Oct 10 – 12 – Nosy Be

On our first day (October 10th) at Mangasoa Lodge we took it easy.  

We were offered free massages in compensation for the inconvenience yesterday regarding our transfer.  Paul doesn’t do massages, but Mary took them up on it.  The massage “studio” and an open wall facing out to the ocean.  Not bad.  Very relaxing between the soft breezes and sounds of the ocean waves against the rocks.

We also met with one of the staff and booked an excursion for the next day.  Hoping to see Whale Sharks. 

October 11^th, we headed out with a couple for an hour drive to catch our excursion.  The drive took us through the town of Hell Ville where we saw masses of yellow/orange tuk tuks.  Seems to be the favorite “public transportation” here.

About 12 of us were on the Whale Shark watching boat.  About half were from France.  The boat went out quite a ways looking for bird activity on the water.  Apparently, the whale sharks (who, as juveniles, eat plankton and small fish) stir up the small fish while feeding, which stirs up the larger fish, which attracts the birds to eat the small fish.  Here we can see the many birds in the distance. 

Once we arrived there we were instructed to put on our snorkel gear, line up at the end of the boat, and on signal (when the located the shark) everyone piled off quickly. 

Mary opted to not go in the water, but Paul said he did get a good look at the shark.  Very large and headed down into the depths.  This is probably the best photo Mary was able to get of the shark.  It is the white, blurry object in the lower right corner.

We had another two or three encounters with the sharks.  Mary could actually see the shark from the boat a couple of times and got a bit of a photo.  It was really only a slight discoloration of the water as the shark didn’t break the surface.  But the dorsal fin did a couple of times.  This photo clearly shows the small dorsal fin.

Three more photos of the shark, difficult to see but we drew a red line around them to hopefully make them easier to see.. 

We then headed to shore for a great lunch on the beach and some snoozing time.  

Then it was off to see green sea turtles.  Mary was unable to get a photo but Paul did follow one for a while. 

Then it was a long, bumpy boat ride back to the beach and then a bumpy road trip back to the lodge.    

On the 12^th we opted to just make it a relaxing day.  Or, at least as relaxing as possible when needing to deal with things back home (in this case, a leak in the rental that required some back and forth texts with Jessica and Will, who are handling it). 

A couple photos of our wonderful beach bungalow.