Day 2 on Pemba Island: the ocean was calling.
The vertiginous drop offs in Pemba’s waters layered the Indian Ocean from soft turquoise to deep cobalt. We headed out, some tourists and I, in a bobbing dinghy – the water choppy as the monsoon season loomed – and dropped anchor somewhere far from shore. Heads would pop up out of the water occasionally for air – local fishermen getting their day’s catch – like busy sand crabs hopping out of their holes.
I left the others to their own devices and hopped into the Big Blue, down down down. It was just me, with my snorkelling kit and fish that looked suspiciously Too Big to not be sharks and fish that danced around me in cascades: lionfish, scorpion fish, nudibranchs like the Spanish Dancer – eels, sandfish, clowfish, triggerfish and other marine beauties.
For a beginner, it takes some time getting used to this snorkel thing, but once you learned to use it like a whale would its blowhole, all’s good and peachy. Pemba’s beaches and waters aren’t as pristine as they were some years ago, but they still beat many others in the world.
Note to heed: If you’re going to float on your tummy in the sea all day, with your back and butt exposed to the sun, wear sunscreen
