C O M M
G U
O N
O D
I T Y L I L F I E V I N G
GOING
OUT ON A
LIMB
How do you fancy heading out to sea on what is really not
much more than a very big log tied to a smaller log?
Madagascar
About 430km east of Mozambique, and measuring 592,800 square
kilometres, Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world. It’s
renowned for its astonishing level of endemism with some of the
most unusual plants and animals. For example, there are six species
of baobab on the island, while there are only two in the whole of
Africa; there are giant chameleons, and – most notably – about
a hundred species of lemurs, those cute, cuddly, tree-hugging
primates.
The island was settled probably between about 1,000 and 4,000
years ago, and almost certainly by Austronesians – a useful catch-all
term for people with Polynesian, Melanesian, Malay, Indonesian and
Australasian origins from the east – and then only later by Africans
from the west. No-one is really sure.
What is almost certain, though, is that whoever first settled
Madagascar arrived on boats very similar to the dhows that still sail
around the island, and that they brought with them smaller pirogues,
or at least the knowledge of how to build them. Hey – perhaps they
even sailed there on these ever-so-tiny but surprisingly seaworthy
boats.
Pirogue
The pirogues of Madagascar, which are mostly used for fishing, are
made from a hollowed-out tree trunk with wooden sides and an
outrigger – pretty much the same style of boat you would find in
many parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans – Hawaii, New Zealand
and a slew of smaller places. The boats are constructed from wood
and rope – originally this would have been hand-woven from local
plants but nowadays it may well be mass-produced hemp or even
synthetic rope. The boats themselves, though, would be made from
local wood. They are lateen-rigged, which means that – without
going into too much detail – they are handled very differently to
anything you may have sailed on the Vaal Dam, or even in False Bay.
We in the so-called developed world are so obsessed with new
developments and new technology that we are programmed to
believe that the newest way of doing anything must be the best way.
So it could come as quite a surprise that this ancient rigging system
that has barely changed in thousands of years is very effective – and
not really that hard to learn.
Challenge
So when a couple of adventurous Cape Town lads found themselves
in Madagascar, they learned to sail these great little boats, and had
so much fun doing it, they came up with the idea of the Pirogue
Challenge Madagascar. It’s pretty simple really. You put together a
team of two or three – or just arrive and join a team when you get
there – and then learn to sail a pirogue. You’ve got two days to learn
the ropes, and then you set off. While it is a real adventure, it’s not a
foolish risk-taking exercise – you have a local skipper on the pirogue,
and there is motorised back-up.
The next three days are spent sailing from island to island,
snorkelling, looking at lemurs, doing the odd hike, and getting
into long, philosophical discussions around the campfire at night.
Qualified divers can do a scuba dive, including a night dive – the
fluorescence here is awesome.
The important nitty-gritty details
The next PCM will be from 1 to 8 September – planned to take
advantage of SA Airlink’s Sunday flights direct to and from Joburg.
If you miss this, there will be another one in May next year, and – if
you have a big enough group – you can tailor-make one – how cool
would this be for a corporate retreat or a team building? The cost is
R19,500 per person, which includes everything except flights.
Piper Montagu | wawa-adventures.com