Rwanda Part 2. - 2015

The time had arrived!

We met Rama promptly at 6:30am in the lobby after another early breakfast ready for our drive to the National Park office.  Once there and whilst waiting for the bureaucratic permit process and passport checks to be completed and groups of 8 tourists put together, we enjoyed watching the local community dancers showcasing their skills.

After a briefing by our nominated Ranger, small convoys of cars followed each other to their respective starting points for each trek and to join the porters.  It had been recommended to hire a porter ($10 US per day) to carry our backpacks, cameras etc.  Based on the golden monkey learnings, this is a very wise investment and would be even wiser by days end.

off to see 'gorillas in the mist'

We headed off on our first major trek into the jungle and mountains, again with Army guards, to visit a family of the endangered mountain gorillas!

just about to enter into the park - trek 1.

We had been told we would probably have a 40 minute trek after entering the park to reach the gorillas, great we thought.  

It took about 40 minutes to walk from where we had joined the porters to the park entrance, where we entered into the jungle around 8:30am and our guide had nonchalantly informed us we weren’t very far from where the famous Diane Fossey had been based.

Now remember that thunderstorm from the night before, well it didn’t take long to realise we were all in for an interesting time.  The track we followed was narrow, rocky and very muddy, slowly climbing up into the mountains.  As were moved further into the jungle, we were all trying to step around, over or with legs spread, trying to shuffle our way to avoid the very fresh and deep mud, lots and lots of mud.

after only 20 minutes

On and on and on and on and on we went, our little band of 8 tourists, 7 porters, 2 guides and 2 members of the Rwandan Army, slipping and sliding our way further into the dense foliage.  

Yep… we should have rented the gloves also, those stinging nettles were almost bearable through our pants onto the legs, but our fingers, ouch!  

The 40 minutes soon came and went as we trudged on, our shoes becoming unrecognisable from when we started.  

Rob being helped by her porter

Now I’m not known as a person who walks anywhere hand in hand with other men, let alone in jungles looking for mountain gorillas. 

Here I was with my new best friend, Claude the porter, hand in hand frequently, as he helped me up and over muddy rocks, through each steep slippery section of the track or stopped me from slipping over altogether.

We had been warned the gorillas can move quickly and they hate the rain, so the trackers ahead of us were radioing back they were further up the mountain.  

To make things more interesting, we started hearing the familiar sound of rumbling thunder as dark clouds started forming above us.

Finally, just as it started to rain, we reached an opening where we were advised to leave our trekking sticks and prepare our cameras to go meet some gorillas.   Our adrenaline was certainly pumping by now!

Then the skies opened up with torrential rain and cracks of thunder roared directly above us, interesting when you’re standing in the open with cameras in our hands.  Forlornly we all just stood there, our raincoats not providing much protection and our pants, gaiters and shoes all soon soaking wet, at least the shoes looked cleaner.  We just waited and waited, hoping the rain volume would let up, which it finally did a little and the decision was made to find the gorillas!

our first gorilla and a silverback

Whilst it still rained fairly heavily, I was at the back of our group making sure the ‘raincoat’ on the camera was doing its job.  

As I walked to join the rest of them, they were all bunched up facing to one side and after rounding a large bush, could see why.

Sitting less than 2-3 metres from me behind the bush, arms folded, think hair dripping with water, his head bowed slightly but his eyes watching us all in turn, a silverback, a bloody big silverback!  

It was mesmerising to see our first gorilla in the wild.  Cameras were going crazy and as we all acclimatised to what were seeing, other members of the gorilla family soon also visible amongst the bushes or in trees, all around us.

There are over 20 members in this gorilla family called Amahoro (or Peace).  It is lead by one older silverback but has 4 other silverbacks in it and we soon saw 3 of them.  

I had to change position a little further away so as to photograph back towards the first silverback we saw, and Rob stood in her original position next to a Dutch guy.

charging silverback thumping its chest

The first silverback must have become tired of all our attention and suddenly stood up, banged his hands on his chest and charged forward right past Rob, her eyes now very wide.  As he continued, he grabbed the Dutch guy firmly, without hurting him, on his thigh as if to say, get out of my way.  With that he launched himself into the forest and ripped down a few 5 metre high trees by snapping them off at their trunks, including dislodging another gorilla out of one of them.  

It all happened so quickly we were just amazed and in awe of what we had just seen.

Any group visiting the mountain gorillas can only stay with them for 1 hour and the other broad requirement is to try and stay at least 7 metres from them.  The latter is fine if the nature of the jungle allows this or in fact the gorillas comply.  These requirements just couldn’t be achieved, so for most of our time we were within 2-5 metres of the gorillas .

For the rest of our 1 hour it continued to rain, which caused Rob to get an error message on her camera and she had to shut it down immediately.  We watched the family interacting with each other as they continued feeding and were delighted to finally get, albeit briefly, views of a baby gorilla constantly being protected by its mother.

cute eh!

yep... was excited to be with the gorillas

Gorillas certainly have a real presence when you’re in their territory watching them on their terms.  

With so many silverbacks in this family, the leader we were told has delegated them family tasks including discipline, protection and teaching.  

Despite having to deal with the constant rain, it's simply an amazing thing to do

After our hour was over, we all reluctantly left these amazing animals, our closest relatives, re-joined the porters, packed away cameras still trying to protect them from all the moisture and commenced our trek back down off the mountains.

If we thought it was slippery and muddy on the way up, it was nothing compared to our journey back, flowing water mixing with all the mud on the ‘path’.  We were elated with our time with the gorillas but were virtually soaking wet, feet slurping away inside muddy sodden shoes and socks, the gaiters providing no protection at all and were starting to feel colder.  Some of our group slipped off into the bush and all of us multiple near misses.

with our porters at the end of trek 1.

By the time we reached the Park’s entrance we were all quite chilled and very tired and by the time we reached the cars it was 4:00pm and our sons’ iPhone provided a few statistics.  We had travelled approximately 13 kms, had reached an attitude of almost 2,900 metres and had been trekking for almost 8 hours.  By now we were looking forward to a hot shower, trying to get the mud out and off everything, drying out cameras and having an extremely late lunch.

heading back to the cars and then hot showers

As a footnote, after arriving back in Australia, we were surprised to also discover we had trekked across the border from Rwanda into the Democratic Republic of Congo with our Rwandan Army personal in order to observe those gorillas!

Trek 1 route, yellow line is Republic of Congo border

Our shoes were returned by the lodge’s cleaning staff later that night, amazingly clean but still soaking wet, a challenge when considering we had another gorilla trek planned next morning and a flight home a day after.  We decided to rent rubber boots and just put up with whatever happens and then tried to dry lots of clothes and shoes in front of our open fire in our room.

In the dining area for our last night, and over a few drinks, we were all on a high and constantly re-living what we had been through and seen.  Some of the tourist ‘newbies’ who had just checked into the lodge overhearing our comments, were soon asking us questions about what we had seen and any learnings, just the same way we had when we were the ‘newbies’.

By 6:30am next morning, Rama was again driving us back to the Park office to again go through the process of checking and trek allocation.  I must admit to having had a sense of trepidation whilst waiting, concerned we may have a repeat of yesterday’s experience.  Even other guides we met whilst waiting had heard about our previous days trek.

Because we were doing two gorilla treks, they try to ensure the 2nd trek is a short one and when told this, well… we could only but hope.  Our guides for the day joined us and commenced briefing us on the gorilla family we would be visiting called Agasha (Special Group).  

This was another family of over 20 gorillas, but with only one silverback, multiple blackbacks (males), multiple mothers with babies and numerous sub adults.  This silverback is called ‘the special one’ due to his very tolerant nature and behaviour.

into the Park...

Despite hands and legs still stinging from the previous days nettles and with growing enthusiasm, we headed off to the appropriate Park entrance, met our porters and were off into the jungle, army guards again joining us.

We immediately sensed this trek would be different.  For a start whilst there was still mud, there wasn’t as much of it and the path was a lot steeper initially, climbing up through a large bamboo forest for the first 30 minutes or so.  

The path was also narrower and rockier, again our porters helping haul us up it, but at least it wasn’t raining.

We reached a beautiful flat area within the jungle after about 45 minutes of climbing and were suddenly asked to leave our sticks and prepare cameras, huge smiles spreading across all our faces!

the 'special one'

Well ‘the special one’ was certainly relaxed, a lot bigger than the ones we saw yesterday, his huge head face down in the grass as he slept, ignoring our presence.  Eventually he lifted his head, glanced briefly at us and put it back down again.  Around him were numerous other gorillas also sleeping most of them only 4-5 metres away from us.  Some of the sub adults were more active, but barely visible amongst all the bushes.

the 'star'

Then the ‘star’ of the day turned up, wandering out from behind the silverback and awkwardly wobbling its way towards us.  The guide asked us all to be still and told us this wobbly young one was about 6 months old.  

It kept moving towards us, stopping a mere 2 metres away, 2 big round eyes checking us out before deciding to roll around on the grass, the silverback lifting his head enough to check the baby was safe.  

With a few rolls completed, it was time to return to the bushes and start playing with another young gorilla.  This was simply great!

The guides worked hard to make sure we were maximising our 1 hour with this family and constantly beckoned us over to where individuals were doing something interesting.  The four of us were near each other watching a blackback when we heard, “don’t move” from our guide.  

see what I can do!

and off the gorilla went

From behind us a gorilla had emerged from the bushes and was making its way back to the rest of its family.  

There was a few metres gap between Rob and myself and this is where it decided to go, almost brushing Rob’s leg as it passed by.  

It was too close for our normal cameras, but did get a shot with our ‘point & shoot’ camera as it moved further away.

Not long after this whilst photographing the curious baby swinging around in a tree, an assertive young male decided to test himself just a little, using me as the test.  As the gorilla started walking straight towards me, the guide ask me to slowly step sideways and backwards.  The gorilla kept coming at me briefly before deciding he had won and waddled past very very close to me.  Certainly makes the heart pump.

just yawning

You are briefed not to stare directly at the silverback, the concern being it might take this as a direct challenge and you are also taught to occasionally make a grunting sound which is reassuring to them.  At one stage whilst sitting on the ground taking photos of the baby trying to climb on the silverback’s back only 3 metres away, he lifted his head and stared straight at me.  

being stared at by a silverback

So I dropped my head, made the grunting sound and stayed still.  

When I looked up again, he was still staring at me, so head down again, wait awhile, back up and yep… still staring.

So I looked back at him, occasionally looking away briefly but whenever I returned my gaze, there were those curious brown eyes still staring straight at me.  

This went on for about 2-3 minutes which is a very long time when you’re looking into the eyes of a huge gorilla.  

Finally, he dropped his head back into the grass and went back to sleep.

  

Maybe there was some mud I had missed cleaning from the day before or perhaps he was dismayed by my silver moustache, hoping he wouldn’t end up with one, but whatever it was certainly left me with a long term memory.

Amazing again how quickly 1 hour can pass when there is so much going on and we were soon asked to leave this family alone and head back down the path.  This had been a totally different experience from yesterday, but both of them had left us with incredible experiences and memories.

gorilla Trek 2.

After a quick lunch at the lodge and finishing some packing, Rama drove us the 2.5 hrs back to Kigali, showing us some spectacular scenery along the way with still numerous little kids rushing to the side of the road yelling, “hello”.  Catherine re-joined us at the Flame Tree Hotel for a debriefing and to check everything had gone as planned, which it had, before confirming the time of our flights back to Australia in the morning.

total Rwanda travel

After packing for the trip home, it was time to join Rachel and Jarad for dinner and celebrate a wonderful 6 days in the surprising Rwanda, a total experience we would never forget.  For Rachel it had been the opportunity to tick off number 1. on her bucket list, so now she’s pondering what would replace it.  

It was sad to say our goodbyes to the both of them as we headed to the airport and eventually boarded our first flight for what ended up being a looong 32 hour trip back home back through Nairobi, then experiencing long delays in Abu Dhabi.  This time however gave us a lot of opportunity to reflect on our total time and experiences in East Africa.

we had a great time...

We wouldn’t have changed a thing!

Interested in a few more photos, just click any of the link(s) below.

CLICK HERE for more photos Gorilla Trek 1.

CLICK HERE for more photos Gorilla Trek 2.

CLICK HERE for more photos Volcano Nat. Park Scenery - Rwanda 2015

Rwanda Part 1. - Africa 2015

We arrived at Zanzibar airport around 9:00am and checked in, only to find our flight had been changed to 1:00pm!  We had been warned often about ‘African time’, with this sort of change without notification not being uncommon.  We were however proactively offered seats on the next flight at 10:00am, which we accepted because the airport in Zanzibar was basic to say the least.

After a short 20 minute flight to Dar Es Salem and going through security just to enter the airport’s check-in area, we then discovered we couldn’t actually check in until 3:00pm, so settled in for the wait in a non air-conditioned waiting area, 35 C temperatures and plenty of humidity.

After 2 more security checks before even reaching the gate, we boarded our sleek and comfortable Bombardier jet for a 2 hour flight.  The flight also foretold the sort of weather to expect as the jet deftly ducked around soaring thunder heads before finally landing into the ‘land of a thousand hills’.

We had arrived into Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, and were met by Rama, our guide for the next 6 days, and were soon also joined by Catherine from Jambo Tours.  It was immediately clear as we drove into the capital Kigali, there was something very different about Rwanda, compared to Tanzania.

flight path from Zanzibar to Kigali, Rwanda

Raymond had told us whilst game driving in Tanzania, that Rwanda has a fiercely protected reputation for being virtually free from corruption, something many/most other countries in Africa cannot claim.  In fact, there were signs in the arrivals hall reinforcing the Rwanda focus.

A second observation that stood out, ignoring the greenness everywhere compared to dust, was how clean the place was.  Catherine proudly explained that on the last Saturday of every month, every community spends the day cleaning up around their local areas.  It was very obvious it was working.

We were only having one initial night in Kigali and checked into a very nice boutique hotel called Flame Tree.  In Africa, there is a certain process you go through at check in.  First they usually bring you warm face washers to refresh with, followed by a drink of some sort.  Here we were provided with the washers but no drink… no big deal but a little odd!  Next, the staff took us through a briefing which cannot be rushed, and finally Catherine wanted to walk us through our agenda for the next 6 days in the ‘land of a thousand hills’.

Having spent most of the day sitting in hot, humid and sweaty airports, we weren’t overly keen for all the briefings, preferring to have a shower. But as Catherine finished her briefing, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted someone carrying some drinks our way.  Behind him was a blonde person carrying a small camera and obviously videoing as she went.

My eyes looked at both people and recognised who they were, but the brain just didn’t accept what I was seeing.  It made no sense, it couldn’t be, it was impossible!!  Over what had seemed a long time which in reality wasn’t, my brain finally accepted what it was seeing.  “Rob, have a look, turn around, quick”.  Rob first looked the wrong way then swung around and went through exactly the same reaction.  It just couldn’t be.

But it actually was, Jarad, our eldest son who lives in London, carrying the drinks towards us and daughter in-law Rachel, sporting a huge grin doing the videoing.  What an amazing surprise, quickly followed by a few tears from the both of us and hugs all round.  Many months previously they had asked about joining us in Rwanda but had later decided not to.  

Only 3 weeks ago due to Rachel’s insistence, they had changed their minds and would now be joining us, just truly wonderful.  All of the hotel staff were in on the surprise, as were Rama and Catherine, so there were beaming faces everywhere.

We had heard about the genocide in Rwanda, especially through movies like ‘Hotel Rwanda’, but it wasn’t until we visited the genocide memorial site next morning and learned much that both shocked and impressed us during our time there.  What was impressive was how well the memorial had been done to share the facts and remind people this simply should not happen again.

What really shocked us were some of the facts.  First, the genocide happened in 1994, a short 20 years ago and next we learned that in a mere 3 months after it started, nearly 1 million people had been massacred including friends, neighbours and family turning on each other.  It was very brutal and included women and children also losing their lives.

The seed for the genocide was when some well meaning European anthropologists in the early 1900s decided to segment the population of Rwanda into 3 ethnic groups, the Hutus, Tutsis and Pygmy and ethnic identity cards were issued.  Eventually the largest group and traditional peasant Hutu class turned on the more privileged Tutsi class.

250,000 people buried under the concrete slabs here!

At the memorial there are a number of very long and large concrete slabs, some with fresh flowers on them.  I had great difficulty in comprehending that buried underneath these slabs were around 250,000 people!  More bodies are still being interred there as they find them throughout the country.

Rwanda is a very small county compared to most in Africa, and Kigali its capital surprised us by being a very modern looking city and the people were extremely welcoming and friendly, especially the kids.  

No matter where we were during our time in Rwanda, kids could often be seen running towards us yelling out things like, “hello” or more amusingly, “see you tomorrow!”.  Adults everywhere would quite warmly saying things like, “welcome to Rwanda” or simply “hello”.

We were in Rwanda for a very specific purpose as we drove 2.5 hrs north west of Kigali, but our agenda had us doing a few warm up activities before we got stuck into what we were all here for.   We reached the lodge, went through the check-in process and were handed umbrellas as we headed towards our rooms, more like independent units studded throughout the large gardens.  The umbrellas were soon needed as we walked back to the dining hall, a thunderstorm reaching us after forming up above the extinct volcanoes in front of us.

about to enter the Volcanoes Nat. Park

Our first warm up activity was a short trek into the jungle to try and find golden monkeys.

We were joined by 2 Rwandan army soldiers armed with AK47s as we entered the national park and they were with us to protect us from cape buffalo and occasional elephants that wander around.  

We were all aware of reports of people who cross the border from The Democratic Republic of Congo either looking for gold or poaching, but our park guides would not admit to this being another reason for the Army’s presence, albeit quite discreet.

It took about an hour, with many pauses, following various paths, ducking around some mud and water from the previous nights storm, when we were asked to leave our back packs and only take our cameras with us.  The path led us into a forest of bamboo, a favourite food for golden monkeys, we could hear them, but where were they?

Well… they are not shy let me tell you, as the first one I saw almost stood on my foot as it walked past me.  For the next hour, our group of 8 ‘trekkers’ tried to follow and photograph these beautiful looking monkeys as they climbed and swung around above us or walked around occasionally on the forest floor.

We learned much from others in the lodge for our first foray into the jungle, and by the way, it really is jungle.  

At the lodge, we had rented gaiters helped stop the mud getting over our pants and reduce the stinging nettles driving us mad as we brushed past them walking along the tracks.  You are offered the free use of timber trekking poles before you start, they are very useful.  They help with climbing up/down rocky and slippery, muddy tracks.

Next morning we were met by a local guide who lives in a nearby community, a very personable guy who spoke excellent english.  After a pleasant walk down our ‘african massage’ road from the lodge we started our visit of a local village and spent 4-5 hours learning about how Rwandans live and their culture.

We had already been told by Catherine that a large proportion of our Culture Tour fees actually go into the local community and I must admit to a touch of cynicism when first told this.  Our guide also described exactly the same thing to us and added that during the tour, we would be meeting some of the poorest families in the village, would be going into their homes and seeing first hand how they live.  Each of these families would be given cash directly from the guide and the kids in the village would receive school writing books and pens, also funded directly from our tour fees.

That was exactly what happened!  “Hello, hello” was the constant greeting from all the kids we met and soon their numbers grew as they started following us to every house we visited.

Of surprise to us when we landed into Kigali, was the significant presence of eucalyptus trees, they were everywhere, including all the way from Kigali to where we were in the village, gum trees as a far as you could see.  Only in the National Parks were there no gum trees.

eucalyptus reinforced walls

During our village visit, we learned how important gum trees are in Rwanda.  The original forests had been decimated over time as population grew and fires, their main source of heat for cooking, and housing reduced the naturally slow growing forests.  

So with a high rainfall, they introduced eucalypts which grow faster and re-shoot when lopped.

The guide and villagers showed us how eucalypts are used for building houses, fires for cooking food along with the very popular maize and banana beer, making beds and other furniture, the leaves used to make mattresses.  Like us, they also infuse the leaves in boiling water to help clear the head and nose.  The villagers knew where these trees originated from and were pleasantly surprised when they learned where we had come from.

the local 'pub' sells banana beer

We visited their ‘shops’ and small ‘pubs’ and joined them inside their tiny homes with only dirt floors to be seen everywhere.  Again we were impressed by how clean everything was, no rubbish visible anywhere, no matter where we walked and we were free to walk anywhere and photograph anything.

With about 20 or so small children now following us everywhere, we had a lot of fun with them by taking their photos and showing them the results on the camera screens, huge smiles and giggles the usual outcome.  Jarad was constantly surrounded by them, especially when he showed them their own faces live and moving on his iPhone screen.

'the pied iPhone piper'

It was palpable how grateful these poorer but proud families were for the money and education aids they received because of our tour, and we were constantly warmly greeted with huge smiles and hugs.  We have been on cultural tours before, but this had been the most encompassing and sincere experiences of this type we had ever been through.

To return back to the lodge, our guide and the four of us each boarded our individual postman sized motorcycles ridden by a local ‘taxi driver’ and headed off a few kilometres up the road until the rocky roadway to the lodge was reached.  The locals in the community who saw us go past were either shocked or highly amused, constantly waving to us or still yelling out the now very familiar “hello!”.

local taxi anyone?

That night, yet another and very large thunderstorm formed up around the volcano shaped mountains in the distance, spread out across the sky towards us, the rumblings of thunder joining its progress until it finally disgorged itself across the lodge with both torrential rain and hail for a few hours.

Little did we realise what impact that thunderstorm would have on us the next day!

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

CLICK HERE for more photos Golden Monkeys - Rwanda 2015

CLICK HERE for more photos Culture Tour - Rwanda 2015

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