Relaxing in Zanzibar

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After a night at Mikardi beach we made our way on tut tuts to the ferry terminal where we waited to board the ferry to Zanzibar. After taking a motion sickness tablet we buckled down for the two and a half hour journey, we were very lucky as the waves were quite calm. (A week later we found out that the ferry we caught had sunk with 150 people dead) After passing through immigration and finding our hotel in the maze like streets of Stone Town we found a cafe on the waterfront and treated ourselves to some delicious lunch. After lunch some of our group made their way to the slave market or did a spice tour. We decided to wonder around ourselves, we found an amazing local market where I brought some dresses made with the brightly coloured kanga material, jewelry and a painting.

In the late afternoon our group met up at on the balcony of Africa House where we drank cocktails from coconuts and watched the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. After a few drinks we met with a local guide who took us to the food night market along the water. We spent hours here sampling all of the local produce including spiced mango and pineapple, barbequed meat on sticks and the famous Zanzibar pizza. After we could not eat anymore we found a bar along the water we enjoyed some cocktails and shisha.

The following day a group of us decided to take a paddle boat out to a small island off Zanzibar, Prison Island. As the name suggests the island does hold a prison which was built for use during the slave trade, however the prison was never used and today the island is more famous for its colony of giant tortoises. The boat trip to the island was calm and the weather was perfect. We waded through clear blue water up to the island where we visited the tortoise colony. This was definitely a highlight! We were able to feed them and walk beside them, some were as young as 6 days old while other were as old as 158. We were even able to pick up some of the younger ones which decided to relieve itself all over one of our friends. I wanted to stay here all day but we had to move on, next we visited the prison and quarantine area.

After a walk around the island we drifted out past the island where we jumped off the boat and snorkeled until it was lunch time. We saw a few fish but mainly enjoyed swimming in the cool water. We ate a delicious lunch of samosas, chapatti and fresh fruits before snorkeling some more. In the afternoon we returned to stone town to pick up some others from our group before driving to the northern beaches where we stayed for three nights.

Our hotel was located right on the beach and the view was absolutely stunning, we spent our days here swimming, snorkeling, sunbathing and wondering through the local villages. At night we dined at the many beach side restaurants as the sun set and danced at the local clubs. On our last night we ate around a bomb fire and danced all night at the beach hut bar. The following morning we were feeling quite horrible which was not helped by the rough waters on our return journey to Mikardi Beach.

After an early night we departed Mikardi beach for Iringa where we stayed on a family’s farm for one night, after arriving quite late in the evening they made us delicious hot chocolate and homemade brownies. The next morning we began another long drive day at 4am on our way to the Malawi boarder.

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Photos

The massive Turtles!
Prison Island

Mercuries Bar
Freddy Mercury was born on Zanzibar!