Island Hopping off Tanzania: A Sun-Kissed Escape from Reality

The excitement builds as you fly over the vast reefs and half a dozen islands off the Songo Songo archipelago on the journey to Fanjove Island. There is no airstrip on Laba Fanjove, so you have to do the last twenty-minute stretch by boat, which is a much better way to arrive on an island anyway. It feels remote, and there are no other tourists for many, many miles. It’s secluded in a way that only a tiny private island can be.

The water was amazing. Every hue of blue, green, and white. There were beautiful coral heads a hundred metres from the main beach, and Ninian got to see a frogfish for the first time in a decade. It was amazing to be somewhere so private, with the freedom to walk, beachcomb, swim, paddle, snorkel, and bumble around on the reefs with a boat. Good food. The rooms were open to the breeze, with walls made of the neatest woven coconut, and great showers. A wonderful sun-kissed escape from reality.

Our next stop  was Pemba Island.  We took off from Zanzibar and for a while we flew in a world of grey with no sight of the sea, rain pelting the fuselage. But as we approached Pemba we broke through and caught our first glimpse of the impossibly varied shoreline and the lush and verdant landscape.

We drove through farms for about an hour – so many different crops. In an acre you might find cloves, limes, breadfruit, tamarind, mango, pawpaws, star fruit, sweet potatoes, and passion fruit all being grown together, with slim, fast chickens and slow cows. The people were happy, and it felt like old-fashioned things, like time sitting under trees with friends and family, were still important.

The Manta Resort was beautiful and comfortable, but not over the top. Huge rooms that could be opened up (we never shut a thing while we were there), great fans and AC where you needed it, views over the ocean, and lots of space for privacy. Great staff that loved the place, and the food was ‘special occasion home-style cooking’ rather than anything too fancy. Such fresh seafood! But don’t get me wrong, as amazing as the lodge was, I would have slept anywhere to have had the privilege to swim, snorkel, dive, and fish in this part of the ocean.

Here on the north-western tip of Pemba, you sit just a few hundred yards away from the Pemba Channel, which is over 800 m deep in places, and cold upwellings help create some of the most varied habitats with massive biodiversity. The first time I slipped into the water with my mask on, I found myself floating above a shelf of varied coral, sponges, and anemones, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of fish, of dozens of species, in every shape and form. The water was crystal clear, clearer than any other place I have swum. And the dark blue inky blackness of the deep channel abyss was the perfect backdrop to this riotous show of colour and nature in its most splendid forms. I sat in the sandy shallows to rest, and a jack and a handful of African pompano swam around me. This is the most amazing place.

If you love the ocean and old islands, you must find a way to get here.

See more photos here