Dear all
We are heading out to Madagascar in Oct to spend 10 days at various NPs before travelling to Nosy Be for 6 days. We are both PADI instructors with our own kit and I have an underwater photo housing set up. Ordinarily we would take all our own gear but given we will be doing alot of trecking, I am keen to only take the camara, dive computer, mask & SMB.
Has anyone dived at Nosy Be and is the kit well maintained and good for hire. What are the water temps like - are the wetsuits adequate and in enough various sizes (I get cold easily and would rather taken my own if they are thin and ill fitting).
Finally can anyone suggest a good dive shop to go with. We are staying up at Andilana, are there shops there or will the others around the island do pick ups?
Any advice would be much appreciated
Helen
Helen
I would agree with your list. The diving at Nosy Be does not justify dragging full kit around.
I have dived a couple of times with Oceane's Dream and found them fine - we brought our own suits, but they seemed to have a good selection of gear. Water temp in August was 25C. October should be a quiet time so you'll not be competing for the suits anyway!
Their base is at Ambatoloaka, quite a way from Anilana. There must be others closer - perhaps at the Vanila Hotel, which looked well run - it has a dive centre.
Donncha
Hello Helen.
I'm going to dive for three weeks (:-)) in Nosy Be in November, and also this is my first time there, I collected some infos in French, German and English dive forums, so here we go:
Water temperatures in October around 28°C, shallow water even more! Wet suits are everywhere 3mm and unisex, so for a female, you may want to bring your own after all (I know I will, and I will do some trekking beforehand as well).
By reputation, best dive schools seem to be Madaplouf Bemoko between Djamanjary and Andilana (and they would pick you up each morning, at least that's what they offered me. They also offered a pick up from the airport), and Oceans's Dream further South.
Both speak english (not the thing to expect in all dive schools there).
For more infos: madaplouf@wanadoo.mg and oceaned@wanadoo.mg
By the way, I'll fly corsair, not only because they've gotten the best fares, but also because they allow 30kg lugguage compared to the 20kg of all the other airlines. I suppose they do transport alot of French divers...
have fun down there
berit
trusted partner
