Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa

Given all the sitting we’d been doing over the past week, it was obviously important that we mixed things up a bit and did some lying. Our flight to Zanzibar was quite cool as we had a very clear view of Mount Kilimanjaro out the window - its snow capped peak towered above the dark plains below and the peak next to it had a thunderstorm, together with lightning brewing overhead. We were assaulted by the wall of heat and humidity that greeted us as we left the airport but were luckily in our airconditioned transfer before too long and headed for the beach. The plan for the next few days was just to relax on the beach with some books, some cocktails and dips in the pool. Oh, kittens, play with lots of kittens. And ... read more

Literally. No metaphor here. We visited Zanzibar before, and now have visited Zanzibar again. Here are some highlights of the trip. - We stayed at the Dhow Palace Hotel (got a great deal by calling direct even when the booking sites said it was all full). This was literally the palace of a man who built it in the mid-1600s. His family kept it for about 200 years before it was taken over by his clan. Now it is a private hotel. Very cool place with lots of quirks, secrets, and fun antiques on display. - We found a great community shop run by this Rastaman. It's all local arts and crafts for sale to tourists like us. Some special stuff in here. I got the boys new shirts and gifted the owner with a portrait ... read more

According to some things that I have read, Zanzibar has been continuously occupied by human beings for some 30,000 years. According to some other things I’ve read, the earth was created less than 8,000 years ago. I wasn't there for either, I just read about it. Either way, people have been living on Zanzibar island for a very long time. The name Zanzibar comes from the Arabic words for, “land of the blacks”. They named it for the African people they found living there, whom they called the, “Zanj”. The Arabs mixed with the locals, forming the Swahili peoples, who built thriving trading cities over the past 1500 years or so. Inviting the Persians, Indians, Chinese, Indonesians, and others to join the trade in ivory, precious metals, and enslaved humans from the mainland, they built up ... read more

At 9:00 (a luxuriously late start), we climbed onto a large air-conditioned bus. No more safari trucks! Our drive took us through the forest, where Taib, our local guide, described the special growing conditions in Zanzibar. Many kinds of trees grow interspersed on the same land, and they grow tallest in the island’s centre, which is a rainforest. There, in the Jozani National Park , it rains at least every week, as it was raining today. The Park is the home of the Red Colobus Monkey . The native trees are mango, teak and breadfruit. Eucalyptus, Australian pine and acacia were originally imported to reforest the island and are maintained to spare the native species from being cut down for wood. These imports are quick-growing hardwoods, used fo... read more

Again I watched the sunrise from my bed! When I went onto the patio for a bigger view, I saw first one and then two elephants ripping and crunching trees in the valley below. An exotic way to end the safari part of our trip. Breakfast was, as yesterday, vegetable omelet with toast, plus hot water and lime. Today there was some local, tough back bacon. Once out of the Tarangire Park environs, we joined the highway and made good time. Speed bumps were limited to before and after villages, where the speed limit was 50 k. Cows plodding along and across the road were very emaciated, a few looking like they would be unable to hang on until the rains. The grass had been chewed into dust. More traffic moved in both directions, because we ... read more