Diving in Nosy Be

Nosy Be has several islands outside which provide good diving with untouched reef. Tanikely island is an marine park and is well-preserved, has huge gorgorian seafans, lots of hawksbills turtles and lots of fish and corals. Between Sep-Nov is there a chance to see hump-back whales. Rest of the year is there also a chance to see Manta rays and whale sharks. Here you got all kinds of dives: some wrecks, some drift dives, Reef diving with a lot of gorgorian seafans. Shallow dives and deeper ones.

You can see schools of travellies and barracudas, also crocodile fish and all the colorful reef fishes. This is also home for turtles and leopard sharks and black tip reef sharks. Lots of macro can also be seen, nudibranchs lie everywhere. Marble ray, blue spotted rays and also sometimes manta rays can be seen.

The hump-back whale season is between Sep-nov. There's a good chance to see them when you go out with the dive boat to different dive sites. Always keep you eyes open for dolphins, Manta rays and whale sharks, as they just happen to appear, no right season for them here.

The most famous dive site here and most popular will be the Marine Park at Tanekily island, where there are three different dives. There is also Manta point, not a good dive site if you don't see the Manta rays, but excellent if you do!

Visibility is between 15-30+, but this is depending on the weather. Rainy season is between December and April, and the visibility will decrease. June is the coldest month and the water temperature will drop to around 26°C. The hottest month is November and water temperature will increase to 30-32°C. But it's hot all year around so you won't need more than a 3 mm wetsuit.

You will find several dive shops on the beach in Ambatalouka/Madirokely. And also in bigger resorts.

(By Susanne Stigsson)

Travel to Nosy Be

Nosy Be is an volcanic island that you can find in the northwest part of Madagascar. It's 8 km off-shore from Ankify, in the Mozambique channel. There are several small islands around Nosy Be. The island is a popular destination for tourist because of the white sandy beaches and also because of its wild life. Nosy Be has the world smallest frog and chameleon. It's also a place were you can see Humpback Whales and Whale Sharks.

The island is popular for all the nice beaches, and it's not hard to find you own private beach here. The most famous one is in the north, in Andilana. The sunset is amazing from this place. The most popular place for divers are two small fishing villages, Ambatalouka or Madirokely. There are diving possibilities in the nearby islands or just outside the coastline.

There are domestic flights from Tana to Nosy Be, but it's expensive. From Tana there's also Taxi-bousse (minibus), cheap but very crowded, and takes a lot of time to reach Ankifty -you can count on a 20 hours trip, and you'll have to change bus in Ambanja ato reach Ankify. In Ankify you take a speedboat to Helle-ville, Nosy Be. From Diego there are also taxi-brousse that leaves in the middle of the night and you will arrive in Ankify in the morning.

Nosy Be is more expensive than the rest of Madagascar, but is still cheap. You can find all range of hotels here. Madirokely is a bit more expansive than Ambatalouka.

Visit Lokobe Nature Reserve, where you will see lemurs, frogs and chameleons. Charter a boat and visit the samll islands just outside Nosy Be, and on you way out it is possible to see dolphins and sometimes whales. Here there are rum and perfume distilleries.

(By Susanne Stigsson)