Baly Bay

Imagine yourself aboard your multihull, approaching this future anchorage about which you have heard a lot, but...about which you finally know nothing at all! You are following in the wake of the fishing luggers and slowly approaching your destination.

What are you going to discover in the famous Baly Bay National Park? A white sand beach? Coconut trees? Turquoise waters? A typically perfect anchorage? However these so ‘typical’ and so longed-for places are not the only ones which have us dreaming, if you want my opinion.

Look, and try to imagine for a moment. A river, a village, thousands of flamingos which fly away from in front of your nose, and you are here, alone in a mystical anchorage. The water isn’t turquoise – it is almost brown, but the setting you are now part of is incomparable, just magic.

You are in Baly Bay, in the west of Madagascar. Facing you, there is a small lake hidden behind a beach strewn with a multitude of birds endemic to Madagascar. Further on, a forest of baobabs, plants of all kinds, and suddenly, you see tracks in the sand which you aren’t used to seeing. A treasure hunt then begins. What is it? Where is it? Just one aim, to find it! After a long search, you will perhaps be lucky enough – as I was – to find this ‘treasure’, which is none other than a superb sifaka, a lemur which is very hard to find, given its rarity.  

Later, you go up the river in the dinghy, followed by dozens of flamingos looking for food, notably the little shrimps which are present in this estuary.

In the background, you will see a wonderful village which stretches over the whole of the beach. The luggers and pirogues pass next to you, with their superb ‘patchwork’ sails, sewn in hessian. And they work incredibly well! You are in paradise!

An anchorage for lovers of nature and authenticity. Quite simply magical. 

WEATHER CHECK:

There is just one rule to follow in Madagascar. Five months there were enough to understand that it is no use looking at the weather forecast. There are just two winds: the Varatra, the morning wind, which always blows from the north, and the Talio, the afternoon sea breeze coming from the open sea. The ideal is therefore to leave in the morning when coming from the north, and the afternoon, ...