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island of bounty

Photos & words / aaron gekoski

Aaron Gekoski checks out ’s top dive spots and finds dolphins, turtles, octopus, and reef systems full of macro goodies. His search for a new home may be over…

ou’re off to find a home base in Zanzibar, how wonderful! What’s it like?” comes the inevitable question when friends hear I’m going to set up camp on the legendary Tanzanian island. Confusion normally follows: the truth is I’ve never been. Having spent the last few years hopping around Southern Africa, my partner and I were a couple “Y of broken journalists in need of a home. We’d had lived in Cape Town (too big), Bulawayo (no ocean), Tofo (too isolated) and various other pockets of Southern Africa. Finding that perfect base was becoming an issue. The main criteria in our search included decent transport links back to the UK, world-class beaches, and – of course – diving. Out came the map, we ruled out entire nations on the basis of corrupt governments, a lack of fish to photograph or crappy transport links. , the largest island in the Zanzibar Archipelago – a Dolut reroribus maximi, volorum adigenime magnissin restia nam. tropical-island-paradise – seemed to tick the boxes nicely. How could we not fall in love with it? With typical impulsiveness we book our flights and begin daydreaming of life in a Bounty advert. >> 18 // DiveSite // Issue 15 19 //explore

We’re accompanied by came in the manic a couple of boat full of formOur offirst Stone experience Town, the old quarters of the ofisland the capital, Zanzibar tourists who don neon Town. The best thing to do here is to forget the guidebook and get lost amongst the higgledy-piggledy alleyways of crumbling vests, hot pants and coral stone houses. A slave trading hub in the 19th Century, Stone bikinis. They clearly Town is a fascinating blend of Arab, Indian, African, and European haven’t done their influences. Our noses lead us to a market where vendors sell plump mangos, handmade soap and mountains of spices. Shops research: despite its erupt with bright scarves and fabrics, whilst the mosques, stylish commercialisation hotels, bazaars and palaces reflect the city’s diverse heritage. Eyes were made for places like . over recent years, As the light faded, we headed to Forodhani Gardens, the city’s Zanzibar is 99% Muslim seafront night market, where food vendors were setting up their stalls. In front of them, children hurled themselves into the ocean, and remains a fairly forming passable flips as they connected with the water. Around conservative country. the square locals and tourists gathered to chat and sip a tasty concoction of sugar cane juice mixed with ginger and lime. We tried a famous Zanzibar Nutella and banana “pizza” - in reality more of a stuffed pancake. Either way, it tasted pretty good. We shunned the pricey marlin, red snapper, lobster, kingfish, prawn and tuna kebabs for Archipelagos restaurant. An excellent, if fortuitous choice - it ended up becoming our favourite eatery in all of Zanzibar. I salivate over perfect fillets of red snapper (for me, the tastiest fish around), whilst Gem falls unnervingly quiet as she tucks into a Swahili prawn curry. >> From the bowl to the beach

Over the next couple of days we visited nearby Changuu Island, which was employed as a prison for slaves in the 1860’s. We’re accompanied by a couple of boat full of tourists who don neon vests, hot pants and bikinis. They clearly haven’t done their research: despite its commercialisation over recent years, Zanzibar is 99% Muslim and remains a fairly conservative country. Apart from scantily clad morons, the only other inhabitants of Changuu nowadays are the giant tortoises, originally a gift from the British governor of the . Craning out ancient necks to reveal grizzled faces, it

Dolut reroribus maximi, volorum adigenime magnissin restia nam.

Dolut reroribus maximi, volorum adigenime magnissin restia nam.

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would appear they rather enjoy being tickled on the chin. Despite a tendency to veer away from ‘tourist’ activities, we also signed up for a Spice Tour, which involves visiting a local farm to see how spices such as cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg are cultivated. It was well choreographed stuff, but interesting nonetheless. Having ticked off a few of the city’s “must-do” activities (OK, so our Lonely Planet didn’t stay down for long), it was time to escape the stifling heat and get down to some diving with One Ocean, Before hitting the water, we spent a couple of days at Mnarani Zanzibar’s largest and oldest dive operator. We loaded our gear Turtle Conservation pond, a community-based NGO who rescue and on to their traditional dhow and moved across the gloriously flat, rehabilitate sick and injured turtles. At this natural pond, visitors clear water to Pange, a small sandbank just 1.5km from shore. get to scrub algae off the hatchlings and feed juveniles seaweed I rolled into the and was embraced by 27-degree whilst learning about turtle behavior and the environmental threats water. Acropora, brain, honeycomb and stag coral erupt out they face. Every February the local community comes together to of Murogo Reef’s sandy bottom; perfect marine sculptures. In release the turtles back into the ocean. amongst these works of art we spotted various nudibranches, One morning our guide Suleiman took us to Nungwi’s fish pufferfish and boxfish in all shapes, colours and sizes, along with market. The sun edged up over spindly palm trees and threw a a giant school of yellow and black sweetlips. Pange North, our golden veil over the returning dhows. As the fishermen pulled in, second site, is renowned for its giant coral outcrops and bommies, they offloaded gigantic devil rays and sailfish, dogfish and yellow which I promptly glossed over in favour of the tiny inhabitants. fin tuna, plus a few species I don’t even recognise. Although these Whilst I’m loathe to anthropomorphise fish, this dive kick started a reefs have been chronically over fished, it would appear that life love affair with pipefish, who seduced me with their doughy eyes, thrives in the deep blue. cute snake-like slither and patient temperaments: attributes that Further down the beach you’ll find a strip of hotels and bars make the underwater photographer in me weak at the knees. My inhabited by an eclectic mix of Speedo-clad Frenchmen, cremated fawning didn’t stop there – it turns out that Zanzibar is teaming elderly Italians, and backpackers who come for their sex, drugs with the little fellas. and rock and roll fix. The beach with its powder-soft sand and A school of whiskery, striped eel catfish, packed together in turquoise water is gorgeous, if a little clichéd. a ball, finally pulled me away from the pipefish, as did a mantis shrimp protecting its lair with typical ferocity. The mantis’ bright Dutch blonde who colouring is a perfect fit for an island like Zanzibar and if there’s a Divineknows a thing Diving, or two Elzemiek, about marine a biology, leggy fronts a Spanish-run more photogenic creature in the whole animal kingdom, I’m yet to operation. They took me to dive Mbwangawa with its sweeping snap one. So far so good. wall of petal coral. The setting is great, but there’s a disappointing The next day we dive Murogo again, this time finding a rather lack of life and little to see other than an octopus, who slinked out ornate leaf fish, who looked a little fed up. Then again, with their of his hole and posed for a picture. down-turned lips that look as though they’ve been injected with If the first dive was a touch bland, the second made up for it. collagen, when don’t leaf fish look miserable? It attempted to Shane’s Reef is so packed full of macro life I could have spent days escape my lens, fell on its side, then made an attempt to swim to down there if it hadn’t been for my darned computer beeping at some nearby coral. We then moved on to Pange South (gigantic me. We saw a huge black frog fish, purple leaf fish, flying gurnard, porcupinefish, lots of parrotfish, more nice coral and bommies). crocodilefish, flounder, thornback cowfish and scorpionfish: an Mini Italy array of very chilled out, highly photogenic fish that allowed me to sit my lens right on the end of their patient little snouts. But the most exciting resident is an ornate ghosted pipefish: Although Mnemba grabs the diving headlines (more about this my first ever (and – I’m sorry to say - superior to the standard later), we left Stone Town pleasantly surprised by the quality of pipefish in every way). Upon seeing it, my emotions were split diving there: the coral and macro life’s a solid eight out of ten. 50:50 between sheer astonishment that such crazy looking We hired a car from a chirpy wheeler-dealer known as Pweza - animals exist and perplexity: what sort of life does it have, just which means octopus in Swahili - before heading to the northern hanging there upside down for weeks/months/years on end? beaches of Nungwi. Doesn’t it get vertigo? We hired a car from a chirpy wheeler-dealer known as Pweza - which means octopus in Swahili - before heading to the northern beaches of Nungwi.

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The big one

We continued our journey around the island. Next destination - and the one we’d been really excited about - Mnemba Island. fishing takes place right on top of the most popular reefs. Located 2kms off the tip of northeast Unguja, the island features Despite the crowds, once we hit the water we only encounter a a single luxury lodge, operated by andBeyond, which is definitely handful of divers. The conditions are exquisite – 40m visibility and beyond our price range. Most visitors to Mnemba either stay 26 degree water. The skipper dropped Gary, myself and manager in Nungwi or Matemwe, a long stretch of beach lined with – on Sylvia off on top of Moray City, a coral outcrop home to masses and the whole – large, rather sterile hotels that cater for package masses of reef fish and morays (the hint’s in the name). I make holidaymakers. Our first night is spent at Bluebay; an Italian-run furious “OK” signals to my buddies: it’s more than OK though – it operation that can accommodate over 200 visitors and boasts was a superb start. yummy buffets featuring an imposing array of animals. That night Sylvia led a dive on Kichwani and turned out to be a willing and I, sample nine species. patient model. We witnessed schools of butterflyfish involved in a feeding frenzy, along with gigantic numbers of yellow snapper. I Ut endis simodis re ducia quidit as eictiunt quamus One Ocean Matemwe finally understood where Mnemba gets its reputation. Theclutching next my morningfull. No need I for stumbled weights today. to I’m joined by owner Our day got even better on the second site, Aquarium (after dignim alis quatum faceritat mos rectur? Qui nes si and founder Gary, an ex cave diver from Australia who’s been based all, what famous dive destination doesn’t have a site named to conet aci bea nissit am que poreperatur moloris on Zanzibar for 17 years. When he arrived on this coast there were “Aquarium”). A gentle current eased us to 28m, as a juvenile turtle almost no hotels. “Those were the days,” he says, wistfully. flapped by, barely a speck of plankton between the two of us. It dolestem aut fugia doluntinvel id untia cum aliat. We chew the breeze on the 45-minute boat ride, along with 12 took a seat on some coral and posed for a photo. Whilst it’s not other guests. We got to Mnemba and wrestled for space amongst uncommon to see turtles here, Gary later informs me that just a Dolut reroribus maximi, volorum a handful of operators and numerous fishing boats. Although $3 few years back he’d regularly see 10-15 on a dive. adigenime magnissin restia nam. from every dive goes to fisheries to protect Mnemba, it is rarely I was too wrapped up in the scene to notice a pod of dolphins patrolled and - inexplicably for a world-famous dive destination - speeding by above us. After I finished with the turtle, I did 24 // DiveSite // Issue 15 25 //explore

something rare for me: I tucked my camera under my arm, shook out my muscles and simply rode the current, taking in a superb diving spectacle.

move to Matemwe Beach Villas, aThe boutique next lodge day with Gem easily and the Ifinest sand we’ve ever stepped on: it’s almost like dust. It’s more our scene and we salivated over the other dive boats in sights. A lack of tourists, great reefs, dolphins x food, particularly the breakfast of pastries and homemade jams, and just 45 minutes from Stone Town: who knows, we may have poached eggs on a caramelised onion and cheese scones, with found ourselves a home. bacon, green pepper coulis and balsamic glaze. It was the perfect stomach lining for another trip to Mnemba. We visited another section of Aquarium where three leaf fish Best time to dive: and a red scorpion fish made me regret choosing a wide-angle October-March, before the long rainy season, which will affect lens. On the dive a French lady managed to simultaneously flood visibility. Humpack whales arrive around July and generally One Ocean’s camera and run out of air. Thankfully she was within stay until November. grabbing distance of the instructor. Back on the boat, manager Sebastian – the unfortunate owner of the camera – looked less Who to know: than impressed. For our second dive we spent over an hour Baboo can organize car hire, tours, safaris and trips to exploring the shallow, remarkable coral life of Small Wall. local islands. In fact, there’s very little he can’t do Onwards and southwards www.zanzibarbabootours.com.

Getting there: The failure to notice dolphins the previous day would have upset Fly from Johannesburg to Stone Town with Mango me greatly if our next destination hasn’t have been Kizimkazi. www.flymango.com. This small fishing village in southeast Zanzibar is one of the best dolphin spotting destinations in all of Africa. American/ Dive operators: Zimbabwean, Stratton Hatfield, who works for voluntourism Stone Town and Mnemba: Zanzibar One Ocean company African Impact, takes me out. Stratton reminds me a www.zanzibaroneocean.com little of Into the Wild’s Alexander Supertramp. He’s done more Nungwi: Divine Diving www.scubazanzibar.com in his 23-years than most do in a lifetime. We headed out in Paje: Buccaneer Diving www.buccaneerdiving.com the afternoon, when the wind normally picks up and there are fewer tourists to contend with. Sadly it’s not unusual to see 4/5 We stayed with: boatloads of tourists dropped on one pod of dolphins. We spotted Matemwe: Matemwe Beach Villas: www.matemwebeach.net a half-dozen-strong pod and were dropped off in the water ahead Bluebay Beach Resort: www.bluebayzanzibar.com of them. The dolphins approached and began cartwheeling around Nungwi: Mnarani Marine Turtle Conservation Pond us, before diving to the seabed and swimming upside down, www.mnarani.org scratching their backs on the sand. Paje/Jambiani: Garden Bungalows www.gardenbungalows- As the light gradually morphed from white to orange, we began zanzibar.com to make our way back to the mainland. En route we spotted another pod of up to 20 dolphins. The guys at African Impact about aaron: allowed me to slip into the water alone to take uninterrupted Aaron’s work can be viewed on his website www.aarongekoski. shots. For ten glorious, unforgettable minutes I was accepted into com. He is co-founder of Ecomentaries, a conservation media the dolphins’ family and production company www.ecomentaries.org. The trip to Kizimkazi leads us to nearby Paje. This chilled out kite surfing community has a long, quiet beach lined with small Read about Aaron’s trip to Pemba Island in our next issue. independent lodges and restaurants. Whilst the diving doesn’t rival Nungwi or Mnemba, the coral life – particularly at sites Powoni and Barracuda Point - is magnificent and there are no 26 // DiveSite // Issue 15