Africa's Frontier Islands

Board Coral Geographer in Port Louis, Mauritius at 3:00pm where there is time to settle into your cabin before our 5:00pm departure. Join your fellow travellers and Expedition Team for a safety briefing as well as an overview of the voyage ahead.

A choice of excursions at Reunion are available – either a full day tour or a half day morning tour. The full day tour takes in the central highlands where rugged peaks of dormant or extinct volcanoes and mountains rising over 3,000m dominate the landscape. Where the air is scented with vanilla as plunging waterfalls tumble into vast amphitheatres (known as cirques) and tropical fruit plantations meld with sugarcane fields. Enjoy spectacular views from Nez des Boeuf of the Piton de la Fournaise crater before lunch at a creole restaurant and a visit to Cite du Volcan museum.

Alternatively, guests are welcomed to do a half day tour of a vanilla plantation. Learn about the important part that vanilla plays in Reunion’s cultural heritage at St Andre vanilla plantation then explore St Denis. This option suits those who wish to do the optional helicopter ride in the morning.

Enjoy three relaxing sea days at leisure as we cruise towards Madagascar. Join our Expedition Team for a fascinating program of ongoing activities, demonstrations and informative presentations or settle in with a good book on the Vista Deck.

During our two days at Toliara, guests will form smaller groups and enjoy one activity each morning and afternoon. These activities include:

Miary banyan tree and Miary market: located about 10km outside Toliara, the sacred banyan tree has an intriguing legend involving sacrifice to save the village from an impending flood. Learn of the history and what the sacred tree represents. A visit to the local market offers organically grown products and we may have the opportunity to witness a traditional folkdance.

Antsokay Arboretum and Artisan Markets: Opened in 1980 by the Swiss Botanist, Hermann Petignat, the Arboretum site is located 12km southeast of the city’s centre. The mission of the Arboretum is to conserve, maintain and increase botanical research and collection of plants in southwestern Madagascar and promote public awareness through environmental education. Visit the market located in the heart of Tulear where you can buy handicrafts such as sculpture, weaving and wood carving.

Orphanage Nathanael: Visit the orphanage, overseen by a French Association, home to 99 children between the ages of 6 and 17. See the children’s vegetable garden, tour the dormitories, kitchen, classrooms and library.

Honko Conservation & Reniala Forest: Winning a gold award for best wildlife conservation at the 2015 Responsible Tourism Awards, the Honko Conversation initiative began in response to a threat to the mangrove forests recognised in 2007. At Reniala (meaning baobab in Malagasy) explore a unique habitat home to more than 2,000 plant species, 95% of which are endemic to the area.

The small fishing village of Andavadoaka sits on the edge of a tranquil lagoon protected by coral reefs and is home to semi-nomadic Vezo people who rely upon the ocean for their livelihood. The coral reefs of southwest Madagascar are some of the most diverse in the Indian Ocean biodiversity studies identifying many hundreds of marine species.

We will learn about community projects promoting sustainable marine management before enjoying a leisurely afternoon of beach activities, swimming and snorkelling at Nosy Hao.

At the village Belo Sur Mer we again enjoy the company of the semi-nomadic Vezo people who travel the ocean in timber boats and oversized canoes powered by paddle or rudimentary rectangular sails. The ethnic Sakalava people, to which the Vezo belong, traditionally inhabit the coastal strip on the west coast of Madagascar and use outrigger canoes for fishing. The village sits on the shores of a turquoise lagoon with inviting white-sand beaches shaded by palm trees.

This coastal region of Madagascar is well-known for the traditional timber fishing boats, known as pirogues, built on the beach. When a vessel is launched, there is a festival-like atmosphere and we may be lucky enough to time our visit during such an occasion.

In a country scarred by deforestation, Kirindy Reserve is a wildlife habitat for threatened species and is protected and managed through selective and sustainable logging. Covering around 125sq km, Kirindy’s dry deciduous forests provide a haven for the endemic fossa, a sort of cat-like mammal the size of a small greyhound, as well as lemurs, birds and reptiles including chameleons.

After lunch we visit the famed Avenue of the Baobabs, known as the ‘most beautiful road in Madagascar’. The magnificent trees with their towering bottle-shaped trunks topped by gangly tentacle-like branches are a relative of the boab trees found in Australia’s Kimberley region. The Avenue of Baobabs is at the centre of a local conservation campaign aiming to protect the avenue as Madagascar’s first natural monument in an often-treeless landscape.

Enjoy a day at sea and join our Expedition Team for a fascinating program of ongoing activities, demonstrations and informative presentations.

Arriving after lunch into Mahajanga we will experience the famed Cirque Rouge, a multi-coloured rock formation that recalls somehow red American canyons. A hill locks where large gullies have been carved. Erosion has made this sandstone surface display a wide range of colours, from white, pink orange to ochre shades. Local people come here to carry out some of the colourful sand for filling bottles and selling them as souvenirs, or drawing pictures with these sands.

Enjoy a  day at sea and join our Expedition Team for a fascinating  program of ongoing activities, demonstrations and informative presentations.

The fortified city of Mozambique and former Portuguese trading post on the Island of Mozambique is a UNESCO World Heritage site, significant for its remarkable 16^th century architectural features. Connected to mainland Africa by a 3.4km long bridge straddling the Indian Ocean, the island has two distinct types of dwellings: the stone and lime town of Swahili, Arab and European influence in the north and macuti town (translating to city of roofed palm leaves) with traditional African architecture in the south.

The Southern Hemisphere’s oldest European building, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, considered one of the finest examples of Manueline vaulted architecture and Fort Sao Sebastiao occupy the north coast of the island. We will take  guided walking tours to discover the island’s diverse culture, it’s charming people and fascinating history including churches, mosques, colonial buildings and Portuguese houses.

Enjoy a  day at sea and join our Expedition Team for a fascinating program of ongoing activities, demonstrations and informative presentations.

The UNESCO World Heritage Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani site, once a medieval sultanate and occupied from the ninth to the nineteenth century was described as one of the most beautiful cities of the world in its fourteenth century heyday.

There is an opportunity to wander around the magnificent ruins of Malindi Mosque and its adjacent cemetery, Fort Gereza, a former prison built atop the ruins of a Portuguese fort and tombs of Sultans. Husuni Kubwa, a fourteenth century sultans palace of grand proportions right down to its octagonal swimming pool, was similar in structure to those found in Syria, Turkey and the Persian Gulf.

On our final evening onboard Coral Geographer, we reminisce about our voyage to the edge of Africa with new friends over Captain’s Farewell Drinks.

Coral Geographer arrives into Zanzibar at 9:00am. Farewell your Master, crew and fellow guests at disembarkation at 10:00am.