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Pemba and Tanzania Trip,
March 2000

Cage Diving with Great White Sharks, Report by Cindi LaRaia Pemba Diving and Tanzania Trip, Report by Beth and Shaun Tierney

Pemba Diving.

A place where tiny dhows sail under perfect blue skies and iridescent turquoise waters mask precious coral reefs, Pemba is a long, long way from America, but nice and close for us Europeans! Just south of Kenya’s coastal hot spot, Mombasa, and just north Zanzibar, this tiny island is little visited except by occasional travellers and divers. The island is hilly and green and was once covered with virgin rainforest. The Omanese imported clove trees during the 1800’s and the island was found to have ideal growing conditions. They soon became the principal crop which meant that all but one small area of the forest was destroyed. Luckily, the surrounding reefs did not suffer the same fate which makes Pemba well worth a visit for divers. And for divers who fancy an African Safari but can’t bear the idea of not getting wet while they’re away.

Roughly the shape of a kidney bean the island lies about 25 miles off the east-african coast. The outer side is exposed to open ocean and an ever present wind. Seasonally, the wind comes from the northeast or the southeast but it always comes. We visited in March and although mornings dawned clear and bright, by lunch the wind has whipped the sea outside the reef into a frenzy. This side is also known for large scale pelagics and high speed drift diving. The western side of the island on the other hand, is thoroughly different. Calmer waters, a coast protected by hundreds of tiny island specks forming protected bays and idyllic locations, the west makes for easy diving and lazy days.

To take advantage of these wildly differing conditions, we dived the east coast from a liveaboard, the SY Jambo. There are no resorts on that side anyway, so it really is the only way to go. The water was delightfully warm and the visibility good. Our first dive was on the island’s southern tip where we came face to face with a small turtle. That was followed pretty quickly by sightings of a crocodile fish, some blue spotted rays and quite a few reef fish. We noted that the coral was pretty damaged. Evidently the prevailing weather conditions and El Nino had been doing their stuff here, but the marine creatures seemed fairly prolific none the less.

Next we headed towards the rougher east coast, but were reassured that our hosts had found several calm moorings tucked into the channels that run inland. Using these as a retreat we were always comfortable except when heading out over the reef in a RIB. At times this could be a bit hairy for seasick-sufferers, so the trick was to get there and roll in as fast as possible.

Under the surface, the current swept us off on exhilarating drift dives - the visibility was magnificent, impossible to judge exactly as it felt you could see for miles. We glimpsed hammerheads way out in the blue and a few reef sharks below us. The reef walls were flattened by the nature of the conditions - there are probably some quite interesting bits down there but we never got the chance to stop and look! There were also some tranquil lagoons and channels to dive in. The rough actions of wind and water meant that the corals in them were less than perfect, but we had a pleasant time poking our noses into crooks and crannies and were rewarded with crabs, nudibranchs, morays and lots of tiny fish.

We spent the next part of our trip in the Manta Reef Lodge, a charming and rustic place on a Robinson Crusoe style beach with perfect white sand, high palms and gentle breezes. We were particularly delighted with our enormous, open-fronted wooden bungalow. It was a million miles from a Hilton, but who needs air-con when you have fresh sea air and sunsets instead of TV.

Outside, the reefs walls rise up from depth to the surface and are exposed at low tide. The lagoons behind drop to just a few inches deep at certain times of day so our schedule was governed by the tides. Although the currents were nothing like on the east coast they were always evident and always influencing the visibility and marine life. For instance if you caught Manta Point just right, guess what you get? Well, we got huge turtles, schooling Napoleon wrasse and dense waves of butterfly fish.

On this side of the island we found much prettier reefs, mounds covered in hard coral and views of weird critters peeping at us. Our first glimpse of a bright pink scorpion leaf fish was quite a surprise especially as just when we moved away we found another... then a third... then on the next outcrop a fourth! The next day our divemaster, Banda, surpassed himself by spotting a really unusual pair of black leaf fish with incredible camouflage.

Night diving was another unexpected pleasure. On our first one we found as many weird critters as we have become used to seeing in South East Asia... a seagrass ghost pipefish pretending to be a weed, tiny decorator crabs fighting moray eels for a home and Spanish dancers were all hanging around. On our second night dive we dropped in at just four metres and spotted a sea hare. Then just as we moved a few feet away we came across our all-time favourites - a mating pair of gold and brown ornate ghostpipe fish, with the larger male holding eggs in his brood pouch.

Apart from diving, days on Pemba are dead lazy - you can walk in the small remaining segment of rainforest, which is very close to the lodge, or visit the capital if you’re desperate for a shopping fix. Meals were a delightful mixture of local spicy dishes, seafood and some international fare. Facilities are generally rustic, but incredibly charming and the atmosphere is delightful.

The rest of Tanzania

Of course, the lure of being in Africa is also about being out there on the plains with a wild animal. And if you've never done it, maybe it’s time to think about giving up just a little of that precious dive time.Yes, it’s great seeing your first hammerhead, but there is just as big a thrill the first time a lion walks over to your jeep door and checks you out.

We saw two of Tanzania’s most splendid regions, the Ngorongoro Crater, a world heritage site, and the justifiably famous Serengeti National Park. And what did we actually see? Well, what didn't we see? From the safety of our four wheel drive, we saw more prides of lion than I would have thought possible, plus we saw all the "big five" several times over. There was a rhino couple with their baby and masses of zebra and wildebeest all protecting their newborns.

We saw a pack of seven cheetahs fight a hyena for their supper and we watched a leopard guard his kill for 3 days straight. Plus we saw two other leopards - evidently a rare event. Baboons visited our dinner table daily and velvet monkeys kept stealing our bananas. We watched a giraffe try to kneel to drink from a pond and we saw part of the great migration, the annual event when thousands upon thousands of wildebeest and zebra migrate across the open plains in search of water.

We stayed in both lodges and in camps, and our personal preference was the lodges, although all the accommodation was comfortable no matter which way you go. We "safari'd" for a week which makes for tiring days and you need a healthy dose of stamina to keep it up. Or a week at Manta Reef to recover and refresh afterwards.

As a two-centre holiday this is really a splendid trip, the safari is an unbelievable experience, and Tanzania the friendliest country we have ever visited in Africa. The diving is good and although probably not up to the standard of some of the world’s absolute best, a rewarding and relaxed destination. We would certainly go back there, but then it is very easy for us!

© Beth and Shaun Tierney