Zanzibar

My final day on Zanzibar and I only wish I was here for longer. It has been blissful to spend four nights in a bed and be away from truck life..

Mind you, I wasn't sure I was actually going to make it to Zanzibar as when I arrived at the ferry port I realised I had left my yellow fever certificate on the truck. Zanzibar is part of Tanzania so I'm not sure why you have to go through immigration when you arrive on the island from the mainland. But you do, and the officials were initially quite adamant that I would not be allowed in without my certificate. Options were a 2 hour ferry back to Dar Es Salaam to get my certificate, or pay $40 for the jab. After much pleading, they eventually gave me a new certificate in exchange for just $10 (and no need to have the jab). In fairness, that is much cheaper than getting a certificate in the UK but very dodgy that they just write you out another one!! Don't you just love the corruption in Africa.

We spent the first night in Stone Town which is a maze of old buildings and narrow streets. Great shopping to be had so the girls went a bit crazy buying new clothes. Having new clothes to wear is quite exciting though as the clothes we bought with us from home are starting to show signs of wear and have some serious ingrained dirt that no amount of handwashing will ever sort out. What I would give to use a washing machine right now. After shopping and sunset cocktails, we headed to the night market. This is a big food market with numerous seafood stalls. As the seafood had been cooked earlier and had been sitting out for some time, I decided to give that a miss and opted for the Zanzibar pizza. This isn't a pizza as we know it, but more of a pancake filled with minced beef, cheese and egg then cooked in front of you. Very tasty and then rounded off with the sweet version which is filled with chocolate and banana. Definitely a cheap way to eat.

The following day, we took a bus up the coast to a beach resort where we are for three nights. White sand, turquoise water, beach side room, a couple of bars / restaurants, hammocks - who could ask for more? It is a very low key resort and a great place to chill out. Part of me wanted to just lie on the beach for three days but another part of me felt I should go diving. So as I haven't dived for several years, I did a refresher course the first afternoon and then the divers in our group went on a two dive trip to a nearby island the following day. The boat ride was fast and bumpy (not to everyone's taste but it was quite fun). The diving was distinctly unimpressive. Our first dive was a coral reef but there was a lot of dead coral and not that much marine life to see. The second dive - a wall dive - was much better with more colourful and plentiful fish, but still not the best diving.

Today has been spent sunbathing and walking on the beach. I love that I step out of my room straight onto sand so that I don't need to bother with shoes at all. Anyway, must sign off now as I have a massage on the beach to go to.......and yes, my life is very tough but someone has to do it!!