Short Trip: Pemba? Zanzibar?

[Christian]

Hi, the diving around Pemba is nice, when you know where to dive. The problem they have there is that all the good diving is somewhere in the middle of the Island on the western side.
Unfortunately with Swahili divers leaving from Chake Chake and opened a new resort in the northern area there is noone left to do the diving in the mentioned area. Swahili Divers now offer diving along all the north west coast but you have several hours of driving to get to the better places and they cost much more than the normal dive trips.
Than there is only one other operator in the south, Fundo Lagoon, and for the dive sites in the center of the Island they are also too far away but the south has also 2 great sites to dive at. Fundu Lagoon is not a budget place with 320$ a night. So the diving offered in the north is not nice due to dynamite fishing which can be seen clearly on the reefs.

Unfortunatelly there's dynamite damage around the island as well as bleach damages from the 1998 El Nino; but still plenty of healthy reef to dive - if you know where to go.
I don't agree the only good diving is on the middle part of the western side (are you talking about Mesali Island?). There's lots of equally great diving to the north as well as to the far south. The eastern side also has some good diving, allthough very different and not as pretty as the eastern side.
Personally, I found the drift diving to the north of the island to be some of the most rewarding 'flying' over healthy coral "mountins" (no dynamite damage there), loads of reef fish and bigger stuff (3 spieces of barracuda in big schools, jack schools, wahoo, tuna, turtles...).
There's a new place in the far south now, run by Manta Reef Lodge owners. The name escapes me. Certainly not budget.

/c

 

[leaveonlybubbles]

Thanks everyone for all your advice... in the end I had even less time than I expected so took it...
In the end, I had only a day and a half free (couldn't leave until Friday morning and had to fly out Saturday night)... So a few facts I discovered:

-You can fly from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar in time to dive... in fact, I took a 5:40 flight which was in time to get me to a 7am transport out to Mnemba Island
-Menemba is beautiful... it's the only place I dove, through One Ocean, and it was superb. Two great reef dives (somethingorother gardens and aquarium)... coral is not spectacular, but there is ABUNDANT life, huge schools of fish, saw five turtles, a half dozen sharks, and two big frog fish.
-It's not cheap... diving cost me $109 for a two-tank trip
-It's not fast... given the trip to and from stone town I left at 7am and arrived back at 5pm for only two dives. But it was worth it.
-For advanced divers, there's apparently a really good wall for a deep dive off of Mnemba with huge pelagics, but it's advanced diving and I couldn't persuade them to go on my only day of diving... so plan ahead.

So, Pemba will hopefully be another time, but this was worth it too..
_M

 

[Christopher_B]

There was a shuttle service from Stone Town (outside Bahari Divers or Livingstones) up to Kendwa for 5USD. Scuba-Do are a great dive centre, would thoroughly recommend them for diving from Kendwa where there are a few budget options for accommodation. If you have a bit more to spend, Matemwe and One Ocean are a good option on the other side of the island, pretty much opposite Mnemba atoll.

Pemba is great! I first went in 2007 to write a report for a magazine and fell in love with the place. I now organise tailor-made tours there, combining it with Unguja (erroneously referred to as Zanzibar, Zanzibar is the name of the archipelago) and safaris on the mainland. I can't post links to articles I have written about it as i need to have more posts.... Google Indigo Safaris and go to the Tanzania and Zanzibar Archipelago page to find the links to some articles and a bunch of photos.

 

[Christopher_B]

And by the way - Swahili Divers cover the west coast in their new RIB, regularly going to Misali island (in the south), Unvinje Gap (more central), and Fundo Gap. Njao Gap (closer to the lodge) also has some great walls. There has been some dynamite damage, but they are easily avoided and not on the sections of reef used for diving normally.