The Comoros Islands: Going Off the Beaten Track

Named after the Arabic word for ‘moon’, Qamar, this poetically named but little-known archipelago is haphazardly scattered across the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique. Like their better-known Indian Ocean sisters Mauritius and the Seychelles, the Comoros have tropical charm: the temperature is a blissful 20 to 30°C all year-round, palms swing in the breeze, and the water is turquoise. But all the similarities stop there. Whereas Mauritius and the Seychelles have fine-tuned their high-end tourism offering over the past three decades, the Comoros Islands have remained seemingly impervious to mass tourism. There are just 3,000 tourists a year, many of them curiosity-seekers on a quest to visit every country in the world, and that is precisely the appeal.

The very remote Comoros islands are the kind of place you go to just drop off the planet for a while. This is no conventional paradise – there are no sprawling hotels, or flashy nightclubs – the Comoros are so remote that even an international fugitive or a soldier of fortune could hide out here for a few weeks and not be found. If you just want Palms, bananas and the scent of ylang-ylang and cloves borne on the breeze - this is the place to come.

Devoutly Muslim, the inhabitants of The Comoros come from a legendary stock of Arab traders, Persian sultans, African slaves and Portuguese pirates. The four developed islands offer everything from relaxing on white-sand beaches by turquoise seas to hiking through rainforests on the lookout for giant bats. Grande Comore, the largest of the islands, boasts the largest active volcano in the world, Mt Karthala, which last errupted in 2005, flattening villages. The aftermath, though has created a spectacular desert landscape on the mountain, and walking and trekking here is particularly good. Mayotte, is the only island of the four which is still a part of France, and while some love the whitest of white beaches, others find it a little too 'French'. Grande Comore is the most diverse, and perhaps the most traveller-friendly of the Comorian islands. Moroni itself doesn’t feel like much of a capital – it is lively but unhurried. The medina (old town) is reminiscent of so many others in Africa and the Middle East, albeit slightly more dishevelled: beautiful carved doors, small winding lanes and minarets peaking through the skyline. The port fills up and empties with the tides and the air is fragrant with frangipani trees and bougainvilleas.

The volcanic influence is obvious on the rest of the island too. As you take the mountain road up from Moroni towards the east coast, you reach a vantage point from where you can see two huge trails of volcanic rocks snaking down the slopes, souvenirs of past lava flows. These black rocks are what make the beach of Chomoni so special, a brilliant contrast of blinding white sand, dark rocks and azure waters.

As you bump along north (the road is bad), the landscape unfolds with more gorgeous beaches, palm trees, great baobabs and moody skies. The most dramatic sight awaits right at the northern tip, before the road curves west. The Dos du Dragon (Dragon’s Back) is a series of rock formations standing tall on a curving peninsula – it looks uncannily like the imaginary spikes on a dragon’s back and is a wonder to behold. The best views are from across the bay, near Île Aux Tortues, but nothing beats actually scaling the Dos du Dragon itself, an easy walk from the roadside.

For a swim, the sheltered beaches around Trou du Prophète (Prophet’s Hole) can’t be beaten. Legend has it that the Prophet Mohammed hid from marauding pirates behind the tall rocks in the bay. You could certainly hide there all afternoon: the light is exquisite and the water translucent.

The island is fringed by solidified lava and sandy beaches of various hues, where brilliant white meets dark volcanic grey and molten black. What little agricultural land is still available is found in the south, where there are banana, breadfruit, cassava, vanilla, ylang-ylang and coconut plantations. Most of the island’s population and activity is concentrated on the west coast. The sparsely populated and dramatically beautiful east coast remains quiet and traditional, with only a few tiny thatched-hut villages. Couples looking for a simple holiday away from everyone else will like it here - but the majority of tourists will find it too remote and too undeveloped. Poverty is rife everywhere & you should not leave your hotel without having a local guide with you. People in the street will ask you for money and try to buy western things from you - I was asked what price I would sell my designer sunglasses and a Revlon red lipstick for. On the other hand the staff at my hotel were very friendly and I was even invited to attend a local wedding - as long as i bought a gift of cash for the Bride & Groom. Westerners and Holiday makers are seen as very rich people here, and unless you are really streetwise and savvy, you can get ripped off and end up spending much more money than someone who knows the score and is willing to haggle over prices, with the locals.

Holidaying in the Comoros isn’t for everyone; it teaches lessons in patience, humility and resilience. Everything moves mora mora (slowly slowly) and tourism facilities are far from plush. Islam, and all its traditions, are evident everywhere. Women are expected to show modesty and cover up, and alcohol is hard to come by unless you are staying at a hotel that has a bar or you know a local who will buy it for you. If you are here during Ramadan, then you will find it very difficult to get a drink or order food during the day when everyone is fasting, and if you are in a hotel, you may have to eat in your room until Sundown.

If your idea of the perfect holiday is less about drinking rum punch in a skimpy bikini at a swanky resort, and more about long, lazy days sipping tea and talking politics with the locals, then a holiday in the exotic Comoros will probably be the kind of unpredictable, adventure you’ve been craving.

It is difficult to get there which puts a lot of people off. I took a KLM flight to Nairobi and then by flew Kenya Airlines to Prince Said Ibrahim airport on Grande Comore. 45-day visas are available on arrival for €30.

TAKE PLENTY OF CASH WITH YOU & NOT CREDIT CARDS - There are very few Cashpoint facilities on the main Island and the ones that do exist can be tempramental or may not dispense any cash other than local currency, which you cannot draw out on UK credit cards. Even paying your hotel bill by credit card can be difficult at times. There is no mobile signal for Western phone network providers on the Island - if you need to, buy a cheap phone and a local SIM card whislt out there instead - you will probably be able to sell it to someone when you leave and get some or all of your money back. Book and pay for ALL your accommodation in advance before you travel & be wary of rogue taxi drivers and anyone who offers to take you around the Island, unless they are a guide recommended by your hotel.

The person I visited The Comoros Island with was really stupid and was foolhardy and ignorant enough not to heed mine and the British Embassy's advice not to bring credit cards to the island. They did not have cash to pay for anything and money had to be wired out to them through Western Union. This was time consuming, costly and very frustrating. Needless to say it made for an awful holiday as I was angry and upset with the person I was with for a number of reasons.

We were staying at The Itsandra Beach Hotel - the most high-end establishment in the Island. We were only meant to be here for a few days at the begining and end of our holiday but we ended up staying for the full 14 days. The person I travelled with wanted to hire a emote hut on the beach ( with no running water or electric power) on one of the smaller islands, but getting a boat can be very dangerous - unless you book a proper charter - and there are no communications if you get into difficulty or fall ill. I didnt fel safe going to another Island - so we remained on Grand Comore. It was bad enough trying to arrange money transfers to Moroni. My only line of communication back to the UK was on Social Media through the hotel wi-fi - and even that was intermittent at times. Considering my travel companion had totally ignored my instructions to bring cash with them and had not paid for our accomodation in advance, I didnt trust them not to put us both in danger.

The hotel intorduced me to a local guide, who helped me out with the Western Union staff and took us on a trip around the Island with his driver friend. This trip really opened my eyes to the poverty here. The roads are non existant and as a white female tourist I also had to be very careful about taking pictures of children and locals when outside the hotel. Since, , it was allegedly discovered that a Western man, a resident of Grand Comore for 14 years, had been taking pornographic videos and photographs of children on the islands, the residents are quite averse to being filmed or photographed. Individual reactions may vary, but visitors must be advised that taking unauthorised photographs of the locals will, at best, offend an individual and, at worst, cause irrational and potentially violent reactions in the subject. Offering money to photograph people didnt seem to be right either - and besides, my stupid travel companion didnt have any cash to give them!. I settled for taking shots from a distance or from behind people so they would not be offended.I would have liked to learn more from the local people, but aside from the Hotel staff, our guide Joseph and his driver Mr Chris, the only other Comorans we met were the family of Mr. Chris. We were invited to go for lunch cooked by Mr Chris' mother and his 3 sisters in their very frugal home, which consisted of a one storey building with one room for living, and one room for sleeping, The women did the cooking on a open fire at the back of the house, and the toilet was just a hole in the ground with a bucket. This place was home to at least 6 people. The meal was simple but delicious, but the poverty these people lived in made me feel guilty for having all the things I take for granted back in the UK.

The Comoros Islands was meant to be a trip to a remote Island paradise, but because of my travel companion's foolish actions it became a holiday from hell & I really couldnt wait to get home.

On the journey home I had to do a 12 hour stop-over in Nairobi. I had a frightening experience when the taxi driver who collected me from the airport couldn't find The Nairobi Airport Hotel, which we had booked for the night. It was dark, late at night and when we drove into a dirt track road with residential compounds and high rise appartments lined with barbed wire and guarded by armed security men, I got quite worried. My fears about being mugged or robbed were unfounded though. Although this didnt look like an area that you'd find a Hotel in, the Nairobi Airport Hotel IS actually situated in a ground floor appartment, about 20 minutes drive from the airport. After the strangest meal and some wine we bought at reception, I slept and headed home to London the next day via a connection to London from Schipol Airport. The person I went away with who had caused me such stress on holiday by not bringing any money with them and messing up on booking and payig for the accomodation, didn't even have the decency to travel back with me to London. In a cowardly action, to avoid meeting up with my partner and friend who were due to met me at Heathrow, they had sneakily changed their flights at some point during the holiday and diverted to Southampton. They hadn't told me and literally gave me the slip at Amsterdam Airport. I was so angry when I got on the flight to London, and I have never been so relieved to be back on home ground before. What should have been a paradise, get away from it all holiday off the beaten track became the holiday from Hell - the only one in 40 odd years that I have not enjoyed as much as I ought to have done.

Watch my video's of The Hotel and our day trip out below.