Flying Coastal

Photo by Patrick Jones. Boarding Coastal Airlines at Dar. 28 Jul 2017.

Two weeks ago I took a short flight from Dar es Salaam airport to tiny Mafia Island, off the coast of Tanzania, for 24 hours before beginning the flights back to DC. I took Coastal Aviation, which operates flights throughout Tanzania to many of the most popular national parks and promotes itself as "the flying safari company."

Source: Google Maps. 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mafia Island Airport. 28 Jul 2017.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Approaching the island. 28 Jul 2017.

Coastal was great. The plane seats 12 but on my flight there were only 6 people including the pilot. It is about 40 minutes from Dar to Mafia.

Mafia Island has about 50,000 inhabitants, compared to bustling Zanzibar to the north, which has about 1.3 million people. I chose Mafia Island to do something a little different with my 24 hours, perhaps I might see whale sharks or humpback whales. On this occasion there were no whale sharks (it's the wrong time of year), but my 24 hours were incredibly relaxing. I will have a separate post of photos from the island.