Paradise found!

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OH and I have always believed that there are too many parts of the world we haven’t seen yet, to go back to the same place twice.

But, Pemba Island to the north of Zanzibar, in Tanzania, has just changed all that.

After a horrible journey via Qatar, which was so delayed in Paris that we thought we would miss all our connections, we eventually boarded our little plane in Dar Es Salaam.

And with a sigh of relief, it was…

Check, check, check…contact…and chocs away!

We landed, briefly, in Zanzibar. Who’s in pole position, do you think?

Then it was on to Pemba. As we approached the south coast, it looked as if the island was hovering on the edge of being sucked into a deep hole in the ocean…

But, soon after, the landing strip was in sight…

…and we’d arrived!

We had to take a little road trip next and, on the way, our driver climbed a clove tree to bring us some fresh cloves. Cloves are the island’s main source of income and their exportation is strictly controlled. They are unbelievably pungent when you squeeze them.

After half an hour, or so, we reached the port and were, at last, on the last leg of the journey to our hotel. It’s only accessible by boat.

We headed out past the mangroves…

…and, after about twenty minutes, we caught our first glimpse of our destination…

That’s our suite!

Lizzie was waiting for us on the jetty…

And we were shown to our bungalows…one for sleeping and one for lounging…and our own pool! Bliss!!

So, what should we do now, we thought? We could walk down from the veranda on to the beach…

…or we could go up to the pool, where the views were amazing…

We chose the pool. After all that travelling we needed a late lunch,a couple of fundu coladas and a big snooze.

All needs seen to, we were woken in the late afternoon by lots of vervet monkeys, who’d come to the pool-side to play…

It’s not very clear, but this one’s looking at a little blue bird on the rope…

It was time to go back down to our veranda, then…

…to catch our first sunset…

…and get, quickly, along to the jetty bar to get a sundowner to accompany the view!

Next day, we explored the beach…the tide was low…

I love mangroves…

Then we wandered out on the jetty, passing the beached dhow (which, at the time, we thought wrecked)…

…to do some snorkelling. There was all sorts of sea-life…juvenile barracudas, lion-fish, clown-fish, sea-cucumbers, amazing star-fish, to name just a few…and…
…you know those huge, wavy-lipped clams which trap divers feet in old treasure-hunting films?

They were all there…

…but, all I could get a photo of were the crabs!

Their bodies carve curious, crab-shaped patterns in the piles of the pier…

That evening the (not wrecked) dhow set sail and we all went for a sunset cruise. The helmsman’s name is Simba (Swahili for “lion”)…no prizes for guessing why!

I asked Chichi if the boat was very old. He said, “Yes, Ma…very old…”
I, then, asked him if it was as old as my husband…
…and he said, “Hmm, no, not that old” lol!

There could be no sunset cruise without sundowners, of course…

Or a sunset!

Many times, we were woken at 00.00hrs, Swahili time, (that’s O6.00 to us, or dawn on the equator) by those cheeky monkeys…

…playing on the roof and on the veranda outside the bedroom door…

They’ve even figured out how to unzip the tent doors, so you have to padlock them out at all times…or they trash your room!

Though, the scuffling in the undergrowth was only down to the land crabs…

On one our trips to Misali Island, we were surrounded by dolphins who stayed with the boat…

OH and the guys went there to dive and I was left on the island alone (or so I thought) to snorkel…and explore the bush. And, this is what I found…

…a huge old Baobab tree. On it’s trunk is carved the name of the first ship to visit this island…HMS Kingfisher.

…and another curious monkey!

…then, suddenly and unexpectedly…a strange man jumped out of the undergrowth with an invitation to take tea with him in his house! I was quite taken aback, but, I, politely, declined…after all, I was in a bikini, thinking I was the only person on the island…and, in a Muslim country! Turns out that he was the ranger (it’s a protected area)…

…still, when I told the dive-guys, they said, “What…REALLY??!!”

I can’t help thinking that it was incredulity that, after taking all these gorgeous young things there…he, finally, hit on me…
…well, he was small…and in advancing years…

OH just said that it could ONLY happen to me…lol

Which leads me to realise that you may be wondering why there are no people in any of these photos…

The villagers do come by the beach. The hotel dhow takes them to the port for shopping and they go home, along the beach…

And the buffalo cart delivers vegetables and rice to the hotel…all grown in the village…

…but, apart from that, there really isn’t anyone else…except the lovely staff at the hotel…and a maximum of thirty-six guests…and it was never full during our visit. So, it’s not a good place to go if you don’t get on with your other half…

And, it does rain sometimes. Well, it is a rain-forest…but, it didn’t dampen our spirits…

And, then, far too soon it was time to come home. So here are a few more sunsets…

Oh, my…they’re all squint! Must be down to a surfeit of too much wonderful food, too many lush cocktails (have you ever had an expresso martini?) and not nearly enough sundowners…
…or far, far, far too relaxed arms…

I think they all apply…but, in the meantime, bye-bye Fundu…

And, for the very first time, we know that, by hook or by crook, we’ll be back…

…after we’ve navigated the Road to Zanzibar, on the way home…! :)

• 11 Nov, 2013
• 14 likes

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