An Ecotourism Experience

Chumbe Island is a small island off the west coast of Zanzibar—not too far into the Pemba Channel.


What once was a military island, the coral reefs around the island had not been exposed to damaging fishing or boat anchors. When the island was no longer going to be needed by the military, a woman, noticing the pristine condition of the reef, thought the coral needed protection. She set her thoughts into action, and eventually, a private organization took got protection for the reef—at least on the west side of Chumbe Island.


But how to keep the reef as pristine? First, no fishing is allowed on the reef. Also, no boats can try to anchor in the area. Finally, the island is set up as an ecotourism location—allowing people to visit the island, researchers to learn about the island, and the island protection.

With ecotourism, to my limited understanding, we try to leave as little impact on an area as possible. In other words, the goal is for humans to hardly change anything from the natural state.

Some things about Chumbe . . . .

First, access to this island is not as easy as most tourists are accustomed to. No pier or dock serves the boat to the island, and the boat is at the mercy of the tide. For us, it was low tide when we were to catch the boat. And so to get there, we rolled up our pant legs and waded out to the boat. (Fortunatley, the rain was just then ending, even though the skies still appeared a bit ominous. They cleared quickly over the next hour.)


Our (now arrived) luggage? The staff from the boat (the small boat) raised each suitcase above their heads and carried each piece the long distance from the dry shore out to the boat. While we’d had notice that wading was required, always remember that knee-deep for one person might be mid-thigh deep for another (who’s as short as I am).

And again, once at the island, we had to wade to the shore. Upon leaving the island, I was happy for my last wading-through-the-surf experience. (Little did I know, but of course, that there was more to come.) (Here's the pic of us leaving. The water was indeed so incredibly blue.)


Chumbe has no electricity. All power the island uses is from solar power. We had lights in our bungalow, and we even had a small fan in the upstairs, which I pointed directly on my bed at night. (Mimi was fine sleeping in the heat, but me, I missed my A/C.) There was a large solar panel that was meant to heat water for showers, but we never did actually get that to work. Still, the weather was hot, and so the cool showers were actually refreshing.

Water? All water used on the island is collected from rainwater. The bungalows and visitor’s center are designed with this purpose in mind. The roofs are sloped so as to most efficiently collect water, and they have a Swiss filtration system, filtering that rainwater several times making it even safe enough to drink.

Ah, but if water is conserved so well, what about the toilet? It’s a composting toilet. From the room, it looks like a regular toilet. One difference, however is that the lid had a seal around it to seal the lid and the seat tightly. Also, of course, there’s no flusher. Once you, um, “go,” you simply take two scoops of dirt (which is really compost that’d been composting for over a year) and pour the scoops into the toilet. Only biodegradable items can be put down the toilet. It’s equipped with a vent pipe, reducing the odor significantly. In fact, the odor isn’t a sewage-type odor; it’s more earthy. About every six months, they remove the lowest level of what is now compost, and things just keep going.


With all this ecotourism and protecting the environment, Chumbe also is protecting two rare species. First, the coconut crab—the largest land-dwelling crab in existence. Also, Chumbe is home to the Aders Diaker, a very small and very rare antelope.


Other wildlife? I can say that I’ve truly never seen so many hermit crabs in my life! They are everywhere! Of course, anywhere else, and tourists would have scooped them up, taking them home as “pets.” But the people who go to Chumbe are the sort of people who when told, “Don’t touch; just look,” actually don’t touch. (I fear that several members of my family would be the type who would think they were the exception; too many of those sorts of people, and Chumbe’s creatures loses their protection. So sad.) Our ranger, who is authorized to touch, picked this one up for me to get a pic showing the size of this guy in the pic.

Our bungalows were designed to be environmentally friendly as well.

As I mentioned, they have solar power only, roofs designed to collect and filter rainwater, and compost toilets. They are also built with a design a bit like a ship so that the air is pulled through the bungalow, bringing in a breeze. (But the first night, after a thunderstorm, the air was so still, no amount of design—other than the small fan—could provide relief.)

Our bungalow also provided an incredible view of the water and wonderful accomodations. Downstairs was a table and sitting area, including a hammock for relaxing. Upstairs were two beds with a mosquito net, the fan, and a small reading lamp. Sarongs were provided for us (with polite requests to use them so as not to offend any of the staff who are Muslim). Between our bungalow and the water was a large padded swing and two lounge chairs.





The island has only seven bungalows, and they limit the guests to only fourteen people at a time. When we arrived, there were four other overnight guests and one couple there just for the day—for snorkeling, a forest walk, and lunch.

All over the area where the bungalows are you can find places for relaxing. Near the beach is a sheltered area, about the size of a queen-sized bed. Inside is a canvas-covered mattress atop a platform that swings—yes, the entire bed is a swing! There’s another shelter near the beach with giant cushions and pillows, some bleached shells, and the wonderful ocean breeze—a place just begging you to lie down with a good book and enjoy the sound of the waves and the feel of the ocean breeze. Of course, I truly just loved going to the beach area---natural white fine-grain sand. And with so few people as guests, each time I went, I had solitude---me, the sun, and the gentle surf. Heaven.


My personal favorite spot, though, was upstairs in the visitor’s center. The center was originally built as the lighthouse keeper’s home. It has now been turned into a visitor’s center with several sitting areas, a dining room, and a classroom. (The island brings children from the island of Zanzibar to learn about conservation, swimming, and ocean wildlife.) (The second picture is as viewed from our intertidal walk.)



And upstairs is a very large area, sucking in a refreshing breeze that gently, but wonderfully, whispers thorugh your hair, continuously with the breeze. Over in one far corner is a suspended swing overlooking the northwest side of the island’s coast. From there, I sat, read my book, stared out at the boats, and just “was.” That was indeed fabulous. Sitting, and swinging here, I would take a break from reading my book and gaze out at the water. Looking north, I could see the colorful boats anchored just off shore. These boats were there waiting to take staff mmebers off the island, provide a small dhow ride for guests, and to take us off shore to the incredible reef for snorkeling. Looking west, the water reached usually as far as you could see. (One particularly clear afternoon, you could just barely make out the coast of the mainland of Tanzania.) But breaking up that view, every so often, would be a dhow passing by---no doubt, carrying fishermen out to make a living.





And the food? You might worry with all this “basic” approach, the food wouldn’t be anything special. But it was splendid! I met John, the cook, on the boat ride over. And did he ever do a fabulous job. Seafood kabobs one night, beef another, fabulous ratatouille, wonderful curried veggies, and of course, always lots and lots of fresh fruit. In addition to wonderful flavor, the setting for each meal was spectacular. Most meals we sat with a wonderful view overlooking the ocean.

And our first night, for dinner, three tables were set up near the beach. Yes, just three tables because there were only six guests staying overnight. Here's a view of our dining room--as seen from atop the lighthouse.



Our second morning we started off with a forest walk. Our forest ranger, Juma (yes, we met about four men named Juma—a very popular name on Zanzibar), guided us around a path, pointing out the trees that are adapted to survive on this coral rag—with barely a few inches of soil atop a lot of rock. We found fossilized giant clams, learned about the tree (this cactus-looking one) that is poisonous (but also, as part of the Chumbe forest reserve, still protected), and saw two coconut crabs. We also saw mother-in-law tongue plants growing wild in their natural habitat. The view from the east side of the island was as wonderful as that on the west.

As we passed by the island “workshop,” we also passed the compost area for the kitchen—where they place all the discarded fruit and vegetable matter. The hermit crabs were having an absolute feast! Juma explained that the hermits feed hungrily during the day, but at night, the coconut crabs change places with the hermits, hungrily feeding on what’s left. Here's a puzzle for you---click on the picture below (to enlarge it) and see how many hermit crabs you see chowing down on this compost pile of fruit and veggie scraps:



Shortly after our return from the forest walk, we walked out for an intertidal walk. We started a bit too late after low tide, so we couldn’t make the walk around the whole island, which is possible if you start out at just the right time. But we did make it out to an area of land that during high tide, is an island. In the many tidal pools, we saw many urchins, lots of different types of crabs, and even several giant clams. We also found several sea cucumbers, which, when gently prodded by Juma, squirted water. I said, “Oh, he peed” This amused Juma quite a bit, and he kept saying, “It peed.” I wasn’t sure he knew that was slang, and I then explained, “urinated,” and Juma said, “Urinated—that is the scientific name, no?” I tried then to change what the cucumber did to “spitting,” but I still fear Juma’s next guests will hear how the cucumber “pees.” Sigh.


Both days we were there, we enjoyed about an hour-long snorkeling journey over the protected reef. What beautiful coral! Now, what I would see later off the east coast of Zanzibar would be more breathtaking overall, but this, well, this was amazing due to the sheer variety. The reef has over 200 species of coral! Absolutely amazing!


That lighthouse I mentioned? It’s still in operation. Many of the fishing boats around Zanzibar are dhows, and the dhows are a very basic sailing boat with no sort of computer. And so, a lighthouse is an appreciated item from those sailors. But because the lighthouse was changed to a type of gas that doesn’t need as much maintenance, no longer does a lighthouse keeper need to live on the island. On our first night, we climb the many steps up to the top, rewarded with an amazing view of the island and surrounding waters.

The sound of Chumbe was pure island-quiet. You could hear the sound of the waves, gently lapping the shore’s edge. But otherwise, there was no music, no artificial sounds, no nothing. It was just nature’s relaxation soundtrack.


And so, my time on Chumbe was certainly enjoyed. We left early Tuesday morning, our bags, once again carried out to the boat as we waded out as well. As the boat moved back to the main island of Zanzibar, we bid farewell to Chumbe Island, its beauty, and its peace.

No, it isn’t a “resort” type of place (although the prices could have seemed so). But every staff member was welcoming, helpful, and seemed genuinely interested in your having a good, relaxing time. But would I return? It’s not on my top list of things to do. After all, I have many other places to visit. But it was incredible, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone else--provided, of course, you can handle a little ecotourism.

PS: Our last night on Chumbe, we ordered a bottle of champagne with dinner, and indeed, we toasted my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Charla!