I look at Bongoyo Island every day. I sit on the balcony and gaze across the ocean at it. I can just about make out some sand on the shore but apart from that it looks like a forested island.
The day came to visit it. I got a ferry ticket for 30,000/= and paid A small amount of dollars for entry to the forest park there. It is pretty irritating that the ferry fee “has to be paid in cash” and the park fee “has to be paid in dollars”.
We set off at 10:30am in between ferries as there was quite a crowd. It was mostly foreigners with only a scattering of locals. One girl was in her twenties and had lived in Dar for several years but never visited the island. She was from Arusha and was keen to show me her teeth which had an orange stain on them. She explained that people can tell you are from Arusha because the water stains your teeth.
She didn’t seem to mind and I lied and said it looked nice! After an hour the boat arrived at a long sand bank on the western end of the island – the beach I can see from my house. Regular day-trippers made a dash for loungers under wooden shades on the small beach.
I, on the other hand, had to intention of lying on the beach all day. What can possibly be any more boring than being inactive for hours on end. I headed inland and walked past the restaurant looking for a marked trail. A man stopped me. He asked me whether I was on my own and whether I intended to walk in the forest park.
I felt like telling him to mind his own bloody business – I think my face said that! He warned me that I should not go alone and that it was very dangerous. The fishermen might attack me. I should have a guide with me.
I always take these warnings as an attempt to sell services which I do not need. I thanked him for his concern and set off. In retrospect flip flops were not the best footwear for this trail. It was very uneven and full of holes, sharp rocks and on occasions I was almost bend double getting through the undergrowth.
I started thinking about the 300,000/= I had just taken out of the ATM and stopped to pick up a large stick. It would double as a tool to steady me on this rocky path and, more importantly, as a weapon against marauding fishermen,.
After an hour of careful and vigilant walking, I arrived unmolested and having seen nothing but birds, at an uninhabited beach on the north of the island. If it hadn’t been littered with plastic bottles it would have been much nicer. As it was, it was possible to imagine it in a cleaner less polluted time when all you could see was white sand, clear water, blue skies and white fluffy clouds.
I wasn’t feeling quite so brave as to continue along an unmarked trail leading further up the island – that would be asking for trouble, so I picked my way back to the sand bar again.
The only thing on the restaurant menu which didn’t involve picking meat out of a shell or picking bones out of your mouth was chicken. So chicken and chips was what passed for lunch.
Bongoyo Island is an easy day trip from Dar, just go to Slipway and jump on a boat. Weekends are busy but during the week there are plenty of chairs on the beach. If lazying around is what you like doing, then this is a great option but if, like me, you need a bit of activity, there are very limited options indeed.
The restaurant is pretty basic – bash and crash – but reasonably priced.