Pemba Island

Overview

Pemba lies 50 kilometres north of Unguja and receives a tiny fraction of its visitors, which is the whole point. It is hillier, greener and far more agricultural than Zanzibar: the island produces most of Tanzania's cloves, and the smell of them drying on mats is the first thing you notice. There is no equivalent of Stone Town, and the beaches are smaller and often backed by mangrove rather than open sand. What draws people is the diving. The Pemba channel drops to over 800 metres just offshore, giving steep walls, strong drift dives and visibility that regularly exceeds 30 metres - Misali Island in particular is one of the best-preserved reefs in East Africa. On land there is the Ngezi forest reserve with the endemic Pemba flying fox, the Ras Mkumbuu ruins, and a culture of traditional healers and bullfighting inherited from Portuguese contact. Infrastructure is thin, roads are slow, and that is the trade.