Comoros

Three islands and a disputed fourth, in the channel between Madagascar and Mozambique, producing more ylang-ylang per square kilometre than anywhere on earth - the scent that gives Chanel No. 5 its base note comes largely from here, which the islands themselves seem entirely unbothered by. Moroni, the capital, has an old Arab medina built on a lava shoreline. The diving is serious and largely undocumented. The pace is the pace of islands that have not yet been asked to perform themselves for anyone.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: ylang-ylang distillery routes, Moroni's medina, dive sites that have no names in any database and the ferry crossings that run on a schedule that is more aspirational than actual.