Trip Report Trip Report - Zanzibar (East Coast)

[Triple C]

About the diving.
I was based on the east coast near the Mnebma reef- which is apparently the best (general) diving in Zanzibar.

Diving was good. Visibility was 35+ meters every day. Water temperature 27 to 29 Celsius.

Hasan and Juma would pick me up every morning from the hotel, because tides are low in the morning, its a ten minute drive north to Muyuni port.

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Because I had a private guide and private boat, this meant we could go anywhere and not be restricted to the levels of divers at a particular dive OP that day. This also means that we were able to get to popular dive sites before the masses arrived, or dive other dive sites that are bit farther out.

The reef is about a ten to fifteen minute journey. This would be much shorter if theres no swells and the boat was bigger.

Hasan planned out dive days so that I got to see everything while taking into consideration currents and crowds. He'd jump in the water and gauge current and then adapt the dive accordingly.

Zanzibar regulation enforces that any dive boat must have two captains - which is always a good idea.

Most days I did three dives and then called it a day - on all days they were able to drop me off at the hotel beach directly which was nice.
He offered night dives but the thought of having to trek up to the port and maybe have to return to the port just didn't jive with me.
I found it more enjoyable to just relax at the resort, walk up and down the beach. Little to no light pollution.

Also, the sex trade on the beach is hilarious.
Faux masai men getting courted by middle age and older caucasian women...look it up..

There was a nearby food shack on the beach with the freshest seafood. Squid, octopus, lobster - a meal cost around $20.

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Will I return to Zanzibar? Probably not. Its like a premium version of the UAE. I did not get that feeling that I traveled somewhere far.
I did not bring a camera - wanted a short carefree dive experience .

Highlights of things we saw:

At Mnemba on the east coast:

Plethora of giant frog fish - different colors (some I recognized as the Indian Ocean Frog Fish)
Ghost pipe fish
Sea moth
Giant star gazers
Giant stone fish
Titan trigger fish
Leef fish in all colors
Anemone in all sizes and colors
Many varieties of rare wrasse fish

On one day, we dived the north west coast (Nungwi). Its a forty minute car ride followed by a fifteen to twenty minutes to most sites.

Surprisingly, the west coast had better weather!

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Visibility was poorly though.

One particular site was nudi heaven!

Another site (Shane's Reef) was supposed to be a macro site. Not much macro that day though. And I got the impression that they use the term "macro" loosely.

On the last day, we spent some time in a national forest and a bit of sight seeing in Stone Town.
I would not suggest buying Tanzanite from Zanzibar. It costs the same there as it does here in the UAE.
Fairly certain that mainland Tanzania will have better prices. A carat of B grade cost $500 while A and A+ cost $650 and $800 respectively.

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I don't think I'll go back to Zanzibar again. I enjoyed my time and was not disappointed because I knew what the diving would look like. But its not better enough than the UAE to warrant a return.
If I want to get on a short dive trip again, I will go to either Pemba or Mafia island. Both are an extra flight from either Zanzibar or Dar Es Salaam.

 

[Triple C]

I did 3 days diving in same area a couple of months ago. One outstanding dive at Leon's wall - huge healthy reef of giant plate corals. The other 5 dives' hard corals were nearly completely dead. OTOH, I saw species that were new to me and fish life was decent all around. Wouldn't recommend it as a dive destination but it was still a fun trip.

 

[jescharff]

Hey hey. Sent hassan contact info via DM
We write to him over what’s app. He has been great ..

@Jaan I would absolutely love Hassan's contact information as well! We're planning a trip to Zanzibar this September. Would you be able to DM it to me as well? Thank you!