DUGOUT CANOES

Your canoe trip in Madagascar

The plane makes it possible to reach Tulear, from where you sail a week south to join Morombe. Here is the country of the « Vezo” ethnic group, the nomadic fishermen who travel in dugout canoes.
Their existence is closely linked to the sea and their social and cultural particularities are fascinating, some are real sea nomads, others, remaining fishermen, have settled down. For the Vezo, the sea is life itself.
The sea ensures the whole existence of the Vezo, and all that they lack is provided by the coastal villages with which they trade. For the Vezo, a dugout canoe (lakana) is both a working tool for eating, a means of transport and for the nomads, a tent (sail and masts in the shape of a Tepee).
The Vezo canoe, carved from a light-fiber tree trunk, has a square sail and a single mast that indicates the Indonesian origin of the ethnic group. Your route follows the lagoon, sheltered from big waves and offshore swells. It stretches over 200 km of our route and allows julilatory navigation!
Festival of corals, fish, canoes and encounters, all joyful!

DAY 1

Tana – Tuléar – Mangily

• Airport reception and transfer to Mangily, at the hotel-bungalows “on the beach”.
  The hotel-bungalow is ideally located under a forest of casuarina trees which provide shade, the restaurant terrace offers an extraordinary sunset over the Mozambique Channel. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
• Night in bungalows (“comfort” category DBL or TWN with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: dinner.
• Transfer distance by road: 40 km – duration: +/- 1 hour

DAY 2

Mangily

• Depending on the tide, you go out in the morning for sea kayaking, paddling and sailing. Vezo pirogue excursion and snorkeling in the Ankaranjelita marine protected area: sea rose garden. Visit the baobab and turtle reserve. Dinner and overnight at the beach bungalows.
• Night in rooms and bungalows (“comfort” category DBL or TWN with bathroom and wc)
• Meal: breakfast / dinner

DAY 3

Mangily – Tsiandamba

• Transfer by vehicle on the sandy and sometimes chaotic track to approach the lagoon in its most beautiful part, in Tsiandamba. Visit Manombo market to immerse yourself in the local atmosphere. Superb scenery dust road: baobabs and didiaeraceae around the track, view of the blue lagoon. Crossing Vezo villages for children who shout, sing and run towards strangers. Picnic on arrival at « Odilon”. Dinner and overnight in “Chez Odilon” bungalows (rustic but clean and very warm), in the heart of a typical Vezo village to discover.
• Simple bungalows with mosquito net, double bed no twin bed, so sometimes we sleep in pairs on the same double bed – or individual tent solution if requested.
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Transfer distance 4 × 4: 70 km – duration: +/- 3h00

DAY 4

Tsiandamba – Ambatomiloa

• Departure from Tsiandamba to reach Ambatomiloa by canoe sailing in the lagoon.
  Picnic on the way. Snorkeling on the coral reef. Extraordinary view of the sea from the terrace-promontory. Dinner and overnight in bungalows in Ambatomiloa.
• Night in bungalows (“comfort” category DBL or TWN with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Vezo canoe: +/- 3h00, depending on weather conditions.

DAY 5

Ambatomiloha – Baie des assassins

• Departure from Ambatomiloa to reach the bay of the assassins) by canoe sailing in the lagoon. The stage is carried out in vezo dugout canoes. In Antsepoka, you have to get out of the lagoon in front of the “bay of the assassins” by a spectacular pass which threads between the rollers that the Vezos know how to master with skill. The “Baie des Assassins” owes its name to the shipwrecks of galleons from the 15th and 15th centuries. The tide decides the travel times and we can get up early.
  Dinner and overnight in bungalows at Pierrot le Suisse.
• Night in bungalows (“rustic” DBL or family category with bathroom and wc outside).
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Vezo canoe: +/- 3h00, depending on weather conditions.

DAY 6

Antsepoka – Andavadoaka

• When the tide permits, we return to the spectacular pass to weave between the waves that the Vezos know how to master with skill. The tide decides the travel times and we can get up early. If we are lucky, we will see sea turtles because the place serves as a nesting place. Snorkelling, then we reach the village of Andavadoaka for a visit.
  Dinner and overnight at “Coco-beach”
• Night in bungalows (“simple” DBL or TWN category with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Vezo canoe: +/- 2 hours, depending on weather conditions.

DAY 7

Andavadoaka

• A day in Andavadoaka to discover in depth this village which represents the Vezo identity: fishing and snorkeling aboard outrigger canoes in the lagoon with our friends Vezos and overnight in bungalows at “Coco-beach” (or similar). Dinner facing the sunset on the Mozambique Channel. The visit of Andavadoaka allows07 to observe well the way of life and the particular customs of the Vezo, certain families are close to us.
• Night in bungalows (“simple” DBL or TWN category with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Vezo canoe: +/- 3 hours, depending on weather conditions.

DAY 8

Andavadoaka – Morombe

• Depart from Andavadoaka in a Vezo canoe in the lagoon to the vezo village of Bevato (17km) via the desert island of Nosy-Ve.
  The village has nothing. We continue our navigation to reach Morombe via the island of Nosy-Ratafanika and its vezo village in the middle of the baobabs. Dinner and overnight in “Chez Katia” bungalows.
• Night in bungalows (“comfort” category DBL or TWN with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: picnic / dinner
• Vezo canoe: +/- 5h00, depending on weather conditions.

DAY 9

Morombe – Mangily

• Transfer by vehicle via the track that runs along the Mangoky river to the Bevoy ferry, then we find the recent tar from the RN9 which brings us back to Mangily for the last evening by the sea. Dinner and overnight at the beach bungalows.
• Night in rooms and bungalows (“comfort” category DBL or TWN with bathroom and wc).
• Meals: breakfast / lunch / dinner
• Transfer distance 4 × 4: 260 km – duration: +/- 6:30

DAY 10

Mangily – Tuléar

• End of our services at Tulear or airport, according to return flight schedule to Tana.
• Meal: breakfast