Sable Blanc

I joined a group of folks heading out for a day trip to a place called Sable Blanc (pronounced Sab la blanc for my non-Frenchy folks!) which means “White Sands” and what a glorious trip it was.

We jumped aboard a big huge boat called the Deli that is run by Dolphin Excursions and set out early on Friday morning. Sable Blanc is located across the Gulf of Tadjoura – close to the town of Tadjoura that I visited a couple of weeks ago. Going by boat it took about 2 hours to reach this pristine stretch of white sand, dotted with a newly opened “hotel” and some palaypas, benabs or whatever you choose to call a shady cover on a beach.

I didn’t spend much time on the beach because the snorkeling was AMAZING! This was far and away the best coral reef I have ever seen. The fish were abundant and the colors of the coral crazy cool. I was told the water temperature was 93 degrees (wow!) so it was incredibly easy to spend three hours floating along and looking at underwater life. When it was lunch time, I was a bit nervous to swim from the reef out to the deeper water where the boat was anchored. Not sure how far it was but the water got dark blue and I couldn’t see anything to the right, nothing to the left and definitely not the bottom. It was the strangest feeling – like swimming through the sky at night. Anyways, I convinced a 12 year old boy on the trip to be my chaperone and made it safely on board the boat.

After lunch a couple of ladies and I took a speedboat to the farthest end of the beach where the rocky land came out to a point and got dropped off to snorkel our way back to the boat. We set sail for Djibouti city and most folks napped on the way back – myself included – as there was a breeze and the sun was not quite so hot. It was an amazing day and I can’t wait to go back with Orion and Eric in tow.

The Deli Boat

I really should get an underwater camera...

The view of Sable Blanc from the boat