I’ve seen some great travel blogs on the forum and found them very helpful over the years so thought I would have a go at posting my recent experience kiting in Madagascar (Jun/ Jul). My wife and I chose Madagascar because it is off the beaten track, has wonderful ecology and the Malagasy can really use the tourism support. My wife doesn’t kitesurf so having the ecological and cultural aspects of the trip was important and she was able to explore further while I kitesurfed.
The spot I visited was in the NE of Mada on the Mer d’ Emeraude, which is stunning – check out google maps at a place called Babaomby Island. I think there is only 2 places to stay along this very isolated piece of coast and you can only get there on a local sail boat from Diego Suarez. I stayed at an eco lodge in a tent, 30m from the beach. I was eating freshly prepared cerviche every other day and the fish was caught that day by the lodge staff, who were great as were the other kiters. Evenings were spent with broken French/ English conversations, chilling out to Pink Floyd and Serge Gainsbourg, games of chess and puissance quatre and drinking locally spiced rum – It’s not a party place if you get my drift!.
The wind was amazing – I was kiting mostly with a 5m in the afternoon and a 7m first thing in the morning. The wind is a strong trade wind, and was very consistent across the 9 days I was there.
There were only 6 people kiting during my time, though I understand it peaks at 20 in July/ August with mostly French kiters during the European holiday season – speaking a little French helps.
The lagoon has plenty of flat water spots, and some are buttery smooth, for me though the wave experience was what I was after and this was amazing. The wind is strong enough for you to push 5-10km upwind in less than an hour – you can scoot upwind and downwind throughout the lagoon, at will if your experienced and have the right gear.
For wave riding, you need to be quite experienced; they’re behind the outer islands of the lagoon about a 3km ride from the shore. I was kiting in 1.5 head high right handers on 2.5m swell. The week before I arrived it was 3.4m swell so I can only imagine how good this was. If you dump your kite out there you are on your own, so it’s not for the fainthearted and you need to be risk assessing constantly. I took a camel pack so I could rehydrate whilst out in the waves. The guys onshore kept an eye on me and they had a jet ski at the ready in case a rescue is required.
From Perth, we got to Mada through Mauritius (about 8 hours flight). Connections mean you have to overnight in Mauritius. The Mauritius connection is a great opportunity to spend a day or two at Le Morne on the South west tip of the island, which we did on the return journey. It’s an awesome LH wave (and plenty of flat water also) and reminded me of south passage in Lancelin (larger though). Plenty of kiters, which was in stark contrast to Mada.
It is a short flight of 1.5hours from Mauritius to Madagascar’s capital Antannanarivo (Tana). From there another short hop to Diego Suarez to access the emerald sea. Around Tana and Diego Suarez there are great national parks, with birds, different forests and of course Lemurs.
Mada is one of the poorest countries in the world, though unique and well worth the effort getting there. If you do visit, as always plan ahead and be conscious of security issues. In our case, the effort was well and truly justified `based on the outstanding ecological, cultural and kiting experience.
Happy travels
Images: View to the wave spot behind the island 3km offshore and a view from the common eating/ bar area and google earth view of the Emerald Sea.
That looks awesome :-)
But now Ill try to blank out the 'opportunity' from my brain - time and fuel restriction to the local pond is my limit!!
Thanks for the info chillout.
Madagascar has been on my bucket list for a while..............the F-One movie Antandroy stoked it further.
Good to hear you had a great time
