Getting from London to The Aiyana, Pemba is not easy. That turns out to be one of many things it has going for it, however. A place this picturesque, with a beach where powder sand crunches underfoot like new-driven snow and light turquoise sea as clear as a boiled sweet — anywhere else this place would be swarming with tourists.
But as it happens, only a small handful brave the journey, requiring at least one stop on the way to Zanzibar (we stopped in Doha) before transferring to a tiny domestic plane, which lands in Pemba’s tiny airport and spits you out to face several hours’ drive through the rice paddy fields and remote villages that make up the island (population 500k).
