MEDJUMBE ISLAND ARTICLE

Submerge Magazine April/May 2008; and Prestige Magazine October 2008. Writer Adam Cruise

THE MEDJUMBE BLUES: A POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE

My interest in the Quirimbas Archipelago in the far north of Mozambique was ignited a couple of decades ago when I was sifting through some old maritime archives. I was researching for a wreck-seeking expedition to southern Mozambique when I inadvertently pulled out an old Royal Hydrographic Office sea chart mapping the northern sector from Porto Amelia (now Pemba) to the Cabo Delgado just below the Tanzanian border. What struck me immediately about that washed out black and white chart was the unusual shape of the coastline. It was different from any other stretch of the southeast African coast. Usually the shore of this entire region is an endless, uninterrupted line of beach and dunes with an occasional premonitory jutting out like a pimple on the maritime charts. But on this map, beginning with the strangely rounded deep water bay behind Porto Amelia/Pemba then running north for over 300kms, the entire line between land and sea is broken into little pieces as if the edge of the land were shattered by some colossal force that smashed it up like glass. This made for some exciting scanning. Apart from dozens of tiny tropical islands, most without names, the whole map was crisscrossed with angry-looking jagged lines depicting, what would be a nightmare for mariners but a dream for divers, coral reef, hundreds of square kilometres of unexplored, pristine coral reef. I was dazed at the sheer expanse. I had to go and see this wonderland for myself. Of course back then that stretch of Mozambique was strictly off limits. Partly because the nation was slowly emerging from a lengthy and bloody civil war and partly because that region has always been sealed off from the outside world. From the sea the mainland is blockaded by kilometres of treacherous shallow reef and from the interior behind the mangrove swamps, a vast, hot, unforgiving African wilderness that has by and large preserved the Quirimbas’ from the relentless march of civilization. Only the Arab traders in their shallow-drafted Dhows have plied these waters, raiding the isolated fishing villages of the Makondo tribe for eons in the pursuit of slaves. But those jagged lines signifying a pristine coral archipelago were emblazoned in my memory and I knew that some day I would be among those little islands and diving over those immense reefs. Little did I realise that I would have to wait almost twenty years to get my chance. Not from lack of trying though. In the mid-nineties I had tried to put together an overland expedition to the Quirimbas Islands. A select group of toughened divers complete with scuba gear and compressor were to make our way in a convoy of 4x4’s on an almost impossible trek to the north via Malawi then east into Mozambique across the endless rocky tracks of the far-flung Niassa province to Pemba (I had calculated it would take a least 4-5days to get there). Once there, we would have had to negotiate through the impenetrable Mangrove swamps and if we got through that then - and this was the really big obstacle - we had to get across to the islands. We couldn’t drag a boat and the fuel it required all the way from South Africa since the roads were practically impassable for a boat trailer. We considered commissioning a Dhow from the locals but how and where? The logistics finally proved too overwhelming and the expedition was reluctantly shelved for good.

With the new millennium, however, civilization finally cracked the lock of the Quirimbas’ and creaked open the door. Pemba, the gateway to the archipelago, has since become a bustling commercial centre with an “international” airport and is now the hub for all sorts of foreign trade from timber and cotton to oil and other mineral prospecting. The islands, with the notable exception of Ibo (an ancient trading port), are still largely uninhabitable mainly due to a lack of fresh water. Besides they are virtually impossible to get to on account of the wide shallow fringing reefs. Yet the lure of tourism has tugged and so, with great expense and perhaps a dash of foolhardiness, some intrepid business minds have managed to develop a handful of upmarket resorts on some of the islands. The task must have been nigh impossible and the costs considerable. Airstrips needed to be lain out, water drilled or freshened by reverse osmosis, bricks and mortar brought in by Dhow, generators, plumbing equipment, a way to supply fresh food from South Africa and the mammoth task of drafting in the Makondo locals who, after eons as subsistent fishermen, are now been trained to earn hard currency by pandering to the whim of the capricious tourist - a beast as alien to them as a Martian would be to us.

Today the island resorts have taken shape and as a dive travel specialist in Cape Town, my chance to finally visit the Quirimbas’ dawned. I was advised to visit the tiny island of Medjumbe about 150kms north of Pemba. Allegedly it has some of the finest diving in the region. But I hardly needed prompting and after an entertaining flight via Maputo with Mozambique’s national airline LAM, I was soon taking off from Pemba in a Cessna. Forty-five minutes later the view on the approach to the island yanked me bolt upright in my seat. Below, amid a huge expanse of translucent turquoise, a wisp of land no more than a kilometre long and a hundred metres or so wide, intimated paradise personified - idyllic, secluded, undiscovered, mysterious and tropical. On the ground, I felt like Charlie in the chocolate factory – soaking in the intoxicating atmosphere, the heat both oppressive and invigorating, the sky bright and the sea’s limitless expanse of turquoise and blues flanked by the sharply contrasting white sands of the shoreline were wholly inebriating. I could not get enough and chomping at the bit I caught myself quizzing the congenial resort manager for information on the situation of Medjumbe’s scuba diving. What was it like? Howz the viz? Is the coral still intact? The fish life what about the fish life? The man stood silently by displaying the calm countenance of a Buddha, “wait and see”, he answered sagely with a faint wry smile when I finally ran out of steam “wait and see”.

I know now why the resort manager was not verbally forthcoming. There are not enough superlatives to describe the diving around Medjumbe and I suppose he found it pointless to even begin trying. One has to see for oneself to believe it. Scuba diving around Medumbe bombards the senses with wave upon wave of visual and tactile feasts. The boat-ride itself is an ocular meal. The water transforms from the light sky-blue of the shallows to a slightly deeper shade of turquoise dispersed here and there with patches of purple that become more numerous. Finally the water blends into a cobalt tinge as the reef below dips into the depths. Immersion in the silky warm 28-degree C water is an unbelievable feeling especially for a diver who resides and dives in the cold grey waters of Cape Town. Coupled with that, the absolute clarity underwater exhibits field upon field of coral. Huge Plate Corals the size of dinner tables are interspersed between massive gardens of Staghorn and Brain Coral. Naturally, the fish life in this sub-aquatic Eden is abundant and a macro photographers dream. After one eighty-minute dive my logbook read like Collins’ Guide to Coral Reef Fishes of the World. We encountered a pink leaf-fish, a black juvenile and an electric blue adult Ribbon Eel, a few miniature Yellow-spotted Scorpionfish sharing a coral home with a Pearl Coral Crab, nudibranchs of a variety and colour I have yet to see elsewhere, mantled Cowrie Shells, three kinds of firefish, four species of sweetlips, a Longnosed Hawkfish, the biggest crayfish I have ever seen, two Giant Moray Eels and one Honeycomb Moray Eel, Bluespotted Rays, Queenfish, Dogtooth Tuna, Napoleon Wrasse, a school of Humpback Unicornfish that are rare everywhere but here, a Hawksbill Turtle, two kinds of pufferfish, an aggressive Titan Triggerfish as well as dozens of damsel, angel and butterflyfish. I was flabbergasted after this dive but to my astonishment I learnt from Medjumbe’s pair of pouting Divemasters that the best was yet to come!

The best is a reef dubbed “The Edge of Reason”. It lies to the north east of the island about 10minutes by boat toward the edge of the continental shelf. Here, at 18 metres the coral seems to flow over a precipice and plunge vertically hundreds of metres into the indigo chasm of the Mozambique Channel.  The void is profoundly alluring. Your body and mind feel drawn to descend deeper until the senses dull and the air feels like syrup. You are dimly aware you should be afraid but the closeness of the precipice alongside is oddly comforting as if you feel you can reach out at anytime and halt the fall into the abyss. At a depth of 30m the sea wall is disseminated everywhere with massive Gorgonian Fan Corals that gently sway in the cerulean twilight. The ambient blue is captivating and dreamlike but slowly your mind, or perhaps your guardian angel, distantly reminds you that you are diving at the limits and it takes a gargantuan inner strength to pull back from the edge. The whole experience lasts no more than 40minutes including a long safety stop in a mild mid-water current that runs parallel to the edge of the shelf. Here game fish like Barracuda and Wahoo prowl, effortlessly swimming against the current in search of prey. As we break the surface Steve, the Divemaster/skipper calls from the boat “how was it at the Edge, dude? “Totally insane!” I whoop. The insanity does not end with the Edge of Reason (a site that is limited to experienced divers only). Novice divers visiting Medjumbe can literally dive both a different reef and a brand new reef every time they leave the island. In any direction for any distance there is shallow coral reef of such enormity that, after two years of operating, the dive team can still take one to a previously unexplored underwater location. Impressively, they needn’t go far to find one. Guests can even have the unique opportunity of naming a dive site themselves or, better still, after themselves. The sensation one gets is that the surface has barely been scratched and there may be many more glorious secrets to uncover. There is, I believe, one very special aquatic secret that Medjumbe still holds. Those jagged edges on that antiquated chart that at some point in the distant past must have sent a shiver or two down the spines of many a ship captain are the clues. Back in the days as a wreck finder, I learnt that more often than not the location of a lighthouse was always an indicative sign of nearby shipwrecks.  Lighthouses or beacons are almost always erected after the tragedy of a shipwreck and Medjumbe has a lighthouse, albeit a very old one that is no longer in use. But there is a fair possibility there is a long forgotten coral-encrusted hulk or two somewhere on those enormous coral banks and it’s only a matter of time before one or more are discovered.

Yet Medjumbe is not all about scuba diving. The little island has other inviting reasons to visit. The resort has been modelled as “private” in that it is both an exclusive and an inclusive resort. “Exclusive” as the island is totally secluded and isolated from the outside world – even to the point that there are no Mosquito’s and therefore no Malaria. There is also no other human presence other than the resort staff and guests. Although not a budget destination by any stretch of the imagination, Medjumbe is called an “inclusive” resort in that the management try to dissuade guests from putting extra-mileage on their credit cards. In other words, the limitless supply of gastronomic delights and beverages (including alcohol) are already included in the overall price. This is a bargain since the food is, in a word, exquisite.  Especially considering that most of the fresh produce is flown in all the way from South Africa at great expense – except the fish which of course is bought locally. The resort is also within a marine reserve. Medjumbe has carte blanche from the authorities in protecting its own waters. This at once gives economic support to the local fishing community by purchasing locally caught produce as well as effectively allowing the resort to control and manage the reefs from over-exploitation. The initiative is significant since the local fishermen, who now earn more capital from the resort than otherwise, themselves become ardent conservationists by jealously guarding their patch against avaricious foreign fishermen. Thus the waters around Medjumbe appear much richer than other Indian Ocean Islands. On almost all the dives I saw healthy numbers of gamefish that otherwise may have been depleted.

The service level of the local staff is also highly commendable. It is a wonder that in just a couple of years the locals, most of whom have never seen a light switch let alone running water from a tap, are able to pander to the sophisticated elite - not only with efficiency but with a cheerful disposition that makes even the most pedantic Western European traveller capitulate to their charm. Having to live in a metropolis whose economic backbone is tourism, I feel Cape Town could learn a trick or two from the humble, amicable staff of Medjumbe. The management too are approachable and engaging. Yet the real appeal of Medjumbe extends further. Cut off from civilization it’s the ideal hideaway – no shoes are necessary and even the time zone is different. Guests are requested to set their watches to Medjumbe-time one hour ahead of CAT (which is what the rest of the country respects). The wispy dimension of the island allows only for thirteen chalets, so there are no rowdy hordes of pleasure seekers that plague some other parts of Mozambique. There is also a no-kids policy making it perfect for honeymooners. Each chalet faces directly on the beach and is sheltered from the other chalets. Each has its own plunge-pool with the room complete with air-conditioning, inside and outside showers, a large bath overlooking the sea and, as one travel brochure proudly mentions, a television – a strange anomaly - but I suppose it’s for that minority group of telly-tubbys who can’t bare the thought of life beyond the small screen. What that brochure astonishingly fails to mention is the natural big screen view from the bed. With head on the pillow the tropical vista is breathtaking - a parallel strip of white sand meets the thin blue and green line of the ocean before being replaced by the dominant view of the tropical sky interspersed with puffy white cumulous clouds that float over the distant haze of the mainland.  If it wasn’t for the diving, I could easily spend the entire week between my private pool and the bed of my chalet. Yet a brief walk around the island reveals another surprise about Medjumbe – it’s a sanctuary for pelagic and migrating creatures of the wing. Ornithologists and “Twitchers” will go moggy at the site of the variety of species of terns and egrets. There is a large rookery of breeding herons as well as whimbrills, plovers and a resident African Fish Eagle who lords over the island from the thermals above. The inter-tidal zone too is buzzing with life – Hermit Crabs crisscross the beaches at night while Blacktip Sharks dart around in the shallows during the day. One can also go boat fishing where most of the fish like Giant Kingfish, Wahoo and Sailfish are caught and released. The fly-fishing for Leatherback Trevally and other Kingfish on the sand spit, I am told, is out-of-this-world. There are kayaks, a Hobie Cat and some windsurfers. But Medjumbe has such a relaxing atmosphere that most guests just take the opportunity to recharge their batteries through solar energy - lying prone in the sunshine by the pool or on the beach while sipping through the unlimited supply of cocktails. At dusk these vibrantly coloured potions vie with the colours of the sunset and the gentle hubbub of conversation over a five star dinner inevitably turns to diving. The drone eventually ebbs away as the stars shine bright and the evening breezes lull one into a peaceful slumber where a dream whisks one joyously back into the silky blueness beneath the waters of the Quirimbas Archipelago.

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