Zanzibar- the Spice Island

Zanzibar is a world apart from all the other beach destinations we’ve visited before. It is a small island off the coast of Tanzania, full of old history. It’s more commonly known as the Spice Islands because it has loads of spice plantations that traded with the rest of the world as far back as the 18th century. The main port is called Stone Town, and for centuries was a massive player in the business of slave trade. Many of the old buildings from that time are still standing in town and seem eerily full of sad stories.

We didn’t spend much time in Stone Town, other than visiting Freddy Mercury´s restaurant (of the band Queen), as this was his birth town. The next day we headed off to Jambiani beach, which is a long stretch of white sand that runs down the east coast. We have never seen tidal fluctuations like Jambiani! During the early afternoon the tide rolls out about 500meters! It leaves scattered tide pools between you and the sea all different colors of aqua, turquoise, and navy and little crabs darting back and forth… it was amazing.

The best part about this beach was we had it all to ourselves. We didn’t realise that the busy season had not started yet and we could walk down the beach for over an hour without seeing a soul. Our guest house Kimte was run by a bunch of Rasta dudes that chilled out on the beach all day, knitting hats, smoking weed and basically doing as little as possible. It was the most relaxing place on the planet.

After we chilled out to the point of boredom, we rented a Baja racer motorbike and jet down the peninsula in search of excitement, or other human beings. We settled for a fantastic hidden beach that can only be reached when the tide is out. The water is so clear in these tidal pools you don’t realise how quickly the tide can roll back in! We explored the southern tip of the beach and headed back to Kimte for dinner. Our cook turned out to be a talented chef, and his specialty was Gingered King fish… absolutely delicious.

A while later we hired a local to transport us to the northern beach area of Nungwi. We did a stop along the way at a spice plantation and had a very interesting tour. We realized we had no idea where our common spices came from, or what they looked like on a tree. The fun part was crushing some of the leaves in your hand and guessing what the smell was. Some of the spices we found were: Cardamon, clove, ylang-ylang, lemongrass, tumeric, peppercorn, and of course cinnamon. We also sampled exotic fruits like Jackfruit, and starfruit right off the tree.

In Nungwi beach we did some more chillin… and took most horrible fishing trip of our lives. We paid a local guide way too much money to be taken out on his rickety wooden boat the size of a large canoe, in 2m swells, fishing for Deep Sea fish! Ya right! Kerri was sea sick within 20min (Cabo all over again) and had to be taken back to shore. The rods didn’t even work properly and could barely reel in the seaweed we were catching. Aaron threw in the towel after about 3 hours and was dripping wet from the crashing waves. Moral of the story… Deep Sea fishing in a canoe sucks. Many restaurants have an excellent selection of sea food that they catch for you, and they do the dishes.

Zanzibar was a much needed relaxing getaway. It would be interesting to see the difference of the atmosphere during high season, as most of our experience was quiet and tranquil. Fully recovered from our fishing trip, we’re off to Morocco!

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