Yesterday, at lunch, we’d talked to a boatman and then this morning we went to meet him to take us out to a little sandbank, close enough to the beach that we could probably have swum there, for a spot of snorkelling. The boat was a small single-sailed outrigger boat of the type used on the Swahili coast, fairly deep and with a central sail. No engine, but due to the prevailing trade winds at this time of year, our boatman paddled most of the way.
I didn’t have high expectations, but they were thoroughly surpassed. The island is a white sandbank fringed by pools which appears at low tide, with coral rockpools on the seaward side and live (or semi-alive) coral reefs on the shoreward side. It was intensely bright and the sand was intensely white and the water intensely blue. The rock pools were full of life, both the living seawater bubbling through tiny tunnels and passages and schools of fish, mudskippers, urchins, etc. One particularly lively pool seemed to be in the midst of some sort of ongoing epic, with one group of fish guarding a corner and others coming over occasionally to investigate, only to be chased away. Occasionally they darted out, did a quick circuit and returned. We returned to the boat to get a camera, but by the time we were back (a few minutes later) the tide had risen and the distinctness of the rock pools was gone.
THere were a few people in the warm sandy pools, and the inevitable coconut salesman.
We took the snorkeling equipement and swam to where we were directed. Instantly there were pipefish just under the surface, which I always rather enjoy. They are so large and odd and unexpected. There were also schools of tiny bright-coloured fish, and we saw a very wriggly eel and a fish that looked like a Maori paua shell, which I learned later was a young angelfish. Also, some sea urchins with electric blue.
It was far better snorkelling than I had expected. Not a huge amount of coral, but some, and a fair number of fish.
We returned by sail and the boatman told us that with the trade winds he had sailed to Zanzibar in a day, though in a dhow, not this small coastal boat. Behind us, the island was nearly gone.
By the time we returned, we were both slightly dizzy with all the light and so stayed in, reading and listening to music.
A lovely weekend.