Walhai hautnah
The whale sharks appeared last year end of Sept just when I left the island. This year I planned better to get the chance of an encounter with these amazing gentle giants. Bingo, it worked as Giorgia our marine biologist and dive guide had promised “these guys are cruising around somewhere”. We looked for seabirds flying around on one spot or floating in a tight circle. Often we saw a feeding frenzy of Bonitos around these places. Gi explained, it´s some kind of food chain, there are small fish close to the surface feeding on algae and plankton floating in a thick layer around. The Bonitos and birds were chasing these. Underneath often cruised a whale shark with open mouth. Already on our first try we encountered one of these awesome creatures swimming in slow motion towards us. It was a huge one at least 11 m. One yellow pilot fish right in front of his mouth, a couple of remora hanging underneath it´s pectoral fins or cruising around on the animal. The GoPro Heroes clicked away like hell. The results we together looked at later at the beach, each one showing his best shots, some I feel had already edited theirs. We several times met these guys then. Some bigger w sharks stayed around a while even sometimes turned around to meet us head on. The smaller animals often accelerated even though it´s tail moved slowly onwards, soon disappearing in the plankton soup with no chance for us to follow. On our way home from one of these outings with dolphins jumping beside the boat, our captain shouted “baleine” which means whale, pointing to the horizon. Everybody is frozen in motion then wild action starts. With Hero too far away some tried with their cell phones to take pictures. And really in the distance two humpback whales surfaced, blew, and seconds later two flukes lifted out of the water to say bye before their dive down into deep blue. The captain told us it could take 40 min or more before they would come up again and nobody knows where. The M government does not allow you to enter the water with sea mammals unless you are already in. Normally these guys are not supposed to be here anymore but on their migrating route further south already.
Travelling into Africa you need a lot of patience and stamina not to hit the roof. Immigration into Nosy Be was awful and slow. The officer took his time with the guy right in front of me, I saw some money (40 €) changing hands and disappearing fast under the table. With me he asked where I stay – Nosy Sakatia – again where – Sakatia Island Lodge – tip tip – excuse me –tip tip – sorry I´m short, looking seriously pissed off, he looked through the pages of my passport then I got my stamp. Shame and disgrace for the tourist board and the immigration office. Same happened at the carousel, where six guys stood around, only 2 slowly taking luggage from the trailer onto the carousel, the others talked together. It took ages for the suitcases to appear till I noticed it, tourists pointed out theirs and got it faster in the hope of a tip. Mine was one of the last to swing round. This as a start of your holidays can easily spoil your whole arrival and fun to have reached your destination.
Mitsio wreck, a 35 min ride from the lodge along Nosy Be and the beach of HellVille but worth it. Tons of fish on the bottom and around the wreck, tuna chasing fusiliers, a big stone fish hiding underneath the reling, a crocodile fish and turtle holding siesta next to the hold, 5 yellow tail barracuda on the bottom near the bow, lion fish, puffer and thousands of small fish cruising around, amazing scenery with plenty of plankton in the water, vis less than 5 m, luckily we are the first boat on the site.
Mahavelona, a plateau like most of the sites with a fantastic coral garden, small overhang and huge gorgonia with bannerfish hanging around and a small bunch of sweetlips at the bottom. Looking up I see a school of unicorns cruise by, some surgeon and fusiliers mix in between. Once in while there is a turtle feeding or slowly surfacing for air, a blue spotted ray hides in the sand, only his features tell me what´s there. For macro guys the reef is a feast. Average dive time is 55 min around more or less 20 m. The boat is ideal as the platform reaches water level so easy giant stride in and out you just reach your gear into the captain’s hands.
For me the absolute top and best dive here was to a place called “7 little sharks” which was a bit outside the regular routes and took 40 min to reach. It was a plateau which fast sloped down to 40 + meter there leveling out into sandy area. The coral was totally different to the other places we´ve been to so far. I wondered what´s different and discovered, there were no soft coral or gorgonian around only a stunning reef garden built only out of hard coral. Narindra our guide led us along the slope to the right, Gi with a bunch of Austrian divers turned left. I slowly kicked down to 30 m level all the time looking out into the blue. I mean the name was supposed to be an omen for pelagic. Far away in the distance I spotted a white tip which soon was gone in the blue even though the vis was 30 + meters. My Uwatec showed close to deco, to reach a good solid number I stretched my arm until it showed 33.3 m. Looking around I hardly could see my group somewhere above me on the slope, only their bubbles gave me a rough idea, where to swim. I had just reached them when they started their slow ascend along the slope. Narin pointed and you could be sure, when she signals, something special waited. Big surprise, a leopard shark was laying in the sand waiting for us to catch his/her portrait. N told us on board, in juvenile years people call these species zebra shark cause instead of points scattered all over it´s upper body it has lines along the body, a truly amazing creature. On the surface an ocean calm like a mirror with us the only boat around.
2 nd dive this day took us to “the pool” where pieces of a very old Renault car lie scattered around 11 m on sandy bottom. Everybody was looking for small stuff which is not really my idea of a lovely dive site but still fun. They placed several pallets with bottles on the bottom as artificial reef. So far not much had grown there or accepted the place.
Each morning around five I got a cute wakeup call by Lemurs goofing around on the roof of my bungalow, first they chatted, then quarreled, then joined in a group feast on a mango tree next to my bungalow. A sweet way to start your morning, took some pictures and one guy even stretched down to me to grab a piece of fruit. The Lemurs here are luckily not tame as in other places on M where sometimes they are a bit of problem, when begging too forcefully for a treat, even sitting on your shoulder. A tourist attraction sure, which could turn nasty easily.
Jose the owner offered a special “dish” next morning. He would guide us to “Atlantis” a site not often visited even some of his instructors had not seen it, so it was to 3 guest 3 guides, safety pure. He gave a detailed briefing. He warned of current and suggested negative entry would be then a good idea. He asked to clearly signal to him when we reached 2 min away from deco. Two pinnacles were close to the main place, let´s see if we find these. Calm seas and no current waiting for us, all were excited to find what´s in store there for us. We kicked down to a deeper plateau with plenty of boulders scattered all over the area. At the edge a bit of a drop off went deeper, we swam along there. Nearly at the end of A a cut allows a swim through with gorgonian to left and right of it. We touched 33 at the exit. Vis medium deep around 15 m got better on our way up. Plankton in large chains (Salben?) and a couple of blueish jelly floated around us with their typical umbrella like motion. I love to take pictures from below that animal towards sky and sun. We all were happy and thanked J for that special gift. On our way home we rounded Sakatia from the other side, a first for me to see all the other beaches and resorts.
It was my 3.trip to M and again it seemed I would go home without diving Atnam, the famous place where a deeper canyon takes you to a fantastic gorgonian forest left and right. Sometimes Nosy Be dive center show pictures on their facebook page. If you want to watch this have a look into youtube https://youtu.be/aLcFMe93g7g?si=MVswoGmH47sk4bh_ . For Sakatia it would mean a 1 h trip to reach the place, a bit too far for them even when I offered to pay extra for fuel. J played it down to me with “it´s only a deeper canyon with gorgonian”. So it seems it wasn´t to be, or would need a 4. trip plus maybe a catamaran to the outer islands which I had initially planned. To console me they promised some exploratory deep dive for my last day there to Mahavelona Canyon. We would reach the already visited plateau, then turn left to the edge where a tunnel led from the top into the wall. This we missed on the first try, but had a school of juvenile barracuda with around 10 bigger ones hiding behind. We would then return to the plateau and small wreck. We found the entry, all 3 went through then noticed, 2 Napoleon in the distance watched us, our computers showed only little bottom time left. So this meant good bye to N S for me.
I feel the area definitely has it´s potential for big stuff you just need to find it. 2007 on my first visit we had humongous schools of humphead parrot fish which approached us head on where you saw more the sharp teeth in front than the whole group, awesome encounter. This certainly proves there is more around than you estimate. Maybe a marine protected area like Nosy Tanikely would be a good idea for other areas as well. There you will find aquarium like scenery plenty of fish, even small sharks and batfish. Without overfishing nature it seems recovers fast and would be a lasting tourist + diver attraction.
Most days I shared my dives with an UK couple Jan and Andy which turned out to be the ideal buddy mix. We gave each other plenty of space between us, roaming around each with his/her own itinerary, as long as we still could see the other bubbles, and the guide was the umbilical cord for us, only banging on the tank when we exaggerated things. We knew and obeyed the important rule : a good buddy is in the same ocean as you” We had a lot of fun together.
Travelling into Africa you need a lot of patience and stamina not to hit the roof. Immigration into Nosy Be was awful and slow. The officer took his time with the guy right in front of me, I saw some money (40 €) changing hands and disappearing fast under the table. With me he asked where I stay – Nosy Sakatia – again where – Sakatia Island Lodge – tip tip – excuse me –tip tip – sorry I´m short, looking seriously pissed off, he looked through the pages of my passport then I got my stamp. Shame and disgrace for the tourist board and the immigration office. Same happened at the carousel, where six guys stood around, only 2 slowly taking luggage from the trailer onto the carousel, the others talked together. It took ages for the suitcases to appear till I noticed it, tourists pointed out theirs and got it faster in the hope of a tip. Mine was one of the last to swing round. This as a start of your holidays can easily spoil your whole arrival and fun to have reached your destination.
Mitsio wreck, a 35 min ride from the lodge along Nosy Be and the beach of HellVille but worth it. Tons of fish on the bottom and around the wreck, tuna chasing fusiliers, a big stone fish hiding underneath the reling, a crocodile fish and turtle holding siesta next to the hold, 5 yellow tail barracuda on the bottom near the bow, lion fish, puffer and thousands of small fish cruising around, amazing scenery with plenty of plankton in the water, vis less than 5 m, luckily we are the first boat on the site.
Mahavelona, a plateau like most of the sites with a fantastic coral garden, small overhang and huge gorgonia with bannerfish hanging around and a small bunch of sweetlips at the bottom. Looking up I see a school of unicorns cruise by, some surgeon and fusiliers mix in between. Once in while there is a turtle feeding or slowly surfacing for air, a blue spotted ray hides in the sand, only his features tell me what´s there. For macro guys the reef is a feast. Average dive time is 55 min around more or less 20 m. The boat is ideal as the platform reaches water level so easy giant stride in and out you just reach your gear into the captain’s hands.
For me the absolute top and best dive here was to a place called “7 little sharks” which was a bit outside the regular routes and took 40 min to reach. It was a plateau which fast sloped down to 40 + meter there leveling out into sandy area. The coral was totally different to the other places we´ve been to so far. I wondered what´s different and discovered, there were no soft coral or gorgonian around only a stunning reef garden built only out of hard coral. Narindra our guide led us along the slope to the right, Gi with a bunch of Austrian divers turned left. I slowly kicked down to 30 m level all the time looking out into the blue. I mean the name was supposed to be an omen for pelagic. Far away in the distance I spotted a white tip which soon was gone in the blue even though the vis was 30 + meters. My Uwatec showed close to deco, to reach a good solid number I stretched my arm until it showed 33.3 m. Looking around I hardly could see my group somewhere above me on the slope, only their bubbles gave me a rough idea, where to swim. I had just reached them when they started their slow ascend along the slope. Narin pointed and you could be sure, when she signals, something special waited. Big surprise, a leopard shark was laying in the sand waiting for us to catch his/her portrait. N told us on board, in juvenile years people call these species zebra shark cause instead of points scattered all over it´s upper body it has lines along the body, a truly amazing creature. On the surface an ocean calm like a mirror with us the only boat around.
2 nd dive this day took us to “the pool” where pieces of a very old Renault car lie scattered around 11 m on sandy bottom. Everybody was looking for small stuff which is not really my idea of a lovely dive site but still fun. They placed several pallets with bottles on the bottom as artificial reef. So far not much had grown there or accepted the place.
Each morning around five I got a cute wakeup call by Lemurs goofing around on the roof of my bungalow, first they chatted, then quarreled, then joined in a group feast on a mango tree next to my bungalow. A sweet way to start your morning, took some pictures and one guy even stretched down to me to grab a piece of fruit. The Lemurs here are luckily not tame as in other places on M where sometimes they are a bit of problem, when begging too forcefully for a treat, even sitting on your shoulder. A tourist attraction sure, which could turn nasty easily.
Jose the owner offered a special “dish” next morning. He would guide us to “Atlantis” a site not often visited even some of his instructors had not seen it, so it was to 3 guest 3 guides, safety pure. He gave a detailed briefing. He warned of current and suggested negative entry would be then a good idea. He asked to clearly signal to him when we reached 2 min away from deco. Two pinnacles were close to the main place, let´s see if we find these. Calm seas and no current waiting for us, all were excited to find what´s in store there for us. We kicked down to a deeper plateau with plenty of boulders scattered all over the area. At the edge a bit of a drop off went deeper, we swam along there. Nearly at the end of A a cut allows a swim through with gorgonian to left and right of it. We touched 33 at the exit. Vis medium deep around 15 m got better on our way up. Plankton in large chains (Salben?) and a couple of blueish jelly floated around us with their typical umbrella like motion. I love to take pictures from below that animal towards sky and sun. We all were happy and thanked J for that special gift. On our way home we rounded Sakatia from the other side, a first for me to see all the other beaches and resorts.
It was my 3.trip to M and again it seemed I would go home without diving Atnam, the famous place where a deeper canyon takes you to a fantastic gorgonian forest left and right. Sometimes Nosy Be dive center show pictures on their facebook page. If you want to watch this have a look into youtube https://youtu.be/aLcFMe93g7g?si=MVswoGmH47sk4bh_ . For Sakatia it would mean a 1 h trip to reach the place, a bit too far for them even when I offered to pay extra for fuel. J played it down to me with “it´s only a deeper canyon with gorgonian”. So it seems it wasn´t to be, or would need a 4. trip plus maybe a catamaran to the outer islands which I had initially planned. To console me they promised some exploratory deep dive for my last day there to Mahavelona Canyon. We would reach the already visited plateau, then turn left to the edge where a tunnel led from the top into the wall. This we missed on the first try, but had a school of juvenile barracuda with around 10 bigger ones hiding behind. We would then return to the plateau and small wreck. We found the entry, all 3 went through then noticed, 2 Napoleon in the distance watched us, our computers showed only little bottom time left. So this meant good bye to N S for me.
I feel the area definitely has it´s potential for big stuff you just need to find it. 2007 on my first visit we had humongous schools of humphead parrot fish which approached us head on where you saw more the sharp teeth in front than the whole group, awesome encounter. This certainly proves there is more around than you estimate. Maybe a marine protected area like Nosy Tanikely would be a good idea for other areas as well. There you will find aquarium like scenery plenty of fish, even small sharks and batfish. Without overfishing nature it seems recovers fast and would be a lasting tourist + diver attraction.
Most days I shared my dives with an UK couple Jan and Andy which turned out to be the ideal buddy mix. We gave each other plenty of space between us, roaming around each with his/her own itinerary, as long as we still could see the other bubbles, and the guide was the umbilical cord for us, only banging on the tank when we exaggerated things. We knew and obeyed the important rule : a good buddy is in the same ocean as you” We had a lot of fun together.