Belo-sur-Mer is a very small remote fishermen village located 70 km south of Morondava, in the south-west Madagascar, facing the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. This village is home to Vezo people, a nomadic coastal tribe of South Madagascar who live from sea fishing and ship building performed by hand. This Vezo village is simple and peaceful, cheerful at departure and return of fishing canoes. It is pleasant to walk here, sit at a tavern, listen to the songs escaping from the churches and enjoy the untouched landscape.
How to get to Belo sur Mer
The best way to get here is to fly from Antananarivo to Morondava. And from here you have two options:
A) During the dry season we recommend renting a 4×4 car with a driver and drive to Belo. It’s a 3-4 hour ride with an experienced local driver on a solid sandy road, crossing small rivers and villages, with a vegetation of baobab trees, octopus trees and huge white sand deserts etc. The ride is absolutely worth it.
B) During the wet season you need to take a boat from Morondava to Belo sur Mer. The speed takes around 1.5 hours and a motorized pirogue takes around 3.5 hours of time.
Things to do in Belo Sur Mer
Belo is not for everyone, but those who like adventures will be fascinated by the tidal lagoons, white sandbanks and the nearby coral islands. You will get rewarded by a stunning endemic nature, endless stretches of white sand beaches, a laid-back atmosphere, authentic ancestral way of life, dramatic sunsets, no big hotels or mass tourism, very simple bungalows powered by solar panels. Belo sur mer gives a magical feeling of freedom.
- The clear waters of the Mozambique Channel form a natural swimming pool on a sandy bottom, protected from the waves at mid-tide by a bar of polished rocks, ideal for swimming
- Snorkel around the sandbank of Nosy Andravoha – a very tiny coral island in the ocean. You can access it by a pirogue and the journey takes over one hour from the mainland. It’s a little white drop-like sandbank in the ocean. There are no trees, no people, no houses, just sand and the ocean. Enjoy the beautiful emptiness, snorkel and swim. Or come with a prepared lunch box and have a picnic in the middle of the ocean.
- In the right season (July to October), it is common to come across dolphins and whales and for fishing enthusiasts shoals of large fish (trevallies including ignobilis, kingfish, parrots, groupers) are to be found here.
- Salines of Antsira (1h30 from the salt port of Menaky by car/zebu cart) are the largest in Madagascar, and the second source of income for the inhabitants of Belo sur Mer, after fishing. Mining takes place in the old fashioned way, by dumping in successive basins, until harvesting is carried out with a crowbar or pickaxe. Here, salt processing is done by entire families, from old to young. Under the scorching sun, people wash and clean the clay of salt to make it fit for consumption. White as far as the eye can see, in which the blue of the sky is reflected. Water, sky, salt – mirage in the middle of the desert… Almost unreal landscape, in the middle of an arid and barren bush. In the backdrop you can also see the dwarf baobab trees.
- Kirindy Mitea National Park and its fascinating bottle baobab forest. Note: Kirindy Mitea National Park is different from the Kirindy Reserve which is close to the Avenue of Baobabs. The park is accessible by sea (2h00 by motorized canoe) or by track (early July to November – 2h30 in 4×4). This park includes a marine area with seven small islands and is situated near Belo sur Mer, surrounded by Maharivo River and Lampaolo River. There are three hiking circuits through the park, as well as the possibility of doing a pirogue trip along the estuary and the mangrove. In the park, there are beaches, sand dunes, spiny forest, baoba trees, lakes and flamingos (early June to end of October). In the dry season the lakes dry though. Stop at the Cathedral of Baobabs for a picnic. There are 2 benches and a table surrounded by dozens of giant baobabs, made by the national park so people can rest. This place has the biggest concentration of baobab trees and it’s absolutely magical. It’s also a fantastic place for bird-watching.
- Visit the open air dhows site, where ships are built by hand. Dozens of schooners with two equal masts, are being built on each side of the lagoon. All the stages in the development of these transport ships are represented here: the keels lying on the sand, like the ribs of whales against the sky, the jetties of the masts, the potbellied hulls cheerfully painted, according to a know-how transmitted from generation to generation since the 19th century. The launches give rise to big parties where everyone will go to the call of the conches to lend a hand to the owner clan and haul the boat to the sea.
- Kayak between the mangrove forest
- Hiking in the Park of Ambararata, in a profusion of baobabs, euphorbias and didieracées, spotting lemurs (sifaka and catta) and birds.
Where to Stay in Belo Sur Mer
There are two rustic hotels we would recommend, namely Belo Beach, Hotel Entremer
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