Tanzania: Yes, again but this time it’s Zanzibar
The past few weeks had been filled with adventure, early mornings, and all-day drives but up next we had a whole week on an island and it’s beaches and couldn’t be more excited. Our flight was a non-stop from Kigali to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s more financial city and a 3 hour ferry from Zanzibar. Once we boarded the plane, the flight attendants announced we would be connecting in Arusha before arriving to our final destination. While this wasn’t shown on our ticket, we had, by now, figured out that some flights are advertised as non-stop but they actually have a hidden connection where the plane just picks up some more people and then continues. This time, however, as the captain announced our decent, we couldn’t understand where we were arriving, it didn’t look like Arusha, and there was a giant body of water next to it which I thought was Lake Victoria since we had flown over it to get to Kigali. Nothing really made sense but once we landed our flight ended up being the non-stop we had purchased. We never stopped at Arusha even though we are absolutely positive that the flight attendant said we would. Anyway, just quirks of traveling in different places I guess.
The airport was the nicest we had been in, very modern and seemingly brand new but this was a big contrast to the rest of the city. I was expecting a city with a few tall buildings to match not only the airport it has but also the description other’s had given us of Dar being the financial city in Tanzania. We had two nights in the city so we made the most of it: we had great seafood at a couple of restaurants and lost some hands of blackjack at the casino. Two nights was the perfect time in Dar es Salaam and we were ready for Zanzibar.
Welcome to the Spice Island
Most people skip Stone Town but it was definitely worth seeing. The island, unlike the rest of Tanzania, is primarily muslim and Stone Town has the architecture to support it. The buildings are basically shoulder to shoulder and the streets are incredibly tight but the town is charming. There are street vendors everywhere and mopeds whizzing by every corner, somehow we didn’t see any crash or hit someone. The walls all seem to be falling apart and at the same time there are workers everywhere doing patchwork and repairs on them. We noticed that all the building’s doors were incredibly ornate and eye-catching only to find out later that #zanzibardoors is a thing. You can basically walk all of Stone Town in a couple of hours but there’s also a spice market further away that although we didn’t visit, it is definitely worthwhile based on the countless spice stores we saw walking around. We had a drink on the rooftop of the Emerson on Hurumzi hotel which I highly recommend and then headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and dinner. We were supposed to spend a second day there but decided to rent a Vespa and drive around the island to visit some of the beaches.
Note to Self: Drive on the left
We rented from Funky Scooters and it was amazing, the guy was great, he dropped off the Vespa at the hotel with my temporary Zanzibar drivers permit (which you need, along with an international drivers permit) right on time but had only one helmet with hime since I had failed to mention we were two. Apparently no one knows where to buy a helmet in Zanzibar but almost everyone uses theirs while driving so I had to go on a bit of an adventure while Ili walked around town. Having both helmets now, we were ready for our road trip.
It’s an hour and a half drive to the souther tip of the island, to a beach called Mtende Rock, so we sit as comfortably as possible and start our drive. The roads are all very busy as we leave the town but then quickly empty and we are almost the only ones driving the rest of the way. Sun’s out, blue skies, the drive was quite pleasant with the exception of the one or two speed bumps I saw a bit late and were bit of a surprise. We go onto a dirt road for a bit which then gets pretty rough with potholes and rocks but when we finally make it, we feel we’ve discovered the most amazing place. Obviously we didn’t discover it, the beach has a little restaurant/bar and a nice eco-hotel next to it, but there is absolutely no one there. The beach is actually at the bottom of an overhanging volcanic rock cliff and the restaurant is built on stilts and on top of two rock formations. We walk down the stairs and the surprises continue, the water is a beautiful light blue with white sand and because its surrounded by a reef, the water is calm with the sound of ocean waves in the distance. We share a beer, obviously, and spend a few minutes there enjoying the breeze and soaking up the beauty of the place. We can’t spend too much time there because we still need to visit a more popular beach and want to get back before dark so off we go.
This time, we are headed to a restaurant called “The Rock”, named like that because the whole place sits on top of one of those volcanic rock formations. Another hour drive and we get to a village called Paje and there are just about a zillion speed bumps we need to get through, none of which we can cross without scraping the bottom of the Vespa. No, not because of my weight but because the bumps are way to tall an steep. We end up driving on the shoulder of the road to avoid them and make some decent time. The restaurant is pretty nice although we didn’t even go in since we were on a tight schedule. It’s definitely the more touristy area but still a cool place to see. We drive back to Paje to have lunch and we discover that it’s one of the best kiteboarding beaches in the world.. There are hundreds of kites in the air and the beach is full of people surfing and boarding. While we have lunch I decide to take a short class before we need to head back to the hotel.
As I’m in the water, I’m trying to gauge how much time I have left before we need to leave. I lose track and suddenly I see Ili waving at me from the beach and I know it’s time, in fact, it’s past the time. We race back to the beach, I quickly change and we leave. We are, luckily, past all the speed bumps so get off to a good start and making good time but regardless of how good a time we were making, we didn’t have enough time to make it back before dark. The very last bit, basically once we were back in town, the sun had already set. We made it back safe but the drive wasn’t at all enjoyable, we were both quite stressed and left a bit of a sour ending to what had been a very enjoyable day trip. Luckily we had the next six days by the beach to rest and relax.
R&R
I don’t think any beach vacation is complete if you don’t have a few days of just relaxing by the water and enjoying some cold drinks. And while that was the plan, we’re trying to learn something new everywhere we go and in this case I was able to convince Ili to get her scuba diving license. Instead of waking up late and chilling by the beach, we kept on with our early morning alarm and headed straight to the water for the first three days. Ili was initially hesitant about the idea because (a) she doesn’t really enjoy being in the ocean and (b) because she didn’t want the salt water to ruin her hair since we would be venturing off into a three week safari afterwards. Regardless, she agreed as long as I found her a swim cap for her to dive with so that we could minimize the damage. She looked a bit goofy but nevertheless she was going through with the dives and I was impressed once again with her sense of adventure.
The first day was a quick refresher for me and a pool day for her. After walking about a mile with all her gear, they finally made it to the pool while I just put on my BCD and walked over to the beach and of we went, but we don’t need to tell her that. Our final day, we decided to go off to Mnemba Atol since our experiences hadn’t been that great but that meant an even earlier start because it was a long ways away. We get on the boat, arrive at the shop and we’re told that the good boat is out for service so we’ll be taking this scrappy little wooden boat for an hour and a half boat ride to the dive spot. I guess there goes our beach day but a good dive spot will be worth it, there are more relaxing days to come.
Like on previous days, we would dive separately, each of us working to obtain our licenses and our final dive would be together. Ili goes down with her instructor and I follow. I was doing my deep dive so we begin droping to 30 meters and Ili stays above. We each go our separate ways and the scenery is fantastic, its a big sloping wall but you can see the sandy bottom which definitely makes the experience a bit less daunting. You swim across the wall and every so often, you turn around and see these giant schools of fish just off the reef. The location is a bit crowded with other divers but its definitely worth it. I come up and Ili joins the boat a few minutes later with quite the story to tell, although she’s not that into sharing since she secretly doesn’t enjoy the sub-aquatic adventure that much. Eventually she did share that they saw a big octopus and were able to witness it changing colors as it moved from the coral to the sandy area. She had been talking about octopus since we watched My Octopus Teacher and found them to be very interesting. This was the culmination of her octopus experience, and I was so glad that she was able to take that memory from our dives. It’s very fulfilling when you push your comfort zone to try something different and you are able to get a lasting memory because of it. Not that you need to become a fan of it but it’s nice when the overall sensation is positive. Our last dive, however, wasn’t as memorable. It was quite stressful. Ili still wasn’t that comfortable and my instructor wasn’t as helpful as hers had been. I was worried about her enjoying the dive and she was getting frustrated at the instructor but all in all we got some good photos of the both of us and left the water with brand new diving licenses.
It was now officially time to relax on the beach.
R&R – but actually
The next days we were on a strict schedule of waking up, having breakfast and doing nothing for the rest of the day interrupted by the mid-day walk on the beach or paddle board trip. We played (or tried to) beach tennis but were lucky if we got a rally of more than five going so that was always saved for when there weren’t too many people around which we could hit with the ball. The water was always calm with just enough waves to easily lull you into a nap. Paddle boarding and kayaking was a relaxing “exercise” because the waters are so calm that there is no effort put into getting places, the currents or slow and the wind is steady but nothing crazy. We were on island time with no schedule to follow, quite the contrast to our previous weeks.
Peak relaxation and enjoyment came on a dhow sundowner cruise. The dhow is a traditional sailboat used in Kenya and Tanzania with a very interesting shape and sail. It’s all made of wood, hull, mast, all of it. The mast and structure which supports the sail is made up of what seemed like entire pieces of tree trunks. It basically only has a jib, no main sail, and the jib is attached to a diagonal piece of wood which, at its center, is strapped to the mast. The jib is fixed only on one point, the mast, at the front of the boat it’s only tied down by a rope and pulleys but can be quickly let loose when needed. The most interesting aspect comes when the boat needs to sail upwind and tack because the jib is not free to move from one side of the boat to the other. Instead, sailors need to untie the diagonal pole from the front of the boat, pivot the jib on the mast and spin it around so that the sail is always on the downwind side of the boat. We had a great time, the captain was eager to share his knowledge on the boat and sailing and had a great eye for photography, granted he did these cruises every day and had all the locations, angles, and positions down to a science. The trip ended just after sunset and with a spectacular surprise. He asked us to lie down with our heads looking up on the mast and after some suspenseful seconds, he began climbing up the ropes and then the pole to take some overhead photos of us and the boat. Definitely no drone needed here.
A few stops too many
A couple of days prior to our departure from Tanzania, as recommended by the hotel, we organized to take our next set of COVID tests. We left Zanzibar and had one night in Dar es Salaam since non-stop flights to Johannesburg only happened twice a week, plenty of time to get our tests back. However, as we arrived in Dar, there was still no sign of our test results. We tried reaching out to the testing center but it had already closed and there was no way of getting another test in time for our flight the next morning. It was bound to happen at some point but this transfer from Tanzania to South Africa was critical and we had no float in our schedule. Our plan was to arrive in Johannesburg and the next morning fly out to Botswana and begin our next portion of the trip; the one I had organized (not off to a great start). Our only option was to take a 2 stop, almost 12 hour trip around east africa and down to Johannesburg. The original non-stop flight took three hours. This one took us from Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg connecting in Arusha and then a 3 hour layover in Uganda in preparation for the close to 6 hour flight south to Johannesburg. It was exhausting but our only option nonetheless. Now we just had to cross our fingers and hope that all our luggage made it because if anything was lost, we were sure they would never catch up to us because of the sporadic flight schedules.
Next stop is Botswana, hopefully with all our clothes.
