Northwestern Pemba Island
On the far northern tip of Pemba, Zanzibar's quieter sister island, a wall of genuine rainforest still stands where sawmills once worked until the 1960s. Ngezi Forest Reserve, protected since 1959, is about as close to untouched jungle as you'll find anywhere in the archipelago: double-canopy forest tangled with vines, vervet monkeys swinging overhead, and the extraordinary Pemba flying fox, a giant fruit bat found nowhere else on Earth, once nearly extinct and now thriving at an estimated 20,000 strong. Trails lead three to four hours through the forest out to the wild, empty sands of Vumawimbi Beach.