Santo - Million dollar beach

Great name for a beach Dominik. The million dollar, did you find them?

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Thanks indri for browsing my Pacific pictures. Unfortunately I have not found there a penny, but I have cut my toe there on a sharp piece of metal in sand ... which has something to do with the name as well: the million dollar beach owes its name to military material (worth of millions of dollars) that US Army threw here to the sea after the 2nd world war and you can still see around pieces of metal everywhere. On the contrary to what you may think, it was not so bad, because now there is an artificial coral reef grown on all the american rubbish ... and it was so great to dive there (unfortunately only snorkeling, I have no training for scuba).

Thanks for the explanation. I've seen, indeed, lots of wreck-like iron or steel pieces between in and around the rocks on your picture, I thought they came from a shipwreck.

Have you been in Fort-Dauphin? There's a beautiful beach full with shipwrecks. I asked the origin of it and was told "all sunk during different cyclones". Haha, smart cyclones to pick up ships in the vast Ocean and depose ALL of them in just one bay!

Hi Indri ... no, I could not go to Fort-Dauphin, because I was on Mada just after the coup-d'etat and the security situation on roads in the southern part of the island worsen dramatically, i.e. more bandits than usually and even the locals were afraid of travelling there, so I conserve F-D for my next trip to Madagascar. I will surely not miss to visit your "Bay of smart cyclones" :-) Hope I won't happen there just in the cyclonic period though ...

A sad story the coup d'état, Madagascar was blooming and now everything is going back to the situation as it was under Ratsiraka.

Fort-Dauphin is one of my favorite places in Mada, along with Diego-Suarez and I can't describe why? I don't like Tamatave, Tana, Mahajunga, Tulear, Morondava, Nosy-Be. All the rest of Mada is OK. Especially Palmarium in Ankanin n'y Nofy and Sainte-Marie ;-)

Hope you can manage to return to Mada, just avoid pré and after election periods.

Thanks, indri, for ideas for my future visit of Mada! I have to say, that I enjoy the countryside much more than cities (in Mada as well as Europe). In fact I have spent most of the time on Mada in rather small villages and towns, like Ifanadiana (near Ranomafana), Ihosy and Ambohimanjakarano (100km north from Tana, very deserted place) and when visited Toamasina, Morondava or Tulear, I was living in the outskirts as this is where my friends live ...

BTW: curious place, your Ankanin'Nofy ... how did you happen there? It seems to be far from everything!

Ankanin'Nofy means the nest of my dreams, le nid des rêves, it was the favored holiday destination of the first president of independant Madagascar; Philibert Tsiranana. Presidents have the possibility of choosing any place they like to build a second residency, so I thought that might be a good place to visit and it was! MR... I forgot his name (his daughter owns The Bush House and Boogie Pilgrim Travel) bought a big piece of land on the peninsula of Ankanin n'y Nofy, started there a palm tree collection, then put in some lemurs and eventually allowed some visitors on his property, a bit like the founder of Berenty used to do. Sadly enough his mid-life crisis drove him to spend his fortune and neglect his business. The guide 'Sylvain' kept things going, constructed several bungalows and acted as manager so the place wouldn't collapse entirely. Palmarium was sold to some Frenchmen, Sylvain is officially the manager now, he bought more lemurs and a female for the single indri that lived a lonely life until then, and succeeded to get them breed. They had already 2 siblings (the indri-indri) when I was there the last time in 2006. The easiest way to reach the place is by boat but it's expensive, or by taxi-brousse and then by foot over a path.

Hi indri, thank you for complete explanation. "Nest of dreams" is really a beautiful name! And the property looks beautiful too, at least from the pictures on Panoramio. Maybe a plan for the next time ... I take the taxi-brousse + walking option :-)

Palmarium has a website :http://www.palmarium.biz/ where you can find out more about the site and the surroundings.

Thanks, indri ... I have had a look around. It looks really nice, their business.

Fantastic island! I must be there!

István

Thank you, István ... do not hesitate if you can get there!