Antsiranana, Madagascar

January 17^th, 2025

Due to the recent cyclone our scheduled stop in Mayotte was canceled, and we went to Antsiranana in Madagascar instead.

I must say that Seabourn has made an effort so far when ports have to be canceled, they have found us alternate ports instead of adding another sea day. Maybe they are concerned about a mutiny on board. This is certainly not the cruise we signed up for.

Having itinerary changes isn’t just limited to Seabourn. My all-time favorite Cunard captain was known as “miss a port McNaught” and although the passengers knew he was concerned about the safety of the ship, it was very frustrating at times.

Anyway, here we are in Antsiranana at the northern tip of Madagascar.

The surrounding bay is the 2^nd largest bay in the world, only Rio has a bigger bay.

Screenshot

Coincidently there is also a Sugar Loaf here. It doesn’t really look that much like its namesake, it looks more like a small volcano. The Madagascan Sugar Loaf’s main claim to fame is that it is considered to be a sacred mountain by the locals. I didn’t manage to get a good photo of it. Or maybe I did, and I just can’t identify it in our photos.

It is somewhat confusing that the original name of the city is Diego Suarez, and it was changed to Antsiranana in 1975, but it is known by both names at the moment, which could be confusing.

In August of 1500 a Portuguese ship went adrift, and its captain, Diego Diaz, ended up in the bay. Then in February 1506, Admiral Herman Suarez arrived here and thus the town acquired its name of Diego Suarez.

That’s the name you see on the hill behind the port.

When we arrived at the port at 8:00 we were greeted by ladies singing and dancing.

They were still there when we went ashore at 11:30.

We had decided not to take a tour, but took the shuttle bus in to town to explore the place and find somewhere for lunch.

The bus stopped at the central square.

We were unable to identify the man there, or what was the deal with the plastic covered Christmas decorations.

We decided to leave the square shortly after getting there as we were besieged by tuk tuk drivers intent on taking us on a tour, and we wanted to get away and look for a restaurant.

We walked around town  but did not find a restaurant that looked great.

The Snack Du Quarter look interesting, but a bit dodgy

And the Restaurant a la Passion du Gourmande sounded upscale, but served pizza, tacos and ice cream.

We decided to give these both a miss and have lunch on the ship when we got back.

We walked around the downtown area,

And back to the square where we caught the shuttle bus back to the ship.

We arrived at the ship at the same time as the ship’s tuk tuk tour.

I wonder what the smiley face was all about.

I had heard that there was a hot tub at the front of the ship on deck 6, and I had been meaning to investigate this for some time, so today was the day.

Yes, there it was.

There was also a lot of bird droppings close by, near the front mast.

There were sun loungers if you wanted to sunbathe after your dip in the hot tub.

I’m not sure how useable the hot tub would be when we are at sea, as I imagine it would be very windy on that deck, but it did look like a good spot to get away from it all when you are in port. As long as the bird droppings go away.

Sail away was at 3:00 and we were treated to ice cream, and music from the Trio.

We passed by some interesting rock formations,

And a light house.

In no time at all we were out of the bay and on our way to our next port of call, Nosy Be. We sat out on deck chatting friends for ages. It was all very pleasant.

This may not have been the most interesting of towns, but it had been a great day, and tomorrow we get to see lemurs!

Talking with the folks who went on tours today, this is certainly one port where you should do a tour. The surrounding area sounds fascinating and well worth exploring, especially the red tsingy. I am sorry we didn’t go there.