By Paige McClanahan February 19 at 7:07 PM
At first, the island was just a blur on the horizon; a low, gray smudge on which I fixed my gaze in the hopes of keeping myself from losing my breakfast over the side of the boat. The morning mist had turned to rain, and the steely blue swells outside our wooden vessel were getting bigger as we cruised away from Zanzibar, the island from which we were venturing even further afield.
We were heading toward Chumbe, a sliver of coral reef and jungle that sits in the Indian Ocean about 20 miles off the coast of mainland Tanzania. The island has no roads, no power lines and fewer than a dozen buildings; it covers an area of 54 acres, about one-third the size of Washington, D.C.’s Mall. But, small as it may be, Chumbe is breaking ground in marine conservation. The island was going to be our home for the next three days, and I (and my stomach) couldn’t wait to get there.
By the time our guide turned off the boat’s engine, the sun had emerged and the ocean had transformed into a peaceful lagoon that shimmered a miraculous shade of turquoise. Following the half-dozen other passengers off the boat, my husband and I jumped into knee-deep water and waded the few yards to the shore, taking care not to step on the shells that littered the sand.
And there we were: Chumbe, said to be the world’s first privately managed marine protected area and still the only one in Africa. Being private, Chumbe doesn’t get any government money; its conservation work is funded by the visitors, like us, who come to the island to relax and get a close-up look at one of the most pristine coral reefs in East Africa.
All of this we learned during our first briefing with members of Chumbe’s staff, just after we got off the boat. We and the other guests some of whom were visiting for the day, others, like us, overnight piled onto brightly colored sofas on the veranda of Chumbe’s main building, a high-ceilinged structure made of local timber and coconut leaves that serves as restaurant, visitors center and head office.
In line with its status as a conservation area, Chumbe has some strict rules, we were told. A maximum of 16 guests are allowed on the island at any time. Fishing and scuba diving are both forbidden, as is shell collecting, which I admit I was slightly disappointed to hear. But we were actively encouraged to explore the reef the old fashioned way: with flippers and a snorkel.
And so we did at least half a dozen times during our stay. On our first venture into the water, I stuck close to our guide, who introduced himself as Matata, since I figured he would know where to find everything good. But I didn’t need any guidance, it turned out.