Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 5

Bon bein voilà on y est... read more

Hello All, I'm currently writing this from a very noisy hotel room in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania, having arrived back from an incredible week in Zanzibar. Having flown into Zanzibar from Kilimanjaro, yesterday I got the ferry back to the Tanzanian mainland. The journey was so rough that at some points it seemed as though 'Yellow Submarine' would have been a more appropriate Beatles song to name this blog entry but luckily my stomach and the boat's hull managed to hold out. My time in Zanzibar was truly the start of my solo travels, as I was surrounded by so many people during my Maasai volunteering stint that I was never really alone. What I've discovered is Africa can be a very unforgiving place to be a solo traveller, even in the ... read more

Arriving in Malawi the border crossing was a little less crazy than before. There were guys desperately trying to sell us drinks whilst we tried to figure out what the entry form was asking us. Some countries ask the bizarrest of questions, I remember the visa form for Kenya asked what your father’s occupation was. Malawi’s was just confusing English. We headed onto Kande Beach on Lake Malawi, here on this beautiful spot you could see why the lake is called the calendar lake. It extends 365km up and down by 52km wide. David Livingstone nicknamed it the lake of stars because fisherman used to use lanterns when they went fishing at night. We went for a village tour of Kande seeing how they prepare their staple meal of Kasava, which gives off a very strong ... read more

We took the ATC vehicle to a ferry that was pretty much a floating bridge and had a hot 20 minute ride across a bay. Then we took a bus to another ferry which would bring us to Zanzibar where we took another bus to get to our hostel. All in all it took about 4 hours but we arrived with time to put our bags down before starting a spice tour. Oh man! This tour was right up my alley. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I went on a similar tour in Grenada and this one seemed a little more comprehensive. They had sooooo many different kinds of spices. And we got to try them all straight from the plant!!! Our guide for the tour was hilarious too. He had some sort of ... read more

Pour cette dernière étape tanzanienne, nous avons prévu 2 jours à Stone Town, quartier historique inscrit au patrimoine de l’Unesco, et 6 jours au calme sur l’une des plages de l’île. Nous rejoignons notre premier logement assez facilement, à 10 minutes de route de l’aéroport de Zanzibar. Le petit hôtel ne paie pas de mine, mais a une décoration pour le moins atypique : luminaires à partir de bouteilles ou de cassettes audio, chaise à partir de pioches, etc. Et le hall d’entrée est un véritable musée avec plein de photos d’archives sur Zanzibar et plusieurs leaders noirs (Malcom X, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Haïlé Selassié 1er, ...). Nous testons le restaurant de l’hôtel pour notre 1er soir, la bouffe n’est pas vraiment raccord avec ce que le menu affiché en chambre laissait suggérer. Mais ... read more