After Stone Town I moved to the east coast of Unguja island to the small, intimate fishing village of Matemwe. I am staying here for a week to relax and to do four days of scuba diving. The scenery here is picture perfect, a beautiful palm-fringed beach made up of fine white sand and crystal clear water. Imagine the beach on the TV show Lost and you won't be too far wrong. The area is still rural, goats and cows roam parts of the beach for anything edible that may be washed up on the tides.

At low tide the sea is about a kilometre away which leaves a lagoon of knee-deep water to wade through to get to the barrier reef. Unfortunately there are quite literally millions of sea urchins in the lagoon (and on the barrier reef) which combined with the sharp rocks make for difficult wading conditions! I did make it over the lagoon but managed to cut my feet to shreds! Bright spark that I am.

I stayed at Ally Keys which is a backpackers made up of six beach huts right on the shoreline. The hostel is very relaxed and managed by some Rastas who were very keen on "expanding" their minds daily from around lunchtime. I would regularly go to the bar to see all three of them spaced out on a sofa, luckily other bars were available. The beach huts themselves are right on the beach and each night I would fall asleep to a sea breeze blowing through the windows and the sound of the surf breaking against the shore. The downside became evident at 4am each morning when the mosque next door made its call to prayer. Still the mornings were glorious so I didn't mind too much.

Scuba diving took place off the Mnemba Atoll to the east of Mnemba Island. The diving here is absolutely superb, there is a very diverse population of fish and some of the schools are massive. Sea temperature was a perfect 26c each day. I again dived with the One Ocean people, mainly with a Masaai dive master called Frank. The highlights of the diving were a 5ft white-tipped reef shark, a couple of turtles (big ones!) and swimming with some wild dolphins during one lunch break when a pod of around 14 dolphins came over to our dive boat for 20 minutes to see what us humans were up to.

I met a load of really friendly people whilst diving which reinforced what a sociable activity it is. This side of the island is especially popular with honeymooners (I must have met about eight couples on honeymoon) and people relaxing after climbing Kilimanjaro.

This week has been totally unforgettable and the highlight of the trip so far. I could not believe how beautiful, secluded and peaceful it is here. The tourists have been very friendly, but I haven't really had much interaction with the local people, their small village being right on the beach, but away form the hotels and hostels.