Pemba Island
Pemba Island has arguably some of the best wall-diving in the world, certainly the best in Africa for variety, in a remote and captivating setting, often with less than 100 foreign visitors on the island at a given time.
Much hillier and greener than Zanzibar, her sister island to the south, Pemba is the world capital of clove production, and in season the air is heady with the smell of cloves being dried in front of people's homes.
55 kilometres long and 20 kilometres across at its widest point, the majority of the 370,000 inhabitants are subsistence or small-scale cash crop farmers or subsistence fishermen. The island is a very fertile place; besides clove trees, the local crops are mainly coconut, bananas, cassava and red beans, but also mchicha (a sort of spinach), tomatoes, and seasonal tropical fruits, and the deep Pemban waters close offshore provides many game fish.
Belief in witchcraft is widespread on Pemba, and the island was long known as a home of famous and feared witchdoctors and an interesting mixture is still found today. When ill, both hospital and witchdoctor are visited. If one does not work, certainly the other one will! When a death or theft occurs a Pemban will seek both the police and the witch doctor out for advice or action, doubling one's chances of recovery or retribution.
Accommodation summary
Pemba has remained largely undeveloped, with less than half a dozen places for tourists to stay.
Gecko Eco Lodge and Swahili Divers - in the north, under new management since February 2017, the cheapest place to stay and dive, refurbishments and upgrades in progress. Best location for diving the great sites around Njao and Fundo gaps.
The Manta Resort - the northernmost resort, the next cheapest after Gecko Eco Lodge. (there are no mantas).
The Aiyana Resort and Spa - in the north next to The Manta Resort. The newest on the island and the most chic. No dive centre.
Fundu Lagoon Luxury Beach Lodge - in the south, access via road and boat, the epitome of barefoot luxury. Excellent dive centre, the dive centre manager, Philbert, has been there over a decade.
Getting to Pemba Island
Flying from Dar-es-Salaam to Stone Town on Unguja (or Zanzibar Island) takes 20 minutes. After a 15-minute break, the 35-minute flight to Pemba yields picture-postcard aerial shots of uninhabited islands and the reefs, before touching down in Chake Chake, Pemba’s biggest town, half-way up the west coast at the end of a long mangrove-lined creek.
The airport is a small ramshackle affair, and despite a plethora of attractions including atmospheric ruins, primeval forest, unique bird species, deserted beaches, and some of the best diving in the Indian Ocean, Pemba hosts less than 100 tourists at any given time, sometimes less than 20 in total in the four resorts.
Leaving the airport, you pass through Chake Chake and its crumbling buildings and stall-filled alleyways. Stop off and take in the fruit and vegetable market, try out the sticky paste made from tamarind, ginger, sugar, nutmeg, and cloves, and watch the grazing hump-necked cows interrupt an impromptu football match in front of the mosque.
Much hillier and greener than Zanzibar, her sister island to the south, Pemba is the world capital of clove production, and in season the air is heady with the smell of cloves being dried in front of people's homes.
55 kilometres long and 20 kilometres across at its widest point, the majority of the 370,000 inhabitants are subsistence or small-scale cash crop farmers or subsistence fishermen. The island is a very fertile place; besides clove trees, the local crops are mainly coconut, bananas, cassava and red beans, but also mchicha (a sort of spinach), tomatoes, and seasonal tropical fruits, and the deep Pemban waters close offshore provides many game fish.
Belief in witchcraft is widespread on Pemba, and the island was long known as a home of famous and feared witchdoctors and an interesting mixture is still found today. When ill, both hospital and witchdoctor are visited. If one does not work, certainly the other one will! When a death or theft occurs a Pemban will seek both the police and the witch doctor out for advice or action, doubling one's chances of recovery or retribution.
Accommodation summary
Pemba has remained largely undeveloped, with less than half a dozen places for tourists to stay.
Gecko Eco Lodge and Swahili Divers - in the north, under new management since February 2017, the cheapest place to stay and dive, refurbishments and upgrades in progress. Best location for diving the great sites around Njao and Fundo gaps.
The Manta Resort - the northernmost resort, the next cheapest after Gecko Eco Lodge. (there are no mantas).
The Aiyana Resort and Spa - in the north next to The Manta Resort. The newest on the island and the most chic. No dive centre.
Fundu Lagoon Luxury Beach Lodge - in the south, access via road and boat, the epitome of barefoot luxury. Excellent dive centre, the dive centre manager, Philbert, has been there over a decade.
Getting to Pemba Island
Flying from Dar-es-Salaam to Stone Town on Unguja (or Zanzibar Island) takes 20 minutes. After a 15-minute break, the 35-minute flight to Pemba yields picture-postcard aerial shots of uninhabited islands and the reefs, before touching down in Chake Chake, Pemba’s biggest town, half-way up the west coast at the end of a long mangrove-lined creek.
The airport is a small ramshackle affair, and despite a plethora of attractions including atmospheric ruins, primeval forest, unique bird species, deserted beaches, and some of the best diving in the Indian Ocean, Pemba hosts less than 100 tourists at any given time, sometimes less than 20 in total in the four resorts.
Leaving the airport, you pass through Chake Chake and its crumbling buildings and stall-filled alleyways. Stop off and take in the fruit and vegetable market, try out the sticky paste made from tamarind, ginger, sugar, nutmeg, and cloves, and watch the grazing hump-necked cows interrupt an impromptu football match in front of the mosque.