Chole Island and the ruins

A dhow across to Chole for the nineteenth-century ruins, the baobabs and the fruit bat colony.

Chole Mjini was the trading centre of this coast before Kilwa took over, and the nineteenth-century ruins are being pulled apart by strangler figs in a way that photographs better than anything restored. The island has no cars and no mains electricity. It takes about ten minutes by dhow from Utende.