Zanzibar

Just off the east coast of Africa 35km from mainland Tanzania, lies the Indian Ocean nirvana: Zanzibar.

A tropical paradise on the surface, but this Tanzanian archipelago comes with a long and tragic history. Until the abolition of slavery, Zanzibar was one of east Africa’s main slave-trading ports. It was actually host to one of the world’s last functioning slave markets; before it was shut down by the British in 1873.

Zanzibar is well-known for it’s world-class beaches, water sports, and spices. It’s often dubbed ‘The Spice Islands’ due to the cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper that are farmed there.

The world-class beaches have brought no end of beautiful resorts on the island; a harsh (and somewhat uncomfortable) contrast to the rest of the otherwise economically-deprived island.

Interestingly since the 1500s, Zanzibar has been part of the Portuguese, Oman and also the British empires. It gained it’s independence from Britain in 1864. This long and turbulent history had resulted in a beautiful and unique mish-mash of culture.

Although part of Tanzania, life here is very different. Unlike mainland, there are no elephants or lions – the majority of the wildlife here is underwater. More of a ‘seafari’ if you will (sorry, not sorry).

Zanzibar is a seafood lover’s paradise – I know my dad will be very jealous when he learns I had spent the week sampling some of the best and freshest prawns, octopus, calamari, lobster, and tuna steaks I have ever eaten.

Fun Fact: Did you know that the famous Queen singer, Freddy Mercury was born and raised in Zanzibar!

Stone Town

First stop, Stone Town. The historical, romantic, and charming capital city of Zanzibar.

Interestingly it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to its beautifully unique architecture (a mix of European, Indian and Arab influences).

Stone Town is very small; pretty much everything is within walking distance. Which is lucky because Google Maps is useless here. We spent the day getting lost in the maze of winding streets, a seemingly essential part of visiting. We marvelled at the crumbling architure and the famous carved intricate wooden doors. It felt like we had been transported back in time.

The stunning art of wooden door carving is an ancient Zanzibar tradition. The intricately carved and decorative motifs often symbolise sea-faring activities (e.g. fish scales, rope, waves) or nature (e.g. lotus flowers). They are double doors which open inward, and the more elaborate the door, the more wealthy the family was.

We passed through the winding alleys full of cheerful locals, colourful market stalls whilst listening to school children chanting songs and shouts of MAMBO! as we walked around. Stopping midday for some typical Swahili cuisine at Lukmaan and later sampling the delicious spiced coffee from a local cafe.

After getting well and truly lost, we spent the evening watching the sun setting on Dreamer Floating Bar. Spending hours playing board games (you’ll be pleased to hear I won!), drinking cocktails, and waving at passing boats.

Then in the evening, it was time to practice our haggling skills at the nightly Forodhani Market. A local seafood market with a buzzing atmosphere of locals and tourists. Here you can tuck into skewers of all kinds of seafood and then wash it all down with a fresh sugar cane juice.

Top Tips:

1. Being 6 degrees south of the equator, the sun is incredibly powerful here. We were shade seeking constantly. Make sure you take some very good quality sun protection.
2. Learn some Swahili – saying mambo/jambo (hello) is part of the local culture. On the rare occasion somebody didn’t say hi to us in Stone Town, it was weird and left us wondering why.
3. In Swahili culture, you start counting time at sunrise, opposed to midnight. This means that 7am Western time is 1 o’clock in the morning Swahili time, and 7pm is 1 o’clock at night. The time of sunset & sunrise are pretty constant all year round, due to Zanzibar’s proximity to the equator.
4. To truly have a memorable experience, I recommend you take the dala dala (bus) and get up close and personal with the locals. They are cramped and sweaty but very, very cheap (Airport to Stone Town for 400TSH, or £0.15p and Stone Town to Nungwei for 2000TSH or £0.66p).
5. Never accept the first price for anything! As tourists, we expect to pay the “the tourist tax”. But some things in Zanzibar (like taxis) are something else. You will be offered ludicrous prices – always make sure you haggle, haggle, and haggle some more.
6. The beaches here are insanely beautiful. Silky soft white sand with crystal clear water. The sea has shades of the most bright beautiful blues you can imagine, but they are pretty shallow. You will have to go north if you fancy a swim.

The North: Nungwei & Kendwa

It was a long unforgettable, cramped dala dala drive up North. We were packed in like uncomfortable sardines. 19 sardines to be exact. The ceiling was so low, I had to crawl my way through the middle of people to get to a “space” (which a man had kindly provided me with, whilst he proceeded to sit on the floor between our legs).

After 15 minutes, we realised that same man was a very drunk man. On and off he began falling asleep on others, and sitting on other’s feet only for them to shout or slap him to move.

The curvaceous one-eyed bus conductor, standing up at the back of the dala dala bent down and peered down into the two rows of people. With one hand on the back of the dala dala, and one hand full of old rope he proceeded to whip the back of the dala dala loudly whilst he shouted at him to get off.

An entertaining 15 minute argument ensued between the drunk and the bus boy. We all had front row seats. Eventually, he dragged the man off by one leg, pulling him down the middle of our bus, as he dug in his elbows and attempted to grasp at our ankles to stay onboard. Poor chap.

I tucked my blonde mane under my bra strap to stop it whipping the face of the poor local next to me, and between the row of sweaty smiling faces all opposite me, I caught glimpses of Zanzibar countryside flashing past.

Despite the numb bum, after two years of social distancing it was strangely comforting to be shoulder to shoulder with others. When the bus finally emptied out towards the end, we managed to get a quick snap.

Leon had a free night on Hotels.com stay for us (a bonus from his previous work trips). We rolled off the dala dala into our 4.5 star chosen resort, Sandies Boabob.

Greeted with ice cold hibsiscus juice and a cold flannel to cool ourselves, the receptionist was highly amused we had arrived on the dala dala as opposed to the air conditioned (and highly expensive) taxis, like the rest of her guests.

We returned the flannels a dirty brown colour and gulped down the juice. Grubby backpacker mode switched off, holiday mode switched on!

After being totally spoilt at Sandies, we went to stay in Kendwa at Kendwa Rocks for more beautiful beaches and for checking out the Zanzibar nightlife.

The South: Paje, Jambiani

We definitely recommend hiring a scooter here. Super fun, cheap, and easy – they give you the flexibility to explore as you please (just make sure you cover up or slap on the suncream!).

We spent one day scooting south through villages, going under washing lines, passing wandering cows and goats. We scooted down bumpy dirt tracks along the coast – down to the remote, and beautiful southern Mtende Beach.

Of course I had no idea how fast we were going or how much petrol I had – the dashboard was entirely fucked. No surprises there.

Personally, any day spent scooting is day well spent. I absolutely love them. The feeling of being entirely exposed to the elements – the warm tropical breeze, the smells of delicious home cooking, waving at the adorable Zanzibari children waving and running to greet us. It was so much fun!

We also found some huge Baobab trees! This one is apparently 2000 years old. Some believe them to be magic!

We spent the next day scooting North of Paje along the coast taking in all the sights. In the afternoon, we scooted to Zanzibar’s most famous and most Instagramable restaurant, The Rock, for some overpriced (but tasty) food and some next-level views.

We took Percy out for a flight – (can you see us on the sandbank behind The Rock!)

Spice Tour

A Spice Tour is a must when visiting Zanzibar. We had a fantastic time at KV’s Spice Farm! Definitely recommend them.

We learnt about the different spices, hilariously watch our guide climb a palm tree to get us a fresh coconut (even Leon had a go!), and ate more fruit in one sitting than I’ve eaten in the last year.

Fun Fact: Did you know both vanilla and pepper are parasitic plants? They take advantage of the mango trees here at KV’s! Here is a pepper plant below.

Matemwe

The thought of trusting a stranger with my life 12 meters under the sea terrified me. But I wanted to push myself, to learn something new, and ultimately not let fear be the reason I miss out on something amazing. We came to Matemwe for the one thing and one thing only; scuba diving.

Fear is complex, subjective, and an inevitable part of life. It’s something we all experience, but I think it’s how we react it to that really matters. If there is one thing that scares me – it’s the open water. I don’t bat an eyelid at jumping out of a plane to Skydive or jump off a cliff to Paraglide, but anything sea-related and the anxiety creeps over me.

We were recommended ScubaFish Dive Centre by our friend Abbey (who just got her dive master qualification with them). We met the manager, Laura, a French marine biologist and scuba diving master – she was going to be my buddy. And what a great buddy she was! Super professional with a very calm nature; the top two things you’d want from somebody you were about to trust your life with.

Leon already has his Open Water qualification but came with me on day one to the scuba theory and swimming pool session for a refresher as his last dive was in 2014. Underwater, Laura was giving me some intense eye-contact – watching closely for signs of panic. It felt weird, and funny, but ultimately reassuring. I was nervous, but with some positive self-talk – I pushed through the day.

My stomach was in knots all night. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep. After what felt like the longest night, the morning eventually came.

We sailed over to Mnemba Atoll and got our diving gear on. Damn, that oxygen tank was heavy. You won’t feel it in the water, Leon reassured me.

Sit on the edge of the boat and let the heaviness of the oxygen tank pull you backwards into the sea, Laura said. Oh god, here we go. I gulped.

Taking my first breaths underwater, I tried not to panic. I focused on breathing techniques and pulled my attention to the bubbles. Pole pole, hand-by-hand I pulled myself down the chunky anchor line as Laura slowly let the air out my BCD so I would sink further and further.

Scuba diving felt so incredibly weird. But wow, all the fishes and beautiful coral. Laura made hand signals for the different types of fish – puffer, clown, trumpet.

It was overwhelming for sure, but ultimately a very mindful, meditative and surreal experience exploring the underwater realm.

I can’t begin to tell you how proud I was of myself that day. I had faced a fear and felt so brave. I never thought I was capable of scuba diving, but I proved myself wrong.

Next time you’re faced with whatever it is that gives you anxiety, I hope this post will go a little way in shifting your mindset. Remind yourself that courage comes from facing fears. The more we face our fears the more we learn about ourselves and how we cope within these difficult situations. You’ll never know what you’re capable of until you push the boundaries of your comfort zone. Scary things = growth.