Bunnygoespop in Tanzania (water)

After a gorgeous week spent on land, it was time to pop in the ocean! We were going to Mafia Island (no, not Sicily!)

Mafia island is a not so small Tanzanian island in the Indian Ocean, but a dwarf in popularity and size compared to its neighbour, Zanzibar. In fact, Maps geo-tagged all the pictures on my phone as “Indian Ocean” (but you know.. Apple Maps…).

This is how we popped!

We flew out from Seronera airstrip in the Serengeti in a cute little 12 seater. Security is rather low on these planes and one can sit next to the pilot, if you are a pretty Russian or a kid or anyone else other than I. (I was refused, boo).

The flight first popped into Arusha, then Zanzibar, where we were the only ones left in the plane traveling onward. Everyone else got off in Zanzibar. Zanzibar has a major COVID-19 outbreak now. Haha suckers.

Zanzibar looked like a party island. In fact it has become so touristic that the corals are destroyed and the whale sharks don’t go there anymore.

After a LONG day of flying, we were in this beautiful tropical paradise.

The highlight for me was not the view or the white sand beach, it was having a bed! After tenting for the past 6 nights, and waking up in the middle of the night because of the cold, I was dreaming of sleeping in a bed.. with linen.. with pillows and towels… but of course Swiss bunny arranged early morning dives the very next day. And we had to walk over thorns.

But it was worth it. We dived in in the marine park in the bay right across. The corals were huge and colourful and the fish were also huge and bountiful. Really happy to see how nature can thrive if we let it.

In the marine park, fishing is allowed only with fish lines, i.e. sitting on a little boat and waiting for a fish to catch the bait, and nets with large pores so young fish are not caught. And one can see the effects of this simple rule! 

The visibility inside the bay is very tide dependent and honestly, we have seen much better (visibility wise; coral wise, no). We did 6 dives in the bay and 2 outside. The two dives outside had magnificent visibility! We even had dolphins come play near our boat when we were heading out of the bay. The water became an incredible shade of blue and the dives were amazing. Tip: dive more outside the bay!

On one of our snorkeling trips, the water was calm as a swimming pool and we saw so much more! Murray eels, stone fish, unicorn fish (yes, they look exactly how you imagined), leaf fish, and lots of little colourful fishes whose names I don’t know. One can plan a trip to Mafia just to snorkel!

During these trips I also understood how the corals in Zanzibar are destroyed. We saw our fellow tourists standing on coral, breaking corals with their fins, etc.. Multiply the number of tourists in Mafia by 100x, and of course you will not have anything left. 😟

But on the plus side, while Zanzibar’s economy is largely tourism based, less than 10% of Mafia’s economy depends on tourism. There are a handful of fancy resorts and rest is all countryside. But that is why it is still paradise!

The con is of course that one cannot really eat out in town. But we were not complaining, because the food and view was delectable.

We also made some friends at the resort. Like Adolf, Swiss lady and Churchill, (and some others as well before we started talking about vaccines…).

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One of the days, we also did a whale shark excursion but all we saw was jelly fish. Lots of them. Seemed like an invasion really.

Could it be that because of the heavy fishing in the channel between Mafia and the main land was disturbing the whale sharks? After all, boats come in daily from Dar es salaam to Mafia to pick up the fresh catch. If this is not true now, it is the inevitable future.

But hey carpe diem. So we went back snorkeling, climbed trees, and goofed around kayaking (I capsized our boat while demonstrating “let me show you how to row”).

On our very last day on the island, we went to a sand bar which forms only during low tide. The sand is hence pristine!

We had a barbecue lunch but the tide came up too fast and too soon and it was time to go. I just loved it!

And then it was really the time to go.

So the ten thousand dollar question (quite literally) – will we go there again? Although we absolutely loved it, we may not. It was really expensive! But honestly, it has every reason to be. Tanzania’s whole tourism industry seemed super organized and welcoming. People actually go to tourism school to learn how to deal with tourists! And this is the reason why they have been able to protect their natural resources and not turn into a self harming mass tourism black hole.

So, should you go? Absolutely! But please don’t kick the coral. And no worries if you do not spot a whale shark either, there is one right outside the airport.