Tamara is the outermost of the three main islands, longer and wilder than Kassa or Roume, and far less visited. A few fishing villages dot the coast and the interior is mostly forest and scrub. Boats come and go, but there is no schedule -- you either negotiate a private pirogue from Conakry or hop across from Kassa.
Tamara was used as a prison colony under the French and later by the post-independence Guinean government; political prisoners were held here in conditions that became notorious. The ruins of the prison still stand near the centre of the island, slowly being reclaimed by the bush.