We arrived at our final destination of the trip, Ile Sainte Marie, a small tropical island off the east coast of Madagascar. We were taken to our resort, Princesse Bora, by zebu cart and there began the relaxed, slow paced lifestyle for the next 5 nights. The individual straw thatched huts were more than comfortable with view through the coconut trees to the protected reef on the Indian Ocean. It didn't take us long to ease into the island lifestyle, within minutes of arrival we were sitting by the pool drinking cocktails. We felt a long way from the hot dusty safaris of mainland Africa, the 4:30am morning safari wake up was not missed.
Everything about this resort was idyllic but our favourite bit was discovering George the cat, her real name was Yoko but we preferred George (for those intreagued as to why, think "Of Mice and Men" or Warner Bros). She became a good companion for all of us who were greatly missing our cats at home.The snorkelling and diving were great, even directly from the shore of the resort. We hired a boat and skipper for the day and headed to Coco Bay where we heard the fish and coral were plentiful...and they were. What we hadn't expected was the commotion as we were finishing our snorkel as whales had been sighted. Though given our skipper only spoke French, it took a while to work out why we should be excited.
We raced out in the boat and found two adult humpback whales and their baby. Given it wasn't whale season, this was particularly extraordinary. Definitley worth a bit of sunburn.
Ile Sainte-Marie was possibly the location, or a part of, the mythical (possibly fictional) anarchist pirate republic of Libertatia. This colourful history is backed in part by the presence of a Pirates' Cemetery, just outside the island's principal town. The scourges of the sea, including the Dread Piratess Thomas (no kidding), share their resting places with later French colonial administrators.
Ile Sainte Marie was a perfect way to end what was an amazing holiday.
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