Fanjove Island

fabulously remote and understated

Fanjove Island Lodge is located around 20k m off Kilwa on the southern coast of Tanzania Coast, 195 km south of Dar es Salaam.

The island

Private islands are very rare in East Africa and this is the most beautiful by a distance, just 1km long, covered in palm trees, surrounded by wonderful white-sand beaches and encircled by an enormous protected reef and lagoon.

The island has superb marine wildlife including green turtles, spinner and bottlenose dolphins, a host of tropical fish and with humpback whales passing through mid-July to mid-October.

On land there is a small but important population of enormous coconut crabs, which climb the palm trees in search of coconuts, whilst thousands of hermit crabs scavenge the beaches. Weavers, egrets and herons are resident on the island, whilst crab plovers, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones and many others are regular visitors. The main season for migratory birds is Nov-Mar.

The island is a critical nesting site for green turtles, with eggs hatching during Apr-Jul and the camp staff carefully monitor each event as part of a wider conservation project along this coast.

Lodge

Fanjove Island Lodge is refreshingly simple. It would have been so easy to build too much on this island and we spent a good deal of time discussing precisely this issue with the owners. We are so pleased that they finally decided to keep it simple. Great credit to them. The lodge has a very light footprint, could virtually be removed in an afternoon and is almost completely powered by solar.

The central part of the lodge is a very simple open-sided thatched structure, with a sand-floored bar to one side and a main dining area raised on decks, with a few thatched sunshades to one side.

Close by the main building there is a ruined lighthouse which is of German origin and dates back to 1894. This has been sensitively converted to a second mess area.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Fanjove Island Lodge is in ten beautiful thatched rooms, built largely of the local coral rag stone and roofed in natural palm thatch, each with a private outdoor bathroom and large sandy verandah above the beach.

Activities

Fanjove Island Lodge provides access to the following activities, not all of which are necessarily included in the usual room rate …

• Cultural visits to other islands
• Swimming
• Snorkelling
• Diving
• Sailing
• Kayaking
• Kite-surfing
• Walking

Fanjove Island tends to feature in longer and higher quality trips to Tanzania, where guests have the time and funds to combine a nice long safari on the mainland with at least 4-5 nights out on the beach.

Seasonality

The climate in the Kilwa and Fanjove areas is tropical, with predominantly hot, humid and sunny conditions.

There is rain on most days of the year, usually taking the form of light showers. During the Nov-Dec and Mar-May rainy seasons these can turn into heavy and persistent downpours.

There can also be very strong winds during the May-Jun early dry season period.
The best times down on the coast are therefore considered to be Jul-Oct and Jan-Mar, when there is usually slightly less rain and wind.
Getting there

Access to both Kilwa and the offshore islands including Fanjove is by a daily scheduled air service from Dar es Salaam, with the plane landing at various stops on demand.

features in trips disappointingly rarely