Zanzibar

Zanzibar- it’s a hard life, but someone’s got to do it!
White sand, turquiose crystal waters, absolutely beautiful …got a bit trigger happy with the camera so just a few for you here...














So a few of us from the volunteer house decided we were in need of some R&R after our hard work here in Moshi, plus its impossible to be clean here with all the dust, and the offer of the free flight from pilot guy meant that going away for the week to znz was a must esp as it coincided with full moon parties…Has been an amazing week here, moved around a little as the coast is quite different depending on where you stay….

Arrived in Kendwa, up on the NW Coast…is pretty spectacular, had an immediate wow factor with beautiful sunsets.
It was fairly busy because of the full moon party and more of a commercial/party atmosphere…first 2 days were just spent lazing on the beach and yes, even after all that sun at plus 30 degrees I really still am as white as I look in the pictures!
Loads of locals came down for the full moon party, think its their best opportunity of pulling a Mzungu girl, lots of dancing, drinking, decided to make our own beach olympics, (found out I’m not so hot at the old wheel barrow racing- must be those muscly arms of mine!)- stayed up for sunrise, then had brekkie, then went to bed for a few hours, got up and then slept on the beach…another hard day at the office!

Then came the obligatory stomach bug, first one since I’ve been travelling but bad timing to get it when you’re in Znz…prospect of the boat journey out to Memba for snorkelling and then on to Paje was not the greatest and to be honest felt pretty sh!te but its all part of the African experience I guess. Couldn’t be without the loo so meant I missed out on the snorkelling, apparently the reef was amazing- you’d think they could have lied to me!!

Paje is on the East coast and very different to Kendwa…far quieter and more of a natural feel to it, is really beautiful…judge for yourself.
Had a really amazing time, highlights from one day…up at 6am for dolphins, saw loads and got in to swim with them…followed by snorkelling, then lazy afternoon, then getting creative with whatever we had in our bags/bed sheets to produce some outfits for halloween, (clearly being a muslim country they don’t celebrate halloween and had some pretty strange looks), and then made up a bonfire on the beach and just carried on the drinking listening to music… it was a really good night and to top it all off we got to see moonrise. I can’t describe to you how amazing moonrise was- I’ve never seen anything like it - one minute there was nothing there, then shortly after midnight there were just these 2 dots that looked like light from a boat then within the space of 5-10 mins it just got bigger and blurry and then rose…sounds crap to describe it and unfortunately it wouldn’t come out on the camera but was amazing.. It was pretty perfect.

Went to Stone Town for the last few days and again was completely different from both Kendwa and Paje. Stone Town is really busy and more built up. Its completely different from anywhere else I’ve been in Tanz so far with actual shops, although bartering is still obligatory…Loads of history here, and the architecture is so different from the mainland…some of it is more like being in lanes somewhere in Europe and other parts have a really strong indian influence…It was nice to be somewhere in Tanz with history and after chilling on beaches for 5 days was good to get back to some hustle and bustle and the beaches were still pretty nice.

We went over to Prison Island which is only a short boat ride from Stone Town. Theres a huge giant turtle population there so went in and petted and fed them, their faces/necks are a good advert for why we should use oil of ulay!…Then went to see the old prison which has been “authentically restored”, not sure just how authentic the restoration is, nor that I’d really mind being locked up there as the views are pretty amazing..
In the evening went to the night market for some food…bargainous! Especially considering that the rest of ZNZ is a rip-off, not the best place to go on a travellers budget, (everything is 3 or 4 times more expensive than Tanz; beer is 3000 tsh= 1pound 25; compared to 1000 tsh on the mainland). Just lots of stalls selling really good seafood, different meat kebabs, samosas, falaffal, pancakes…I love food, could talk about it forever and it tasted so good and all for around a pound!

ZNZ is known for its spices, and exports a load, so we took a tour around a plantation- won’t go into it all but have a look at some of the pics..then went by Dr Livingstone’s house who helped promote the end of slavery, went to one of the slave caves where people were illegally hidden after slavery was supposed to have ended- btw 150-200 people would have been kept in the small cave we visited…went to the Sultans “luxurious” bath (he can keep it, prefer my trickly cold shower here!), then lazed on another beach and then lots more eating, firstly of all the different fruits and then another typical swahili dinner…

Early start the next morning (5am!) as decided to get the ferry and bus back (as free flight was only one way .). Was a long day on a tightly packed bus on good old African “roads” with just one toilet break for an 8 hour bus ride- the little girl sitting next to me wet herself- nice! But really glad we did it as there were some amazing views of the mainland and the Usambara mountains stretched on forever. Truly was an amazing week but am glad to be home and looking forward to my last bit of volunteering before I move on again…

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