Mayotte · YT

Chissioua Karoni

Karoni Islet — Chissioua Karoni in local Shimaore, where *chissioua* simply means "island" — is a small volcanic mound sitting mid-bay in the Baie de Bouéni, about 600 metres off the south-west coast of Mayotte's Grande-Terre. Roughly 560 m by 400 m, with a high point around 43 m, it is one of the most photographed features of Mayotte's quiet southern coastline: a green cone ringed by reef, with the villages of Chirongui and Tsimkoura and the ridges of Mont Choungui and Mont Bénara as its backdrop. For visitors, the islet is rarely a "to-do list" attraction and more a landscape to be approached with care. It is a protected Conservatoire du littoral site managed for its rare fragments of natural dry forest, its nesting seabirds and the dugongs that graze the seagrass offshore. The good news is that you can get close — by pirogue or kayak from the bay's shores — and that some of the best views don't require stepping on the island at all.