An African Xmas

Well who would have thought that we would be living our dreams and find ourselves on Zanzibar for Xmas day - we really are truly blessed.

The morning started the same as the last 5 to date, a swim in the sea followed by a breakfast of fruit and pancakes served on our veranda overlooking the sea (now you can see why our Hilton gym membership is such good value) - oh and fruit mince pies which we searched the island for getting a number of interesting variations including a whole date cake (it is not christmas without fruit mince pies).

It was surprisingly surreal in that Christmas day wasn't too much different from home - ate too much, a few too many gin and tonics, and a few swims (it was very hot). Dinner was turkey with all the trimmings (an English lady owns the place we are staying - which is going to make today fun because I just saw the cricket score).

Dave was very happy - he managed to negotiate the purchase of a "traditional" masai working knife (going straight to the pool room or in Dave's case the study where he has a collection from our past trips). The masai are the tribe in Tanzania/Kenya that are tall and skinny, wear red, tend cattle and the like. There are a few on Zanzibar at the moment trying to sell masai beads to the tourists. We have affectionately named our masai friend Marty Masai whilst he seems a little short and overweight to fit the masai bill what he lacks in tradition he makes up for in persistence. For the last 5 days he has been trying to convince us to buy something from him turning up when you least expect it - so much so that I was considering a stalking order but his persistance paid off. A photo of Marty selling his wares to some more unsuspecting toursists is included - little do they know he is going to be their new best friends.

I hope all of our family and friends that are following us on our adventure had a fantastic christmas day - we have both very much got itchy feet and are looking forward heading to Arusha and the Serengetti for new years.