How to travel around Pemba

Finally, today is the day that I will actually talk about a topic that is pertaining to the title this blog, The HITCHHIKER's guide to Pemba. Yes I am talking about traveling around on the tropical island that is my home, Pemba. If you would have to ask me what is the easiest and best way to travel from the middle of Pemba such as say a village near Chake Chake to the northern part of the island to visit various tourist sites, I would give you a simple answer, “Join the Peace Corps”.

Well, it is not that easy. But since I am already a Peace Corps volunteer, this method has proved to be quiet effective for me. I did not need to pay to ride a dala dala. I did not need to ride in a dala dala packed like sardines. I did not have to ride in a dala dala that stops every 2 minutes to pick up and drop off passengers. Here was what I did:

1. I woke up early enough so that I can be on time to teach at my school, which is a long 3 minutes walk from my house

2. I taught my first and second period of Form 1 Chemistry.

3. After I finished teaching, I went outside and chatted with the students and my fellow teachers.

4. As the dala dala arrived, get in the front seat of the dala dala next to the driver.

5. Enjoy the ride to North Pemba.

Ok, I will stop messing around now. All in all, today was a great day for me.  I was able to go on yet another field trip with my school.  We went to the amazing Ngezi Forest in the northern tip of Pemba.  It was quite a refreshing trip because this whole week was really hard for me, with my crazy irregular school schedule.  To be honest it was starting to get on my nerve, so this field trip was a good break from all of that.

Inside a fare pote type of structure just outside the forest of Ngezi as we were waiting for our guide

 Inside the Ngezi forest, there were a wide variety of flora and fauna, but I was not able to see any that were of interest to me.  Well I lied, I did see a specimen of Teak (Tectona grandis) and a specimen of Mahogany (Calophyllum inophyllum).  Beside those two particular plants, I did not see any other species of flora or fauna that caught my eyes.  One thing that really bugged me during my visit to Ngezi was the fact that some of the students and and teachers were uprooting seedlings.  I did not know how to address this during the walk, but I plan to address this issue at a later time in the future.

After visiting the forest, we went on a relatively long bus ride through the forest.  As I was sitting in the very front of the bus, the whole experience felt like an Indiana Jones movie, as we were trekking through the small dirt road in the jungle, bouncing up and down as the tires travel across every bumps and pot holes.  Alas, we finally made it to the lighthouse, Ras Kigomasha, and what an amazing site it was.  This lighthouse was built in 1905 by the Chance Brothers.  I am to believe that this lighthouse is still active, due to its current condition, but then again I am not sure

For a minimal fee of 500 TSH or $0.31 USD per person, we were able to climb the tower to get a view from the top of the lighthouse.

The endless spiral staircase

 It was very scary to climb the lighthouse, but I fought back my fear and ascend the tower.  Luckily I did, because the view was amazing.  It was like switching from a CRT television set to an Ultra HD 4000K television.  My eyes was blown out from the clarity of the scenery.

The view from one of the small windows along the spiral staircase

 And here we are at the top at last.  If any of you ever get a chance to climb a lighthouse, do it, it is worth every aching muscles in your legs.

Ultra HD 4000k eyegasm

The clear fringing reef

Who need a fancy DSLR when the scenery is just that awesome

And of course the required selfie

 After taking this selfie, I realized that I have done this exact pose in a wide variety of places.  It got me thinking of making an entire album dedicated to this pose.  I guess this can be hashtagged as #Lonetraveller.  But that will be for another time, another day.

Some of the Form IV students in my school

He was really adamant about having a picture all by himself

My attempt at being artistic.  I shall call this "The Grated Life"

Last #LoneTraveller picture before my descend

 After descending the long spiral staircase, I was greeted with a friendly fellow.  It was as if he was mooing me to come and pet him.  Naturally I complied.

The flag of Zanzibar waving to greet all visitors of Ras Kigomasha

After our short stint at Ras Kigomasha, we jumped on the rickety bus to venture toward another location, Vumawimbi  Beach.  This is one of the most pristine beach that I have been to, and that is saying a lot.  It was a shame that I did not pack my snorkeling gear, but from the view on top of Ras Kigomasha, it looked pretty interesting.  During our stay there, I was introduced to a delicacy by a student, Pinnidae mussel.  All you had to do was dig up the green pen shell mussel from the sandy beach, pry it open and wash away the sand, and just gobble down the sweet nectary flesh of the adductor mussel.  I was able to deduce the genus of this sweet delicacy to be either Atrina or Pinna.
Well here are some pictures that I managed to snap before the torrential rain

Of course I cannot go to a pristine beach without the #LoneTraveller pose

After a fun field trip, I was able to visit a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer on Pemba, as she lives really close to Vumawimbi and Ngezi.  It was really good to see her because I did not see her or any other volunteers for over 1 month.  It was nice to vent and catch up with her.  All in all it was a great end to a fun day of adventures.

Until next time

The Lone Traveller