2011 – Sazani Beach, Nungwi, Zanzibar

Happy Birthday – Mike in Dubai and Jean in Joburg.

After our usual delicious breakfast we headed down to the beach, no surprise there.

Just below the horizon is a reef that causes waves out there but calms the waters within. The result is that we have this giant sized turquoise swimming pool to play in all day. The sea sand is fine and white and when we take a break from the dipping in the warm waters, we tan on the sand or rock in the hammocks under the tropical trees. Gray is still keeping us highly amused with his frequent and ungainly dismounts.

Apparently this beach was voted by Elle Magazine as the best beach in the world, a few years ago.

I bonded with the girls today, we spent ages chatting and throwing a ball around in the water. Robs spends hours in the water and only eventually only came in just before dark. The boys alternated between taking dips and walks on the beach, until it was Kili time, they then wandered up to beach pub. Kirst and I joined them for cocktails, which are made with freshly squeezed juices. We chatted to Cathy (the owner) and Mark (her partner) about juggling life and work in the UK and Zanzibar; they have it right, a few months here and a few months there.

After chilli prawns and chocolate brownies for dinner we headed off to bed, it’s amazing how being ‘so energetic’ can tire one out.

Sunrise today

Our beach bar

Day 68: 21/06/2011 – Sazani Beach, Nungwi, Zanzibar

We awoke to a fairly overcast day but somehow the sun in Africa still manages to make a spectacular appearance and today was no exception, as it cast its red and orange glow over the calm waters of the Indian Ocean.

Over breakfast of fresh tropical fruits, freshly baked jam croissants and cinnamon buns and eggs, we chatted to the Comic Relief Team. They seem to have the charity thing in Africa sussed. They sponsor development projects at grass roots level in order for the local people to make use of and expand their existing skills as well as assisting in educational projects.

With tummies full we ambled the couple of feet down to the beach. The water is so warm and calm at this time of the year (apparently January and February sees huge storms and high winds). The low tide sees the sea ebbing right back and you can walk for ages, in ankle deep water, out to sea; with high tide the water gentle flows back in. This is not exactly a surfers paradise in terms of big waves. Robs spent hours snorkelling around but saw very little. Kirst, having escaped the Cape Town winter, spent a good deal of the day sunbathing.

The beach is empty and besides the odd couple walking past from the neighbouring lodge, we had the beach to ourselves. I love taking long walks on the beach and collecting shells. As a child, on our family holidays, Gareth would always join me as we ambled from Sheffield Beach up to Tinley Manor, on the Natal North Coast. As I set off to explore the northern tip of the island I found my son walking next to me, just like old times, we ambled along talking about everything and nothing, stopping every few steps to pick up a shell that had caught our eye. What a special time. We walked past a few lodges, one particularly fancy and one pretty awful. As we rounded the final bend, there was a lighthouse and the local village. It was low tide at this stage and most of the wooden fishing boats were lolling on the sand. Further out we watched fisherman catching fish in nets. Some of the local children came to chat but our lack of Swahili tongue was a problem, so we were limited to Jambo – Hello.

There are thousands of little cowries of different colours but most of the nice shells are inhabited by hermit crabs. It is fascinating to watch these little shells whizzing around the beach. As you pick them up, the crab retreats back into its shell, with patience we watch them slowly creep out again.

After another lazy day at the beach and laughs after tipples off the hammocks, we were treated to a barbecue (braai is not a known word in these parts) – of prawns, octopus, red snapper (the biggest I have seen), chicken and beef, along with salad, veg, local spiced rice and chapatti (another local favourite, a bit like a roti). Pudding was crème brulee made with coconut. Not bad for an island dinner.

The highlight of the day, much to the excitement of the kids – Captain Haddock shaved off his beard. He does look a whole lot better.

Sunrise from our hut

Our hut

Hermit crab

Caught in the act of shaving

Day 67: 20/06/2011 – Stone Town to Sazani Beach, Zanzibar

We were woken up at 4:00 by a particularly loud, vocal and zealous Muslim prayer, we had a repeat session at 5:00. There is no order or specific timing to these broadcasts but I guess, with 99% of the population being Muslim, we have to go with the flow.

After our rooftop breakfast, we packed and our taxi driver, Karim was waiting for us, he was ½ hour early. We meandered through the alleys, with all our bags, to the ‘parking area’ and set off north through Zanzibar Town and then headed to the coast at Nungwi The trip took about an hour; after Zanzibar Town we drove through the rural areas, where the houses are pretty run down. We passed a number of schools where the school uniforms are traditional Muslim clothes.

I guess we must have travelled most of the length of the 52 mile long island (it is around 25 miles wide), to reach Sazani Beach Lodge – where we will be staying for the next 5 nights. This is going to be a huge hardship!!! Our bungalows are on this tropical beach, with white sand, clear azure waters and hammocks hung under trees for us to lounge in after we have dipped in the calm, warm Indian Ocean waters. Sazani Beach Hotel is plain and comfortable, not fancy or pretentious but with all the natural beauty around us, we could ask for nothing more.

After dropping off our bags in our rooms (the beds were all decorated with bougainvillea flowers) and being treated to some tropical fruits, we headed down to the beach for a swim. The area reminds me a lot of Inhasorra (sp?) on the Mozambique coast and certainly rivals any of the Indian Ocean Islands. After a swim and a chill on the beach it started to rain, perfect timing as we felt a little peckish, so we headed off to the dining room, an open plan structure overlooking the sea. The menu varies each day and is dependent on local fresh produce, such as the catch of the day – it just happened to be my favourite, Tuna, which had been caught this morning.

As we finished lunch, the rain stopped and so it was back to the beach and hammocks. The hammocks are causing much hilarity, as we have not quite mastered the delicate balance of climbing on and settling into them without doing a 180° flip and landing in the sand, Panda has kept us particularly amused with his ungainly flips. I must say, the thought of my friends and colleagues having to work, in the Johannesburg winter, while I relax in paradise, has left me feeling a little guilty.

In the evening, we went to the bar area, an open plan hut with beach sand floors and tried various tropical drinks, Mango and Malibu was my favourite – not sure if this would work in Johannesburg but with the sea and palm trees around, it was perfect.

Dinner was delicious, everything is so fresh, I just love the delicate balance of spices that is used to bring out the flavour in all the food. We met the owner of the hotel, a lady from the UK, who built a house on the land but according to law cannot own property on the sea without using it for commercial purposes, hence the few bungalows where we are staying.

Being low season, there are only 3 other guests here. After dinner, one of the guests, on hearing we were South Africans joined us, Norman is Zambian and is high up in the Comic Relief Organisation and in charge of distributing money to organisations around the world, including the Nelson Mandela Children’s fund. He greeted us in Zulu and is clearly well connected in political circles. He is married to a Scottish lady and has been living in Scotland for the past 20 years, he is a personal friend of Kenneth Kaunda and has offered to organise us a visit with him, if he is in town and when we return to Zambia. Not sure all this will come together but it would be hugely exciting if it did.

View from reception at Sazani

The dining area

Family on the beach

The hammock, Gray is on the sand below

Day 66: 19/06/2011 – Stone Town, Zanzibar

We are going to have to get used to having kids around, who like to sleep in late – alternatively our kids are going to have to get used to parents around, who get up early. This morning we woke the kids and headed up to the rooftop for breakfast. It was wonderful to sit on these low couches, with low tables in front of us, sipping on Zanzibarian cappuccinos and fresh passion fruit juice and eating fresh mini croissants with exotic toppings like mango marmalade with cinnamon or cardamom, home-made muesli, Spanish omelettes, pancakes and waffles.

Mohammed arrived to 9:30 sharp to fetch us and we headed off to the taxi rank, where we had a driver waiting in an air-conditioned mini bus. We headed north east, listening to Arabic music blaring out the sound system. We passed through Zanzibar Town and drove past David Livingstone house. It was here that the explorer was preparing for his last expedition into Africa; Sultan Seyyid Majid placed this large 3 story house at his disposal.

Our destination for the morning was a spice plantation. We picked up Mr David (not David Beckham, he informed us), our spice guide, along the way. The farm looked more like a garden and the spice plants and fruit trees grow randomly, with no specific rows or areas dedicated to specific plants. The spice plants and shrubs of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, vanilla pods and many others grow in the shade of trees such as mangoes, coconuts, bananas, custard apples, jack fruit, huge grapefruit and many others. Mr David was humorous but took his duty as a tour guide seriously and was very informative. The East Indies and southern China were originally the source of most of the spices traded. At the end of the tour we were treated to a fruit and spice tasting and we were given ‘presents’ (star necklaces for the girls, ties for the boys, headgear and sunglasses made from coconut palm leaves. We also watched one of the plantation workers climb up to the top of a coconut tree, while singing the local ‘Jambo, Jambo’ song, to get coconuts for us and we drank the coconut water and ate the pulp.

After returning to Stone Town, we headed off through the alley ways and the girls found local sarongs, scarves and dresses to buy. We then found a restaurant, Livingstones, on the beach and had a long and lazy lunch, with our feet in the sea sand, while watching a ship being loaded by hand, with everything from bicycles, to old lawnmowers to fresh cattle feed.

We decided to leave before it got dark in order to try and find our way home. For the first time, on our last outing in Stone Town, we managed to find our way home without getting lost. We retired up to the rooftop for sunset drinks. Again we enjoyed the sounds, smells and sights of this interesting town while watching the sun set. Having had a good night’s sleep the previous evening, we chatted and laughed till much later in the evening. We were again treated to the Muslim prayer sessions being blasted in stereo around the town, they were certainly a lot more vocal this evening.

Breakfast

Spice Plantation

Coconut Palms

Palm accessories

Zanzibar shop

Day 65: 18/06/2011 – Johannesburg to Stone Town, Zanzibar

Thanks Panda for doing the East African blog for the last week.

Our alarm clock went off at 4:00: funny, when you are excited about going somewhere, that dreaded alarm sound is not as bad as when you have to get up for school. We finalised our packing, locked up the house, gave the pets a last love and were ready for our wonderful friend and neighbour, Al, to pick us up just after 5:00. We caught the 1^st Gautrain of the day into OR Tambo and had breakfast while we waited to board. The flight was delayed due to people booking in and not boarding on time, so we had to wait for their luggage to be removed – some are people are strange and then we had a technical problem with the plane which delayed us further. Due to a good tail wind we made up some time and only arrived ½ late. Gray had sent through messages wanting to know if Kirsty was ‘driving’ the plane (having recently got her licence, she is not exactly an F1 racing driver). Having cleared customs, eventually, as each passenger has to have fingerprints scanned for all 10 fingers, we had to wait for the manual offloading of our luggage (no turnstiles here). There is no place for people collecting passengers to wait, so we found a hot Panda waiting outside with hundreds of taxi drivers. It was so wonderful to see him, I missed him and I had only been away for a week, the kids hadn’t seen him for a few months, so it was an exciting reunion.

The first thing that struck us was how hot and humid it was here; the temperature when we left this morning was 4°C and here it feels around 40°C.

Gray introduced us to Mohamed, whom he had employed as a guide and we were escorted to our taxi and driven through an area with tropical vegetation to Stone Town. The taxi took us as close to our hotel as roads would allow, the rest of the journey was done on foot, following Mohamed, with our luggage. We really looked like tourists.

Stone Town is amazing, it reminds me a lot of Venice, just a lot poorer and dirtier, with a conglomeration of alley ways in no order at all. There are people all over the alleys and very few are wide enough to accommodate cars but scooters and bicycles whizz around hooting all the time. We have discovered that one of the biggest offences on Zanzibar roads is not to have a hooter on your bike, car or mode of transport, as you are required by law, to hoot so that people know they are about to be driven down.

Zanzibar – even the name sounds exotic, and exotic is what perfectly describes this land of palm trees. It was called ‘Unguja’ by the locals, which is Swahili for ‘So you came?’ or ‘Oh! You came?’ Visiting Arabs later called the island Zanzibar, meaning ‘land of blacks’.

Besides being a top tourist destination, Zanzibar has some events which have put it on the map:

· It boasts the shortest war in recorded history – the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896, which lasted 45 minutes.

· It was one of the most active slave slave-trading centres on the East coast.

· Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, was born here.

Our first stop was to drop off our luggage at the Zanzibar Coffee House and Hotel. The hotel is an authentic Arab house, deep in the heart of Stone Town and is steeped in history. It was originally the residence of Sir Tharia Topan, the Wazir of Sultan Said Bargash in 1885 (not sure what the hell he was bit it sounds pretty impressive). The hotel now contains 8 individually designed rooms, with four poster beds, mosquito nets and antique furniture. It is a unique place to stay and we are sharing a family suite, with Gray, Gareth and I in one room and the girls sharing the interleading room – we are really bonding! The rooms have exotic coffee related names like Moccachino, Espresso, Cappuccino and we are in the Bourbon and Caturra Suites. The house is 6 stories and our rooms is on the 4^th floor, the wooden stairs are narrow, worn and steep, we will be nice and fit after a few days.(Not a wheel chair friendly establishment).

Our next stop was Mercury’s Restaurant on the sea shore, where we had a wonderful lunch. We all had seafood, except our darling and fussy Princess Kirsty, who splashed out and ordered a Margarita Pizza. Gray finally has a drinking buddy and him and Ga made up for the drought while he was bonding with the missionaries. Many Kilimanjaros and a few cocktails later we headed off to the tourist/market area to check out the shopping, much to the delight of the girls.

Then it was time to head off home. We had been warned that all first-timers get lost in Stone Town and we didn’t disprove this. After about an hour of traipsing around the alley ways and discovering we had gone in circles, we asked for directions and then asked again and again until we eventually got back to the Coffee house.

We headed up the 6 flights of stairs to the open plan rooftop for an impressive 360° view of the sunset over Stone Town. Being higher than most of the town, we were afforded a bird’s eye view of mosques, an open plan classroom, with adult classes taking place and general life in Stone Town, slowing down as the evening descended on us. Surprisingly, very few lights came on in the town.

Kind of tied we headed back to our rooms – we were in bed by 7:30.

Lunch at Mercury’s

Lost in Stone town

Our Rooftop at Zanzibar Coffe Shop & Hotel

Sunset over Stone Town

Day 60 to Day 64: 13/06/2011 to 17/06/2011 – Johannesburg (Mel)

My time back home was wonderful and hectic – it passed in a blur of catching up with friends and family. It was awesome to catch up with Ga, Kirst and Robs and I managed to spend some good quality time with them all. I had dinner with my Dad and Jean, unfortunately Gus and Jill (Graeme’s parents) were away in the Richtersveld (one of our favourite holiday destinations) but I chatted to them on the phone.

I don’t think I ate one meal at home; it was a whirlwind time of lunches, dinners and ‘wine time’ with my wonderful friends.

In between my socialising, I spent every possible minute with my new nephew, Luke and Julie and Adie. My kids and I are absolutely besotted with this perfect, well behaved and gorgeous little baby. The hardest thing about heading back north into Africa was to leave him.

Another highlight of my few days back home and one of the main reasons for returning was to attend Gareth’s graduation – he received a Grande Diploma, signed by Prue Leith and is now a qualified chef.

Baby Luke

Chef Gareth

Day 59 – 12/06/2011: Mt Kilimanjaro to Johannesburg (Mel)

Mel

The African tummy bug struck us again; thank heavens we were in a hotel room and not at the mercy of a long drop this time.

We had to get up at 5:00 (Tanzanian time, 4:00 – S.A. time). The Precision Air flight took off on time (6:30) and the other 15 passengers and myself landed an hour later at Dar es Saalam airport, after a very pleasant flight.

After collecting my luggage, I looked around and finding no signs or directional help, I did the female thing, I asked for directions. I was taken down some dingy alley ways that had me rather concerned but eventually found myself in an even dingier departure area. It was bustling with people, all heading off to either the Middle East or Zanzibar, not a sign of a SAA counter. As I was only flying out at 3:30 I was informed that I could only book in an hour before my flight and had to lug my 20kg tog bag around for the next 6 hours. The reason for the heavy bag was that we had discovered there were things we had packed and didn’t need which were now being sent home, to make space for the kids.

The next question was – what was I going to do for the next 6 hours? The 6 chairs in the departure check-in area were all taken and I again, did the girl thing and asked for directions. At this point, I wished I had spent a few days at Riverside Lodge and taken their Swahili language course. I landed up at domestic departures, now having lugged my 20 kgs through 2 security check points to discover a few more chairs, a coffee shop and a duty free shop. I killed half an hour in that area and was seriously bored, so with 5 ½ hours still to go, I went exploring.

Eventually I found an airport worker who could speak English and he directed me out the building and up a flight of stairs to the ‘Flamingo Lounge’. The name alone had me a little concerned; I had visions of pole dancers and disco balls, sending little lights darting around a dark room. On entering, I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather pleasant restaurant, with welcoming staff that were only too happy to allow me and my ‘body bag’ to spend the next couple of hours chilling there. They had a large flat screen T.V. – the first I had seen since leaving home 2 months earlier. It was programmed to Sky News – I discovered something over the next couple of hours, Sky repeats their news items continuously on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately the most exciting piece of news was the closing down of a BMX track. Graeme had kept the lap top and Kindle with him, so after 5 hours of Sudoku I felt I must be a pretty logical thinker.

Eventually it was time to pass through security for a third time, the Zanzibar sign had been replaced by a SAA sign and I was able to book in and go through all the other boring procedural checks. After an uneventful 3 hour + flight, I arrived at OR Tambo. Gareth and Kristy, were waiting for me and the whole day had been totally worth it. Johannesburg was freezing; then again I guess it is the middle of winter.

From the airport, we went straight to Julie’s house to see Robs and Baby Luke (and Juls and Adie – of course). We had decided to surprise Robs and not tell her I was arriving early, as I peeked my head around the door and saw the look the look of disbelief on her face, clearly mission was accomplished.

Day 64: 17/06/2011 – Pangani to Kendwa to Stone Town, Zanzibar

The boat to Zanzibar took about 1½ hours to reach Kendwa, which is at the northern point of Zanzibar. I caught a large speedboat across which was extremely comfortable and I’m sure a lot more pleasant than the public ferries that travel between Dar es Salaam and Stone Town which take about 3 hours. There was one other guy on the boat with me, a young Mauritian who was the manager of one of the large Ngorongoro Lodges. He was a chef by profession trained by one of the top French Michelin chefs. He was very interested in Gareth’s training and offered some valuable pointers.

From Kendwa it was a half hour drive to Stone Town where I checked into the Zanzibar Coffee House where we will be staying for the next 3 nights. I dropped off my bags in my room and decided to go and explore Stone Town. There are hundreds of small alleys and passages leading in various directions. Doors and openings were everywhere and contained shops of all descriptions, from groceries to butchers to travel agents to curio shops. I eventually came out at the main Ferry Terminal and wandered along the beachfront past the various local sights. It was extremely hot and humid and seeing that I hadn’t had lunch, I decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at Mercury’s – Freddy Mercury of Queen fame lived as a small child in Zanzibar and the locals try to believe that he belongs to them. Anyway I had a great lunch of Calamari.

I decided to walk back to the hotel and settle in for an early evening, but this was not to happen. The hotel was probably about 150m as the crow flies from the restaurant and I got hopelessly lost in the different passages. It eventually took me about an hour to find my way.

I retired to the rooftop sitting area and watched the sun set and then the sports began – the Muslim call to prayer resounded over the town, with about 15 different mosques trying to be louder than the other. They all had loudspeaker systems and the noise was amazing. It eventually came to an end and the evening returned to normal.

Zanzibar from the boat

Stone Town Alley

Day 63 16/06/2011 – Pangani

So much for wanting to lie in this morning and relax, I was wide awake by 6-00am and went for a long walk down the beach and came back through the sisal plantation. The main reason for not coming back along the beach was that I would have to go past a small village which I did not want to repeat. The locals use the beach at low tide as the toilet and you have to be very careful of the landmines on the beach.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning the inside of the Landy and repacking it so that I would be able to fit all five of us in. The trailer also needed to be repacked.

An early night as the boat transfer to Zanzibar was leaving at 7-00am.

Small local village (beware of landmines on beach)

Small fishing boats returning from a day out

Day 62 15/06/2011- Pangani

Today I woke early to a stunning sunrise and very extreme tides due to the full moon. The morning was spent paddling around in the shallows which were probably 500m further out than usual. The local fishermen were out in full force, and were combing the rocks for anything that lived. They were also using dragnets to catch whatever they could. For all their effort they got surprisingly little return – a few small fish, a few crabs and plenty of seaweed.

I did a bit of snorkelling with some Dutch people who were also staying at the Lodge and before I knew it, it was beer time. There were some of the local farmers who had come down for a drink and it turned out that they send their kids to Southern Cross School in Hoedspruit. They were moaning about the difficulties in getting their kids to and from school, and this again reinforced the fact that living close to the school makes life so easy. They had the option of sending them to International schools in either Arusha or Dar es Salaam, but they were anti the American schooling methods. They manage the sisal plantations in that area and taught me all about sisal.

There was another brilliant fish dinner and there was a very relaxed evening chatting with the lodge managers and guests and watching the full lunar eclipse.

Some of the Lodge rooms

Sunrise over the sea