Daniel Young Travels: Fanjove Island, Zanzibar

This came after Stonetown, after our safaris in the north and before our safaris in the south.

An island paradise, far away from Stonetown, Zanzibar. But, ironically, not far enough away from civilization in one of its ugliest forms, i.e., gas extraction from land and sea. Just five miles away, on the island of Songo Songo, where we landed in order to get here, major gas refineries are being built by the Chinese and others. At night, from under the coconut palms we can see the light of a tower burning waste gas.

The island itself holds one lovely little resort with six native style bandas built from wood and leaves in a tropical "chalet" style. The front is open all the time (with the possibility of lowering a big front door by rope and pulley in case of inclement weather) looking out on a beach where flocks of thousands of birds swirled into the sky on our first walk. There is an upstairs which we do not use. Three triangular widows on each side, held open by rope. A nice bathroom in the back has a decent shower and a flush toilet. One must move with some caution inside the banda. There are a few steps between the front sleeping area and the back bathroom - and the slanting side wall beams can bang your shoulder or head until you get used to them. A solar powered fan on the inside top of the bed provides two speeds of fan from the inside top of the net-enclosed bed. It had enough charge to run straight through most of the night. The hosting by Mark and Jenny was excellent in all respects.

On the beach and the sandy paths which connect everything crabs of all sizes scurry into their holes as we approach or withdraw into the beautiful shells they have appropriated as living quarters. Beautiful shells of all sizes and types are lying about everywhere, free for the taking if you can carry the weight in your luggage. In the main banda complex there is an open lounge with bar and a dining area.

Offshore there are a few underwater rock formations where a rich collection of fish abound. One can spend hours there even though it is not the conventional coral reef we expected. But it is not a simple matter of swimming to them off the beach. The tides are an important factor here, varying more than three feet between high and low. Yesterday at low tide (about 11AM) a dinghy took us out in a few minutes to our first snorkel - which was superb. But, in the afternoon when we tried to swim out ourselves to the buoy which marked the best spot, the incoming tide made it too difficult and it was getting murky.

On our second day they took us to an area 30 minutes away where the lowering tide exposes a temporary sand island and the nearby reefs provide wonderful snorkeling.

Strong winds blow at times, welcome when they keep things comfortable through triangular windows in the sides of the bandas, particularly at night, but sometimes too strong too eat fully outside in the dining areas. Last night we had to withdraw our table to a more sheltered, curtain-protected area of the dining banda.

A little putt-putt took us from the Songo Songo airstrip to the dock where a rowboat took us to a small motorboat for the 30-minute crossing to Fanjove.