noon and were immediately approached by vendors in boats. I'm not sure just how the transaction was going to take place since these guys were about 30 feet below us, but perhaps there were some people on the open deck 5 they were negotiating with.
It was a beautiful day, and the tender ride to the quay was about as pleasant as one of those trips can be. The ocean was very placid.
At the quay we transferred to a small boat for our tour of Lokobe Natural Reserve, in hopes of seeing lemurs.
Our walk was through a jungle, a very narrow path and quite muddy with very damp clay. Oceania deemed the tour "strenuous". The first 10 minutes were, going uphill in poor footing, in heat and humidity that passed 85 on both scales, or so it felt. There were three people in our group of 15 with walking sticks. Two of them turned around after ten minutes and returned to the beach. Interesting spiral in the tree trunk here.
Chameleons and iguanas are part of the fauna in the forest. This guy was invisible until he raised his head from the tree. If our guide "Bruce" hadn't pointed him out, I would have never seen him.
This guy, if I understood Bruce correctly, was 15 years old. Unless he had been at the birthday party, I'm not sure how Bruce knew that.
The highlight of the walk in the woods, a mother lemur and child, about 25 feet up in a tree. I never saw the black blob up there as Bruce had moved on and wasn't pointing. Cynthia took this picture and you can seen the baby's head looking down at her.
Definitely not Cynthia's favorite part of the hike.
Following the 90-minute hike through the woods, we went down the beach where there were drinks, snacks, dancing girls and (of course) items for sale.
It was a beautiful location.
On the way back to the quay the boat ride was bumpy because they were going fast.
We decided this tour had been a disappointment. We were in a group of 15 -- the boat's capacity -- and Bruce led us along the trail. The single file didn't allow most of us to hear him, and when he found something the line would stop as each person filed past Bruce, found the item of interest and took a picture. Then Bruce would squeeze up to the beginning and we'd move along. Bruce had three helpers, and if each of them had led a group of five it might have been better. But Bruce was the only English speaker. The lemurs were uncooperative, but that's their right.
Other tours saw many lemurs, but in more of a zoo-like setting. I guess when we get back home we'll drive up to Duke University and see the lemurs there. It'll be about the same.
Other notes of interest for us on our trip:
Our stateroom attendant, Bayu is now a father. His wife delivered their first baby, an 8lb 2oz boy this morning in the Philippines and Bayu is grinning ear to ear. Dad named him Dirgo, which means "sea", since Dad is at sea. He gets off the boat in Singapore in about three weeks. We'll hate to see him go but happy for him.
Oceania, at the demands of the Chinese government, has changed our itinerary through China. The net result was our Beijing stop would be only a single day, leaving us to choose between the Great Wall, or downtown Beijing and the the Forbidden City and Tiananmen
Square. As soon as that was announced, we added the Ancient Capitals overland tour to our trip, and we just found out yesterday morning (it only took the Chinese tour operator two weeks to decide if we could join) that we were in.
Our new itinerary has us leaving Shanghai via air on the third day there (April 4). We will spend two nights in the ancient capital of Xian, then fly to Beijing on April 6 to tour the Great Wall, spend the night in downtown Beijing, and tour Beijing on April 7 before returning to the ship that evening.
We arrived at our anchorage about noon and were immediately approached by vendors in boats. I'm not sure just how the transaction was going to take place since these guys were about 30 feet below us, but perhaps there were some people on the open deck 5 they were negotiating with.
It was a beautiful day, and the tender ride to the quay was about as pleasant as one of those trips can be. The ocean was very placid.
At the quay we transferred to a small boat for our tour of Lokobe Natural Reserve, in hopes of seeing lemurs.
Our walk was through a jungle, a very narrow path and quite muddy with very damp clay. Oceania deemed the tour "strenuous". The first 10 minutes were, going uphill in poor footing, in heat and humidity that passed 85 on both scales, or so it felt. There were three people in our group of 15 with walking sticks. Two of them turned around after ten minutes and returned to the beach. Interesting spiral in the tree trunk here.
Chameleons and iguanas are part of the fauna in the forest. This guy was invisible until he raised his head from the tree. If our guide "Bruce" hadn't pointed him out, I would have never seen him.
The highlight of the walk in the woods, a mother lemur and child, about 25 feet up in a tree. I never saw the black blob up there as Bruce had moved on and wasn't pointing. Cynthia took this picture and you can seen the baby's head looking down at her.
Definitely not Cynthia's favorite part of the hike.
Following the 90-minute hike through the woods, we went down the beach where there were drinks, snacks, dancing girls and (of course) items for sale.
It was a beautiful location.
On the way back to the quay the boat ride was bumpy because they were going fast.
We decided this tour had been a disappointment. We were in a group of 15 -- the boat's capacity -- and Bruce led us along the trail. The single file didn't allow most of us to hear him, and when he found something the line would stop as each person filed past Bruce, found the item of interest and took a picture. Then Bruce would squeeze up to the beginning and we'd move along. Bruce had three helpers, and if each of them had led a group of five it might have been better. But Bruce was the only English speaker. The lemurs were uncooperative, but that's their right.
Other tours saw many lemurs, but in more of a zoo-like setting. I guess when we get back home we'll drive up to Duke University and see the lemurs there. It'll be about the same.
Other notes of interest for us on our trip:
Our stateroom attendant, Bayu is now a father. His wife delivered their first baby, an 8lb 2oz boy this morning in the Philippines and Bayu is grinning ear to ear. Dad named him Dirgo, which means "sea", since Dad is at sea. He gets off the boat in Singapore in about three weeks. We'll hate to see him go but happy for him.
Oceania, at the demands of the Chinese government, has changed our itinerary through China. The net result was our Beijing stop would be only a single day, leaving us to choose between the Great Wall, or downtown Beijing and the the Forbidden City and Tiananmen
Square. As soon as that was announced, we added the Ancient Capitals overland tour to our trip, and we just found out yesterday morning (it only took the Chinese tour operator two weeks to decide if we could join) that we were in.
Our new itinerary has us leaving Shanghai via air on the third day there (April 4). We will spend two nights in the ancient capital of Xian, then fly to Beijing on April 6 to tour the Great Wall, spend the night in downtown Beijing, and tour Beijing on April 7 before returning to the ship that evening.
2 comments:
Hi Dave and Cynthia,
We are really enjoying your story. I know loosing a day in Beijing is a bit of a "bummer" but I think the side tour your have organised to Xian will be one of the high lites of the trip. It is well worth going there.
Chris
Hi Dave and Cynthia,
We are loving your Blog and your wonderful photos.
Having been to China before, you are certainly doing the right thing by doing the overland tour. That way you are not only seeing Xian with its wonderful terracotta warriors but you also get to walk on the Wall and then have a day to see everything in Beijing. It should be a wonderful tour.
Keep up the good work, it is an amazing blog and continue to enjoy the cruise.
Jennie
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