Desert Island Deeds

- Bruce Dennill

The skippers at Medjumbe Island Resort, accessible via Pemba, are so skilful that they can get a 10m boat within a casual step’s distance from the beach without the craft touching the sand – regardless, somehow, of the tides. Climbing on board for the short transfer to Quissanga Island, visible from Medjumbe and a couple of kilometres closer to the mainland, is the beginning of a journey across the spectrum of different colours water can be.

Inside Medjumbe’s encircling reef, it’s almost clear in the shadows, with the slightest hint of aquamarine a little out. Before crossing that barrier it becomes a turquoise so intense it is almost painful to look at without sunglasses. And then, as the swell grows and the boat ventures out over the channels, the water changes to a profound indigo – almost black in the deeper areas. That range then reverses as the sea-floor slopes up towards Quissanga again, to be explored first-hand later with a mask and snorkel.

Simple pleasure

The set-up on the small island is, by design, very unassuming. The infrastructure is limited to one raised thatch lapa, with a bar, a sitting area and a four-poster bed with a mosquito net – plus an unpretentious ablution area to one side. Guests spending a day on Quissanga can take these basic elements and fit them to a desired schedule, having the bed moved to the beach if the weather is clear or a picnic set up on a cleared, swept area in a copse of coconut palm trees in the centre of the island.