Zanzibar - Africa 2015

After 14 days of our daily routine of many hours of game driving, loading, deleting and backing up a stack of photos and video, washing clothes and removing the dust, our 2.5 hr flight east from the Serengeti was taking us hopefully to something very different.  We also hoped for sufficient ‘lala salama’ time which in swahili means ‘sleep tight’ in order to recharge, rest and relax.

After landing and being picked up as planned by Bramwel, we were driving out of the airport into what simply seemed like chaos!  We were now in the capital of Zanzibar, a large island in an archiplego off the coast of Tanzania.

Trip to Zanzibar, including flying over Ngorongoro Crater

Zanzibar is believed to have originally been inhabited by Africans roughly 3,000 years ago.  Centuries later, the island started its history of hosting foreigners from Egypt, Persia, Arabia, India, China and Europe, mainly for the purpose of trade.

By around the 7th century AD, Islam had made its way to Zanzibar via Persian and Arabian migrants who in the main, gave rise to the Swahili civilisation and culture.  Arabs over time established the very cruel slave trade which continued for hundreds of years until Dr David Livingstone pushed for its abolition in the 1820s.

There were numerous Sultans who built many extravagant buildings on the main island consisting of palaces, Persian baths and other estates for wives and daughters.

In 1890, the British gained control of Zanzibar when it became a British protectorate even though Sultans continued as the leaders.  Independence was achieved under a Sultan in 1963 BUT in 1964, there was an armed revolution killing thousands of arabs and asians, thousands of others were expelled.

Tanzania was formed when Tanganyika and Zanzibar were merged in 1964 and somehow, this union still allows the Zanzibar government considerable autonomy.

So on we drove, almost hitting numerous people on push bikes or oncoming vehicles or people casually crossing the road.  Our destination was a town called Nungwi and the Z Hotel, both located at the northern end of the island.  This was to be our ‘chill out’ zone for the next 4 nights.

view from our room...

Wow… after checking in, what a beautiful view we were teased with through the leaves of the palm trees from our bedroom window, the colours, both the sand and the ocean!

So was to start a new daily routine for the next few days as we cleaned off the last vestiges of dust.  

Each day sort of went like this.  Breakfast around 7:30am on an open dining balcony overlooking the beach and ocean, a long walk down the beach absorbing the ever changing sights.

Time in and around the pool before a light lunch, then more relaxing during the hottest part of the day (at around 34+C and humid) before finding somewhere for sundowners, watching a big red sun sink into the sea and finally dinner.  I know, a bit tough but we did ‘struggle’ not having breaky and lunch boxes or the dust.

Rob lulling in the Indian Ocean

We did break the routine one day when Rob wanted to swim in the Indian ocean on the other side of the planet.  The water was very warm and while she lulled in the shallows, I went out a little deeper and at some unfortunate point, put my right foot down on the ocean floor to test the depth.

“Ouch!” and a few other choice words erupted!  I soon felt the numerous spiky things poking out of my foot around the big toe, so it was back to shore and a weird waddle back across the beach with the spikes still protruding, to seek some assistance from hotel staff.

“Oh wow, you have stepped on a sea urchin” the calm lady informed us.  “Its probably hurting right now but it's okay, it will go numb fairly soon”.  With that she got some tweezers and tried to pull some of the 15-20 spikes out of my foot, but most of them simply broke off, the remains and a dark spot marking their location in my foot.

“The good news is, there is a local cure” she then told us still in a very relaxed manner.  All we had to do is for Rob using a sharp pin, break the skin above every black mark on my foot above every embedded spike and then rub papaya sap into the openings.  “It’s okay” preempting our obvious next question, “we’ll get our security guards to climb a tree and get you some papaya!”.

Next morning, most of the black dots were gone and the sap had dissolved most of what was left of the spikes and by the time we left here, there was no discomfort at all.

walking along the beach was a favourite for many

As we made our daily walks along the beach, we were constantly asked by locals touting for business, “do you want to go snorkelling”, “do you want a massage”, “do you want a sunset cruise”, or tried to sell us some trinkets.  

They get to know you after a few days of saying no to each question and finally met us with a simple “jambo jambo” (hello hello) and left us alone.

We hope some of the photos will convey a sense of the sights of Nungwi as we re-charged our batteries.

Before leaving Zanzibar, we had 2 nights in what is called Stone Town, or the old part of Zanzibar City.  Zanzibar is also known worldwide as a source for beautiful spices which we learned a lot about during a spice tour near Stone Town.  Cloves are what Zanzibar is most famous for, the funny thing being that cloves were originally brought to the island from Indonesia and Zanzibar now produces a much stronger version than the original.

the smell was bad with flies everywhere!

To get to know the Unesco World Heritage Stone Town, we did a walking tour through the labyrinth of narrow alley ways and streets, starting with a walk through the main central market for the local population.  What a pure assault on our senses this place turned out to be, especially in the fish and meat sections.  The smell was quite something as were all the flies over everything.

75 slaves at a time crammed in here

We then learnt about the very barbarous slave trade run by the Arabs out of Stone Town for nearly 4 centuries.  The slaves were captured in many parts of east Africa and shipped over to Arabia for their needs.

We saw where the slaves were kept in very cramped rooms with little light and virtually no sanitation apart from the tidal movements of the ocean and the actual chains used to control them.

Memorial to the slaves with actual chains used

Many slaves were also forced to carry goods like ivory from where they were captured to Stone Town.  If they got sick they were killed, if the women had babies, the babies were killed so as not to interfere with carrying goods.  When on the ships heading to Arabia if they got sick they were simply thrown overboard alive.

in memory of Dr David Livingstone

Dr David Livingstone was the prime driver for having slavery banned and when he died in Africa, his body was returned to England except his heart, which was buried under a tree near where he died.  

Timber from that tree was used to make a cross to remember him, the cross now sits proudly in a church in Stone Town.

We spent the following day visiting an old historic Persian Bath and simply wandering through this decaying labyrinth of a town, admiring the architecture, the very ornate old doors and very friendly people, so long as you don’t photograph them.  

Zanzibar is 97% Muslim by the way, not that it made much difference.

In some ways, the muslim culture of regular call to prayer was helpful in that the first one was around 5:00am each morning, which helped nicely as an alarm, especially on our last day in Zanzibar.  Feeling quite relaxed and refreshed, it was time to board yet another flight and head north westish to another country altogether.

So asante sana (thank you very much) Tanzania, twende (let’s go)!

If you want to see a few more photos, just click on the link(s) below.

CLICK HERE for more photos Nungwi - Zanzibar 2015

CLICK HERE for more photos Stone Town - Zanzibar 2015