Day 17: Zanzibar

Ho hum.... just a typical ride to the airport this morning.... we encountered just over 30 lions (including the lioness with three babies who now had an injured front right paw, a simba and lioness who had full bellies and who looked like they were on their seventh day of mating, a large pack just finishing a feast), a few large shareholders meetings (this is my new nickname for a gaggle of vultures fighting over a kill - very fierce and lots of heated chatter), a gazillion wildebeests, a small pack of elephants, a small horde of startled mongooses (kids loved those), and the usual riff raff of giraffes, hippos and gazelles....

As Dr Evil would say: "pretty typical, really"!

We left at 6am, discussing with Tom and Grayson just what those ferocious noises were last night at around 10pm - apparently some hyenas were trying to move in on some lions eating a wildebeest near our camp.... I am lion, hear me roar.

We had a great boxed breakfast in the middle of the savannah overlooking the Mara River... ahh...sad to see it go.

The airport was actually a hard packed runway without a terminal building (save for a washroom) that was surprisingly busy.  We got there fairly early, and watched as one plane came in, dropped off six to ten new tourists, picked up some more and took off.   Tom checked that we were on the manifold for the Coastal Aviation flight to Zanzibar and all was good.

Our plane arrived 15 minutes before our departure time, and we soon had to say our goodbyes.  We were not tearful, just happy, satisfied, grateful and somehow left with the feeling that we would see them again.  I hope so.  Some guides dream to one day own a Safari company.  If one of them did that, we would be sure to return and help them out.

We had been a little worried about the strenuous warnings about bag weights being 15kg each, no exceptions.  However, when the young pilot jumped out of the plane after reaching the "gate" (ie a predetermined square of hard packed dirt, just off the "runway"), he proceeded to help us throw our bags behind the last of the ten...no hang on.... nine seats in the plane.  Hmmm.... there were two other tourists joining us so that made ten...

When I boarded the plane last with Beth and Abby, the young pilot said "someone needs to go in front because we are full".  Alrighty then, I gladly volunteered!  I scrambled, half folding into the cramped copilot's seat, careful to avoid touching any of the gazillion buttons, dials, foot pedals and the "stick" sticking out in front of my waist.  Tight for sure, but very cool.   The briefing was short "we are heading to Zanzibar, please fasten your seat belt and don't get up" - I could have thrown in a lot more humour and drama than the pilot, but I didn't want to show him up....

Just like that, we took off down the bumpy runway and we were headed out of the Serengeti.   The pilot was quite busy with his dials and Nav system, setting a bunch of way points and engaging the auto pilot.   Pretty cool.   Then, when he was all set, he grabbed a newspaper and started reading.   I felt I should keep an eye on things...lol... but I flip-flopped between reading and dozing off.   It was really cool seeing the passage of cloud to bright blue sky directly above my head in the panoramic pilot windows. 

The flight wasn't too long, maybe an hour and a half.  Zanzibar is a coastal island that used to be separate from Tanzania but became part of the country in the sixties.   It has a history as a slave trading outpost of Portuguese and Arabic influence.  The main town called "stone town" has a bunch of superlatives, but bottom line it's a UNESCO world heritage site.

We'd arranged a van to pick us up and whisk us the 10 minutes to town.   At first, the place reminded me of Barbados - very "island" feel with similar infrastructure and buildings, but when we got to town, it felt like an old Portuguese fort town that had fallen into disrepair many years ago, then selectively cleaned up....only selectively.   It wasn't until later, when Beth and I were checking out the sunset from the rooftop pool of our hotel, then it dawned on us - this town reminded us of the old Portuguese fort town Galle in the Southwest of Sri Lanka.

After checking in, we decided we wanted to get lost for a bit.  Stone Town is a bit of a maze of alleys, bordered and crossed by the occasional wider street that could just fit three cars wide.  There were all kinds of the usual tourist shops (more than usual actually), lots of Tour operator shops and all varieties of hotels and restaurants - from one star to the Hilton.  

We had lunch near the beach.  Our summary so far was that it was a pretty dirty, broken down place.   There was lots of garbage everywhere.  It did have its appeals however:  some cool old architecture, near old fashioned carved wooden doors and windows, and a pretty interesting waterfront with lots of fishing and tourist specific boats.

By around 4:30, we dropped the kids off at the hotel.   The adults had their minds set on spices and tea, so we headed out to a local market not ten minutes from our house.   Abby pointed out that the alleyways reminded her of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and I had to agree.   She pointed out that there were many similarities in the Islamic touches to a lot of the architecture.  She has an amazing eye for those details.   

Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, but it seems similar to the rest of Tanzanzia in that it still feels like "anything goes" - that is, liberal to conservative, you see it all here.   I really got the feeling that at one time, hundreds of years ago, this place may have been  a busy, cosmopolitan melting pot of races and religions... a bustling trade port in a key location to serve Africa, the Middle East and South Asia - for spices and unfortunately, people.   While there are a few mosques here (with the nice sounds of the prayer crying out five times a day... I love it!), there's also a Jain temple, Hindu temples, Anglican and Catholic churches and more.

The adults wound our way to the central local market.  It was easy to find - follow the busier alleyways full of tourist fare then listen for a cacophony of sounds from the market.    We got to the front gate of the indoor section and were hit by a wave of reek from the meat and fish market... yikes.   We went inside and picked one of the spice vendors.  It wasn't long before we were loaded up with clear plastic bundles of spices, teas and coffees.  Our little vendor was happy and so were we.  

When we were almost done, I asked a guy with a half toothless grin if he knew where I could get "dates".  He couldn't really speak English, so before long I was in the middle of my spice vendor and his neighbour and two other guys trying to figure out just what dates were.  They guessed "lychee ", no, "mangosteen", no, "avocado", no.  Then, the first guy looked at me with an "a-ha!!!" excited look and gesture.  He motioned for me to wait, and he took off.

We waited for thirty seconds, then figured he was gone.  We kept walking, emerging from that market only to enter the huge outdoor "fruit market".   This was more our speed and smelled a lot better than the interior section.  I eventually found a date guy and got a kilo of dates.  Just then, Alex and Beth called over and said "Craig, your friend is back".  He came over to me with the happiest face and pointed down to one hand that had a box of "grapes"!  I laughed so hard, but at the same time felt sorry for him.  He had a sheepish look when I finally explained that "these are DATES, those are GRAPES".  I did give him some Shilling for his awesome effort, and he seemed happy.  Too funny.

We browsed around for another twenty minutes, then started weaving back to the hotel.  Alex and Kim had their eye on some shops, so Beth and I headed for the hotel pool that was due to close in thirty minutes.   We needed to cool off.  After all the relative cool temperatures we had on Safari (mornings and evenings maybe 17 degrees, afternoons as hot as 24 or 25 but relatively dry), Zanzibar was sunny, warm (26) and pretty humid, so we were baking.

Sharing a bunch of Indian dishes for dinner at the rooftop restaurant was a good way to end the day, however, Alex, Matt, Abby and I still wanted to check out the night market.  

We tucked the other four in, and walked down to the waterfront park about two minutes from the hotel.  The night market is a daily street food market that has four different kind of vendors... drinks and snacks, shawarma, kabobs (of all kinds - meat, seafood, veggies etc) and Zanzibar pizzas.   The pizzas were actually crepe like pastries with the filling of your choice, carefully prepared in a square and fried in ghee on a large frying pan.  We opted for dessert pizzas (Nutella only and one with Nutella, mars bar and banana) but you can also get meat fillings with lots of other options.  The crepe/pizzas were quite good and Abby and Matt were very happy.

I have to say, the people in Zanzibar, like the rest of our interactions in Tanzania, have been fantastic.  Everyone greets you what a smile and a Swahili "Jambo!" greeting.  Even the vendors who are trying hard to get you to come to their store or buy their product or service on the street always stop when you say no and respectfully back off.  The service staff we've had have been super friendly and smiley, and though we've had our small share of service issues, we always try and remind ourselves that this is a foreign country, they don't speak the best English, and they really do mean well.  Service with a smile, even sometimes subpar, has really made the visit here fun.

We have the third of our four big travel days tomorrow as we fly to Cape Town.  We first take a short flight to Nairobi, then a five hour flight down to Johannesburg, then a short jaunt down to Cape Town.  Hopefully everyone has their relaxed face on tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to our Lastleg.   It should be a great way to unwind the last chunk of our great trip (as well as getting back on a bike!).