Blogs from Nungwi, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 2

Although it rained on and off for a week beforehand, the locals maintained steadily that rainy season absolutely does not start until the 21st of March. I waited amusedly for the auspicious date to roll around, only to be called out on my cynicism. We were woken in the early hours of the 21st of March by what I can only describe as a practically solid downpour of water, thundering on the roof and the ground, battering the trees and darkening the sky. Often, you can hear the wall of rain coming before you see or feel it. There are some beautiful cloud formations appearing in this changeable sky; dark grey swipes loom beyond puffy white marshmallows, which hover above pinky-purple splodges on the horizon. The effect of the changing light and winds on the sea ... read more

I currently have three major problems with learning Kiswahili. The first is that there are approximately ten phrases for each thing you want to say, all meaning more or less the same thing. Greetings and commonplaces are especially guilty of this - I have lost count, for example, of how many different ways of saying ‘No problem’ (how ironic), I have come across so far. The most famous of these is, of course, ‘hakuna matata’. The second problem is that many words and phrases have very similar phonetic structures, or in other words, everything sounds the same to my untrained ears. Take, for example, the phrase ‘I ate food’. Simple enough, right? This translates to ‘Nilikula chakula’. How about ‘I am eating chicken’? ‘Ninakula kuku’. ‘I was sleeping’? ‘Nilikulala’. ‘I ate chicken and then I slept’ ... read more

I remember learning to dive on Mafia, a smaller island of the archipelago, about 4 years ago. It was incredible, but I was completely new to diving at that point, so perhaps I got the impression that the whole ocean was filled with colourful corals, beautiful fish, and giant whale sharks. I have since dived elsewhere, and can now fully appreciate the Zanzibar reefs. A typical day’s diving can include seeing turtles, stingrays, lionfish, nudibranchs, innumerable coral fish, forests of different corals, and much more. Even snorkellers often see octopus, squid and dolphins as well as hundreds of multi-coloured and patterned reef fish. Some of the most impressive - Google them - include the juvenile emperor angelfish, moorish idols, oriental sweetlips, juvenile spotted sweetlips and regal angelfish. Moorish idols, two-bar anenome fish and palette surgeonfish represent ... read more

My dad remains convinced that I am living on Azkaban. This makes me slightly sad for two reasons. Firstly, that my dad readily attributes criminal tendencies to me. Secondly, it reminds me that at the ripe old age of 23, I have yet to receive my Hogwarts letter and therefore should resign myself to the life of a muggle. It’s not all bad though. I’m a week into life on Zanzibar, and, though there isn’t a Dementor in sight, there is plenty of magic. White sands, blue skies, turquoise sea... cliched but true. Speaking of the sea, my 89-year old grandfather has, as usual, conducted his meticulous research into my destination, and is worried about pirates. (My mum hastens to add that he is worried about pirates in Zanzibar, not the small Worcestershire town in which ... read more

Total Distance Travelled Today: 15km (by boat... and taxi) Elapsed Travel Time: 5 hours, 41 min (including mike's diving) Lodging for the Night: Amaan Bungalows (hotel) This morning we slept in until 8am and had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, which overlooks the ocean. At 10, Mike left to go diving and Elysia hung out at the beach and the hotel, enjoying some R&R. Mike did two dives with three other people from our trip. There were also a couple of other divers on the boat. The dive boat was a traditional wooden boat with storage for the tanks along the centreline. It made it tricky to move around the boat but it was a neat way to go diving. The first dive was at Hunga reef, about 20-30 minutes from the beach. The second dive ... read more