Travel Guide Chole Island

Between Mafia and Juani lies the small island of Chole, home to a fishing community and the ruins of an Afro-Shirazi palace (with mosque) built in the 12th century by the Persians. It was later transformed into a prison for slaves, before being reoccupied by the Arabs after the departure of the Germans at the end of the First World War. As in Stone Town, it was the antechamber of the ships that deported slaves to the Arabian Peninsula and to the plantations of the colonial islands in the southern Indian Ocean (Reunion, Seychelles, etc.). Today, the coral stone walls are being eaten away by the immense roots of a fig tree that is taking up all the space. A resort still exists within these walls, but isolated from the rest of the world.Visit. We recommend this visit at soccer match time, when the village is lively in the evening. Some of the women work with a type of local rattan to make all kinds of furniture in front of their dried banco huts. We visit the dhow-making workshop before entering the forest of flying foxes, giant bats found only in Mafia and Pemba. We pass at the foot of the trees, where dozens of bats are suspended in semi-sleep or often in noisy arguments. The crossing takes 10 minutes by dhow and the tour takes half a day, so remember to cover your legs and shoulders before setting off. You can combine this visit with a snorkeling tour and a barbecue of grilled meats from the sea on a nearby sandbank.