Aug 14, 2012 - Zanzibar: the Spice of Life

We are now enjoying meeting locals in Zanzibar. Our experiences with the wildlife were great, but I think both Unsu and I feel most engaged with meeting local people and hearing their histories and stories. We met an Indian man named Rohit who runs a photo shop that his father started here after they arrived from Gujarat, and they have pictures from the 1930s of all the state dignitaries who have been in Zanzibar. The shop is filled with all these great black and white photos of the main political events of this place, all taken by the...

Mar 27, 2012 - Day 71 - Zanzibar...Kendwa sunset

A stay in Zanzibar is not complete without a visit to the northern tip and the white beaches of Nungwi and Kendwa. We chose the latter as we had heard that Nungwi had very few beached left due to erosion and overdevelopment. I asked the taxi driver to take us to Kendwa rocks resort for sundowners and when he stopped the cab and announced, "We're here" I thought he might have been joking. A rubbish strewn dirt track where stray dogs outnumbered people was not exactly what I had in mind. The beach must be close so we got out of the car and...

Mar 26, 2012 - Day 70 - Zanzibar...Spices and Slaves

Jason arranged a spice tour for mum, dad, Gary, Cathy, Saba and me while he opted to stay by the pool with the boys. Our car came at 8.30am to pick us up and take us first to a community run spice plantation. Before leaving the hotel I wet a bandana and wrapped it around my head that's how hot it was. The bandana was dry by the time I climbed into the taxi. At the plantation we met our guide for the day, a Zanzibari man called Ali who spoke a mixture of Swinglish and cockney with a south London accent. He later revealed the man who had...

Mar 25, 2012 - Walker goes scuba diving

Scuba diving by Walker Smith Today was the most exhilarating, no thrillerating event. It started like this: we woke up at 7:00am on the dot, we got on a boat to go scuba!!!! We stopped at a reef where we would snorkel, we swam over a reef that had swarms of fish and three sea snakes. It was so cool! But we weren’t done. We still had to go scuba!!! So we got back on the boat and got going. Soon we stopped at a spot where we would have snacks and take a break in the sun. Audrey and I saw a lady jump off the boat so we decided to jump off the...

Mar 24, 2012 - Day 68 - Arusha to Zanzibar..Bonjourno said the maasai

We couldn't contain our excitement as we met mum and dad at Kiliminjaro airport and waited for our Precision Air flight to Zanzibar. To pass the time, we went to the airport cafe for lunch for some hamburgers and chips. I ordered three plates of chips for the kids only to be told, "Sorry we don't do chips on their own. You must order a hamburger or some chicken and then you will have chips". Deep sigh. I couldn't be bothered arguing so I divided chips from my meal and Jason's for the kids. In the middle of lunch, Saba noticed a dead mouse...

Jan 22, 2012 - Zanzibar

Thursday 19th January Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar Up early for our trip on the ferry over to Zanzibar from Dar Es Salaam. All of the group got into a mini bus out the front of the campsite and headed off towards the ferry. The traffic was quite chaotic as we headed towards the “foot” ferry that takes people and vehicles across the gap between the beach side and the city from where the ferry to Zanzibar leaves. Eventually we all had to get off our mini bus and scurry down to the foot ferry along with the thousands of other people who were...

Oct 23, 2011 - Spices & City

OK, so it is a bit cheesy, but everyone has to do a spice tour - how can you come to the Spice Island and not do it. I have to admit I never knew pineapples grew on a single stem. It did feel like a school test as we were shown each spice and had to sniff and guess the names. However, Linda passed and guessed all correctly. The afternoon's trip involved a visit to Stone Town and our guide soon had us reeling with the facts of Dr Livingston and the slave trade from Zanzibar. It really was enough to walk around in the heat in 2011 - it...

Oct 21, 2011 - Stars and Stars in Zanzibar

Arrival into Dar Es Salaam proved a little chaotic with passports being manhandled and fingerprints taken many times before we were granted an entry visa and were on our way to the little Coastal Aviation flight to Zanzibar. We had the pleasure of sitting next to the author of our guide book and gleaned a few tips during our short flight, even more exciting was seeing tropical reefs passing by below until we shortly made our descent into Stone Town. A heated 1 hour taxi ride later we arrived at our 4 night home, The Z Hotel in Nungwi and...

Oct 6, 2011 - Zanzibar Reflections

We are nearing the end of our Zanzibar adventure. It has been a wonderful place to chill and acclimatize to the pace of Africa. We have not worn shoes in a week and are developing little elephant pads on our toes. So quickly we fall in to the "poke poke" beat of the Zanzibarie beach life. Although the snorkeling was wonderful; Belize still is the pinnacle of creatures, crustaceans and clarity in the realm of underwater wonders. However, the beach, the ocean and the chill of the beverages is surpassed by none. Kendwa Zanzibar will be on our...

Sep 30, 2011 - Kendwa

We have arrived in Kendwa Zanzibar. It is an amazingly beautiful hunk of sand and water. I have never seen water this blue, really it is more aqua marine, turquoise....with the whitest sand. Simply stunning. This will be our home base for the next number of days. We will do day trips and snorkels to other parts of the island. Stonetown was not what we expected. It is much busier than we had anticipated, with throngs of humanity navigating the narrow passageways. It was once a major hub of spice trading...a massive commodity in ancient...

Sep 27, 2011 - Stonetown Zanzibar

We arrived this morning in Stonetown after 30+ hours of traveling. Had a couple hours of sleep and then we explored the maze of streets and alleys in old town. We are on our way to a dinner and drumming show - trying to see a lot here in a hurry because we are going to go up to Kendwa on the 29th. Tomorrow we have booked a spice tour and we will also book transportation to head up island. All the travel was uneventful; I will update with more details when we get up to the beach area when we have more time. More to follow! with pictures

Sep 25, 2011 - On our way

We will be boarding a plane tonight from Vancouver, stopping over at London Heathrow for 6 hours. From there we plane up and arrive in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in the early morning of the 27th. Somehow the 26th escapes us. From Dar we hop over to Stonetown, Zanzibar. We will spend a couple days in Stonetown and then we will have a week of beach sitting around the island of Zanzibar. Posts to follow.