In photos: Tanzania’s last true paradise

Mafia Island is just 50 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide. At its heart is a thicket of green bordered by white pinstripe beaches that hold firm age-old mangroves in the shallow wash. It’s been like this for centuries.

It’s less than 35 kilometres from the mainland but most visitors access Mafia Island by small plane (dhow trips can take up to a whole day and they do not operate to any particular schedule). This is Clement, an Italian pilot flying one of Coastal Air’s 40-seater Cessna Caravans. The plane was at capacity, so I flew shotgun in the cockpit. Shortly after we took off, he turned to me and said,

‘Eees your fist time in a small plane?’

I said yes. He said,

‘Don’t wooory, we are safe.’

Then he took out his phone and began texting.

Lilac tinted egg-yolk sunrises are the norm over the Kinasi Pass that separates Mafia Island’s mainland from the rest of the archipelago.

Every morning Mafian woman head down to the shore to help the fishermen tally their haul. The men stay out all night and come in with their catch at dawn. I didn’t quite catch this woman’s name but she giggled when she heard mine, ‘cos I’m little and white.’ Cheeky.

Aside from a plethora of fish species, unbleached coral and seasonal whale sharks, Mafia Island’s aquatic playground is home to ghost crabs. They scurry up and down the ephemeral, low-tide sand banks moving fistfuls of sand each time. It seems like a giant waste of time, but I’m assured they have a plan.

On Chole Mjini (one of the smaller of Mafia’s islands), stone ruins hint at a past that stretches back to the early Omani slave trade. Nature, however, has reclaimed its space and many of the ancient walls are today smothered in dense foliage. Some even have giant fig trees reaching up from the tops of their walls, growing from seeds deposited there by small birds many years ago.

The waters around Mafia are its lifeblood. Naturally, dhows abound. Whether its fishing, snorkelling or excursions to the islands, the only way to do it is by dhow.

I stayed at Kinasi Lodge while I was on Mafia Island. Its staff are intelligent, knowledgeable and friendly and, like most Mafians, know the waterways intricately.

Aside from fishing, Mafia has a strong agricultural base. Indeed, most of the small villages dotted around the island (linked only by dirt roads) hum to the sedentary pace of subsistence living.

Every two months (give or take) the two biggest ‘clubs’ on Mafia Island get together for an epic derby match on a sandy football field outisde Utende Village. Villagers turn up in their droves and storm the field every time there is a goal. Restoring order takes time and the matches last well over the standard 90 minutes.

While the ruins on Chole Island date back to the 8th century, its latest architectural addition is a little, well, newer. A smattering of treehouse now dot the copses of pine and baobabs on the island, and you can stay there if you like.

Bare feet and unfettered beauty is the status quo on Mafia Island. It’s impossible to leave not feeling relaxed.

Diving is the lifeblood of Mafia’s tourism industry. In fact, of the 1 000 visitors who travel here every year, more than 90% come to dive in the Mafia Island Marine Park. And it’s no wonder why – it’s the largest, most fecund and well-preserved in East Africa.

For guests of Kinasi Lodge (and indeed all the other lodges situated in the Mafia Island Marine Park – they number just five) a sunset cruise to one of the islands aboard a traditional, sail-powered dhow is the perfect place from which to watch the sun go down.

Large fruit bats, or flying foxes, hang inverted from fig tree branches on Chole Island during the day. At night they fly in unison across the Kinasi Pass to hunt on Mafia Island. They’re huge, and kind of scary. Their wings don’t flap, they thud.

On the northernmost tip of Mafia, outside of the marine park, the island’s only lighthouse (built by Germans) stands sentinel over the unprotected shore. To the south, it’s dhow business as usual.

Sunrises on Mafia Island sees the last of the night fishermen return to shore around daybreak with their haul. Getting up early and heading down to the beach is well worth it. The afternoons are for napping.