Zanzibar - the beaches

We have left Stone Town and are now trying to resist the continual intoxicating beauty of Zanzibar’s Northern beaches.

Prior to heading North we went on a ‘dolphin experience’. We assumed we would stand on the beach and have the little chaps come up for a fish or something….. not quite. We arrived at the beach to be fitted up with very shoddy snorkelling gear and were escorted to our own boat…. which then joined a flotilla of five other boats.  We roared out to sea like a scene out of Navy Seals, each boat jockeying position …for something.

The word was spread…dolphins off the bow…and then our assault commenced. As the poor buggers were getting a nip of air, all of the boats descended on them,  frantically disgorging poorly prepared divers on top of the dolphins.

The dolphins responded appropriately, and just swum away. It really was an un regulated disgrace…..that being said, when the dolphins came up near our boat  I jumped in without the  rest of the assault group, and had the pleasure of swimming with three very large dolphins for a little while. They seem much bigger when you are in the water with them.

They were very chatty, and gave me a good look over, but I got the distinct impression they were pretty jacked-off with the whole fiasco…. and as the other boats descended on us, they took off.

We are staying in a cottage at Nungwi, on the North coast. The beach is amazing, the sand is like pure talcum powder…it’s so fine it sets like a layer of plaster on your wet feet. The water is the type of blue you only get in photo shop pictures. Our section of the beach has a small reef that sets up semi-circle between us and sea….it really is beautiful.

As pretty as it is, I was bored within a day, and we have set up some good snorkelling trips to various reefs to keep us on the go. I am of the view our best coup has been setting up daily access to the Hilton ‘Double Tree Resort’ gym. We approached the staff and they told us it would be $30US a day per person to use the facility. We then had a chat to the gym ‘manager’ and established a far more suitable personal payment to him to allow access….more like $3US!

This evening we will do some  training with all of the locals on the beach. Each evening they crowd out the beach and run everything from kick boxing classes to yoga….it really is a sight. At the end the whole town seems to run into the sea to cool down, the women all still wrapped up in their Muslim attire!

They hire trail bikes here that appear to be reasonable sound, so I sense some Crusty Demon action coming up (watch for the photos).

The food is excellent here, with good variety, and we are really looking forward to our Zanzibar Christmas feast.

Larry is safe and secure on the main land, and will be well rested like us for our push north to the Serengeti.