Soaring over Kitesurfing Country

Up at the tippy-top of Madagascar sits the world’s second-largest natural bay,  The main city there, commonly known by its former name, Diego Suarez, is called Antsiranana since 1975, and the area served as the entry point for the Battle of Madagascar, in 1942.

We recently visited the area, and stayed at a relatively new resort geared toward kitesurfers, Mantasaly Kitesurf Resort, in a sheltered bay on the east coast.  At low tide, it was ideal for wading, but at high tide you could swim to your heart’s content in the protected water that was uniformly no more than about two meters deep.  A strong, steady wind blows from the sea, making it perfect for kitesurfers, and a fun outing is to take a boat up to “Emerald Bay” which can be seen clearly on the map above, just north of the resort.  You spend the afternoon on a deserted island until they bring you a feast of fresh seafood.

Funny story about the resort that involves being shocked several times because they had their wiring mixed up.  It took an hour or so to convince them that this was the case – they kept insisting I needed to wear shoes in order to avoid having 220 volts coursing through my laptop and down my arms.  Hopefully they are working through their growing pains.

As usual, I brought the drone along, and though it struggled a bit in the wind, here is a short impression of the resort.

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