Who to dive with in StoneTown:

in Nungwi:

Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel houses a friendly little P.A.D.I dive centre presently well looked after by Axel and Karin. The Hotel, which is in the high price bracket, usually attracts beach holiday-makers and beginner divers so the chance of diving some of the more 'challenging' sites depends on how many advanced divers in one boat. Day trip to Mnemba Island reefs for two dives and basic lunch of sandwiches and fruit takes one and a half hours by boat and costs $ ............ Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel will arrange pick ups for divers and snorkellers staying in budget accomodation in Nungwi village.

Dive Zanzibar is a new P.A.D.I dive centre in Nungwi. Within walking distance of the budget accomodation in town it covers all diving around the area. We only did one dive with them to Leven Banks, which, due to the fact that we unfortunately missed the right drop in point, turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The atmosphere at the centre was friendly and welcoming and manager Ben Blignant, was the first to admit that they are still in the process of learning the dive sites and and fine tuning certain aspects of their business. Wishing them good luck.

N.B. One thing to remember when up in Nungwi is to ask for aluminium cylinders as the corrosion is blatent on the steelies.

in Matemwe:

Matemwe Bungalows are located opposite Mnemba Island on Zanzibar's brochure-perfect East Coast. The Bungalows come under the 'barefoot luxury' price range - see website www.matemwe.com for more information. Greg Wilkinson, runs the dive centre at Matemwe and as a Marine Biologist, is a fountain of knowledge on the local ocean environment. Special attractions include a PADI Reef Ecology Course (designed and written at Matemwe), underwater camera for hire and a couple of DPV's (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) for the thrill seekers amongst you. To dive at Matemwe you do not have to be a guest although accessibility may be a problem if you are staying elsewhere. There are presently no phones at Matemwe so all bookings must be done in advance through the StoneTown office. Email matemwe-znz@twiga.com

One Ocean is opening soon in Matemwe Beach Village

No camping on the island apart from one site in Nungwi (Kendwe Rocks). Masses of guest houses, hotels and resorts. The island is so jam packed with accomodation, that it is relatively easy to find somewhere to stay - just takes a while to search. Accomodation ranges from budget ($10 per person per night - yep I'm afraid that's as low as you get in Zanzibar) up to the $150 Serena Hotel.
We'll just let you know one definate 'NO NO' - Kokoni Hotel, Stone Town - The Manager, Rashid, is a complete psychotic maniac, generally frightening and most unfriendly. Hopefully when you visit, he'll already be locked up. No apologies for that outburst as it wasn't uncalled for.

October to March - before the long rains hit and affect visibility - supposedly higher possibility of seeing Mantas around January time.

Comments on the dives:
Before arriving in Zanzibar we had heard various people say that the diving was really not up to much and that we shouldn't make a trip there specifically to dive. After spending a few weeks there, we agree that you shouldn't simply go to the island in order to dive as there is so much else to see, however don't disregard the diving completely as there are some beautiful spots.

Our first dive (and Charlie's 'only'due to bunged up sinuses for the duration!) was from StoneTown with 'One Ocean' and during that first 45mins underwater, we viewed the most sumptuous coral reef since hitting the East African Coastline. Hills and valleys covered with pristine coral carpeting. Morogo Reef is beautiful and cannot be compared to any other dive we did. Fish life was not as abundant as Pemban reefs but we were so happy to find colourful coral gardens. 'Turtles Den' was another favourite. This site actually lives up to its name with as many as 10 turtles being seen in one 45 minute dive. 'Boribo Reef' we never reached due to weather but Gary from One Ocean classes it as the best around Stonetown for larger pelagics. It is far from StoneTown and minimum numbers are required for the boat to go out.

On the North Coast accessible from Nungwi, Leven Banks is popular with advanced divers as it lies near the deep water of the Pemba Channel. Spectacular dive, often in strong currents in the Pemba Channel and is home to big schools of tuna, trevally, king fish, barracudas, wrasses, big moray eels and large schools of reef fish. Unfortunately Charlie missed the diving around privately owned Mnemba Island on the North East Coast but instead of resting her cold and sinuses in bed, she was snorkelling on top of Mark's bubbles for a couple of dives, marvelling at schools of fish that the divers below were missing! The Big Wall is generally dived as a deep dive max 30 metres. Located on Mnemba's east side at the start of the Pemba Channel it is a vertical wall of coral with many overhangs. That day on Mnemba we chanced upon and snorkelled with a pod of 8 dolphins which are apparently a regular thrill for visitors to the reef. They didn't seem to do Charlie's health any good though and she was chained to the land for the rest of the week trying to shake off the dreaded flu.

Stressed Dolphins?

On the South Coast of Zanzibar at Kizimkazi, there is a growing industry springing up around large resident pods of humpbacked and bottlenose dolphins. Local fishermen and villagers recognised the financial potential a few years ago and are using their boats to take tourists to swim with the dolphins. Since that time, various marine biologists and projects have tried to monitor the dolphin's behaviour patterns around the boats and the tourists. The present researcher, Anna Lee assesses that these dolphins are very stressed due to the uncontrolled jostling and chasing of boat operators. Her research is not conclusive but she is at least trying to personally encourage the boat drivers to exercise respect, restraint and common sense and to relay these teachings to the tourists. An Official Code of Conduct when driving and swimming around dolphins is in progress by the Institute of Marine Sciences (University of Dar Es Salaam), Zanzibar, based in Stone Town. This is good news and will help educate the fishermen and paying visitors showing them how to enjoy the dolphins and minimalising the damage to their natural behavioural patterns.

If you do go swimming with the dolphins, here are a few tips:

• 1 boat will give you more chance of sighting than many so best bet is to drive down the night before and find a boat to take you out very early ie. sunrise. Most trips organised from Stonetown start together at 9am and charge after the poor creatures.
• You are paying for the trip and can influence the boat drivers method of finding the dolphins.
• 6 boat engines chasing after a pod of dolphins will not encourage them to hang around.
• If lucky, you may have the honour of snorkelling with the dolphins, try to enter the water as silently as possible. A big splash will ensure you get a laugh from the onlookers but the dolphins will be far gone.
• Let them approach you. You've got no chance of catching up with them.

Enjoy!

We had the pleasure of meeting Matt Richmond on Zanzibar, editor of "Seashores of Eastern Africa", a book that we have found extremely useful on this trip for furthering our education on the marine environment around East Africa. Published by SIDA (Department for Research Cooperation, SAREC).