Nosy Sakatia

December 09, 2018

Nosy Sakatia - Tana

We left the tsingy forest for the port to take us to Nosy Sakatia (via Nosy Be). We were looking forward to some sun on the way but it pee’ed down with rain and we were soaked by the time we got to the island!

The legend behind the name of Nosy Sakatia is that there used to be a man, who lived and worked on Nosy Be – the big island -. He fell in love with a woman that lived on Nosy Mamiloma. One day the man was overlooking the water that separates the two islands and said “Sakatia”. Sakana means to block, to hinder or to prevent and tia is to love or to like. The water was hindering their love and so the name changed to Nosy Sakatia.

The Nosy Be archipelago has many small islands, some inhabited, and has warm turquoise waters and white sandy beaches on all islands. The marine life here is the best in Madagascar and is some of the most comfortable relaxed diving that we have done. The corals are fantastic and so are the fish, but the amount of fish vs coral expanse was a little disappointing, this is a result of overfishing in the area and will only get worse in the future.

The island is about a quarter of the size of Nosy Be and much more serene, Nosy Be is crowded and over commercialised. Our room was large but simple and perfect for what we needed. We met our dive co-ordinator who planned our 10 dives for the time we were at the resort.

Just 400 yards from the beach are a group of turtles that feed on seagrass. It is a protected area and people can snorkel from the hotel or get a small boat to see them. They are huge green turtles and look like underwater cows munching on the grass.

We dived from Saturday - Wednesday mainly two tanks in the morning, but also did a night dive. We also did a dive on the edge of the reef 15km out where the sharks cruise by while we keep close to the reef. They are only small reef sharks but they are still impressive. We also dived on a reef where the there were turtles (not the big ones mentioned above) who swam with us in the water.

In the afternoons we relaxed in the hotel or I walked down the beach to release some pent up energy. Stew hadn’t had a holiday for 18 months so all he wanted to do was relax in the afternoons where I was still in explorer mode.

It was whale shark season from Sept - Nov so we thought that we had missed seeing them. When we were waiting on our surface interval one day (for non-divers the time required between to dives) we saw commotion in the water and it was a whale shark. It came up beside our boat and hovered there, then dived. We followed it and got in the water with masks and snorkels and attempted to follow it but it lost us quickly. It was all very exciting and we were basking in our excitement when some Omura’s whales breached the water in front of us - it was incredible!

Thanks to Jodie, our dive master at Sakatia lodge for the underwater photos.

The night before we left there was the most amazing electrical storm which we watched from the beach, I think it was telling me that it was time for me to leave…...

After seven relaxing nights it was time to start making our way back to Tana, which in turn meant going home….. We arrived in Tana on Friday 7th to fly home in the early hours of Sunday 9th. Madagascar air is flaky at best and often cancel flights if they don’t have enough passengers so our travel agent was taken no chances. We arrived back at the same hotel that I started in on 17th September and would end my trip here. I had visited this hotel five times in two months as all roads/air journeys lead to Tana and you can very rarely fly directly between cities.

I’m writing this final blog in the international airport at 1am waiting for my flight home, Stew did manage to persuade me to come back to England after all. He says sorry to my work colleagues…..

There will be one more blog which will be written in the UK and then my work will be done.