Zanzibar!

We left Arusha at the crack of dawn for the 6am bus to Dar Es Salaam. We had to catch the last ferry of the day to Zanzibar which left at 4pm. Thanks to a modern bus & a driver with a heavy foot, we made it with about 20 minutes to spare! We had 2 nights in Stone Town, staying at the Clove hotel (www.zanzibarhotel.nl) which was brilliantly located & had a cool roof-top terrace. Stone Town is a great place to explore with its narrow cobbled alleyways. It is also a shoppers paradise (much to Rich's despair...) with streets full of craft & souvenir shops. After great food & even better shopping, we were ready to hit the beach!Our beach of choice was Bwenjuu on the east coast of the island. It is known as one of the quieter beaches on the island, & it certainly lived up to its reputation -in a good way that is. We were staying at Mustapha's Nest which is a cool little place just across the road from the beach, run by a bunch of rastas who would be vertical if they were any more laid-back! We had a little ensuite cottage each, & the decor was interesting to say the least! Rich & Rach were staying in 'Jacuzze' whereas Will & I had 'Swiss banda' which you can see at the back of the above photo. It was all a bit mad; our place had bright murals painted on the walls, eccentric tiling in the bathroom (as if they had asked for one of each tile in the shop, broke them all up a bit, then made pretty patterns), & half a coconut shell for a shower head. To sum it up, I loved it! The staff were unbelievably friendly & obliging, & the fresh sea food on the menu was sublime. One of the menu options was 'meal of your choice'!
If you had to describe the quintessential tropical island beach, then this would be it. Fine white sand, coconut palms swaying in the breeze, blue skies, & the most amazing turquoise water. Will was rather partial to the fresh coconut milk. When he asked the staff at Mustapha's if there were any coconuts about, one of the staff got out an old rickety ladder, climbed up one of the palms, selected a coconut & lopped the top off for him.

We managed to spend our days lazing on the beach & swimming in the warm waters. One day the four of us hired bikes & snorkeling gear, & cycled 40 minutes along the beach to the lagoon. Once here we negotiated a favourable rate for one of the local fishermen to take us out to the reef in his dhow. We spent a brilliant couple of hours snorkeling the reef. It was Will's first time snorkeling, & he was amazed by all the brightly coloured tropical fish we could see.


The above pic isn't the greatest; for a start, I'm not even looking at the camera. However I've included it because I think my husband looks very cute in it, & it's my blog so I can do what I want!

We couldn't believe how quiet the place was, at times it felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves. However at low tide it become a hive of activity with locals eeking out a living from farming & harvesting seaweed. Apparently they sell it to Japan for use in the cosmetic industry. You wouldn't think it was the same beach at low tide, you could just about walk out to the reef.

Rich & Rach had 4 nights at Mustapha's, then left to get the ferry back to Dar, from where they were flying back to NZ. Will & I had 1 extra night at the beach, then an extra night in Stone town. In Stone town we got the last of our shopping done, including a couple of pictures by an artist we liked called 'Matala'. We had already bought one of his Tingatinga style pictures, then we returned to buy the giraffe pic below that we both liked. It just happened that Matala himself happened to be in the shop. He's the one on the left below. The tingatinga painting we bought is similar to the one you can see at the top of the pic below, but it is only 3X3 panels.

We enjoyed our final night in Stone Town, including a very nice romantic 3-course meal. It will probably be a while until I next enjoy such cheap gorgeous fresh seafood again... We were also pleased to see that the night market was back. It was a highlight of my time in Stone Town 4 years ago, & had been closed when we were there at the beginning of our Zanzibar trip as they were refurbishing the venue. It just happened that it re-opened on our last night on the island. Will was happy because he got to sample the famous Zanzibar pizza.

The next morning we caught a flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi, had about 6 hours to kill at Nairobi airport, then boarded the big bird back to Blighty, & back to the real world...