Apparently the local village have been partying all night getting ready for the first sailing of a traditional “Botsy” this afternoon. Fortunately it didn’t keep us awake! Awake at 5 for me so I enjoyed the sunrise!
So the other fun thing happening today is the start of a sailing competition organised for the first time by our hotel owner for the national day weekend.
So we spent some time watching the preparations. All the village had been given breakfast outside the hotel before we got dressed! We enjoyed our breakfast with its glorious view.
We then watched the start of the race which was fun to see. About 27 pirogues with sails participating. The start was hard to organise as people kept floating off before the horn!
I then enjoyed a swim with Helen and the novelty of a shower using warm water from bottles left out in the sun!
Unfortunately David is feeling bad again and we are fairly sure it is the doxycicline that is upsetting his already fragile stomach. So he’s back off food and staying in the chalet while we go to watch the launch at 3 pm.
Zo introduced us to the owner who now has 4 Botsies and he said we were welcome to watch and join in the party, all helped by a contribution of 25,000Ar! Apparently the BBC also contributed 2 million Ar (£400) to the event as they were filming an episode of ‘ The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan!’ We later met him at our hotel!
The younger family dancing
Such a privilege to witness this fairly rare traditional event. So back home as the sun set!
Lovely evening meal of boabab rum apero, prawns and avacado, couscous, fish, and coconut flan in the presence of the team of 10 from the BBC ! David missed it all!
