Of course I want to go diving when there’s an ocean nearby. My idea was to make a few dives at Mafia Island, where I want to go later. But talking with a few people in Nungwi made me curious about Mnemba Atoll, which is located around the east coast of Zanzibar.

I made two dives at Kichwani and Wattabomi. Although the underwater landscape is not that impressive and unfortunately lots of corals are not alive, I really enjoyed the dives. The turquoise water is crystal-clear, the visibility excellent, and we’ve spotted miscellaneous animals. Various moray eels, stonefishes, trumpetfishes, triggerfishes, boxfishes, lionfishes, pufferfishes, … For our big amusement, an octopus snatched the reel of the surface marker buoy from our dive master – he didn’t get it back. Dolphins accompanied our boat a bit on the way back to Nungwi.