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The Chumbe Island Coral Park is a unique privately managed nature island reserve. It is a rare example of a still pristine coral island ecosystem. The reserve includes a reef sanctuary, which has become the first gazetted marine park in Tanzania, and a forest reserve. Chumbe Island Coral Park is a perfect destination for an eco-beach holiday and getaway.
Lots of activities are waiting you on and around Chumbe Island. The whole of Chumbe Island is a nature reserve, and you may explore its beauties either under the competent guidance of island park rangers or at your leisure. Guests can snorkel through the unique shallow water Reef Sanctuary or explore the Forest Reserve and historical monuments. Take an excursion like scuba diving on the nearby reefs, or perhaps just allow yourself a lazy day watching dhows and outrigger boats go by.
Snorkeling and Scuba Diving
Since the island park was gazetted, having been recognized for its immense beauty and bio-diversity, there has been no fishing or un-authorized anchoring in the Chumbe Reef Sanctuary. The reef remains in a pristine state, which nowadays is rare in the world.
The reef crest, encompassing a spectacular array of hard corals, is shallow (between 1-3 meters according to tides). Therefore, snorkels can see all those wonder of the underwater world normally only accessible to divers. If you swim up to the reef ridge, the view opens up a world of breathtaking sites. Shoals of barracuda taking advantage of the abundant prey living on the reef glide by, and if you are lucky you may get a chance to see the playful dolphins cruising in and out of the abyss. Each snorkeling excursion provides new discoveries for guests.
Nature Trails
When the tide is very low it is possible to walk all the way around the island, exploring the rock pools where juvenile fish and a myriad of crabs, shellfishes, starfishes, oysters and other invertebrates exist in the ever-changing environment of the inter-tidal ocean floors. At spring tides, upon reaching the north point of the island, take the time to bask on the exposed sandbar providing over a kilometer of pristine beach (but don't forget to turn back before the tide changes and the sandbar is absorbed back into the ocean). At the south point, discover the amazing variety of starfish and explore the small islets where you may be fortunate enough to find Roseate Terns nesting and Fish Eagles battling for territory. Discover the footpath leading down into a large inter-tidal pool overgrown with mangroves and shaded by huge baobab trees, where the seawater rises and falls with the tides, and where you may observe many creatures adapted to these conditions.
Forest Reserve
A network of nature trails crisscrosses the southern part of the virgin coral rag forest that covers the whole of Chumbe. The bedrock of the island is made up of an impressive substrate of fossilized coral. You can still see the skeletal structures of corals and giant clams - a gentle reminder of the passage of time. More staggering still is the coral-rag forest. You would be forgiven for thinking it a rainforest at first, before closer inspection reveals that on Chumbe a highly specialized plant community has developed that survives without any groundwater. Instead some of these remarkably adapted trees depend on capturing moisture from the humidity in the air while others are able to store away months' supply of water during the rainy season. You will notice leaves that are both fleshy and waxy, or folded up during the heat of the day to reduce transpiration, and spiky euphorbia thrusts forth wherever it can get a stronghold. The dense canopy keeps the scorching sun out of the forest where aerial roots tangle and compete to form the incredibly dense matrix of this special forest habitat.
Historical Sites
You can also climb the 131 steps to the top of the Chumbe Lighthouse, built in 1904 by the Sultan of Zanzibar and the British. From the top, you can enjoy the breathtaking view of the turquoise seas between Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar, still plied by dhows unchanged for a thousand years. For early risers, reaching the top of the lighthouse at sunrise is a spectacular way to start the day, as the sun appears over the land mass of Zanzibar (Unguja) Island, turning the ocean into deep orange and flecking the scenery with spectacular hues. With the arrival of morning, the breeze picks up as if on cue, to billow the sails of the flotilla of dhows departing from their village moorings to set sail for the working day.
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