Northern Beaches

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Kendwa

The plan was to try out the Northern beaches first - the most popular being Nungwi. On the ride, I was reading the Lonely planet about another beach just before Nungwi called Kendwa which sounded really good. Change of plan - we asked the driver to drop us off at Kendwa instead. There was a local who then started speaking to us - he works in Kendwa - and offered advice and assistance. We spent the rest of the trip speaking to him and he helped us get our things off the Dalla dalla when we arrived. Turns out this is the point we lost Don's sleeping bag and towel as they had somehow been unclipped from his backpack.

Rahim (sp) walked with us and suggested places to eat and stay. He showed us the cheapest place to stay and helped bargain for us to a good price of Tsh30000 for a double room on the beach. The hotel: La Palme was very minimalistic with rubbish bathrooms but other than that it was perfect. Right on the beach, with breakfast included, a bar, restaurant and easy access to all the other places in Kendwa. We scouted out a Dive Centre and booked two dives for the next two days. Then we hit the beach.

To describe Kendwa its best to image those white sand beach pictures with blue oceans that you see in Holiday magazines. It is EXACTLY like that. It was picture perfect and I never got over just starring at the water and beach and taking it all in. We went for a short snorkel right by our place and managed to see some small fish but it was just good to be in the water. We decided to try a local off-the-beach restaurant for dinner and met 2 Canadians: Ashton and Jenna. I had Zanzibar Fish Curry (Tuna Curry) and it was yummy. It's really hard to find cold coldrinks here - ice seems to be a big commodity. Reckon an ice business on Zanzibar would go down SO well. Anyone interested??

The next four days consisted on diving, snorkelling, walking along the beach and partying until at least 3am on the beach. The dives were really good - we saw sting rays (blue spotted), fire fish, puffer fish, trumpet fish, beautiful parrot fish and lots more. I loved playing in the water and going upside down to look at things. The water was warm enough that I could dive in only a rash vest and board shorts. Every day we watched the sun set on the beach and took random silhouette pictures by the ocean. That was usually followed by sundowners at Kendwa Rocks with new people we had met. The day ended with dancing and having a good time at one of the beach bars.

Nungwi

After dumping our stuff at the hostel, we headed inland to try see how far it was to the other side. In retrospect we should've put more cream on, it hit 36 degrees with no beach or pool or shade in fact in sight. We walked into one of the big resorts to head to the beach and ended up chatting to the guy at the pool. I think he thought we were staying there because he let us swim without a problem. The pool wasn't cold enough but definitely helped. We stayed there for awhile and then headed back along the beach.

The tides here are so weird - it can draw the sea out 800m to 2-3km away. This one was only about 800m off but it changes the scenery completely. The coastline is still white but green seaweeded rocks and stones litter the shoreline with the distant blue ocean outlining the horizon. We watched the sun set on the beach and watched a bunch of locals and foreigners play on a tyre. The were using it as a spring board to do flips and jumps off. It was incredible to watch - they are rather insane. Don even joined in a little. We all went back to the beach after dinner for a few beers and sat around a bonfire on the beach just chatting, meeting other tourists and watching a lady doing flame flaring. We were joined by Dario, Ebby, Frans and Jan (South Africans). It was such a chilled, relaxed evening. Bonfire + Beach + SAfers (South Africans) + some beer = good evening - just like home. Only downside was the lack of a voice on my part, hope I get better soon.

Full Moon Party

Don and I then set off back to Kendwa. We hadn't intended to go back but the hype around the full moon party drew us back. We went off for our final snorkel with Oli and Livi. For lunch we ventured off to find this little fish and chip local restaurant. The food was pretty good and filling and only cost TSH3500 (R17). Spent the rest of the day relaxing, chatting, playing cards and a game called 'Movie Tennis' - which is when one team serves with an actor's name and then each team has to say a movie that that actor has starred in, and it goes back and forth until one team can't play. It's actually pretty fun.

Later on after sundowners our party group had grown - the SAfers joined us as well as Leon & Kirsty and there crew. As party kicked off we all went to dance. I got to sokkie with Dario - man I love to sokkie - made me miss home. Apart from some locals being overbearing and not understanding physical limits and personal space boundaries, it was a really good evening. The party ended at about 5am and the plan we ended up grabbing sleeping bags and just kipping on the beach.

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