Sea turtles of Itsamia

My ride to Moheli

View of Moroni from plane

As per my grand plan the next day I was supposed to go to the island of Moheli and spend a couple days in the wildest and reputedly the most beautiful of the 3 islands of Comoros...Moheli.


Moheli coast at low tide

Arriving at the Bandaressalam

Moheli is south-east of Ngazidja and there were primarily 2 ways of getting there…4-6 hours by boat that Lonely Planet says are death trap with no safety gear on the boats and the condition extremely rickety or take a flight which takes about 30 mins….the problem with both the modes of transport was that both are unreliable.

The boats which are essential cargo boats might not leave the port if the seas are rough and the flights might not leave if they don’t have enough people flying.


Romesh (the store looked like any other store in India)

Village of Wanani on way to Itsamia

The night before Sabir suggested a 3rd way…a speed boat from the southern tip of Ngazidja which would take 2 hours. Unfortunately, I had already purchased my tickets that morning so I could not try that option even though I really wanted to take the sea route.

Nassuf came over that morning to the guest house and then made sure I got a taxi-brousse on time to the airport which was very kind of him…just like all Comorians who are extremely helpful and kind and they do it not because they expect a tip or something like that.seems like they are just very helpful people.

My dinner arriving from the Indian Ocean



Tracks of a sea turtle


A Chinese firm had recently built the new airport and I thought it was pretty swanky considering how small Comoros is but perhaps I was comparing the airport with the one in Liberia. As I got in at the airport my first though was to check and see if there were sufficient people on the flight and sure enough…we were flying that day which was relief.


Species of baobab

As I was waiting for the plane to board I chatted with Captain Ali…not knowing that he was going to feature prominently in a few days time but I will come back that a little later. The plane was a small 8 seater and the best part was that nobody checked if anybody wore seatbelts of not.

Once in the air it was easy to see the coast lined by black lava flow so even though the water was beautiful aquamarine colored, there really weren’t a lot of good beaches on the side of the island that Moroni is based.

There is always a place to play futbol in Africa

After about 30 mins, we were closing in on Moheli, an island that Lonely Planet suggests to go to if you want to drop off the face of earth. I noticed that the coast was distinctly different with sandy beaches rather than black lave flows. The airport was extremely small with nothing more than an airstrip and a small single room building but it was beautifully set right by the sea…I think it was one of the most beautiful airports I have ever seen and that’s not because of some space age construction. The airport was located in a small village called Bandaressalam about 15 min. from Fomboni which was the primary town on the island and the best place to catch a taxi- brousse to the place I wanted to go…Itsamia.

Busy digging

 The reason for going to Itsamia to watch sea turtles and I was hoping I was in season to see them. At Fomboni station I tried to ask around for a mode of transport to Itsamia but I just could not communicate with the gap between English, French and sign language too large.

This one probably weighs 120 kg's



Fortunately one guy must have figured that I was Indian because he pointed a store right by the station and said Indian...Indian. I took the cue and entered the store and met Romesh, an Indian who welcomed me warmly, offered me a cold drink, set me up with a taxi-brousse that would take me to Itsamia and arranged for a motorbike and a guide for the next day so I could go around the island. He not only arranged for all this but negotiated all money matters from my stay to the hiring of the motorbike.

I figured there are some things that Lonely Planet cannot do, and then…I guess I can always rely on good ol’ Indians!!!

Since I got special treatment due to Romesh, I got picked up by the taxi-brousse and got to sit at the front window seat (the most coveted seat in a mini-van). The ride to Itsamia was BEAUTIFUL…certainly one of the most picturesque in my life. The winding road gently snaked through the mountain covered with plantations of clove, banana, ylang-ylang, and many more spices and fruits and all along I could see the beautiful coast from a distance as we drove onwards. The small villages on the way were pretty and the road sides were covered with cloves being sun dried. I felt as though that ride itself was worth all the effort that it took me to come there.


Eggs



Holding a spoilt egg (egg that won't hatch)

Once I got to Itsamia, I checked into a one room bungalow right on the beach, ordered my dinner for that night which had just arrived as a fisherman’s catch of the day and then set out to spend some time on the beach. I even got to play some futbol by the beach with the kids. By the time, I got back it was 7pm and my candlelight dinner was served in a small hut by the beach (yeah…all by myself).

Following the last on all the way to the ocean

Around 8pm, the local guide came at my door and we headed to see the turtles and I could hardly contain my excitement. I had hoped for just one sighting of the turtles but we saw 4 of them in a span of 90 minutes. Infact, my best memory of them was when we were seeing one mother turtle laying eggs when we heard another one dragging itself right behind us so we had to move silently out of its path. I was even able to touch and pat them once they started to lay eggs as they go into a trance and become totally oblivious to their surrounding. All this was probably a stone throw away from my bungalow.

Soon it was time to leave so I followed the last one all the way to the ocean and then got back to the village. I felt totally satisfied with how my day had passed but it was not the end of it yet. Walking back from the village to my bungalow, I went to a community movie theatre…the movie was shown on a small TV that was run on a generator and the movie was played on a VCR (yeah…the old ones that seems like distant memory to most of us now).

The audience was about 10 kids and 10 adults sitting on two rows of benches in the open beside a straw hut fenced with coconut leaves. That experience was exactly the reason why I think I continue to backpack rather take the easier option of a travel package…simple, rustic and yet so enchanting!