Tag: boat

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Tanzania

Mafia Island

Usually I do not recommend the hotels. I will make exception for Mafia Island. I recommend Shamba Kilole Lodge: www.shambakilolelodge.com. Beautiful rooms, great food and the owners make you feel like at home.

Mafia Island (“Chole Shamba”) is part of the Tanzanian Spice Islands, together with Unguja and Pemba. As one of the six districts of the Pwani Region, Mafia Island is governed from the mainland, not from the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, of which it has never been considered to be a part.

According to the 2002 Tanzania census, the population of the Mafia District was 40,801.The economy is based on fishing, subsistence agriculture and the black market. The island attracts some tourists, mainly adventure scuba divers, game fishermen, and people wanting relaxation.

The Mafia archipelago consists of one large island (394 km²) and numerous smaller ones. Some of these are inhabited, such as Chole Island (2 km²), with a population of 800. Chole Bay, Mafia’s protected deep-water anchorage and original harbour, is studded with islands, sandbanks and beaches. The main town is Kilindoni. The stretch of water between the deltas of the Rufiji River and the island is called Mafia Channel. There are popular rumours of pygmy hippo on the island but there are zero confirmed sightings.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Tanzania

Juani Island

On Juani Island, one of the largest and most characteristic islands in the archipelago, are the ruins of the ancient city of Kua, whose decline, as yet unexplained by archaeological and historical, is the object of many legends. The island’s fauna is quite unusual and includes wild pigs, monkeys and small antelopes (blue duiker). The southern point of Juani Island is divided in two by a long channel linking the big inland bay with the open sea.

Categories
Tanzania

Jibondo Island

About an hour’s sail south of Chole, Jibondo Island is the most traditional of the archipelago’s settlements, and most of its two thousand inhabitants engage in fishing, especially for sharks, and octopus-baiting. The beaches facing the open ocean are important turtle-nesting sites. Jibondo’s craftsmen are famed for their skill in boat building without the use of iron, or even nails.

Categories
Tanzania

Chole Island

Chole Island is a tiny island which lies next to the slightly larger Mafia Island. The area has a fantastic history and there are many old ruins. The village of Chole is fascinating and friendly and visitors can spend many hours wandering around talking to the people and watching the boat builders.

Birdwatching is excellent on Chole Island and very different to the mainland parks. The tidal flats and mangroves are alive with coastal and sea birds and there are many colourful woodland and forest species. An additional wildlife attraction are the huge colonies of Fruit Bats which can be easilly seen on a walk round the village.

Categories
Tanzania

Selous Reserve

The Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest fauna reserves of the world, located in the south of Tanzania. It was named after Englishman Sir Frederick Selous, a famous big game hunter and early conservationist, who died at Beho Beho in this territory in 1917 while fighting against the Germans during World War I. Scottish explorer and cartographer Keith Johnston also died at Beho Beho in 1879 while leading a RSGS expedition to the Great Lakes of Africa with Joseph Thomson. The Selous was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.

The reserve covers a total area of 54,600 km² (21,081 square miles), has additional buffer zones and no permanent human habitation or permanent structures are permitted. All (human) entry and exit is carefully controlled by the Tanzanian Game Dept. Some of the typical animals of the savanna (for example elephants, hippopotami, African Wild Dog cape buffalo and crocodiles) can be found in this park in larger numbers than in any other African game reserve or national park. The Selous is one of the last remaining pristine true wilderness areas in the world.

The area was first designated a protected area in 1896 by the German Governor Hermann von Wissmann and became a hunting reserve in 1905. Nowadays it also has a touristic importance, though most of it is rarely visited by humans. Presence of the Tsetse fly and very difficult road access discourage visitation; however, it is easily accessible by train or small aircraft from Dar es Salaam.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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French Polynesia Society Islands

Huahine

Huahine is an island located among the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Leeward Islands group (Iles sous le Vent).

Huahine measures 16 km (9.9 mi) in length, with a maximum width of 13 km (8.1 mi). It is made up of two main islands surrounded by a fringing coral reef with several motu. Huahine Nui (Big Huahine) lies to the north and Huahine Iti (Little Huahine) to the south. The two islands are separated by a few hundred yards of water and joined by a sandspit at low tide. A small bridge was built to connect Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti. NW of Huahine Iti lies a 375 ha brackish lake known as Lac Fauna Nui (Lac Maeva). This lake is all that remains of the ancient atoll lagoon. There is an airport at Huahine. It was inaugurated in 1971.

One of the famous attractions on Huahine is a bridge that crosses over a stream with 3- to 6-foot (1.8 m) long eels. These eels are deemed sacred by the locals, by local mythology. While viewing these slithering creatures, tourists can buy a can of mackerel and feed the eels. The Fa’ahia archaeological site in the north of the island has revealed subfossil remains of several species of birds exterminated by the earliest Polynesian colonists of the island.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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French Polynesia Tuamotu

Rangiroa

Rangiroa (meaning “Vast Sky” in Tuamotuan) or Te Kokota, is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus, and one of the largest in the world (although it is smaller than Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and Huvadhu in the Maldives). It is located in the Palliser group. The nearest atoll is Tikehau, located only 12 km to the West.

The atoll consists of about 250 islands, islets and sandbars comprising a total land area of about 170 km². There are approximately 100 narrow passages, called hoa, in the fringing reef. The lagoon is approximately 1600 km². It is so large that it has its own horizon.

The chief town is Avatoru, located in the northwestern part of the atoll. Rangiroa has a total of 2334 inhabitants (2002 census).

The first recorded Europeans to arrive to Rangiroa were Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten during their 1615-1616 Pacific journey. They called this atoll “Vlieghen Island”.

Rangiroa appears in some maps as “Nairsa” or as “Dean’s island”. This atoll was visited by the Charles Wilkes expedition on September 7, 1839.

There is a territorial (domestic) airfield in Rangiroa which was inaugurated in 1965.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
French Polynesia Society Islands

Maupiti

Maupiti is a small coral atoll with a volcanic island in its midst.

Maupiti is located to the west of the Leeward Islands in French Polynesia. It is the westernmost volcanic high island in the archipelago, 40 km west of Bora Bora. The central island of Maupiti has a high peak of 380 metres and a surface area of 11 square kilometers. The lagoon has large and flat coral islands in its northern reef half and two motus on both sides of the pass at its southern end.

At the August 2007 census, the island population was about 1,200 people. The primary economic activity on Maupiti is Noni production.

There are ancient Polynesian archaeological artefacts dating from at least AD 850 in Maupiti. The first European to arrive on the island was the Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen in 1722. Historically, the island has had strong cultural links with Bora Bora.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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São Tomé and Príncipe

São Tomé II

São Tomé Island, at 854 km2 (330 sq mi), is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home to about 133,600 or 96% of the nation’s population. This island and smaller nearby islets make up São Tomé Province, which is divided into six districts. The main island is located 2 km (1¼ miles) north of the equator. It is about 48 km (30 miles) long (North-South) by 32 km (20 miles) wide (east-west). It rises to 2,024 m (6,639 ft) at Pico de São Tomé and includes the capital city, São Tomé, on the northeast coast. The nearest city on mainland Africa is the port city of Port Gentil in Gabon located 240 km (150 miles) to the east.

The entire island of São Tomé is a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, over 3,000 m (10,000 ft) below sea level. It formed along the Cameroon line, a linear rift zone extending from Cameroon southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the lava erupted on São Tomé over the last million years has been basalt. The youngest dated rock on the island is about 100,000 years old, but numerous more recent cinder cones are found on the southeast side of the island.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

Categories
Mozambique

Ibo

Ibo is one of the Quirimbas Islands in the Indian Ocean off northern Mozambique. It is part of Cabo Delgado Province. It grew as a Muslim trading port. Vasco da Gama reportedly rested on the island in 1502. The island was fortified in 1609 by the Portuguese.

In the late eighteenth century, Portuguese colonialists built the Fort of São João, which still survives, and the town, as a slave port, became the second most important in the region after Mozambique Island. The island is now a far quieter place, known for its silversmiths.

Ibo forms part of the Quiribas National Park and is linked by dhows to the mainland at Tandanhangue.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)