Quirimba to Pemba, Mozambique, to Dzaoudzi, Mayotte 2 - 4 Apr 08

Lemurs go bananas for bananas

It was just a 20-minute flight at 1000 feet to Pemba, where we narrowly missed a monitor lizard on the runway upon landing. We refuelled with 273 litres at 1.73 US$ per litre. Two days ago, we had e-mailed the flight plan Pemba - Mayotte to the Quilálea office in Pemba, and they had sent it by fax to Beira ATC. This is because Mayotte formally requires the flight plan to be filed 24 hours prior to departure. Although Beira had acknowledged by phone on Monday that they had received the flight plan by fax, they had not filed it, and when we arrived in Pemba they had lost it! So we filed another one and departed 30 minutes late.
At the FIR boundary we were transferred to Antananarivo control, and we had excellent HF contact with them until we got VHF contact with Dzaoudzi, Mayotte. We enjoyed great views of the coastline and reefs surrounding Mayotte on the approach. Arrival formalities were quick and efficient, and we were met by Mohammed who looked after our transfer to the Jardin Maoré Hotel by car, then ferry and then another car. The hotel is located in a tropical garden with huge baobab trees and next to a superb beach. We were welcomed by lemurs and beautiful fruit bats (roussettes) while consuming our welcome cocktail. One of the hotel guests passed a banana to Angela and several lemurs leapt on her shoulders to grab it. Fortunately these animals don’t have sharp claws!
We were initially surprised to see a lot of police (French gendarmerie) in the streets. We soon found out, that a few days before we arrived, there had been a military intervention by troops from the African Union (AU) in the neighbouring Comoros island of Anjouan. The objective was to remove the dictator president of Anjouan Mohamed Bacar by force, as he had opposed democratic elections since the summer of 2007. This island is only 30 NM northwest of Mayotte, and he had fled the island with 30 of his lawyers by boat to Mayotte, where he had been arrested and protected by the French gendarmerie.
This had created violent riots by the large number of illegal immigrants from Anjouan, who now lives on Mayotte. The French then moved him to Reunion, where he remained under arrest, and will most likely be extradited to a third country. For this reason the gendarmerie on Mayotte had been reinforced first from Reunion and later from France.