Paradise

I came back to Pemba from Pangane last night after a couple of days in paradise. It actually felt like we spent the weekend in a postcard. It was so beautiful and relaxing!



Jutta, Frank, C and I took off at 6 o’clock Friday morning and hit the "highway" to Macomia.



After Macomia the dirt road started, but was ok all the way to Mucojo even if there were a lot of pot holes. After Mucojo it was more of a challenge, I can only imagine what it's like right after heavy rain!





Approaching Pangane with the Indian Ocean on both sides of the peninsula was fantastic. It is so beautiful and the villages are of course very picturesque to me.





When entering the camp we were a bit surprised (and a little disappointed I must admit) to find 10 campers from Zimbabwe already comfortably installed. We had thought we would be the only ones staying in this small camp with only 3 bungalows… But it turned out to be quite nice! They were very sociable and we could look out for each other’s stuff whenever we went on our small excursions. And even though there were all of us + the “guardas” someone managed to steel a pair of shorts from Frank.




There is no running water or electricity in Pangane. At 5.45 pm (20 minutes after sunset) it is pitch black. And the starlit sky seems to be so low it feels almost like a ceiling.



We played Yatzy and went to bed at nine o’clock Friday night. I wasn’t able to sleep well at all – it was too damned hot and I was sweating like never before! I got up at 5.30 to go to the bathroom and found the most amazing sunrise. It was really contemplating to just sit on the beach and enjoy it. And of course collect some shells... There were thousands of beautiful shells on the beaches! I have at least a couple of hundred with me back to Pemba :)





Jutta and I took a boat to Kifula island around 8 o’clock Saturday morning to see the lodge they are building there. Thomas met us and gave us the grande tour of the island (Kifula is just outside Pangane – at low tide it’s possible to walk over from the main land). It’s a beautiful little island and I wish I had the € 1,8 Million it takes to buy it!



In the evening we had a delicious grilled lobster dinner and camp fire on the beach. The stars seemed even closer when sitting on the beach. I saw "Karlavagnen" (upside down of course) and have now learnt how to recognize Mars as the red star next to Orion. Just beautiful!!



I slept a bit better that night and did catch the sunrise Sunday morning as well. Sunday was relaxing and nice, we collected shells all morning and after lunch we started to get ready to leave. The weekend was completed with a very nice dinner at Pieter’s Place when we got back in Pemba.