Zanzibar

Walking across the border, I am entreated to take a ride on the back of a bike. Quite how I am expected to manage this with my two bags, I’m not sure. I decline, realizing now that I am going to have to walk a while to find the bus however this all goes relatively smoothly. I’ve been warned about the terrible driving in Tanzania and we’ve traveled barely 4km through a pretty valley and already we’ve passed two accidents. One of them involving a truck which is now basically stretched across the road. A lady tries to sell me bananas through the windows of the bus. These have to be the biggest bananas I’ve ever seen. Maybe 3 times the size of an “English” banana. Two of them is enough for a full meal! In Europe a banana is a banana. Here I’ve seen maybe 10 different types. My favourite are the green ones.

The minibus fills and empties, the sunsets and finally we approach a large town with lots of lights. I’m already feeling a little intimidated. We stop by the side of the road and everyone leaves apart from me and one lady. Outside guys are drinking and dancing on the pavement. Hmmmm. Eventually she asks the driver what’s going on. Apparently this is the end of the road. I thought it was finishing at the main bus stop but no I have to pay a lot extra to finish this last 2km. The conductor was a nice guy thought once he’d got his money, telling me when the buses go to Dares Salem, and making sure that the hotel had space for me. The hotel had a load of crazy and mammoth concrete animals outside of it. The room had satellite TV with several English channels, so after a quick dinner of beans and rice, I settled myself for a welcome TV evening.

It’s an early 4.30am start but the hotel is right next to the bus station – handy as I dislike walking in the dark. Tanzanian people are very friendly and helpful, the bus conductor even arranging to buy water for me and for no mark-up. The bus journey to Dar is long – all day. Some of it was beautiful and we drove through a national park where I saw an elephant by a bridge. Twisting down a valley I noticed 4 bikes in a line ahead of me. It had to be the Kiwi’s. I could see them stopped further ahead and as we drove past I stuck my head out of the window and shouted “What the blazes are you doing here?!” to the amusement of the Kiwi’s when they worked out who I was and to the complete shock of everyone on the bus!

We arrived in Dar at nightfall and a taxi took me to some accommodation but it was full. There were Muslims everywhere and most didn’t speak English so it took some time before I made my way across a couple of blocks to find another hotel which did have space. By now I’m almost completely out of money so my dinner was the remainder of some cashew nuts and an apple.

In the morning I woke when it was light and then dashed around trying to draw out money, but a ticket for the ferry to Zanzibar and then actually catch it. I was “aided” in my attempt to buy a ticket by an elderly man in a fedora who insisted repeatedly that a tourist ticket shop was the real one. They just wanted to rip me off so I left. As I walked out, he seemed quite disappointed that I hadn’t bought a ticket and told me to try the real ticket shop as “they were much better”. He never asked me for any money and I’m still not sure what exactly he was doing there!

The ferry took nearly two hours. There were several tourists on there, all dressed in shorts and little tops, eating and drinking with no regard whatsoever for Ramadan. It amuses me how countries try to go for top-end tourists, invariably they couldn’t care less for local customs.

Arriving at Stone Town some touts help me to organize a lift to the Nunqwi (Northern Beaches) at 1pm and I spend some time explore the narrow cobbled streets with the 3 story high buildings. Some of the wooden doors are elaborately decorated and it was fun to find my way through the maze. Despite Ramadan, some of the shops were open selling fruit & veg or brightly coloured cloth. The atmosphere reminded me of Asia. At the ATM machine, the person behind me was a Masai Warrior. This was his first time at an ATM and I had to show him what to do! Which, quite frankly, was pretty cool!

Arriving in Nunqwi I was shocked by the extent of rubbish. The tide was in what was left of the white sandy beach was covered in seaweed. I was incredibly disappointed. However, it grew on me later and some of the beaches were gorgeous. White sand as far as you see interjected with limestone outcrops and palm trees, set against a turquoise sea and a bright blue sky.

I only planned to stay 3 or 4 days in Nungwi but I spent my entire 10 days there, diving nearly every day with Sensation Divers. I hung out at their lodge quite a lot or at a lovely chilled out beach bar called Cholos. The sunset right in front and some of them were stunning, lighting up the whole sky as far as you could see. I hit it off with Bru who owned the lodge and dive shop and he suggested I might like to come back and live here but I wasn’t sure that was what I really wanted. Nevertheless it was very hard to say goodbye and leave for the airport.

Everyone said the diving in Zanzibar was not that good, but I had some awesome dives including a big blue dive when a school of hammerhead sharks came and checked us out for 5 minutes!! That is one dive I will never forget. There was also cool small things and I enjoyed the diving much more than expected. I bumped into the Kiwi guys again which was fun although as they are now heading North it was probably for the last time.

I flew into Mikandani in the South where I was supposed to be doing some diving. Immigration at the airport was a total idiot and started off by trying to tell me that my visa was out of date until I pointed out he was looking at the one for Malawi! Instead of diving, a really bad case of flu hit me and I did little apart from sleep and visit a nice hotel, “The Old Boma” from a converted castle/outpost up the road where you could use the pool for a small fee. After a few days I felt much better and decided to head back to Mozambique. This border crossing is renowned as one of the hardest in Africa! It was certainly an interesting challenge.

Hope you are all well and happy.
Lots of Love
Kathryn xx