Mafia is the southernmost of the three large islands off the coast of Tanzania. It is around 20km long by 8km wide.

Mafia is a real sleepy backwater... unspoiled, uncommercialized and apparently timeless, where local people go about their traditional ways of life barely touched by the outside world.

The island itself is much more like the mainland in character than the other islands, with central areas being covered with bush and light woodland, as well as coconut and cashew plantations. The coast is generally lined with palm trees, but there are not the sweeping sandy beaches that are to be found on Zanzibar. Here the shoreline is generally narrow and mangrove forests are widespread.

Mafia is also a prime dive location, with the Chole Bay Marine National Park as the main focus.

Kilondoni is the main town and a refreshingly simple place. The atmosphere is incredibly relaxed. Mafians are very friendly people ... distant and respectful to strangers.

In Kilondoni there is plenty of evidence in the architecture and in the faces of the old Swahili connection. These carved doors, which are so synonymous with Stone Town in Zanzibar, can be found throughout the ports of the Indian Ocean. Even though Mafia feels so wonderfully isolated now, it is clear that it was once very well connected.

Dig a little deeper and one can find evidence that Mafia once played a pivotal role in the workings of the old Swahili coast. On the tiny island of Chole Mjini, just offshore in Chole Bay, the forest is strewn with creeper-clad ruins ... in true Raiders of the Lost Ark style.