Boozing and monkeying about on the Spice Islands

Thursday, November 10, 2011
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
A boat. An open bar. A DJ pumping out dance music. Two and half hours to drink as much as you can. A bunch of backpackers of varying drinking abilities.

The result?

Alcohol was guzzled in large quantities. Moves were strutted on the dance floor. Floors were fallen on as legs stopped worked. Vomit was spewed, not always over the side of the boat. The ocean was dive-bombed (fortunately, before vomit was spewed). Bodily fluids were exchanged (allegedly). Tempers became frayed and a few people had to be kept apart. It was carnage but in the end, a great time was had by all. For the record, I only participated in the first two activities of that list!

I'm on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, sitting at a table on the white sandy beach, with a bottle of cold beer in hand. The clear, turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean break upon the white, sandy beach. The sky is blue, the sun scorching. After four weeks of overland travel ling through East Africa, it is the perfect end of my trip.

After leaving Arusha, we had a bum-aching 15 hour truck journey to get to Dar Es Salaam on the coast of Tanzania and Mikada Beach camp. Most of the group pitched their tents on the white sand of the beach. I wanted a snore-free night so decided to upgrade to my own beach hut, situated within throwing distance of the sea. A bit pricey for $20 but worth it for some peace and quiet.

The following morning, we packed a small rucksack with stuff we'd need for the next few days, took the foot-ferry to Zanzibar ferry terminal, and then got a two hour ferry to Zanzibar.

The island of Zanzibar lies off the coast of Tanzania. It has a history as a major trading centre between Africa and Arabia/India and has had a mixture of influences from all three regions during its development. Control of the island changed hands many times, including periods of rule by the Portuguese, British and Omani arabs. It became independent in 1963, joining with the then-named Tanganyika on the mainland a year later to form Tanzania. Gold, ivory, wood, and most importantly, spices and slaves were traded. Spices (especially cloves) still form a major part of the economy, as well as tourism, and along with a smaller island to the north, the group is known as the Spice Islands. The island was also the starting point for many explorers, including David Livingstone.

After arriving in Stone Town, we had to go through passport control for some reason, even though we were still in Tanzania. A short walk took us to the Safari Lodge Hotel where we dumped our bags and then headed straight out for a "spice tour". For the first couple of hours, we were taken on a walking tour around Stone Town. Whitewashed houses, a maze of narrow streets and alleyways, small quaint shops, bazaars, mosques, courtyards, squares. There were large, intricately-carved wooden doors on many houses - the more ornate the door, the wealthier the inhabitant. Some had studs to stop elephants from leaning on them, an influence from Indian doors but not really needed in Zanzibar as there weren't any elephants. We visited the old slave market. It was pretty humbling seeing where all the slaves were kept, packed into a cramped stone cell. Hot and diseased, many would die in there. Freddy Mercury was born in Stone Town, he left the island when he was 8. Supposedly, the site of the present-day Zanzibar Gallery was where he was born, there were a couple of plaques outside commemorating him, along with a gaggle of tourists taking photos of them.

Then we went on a spice plantation tour; it was pretty interesting to see how many of the spices I used when cooking at home looked "in the wild". We had some tea tasting - ginger, lemongrass, masala tea, and some local fruits - I hadn't tried most of them before and they were very nice. I loved the passion fruit and jack fruit! By 2pm, we were starving and gulped down a delicious lunch of chicken and pilau rice which was cooked up in a local house.

A relatively quiet evening. A few drinks in "Mercury's" bar/restaurant, watching a beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean turn the sky a mixture of oranges and reds, all manner of boats dotting the harbour. Some us went for a curry, washed down with a selection from an extensive cocktail menu, the others stayed in Mercury's for a pizza.

On Sunday, we had a free day so I arranged a trip to Jozani Forest, joined by Richard, Tuula and Aoife. The Jozani Forest is part of the only National Park in Zanzibar. It is home to the Zanzibar (aka Kirk's) Red Colobus monkey, which is endemic to Zanzibar, and also the Sykes' monkey. The monkeys were cool. They were habituated to people so would be jumping around in the trees above our heads, pretty much ignoring us as we took pictures. The Red Colobus monkeys had beautiful russet-coloured backs reflected in the sunlight. We also went for a nature walk through a wood but there wasn't any wildlife to see and a mangrove forest boardwalk but there weren't any birds to see except a common Blue Starling. Fortunately, we had managed to dodge the thunderstorms over Stone Town, only experiencing thick grey clouds on the way to the forest and a thunderstorm in the van on the way back which turned the roads into rivers.

In the afternoon, we left Stone Town and headed one hour north to the beach resort of Nungwi, staying at the Nungwi Inn Hotel, a stone's throw from the water. En-suite rooms with fan and a/c (much needed, it was sweltering), large bar right next to the white sands of the beach, seating on the beach itself, crystal-clear turquoise water, this would be heaven!

It was Amelia's birthday today and we all booked on a sunset "booze cruise" (except Julia, she didn't drink so she decided against spending a few hours trapped on a boat with a load of pissheads). Put a load of people of various drinking abilities on a boat with a free bar and you get a mess. A good time was had by everyone though. On the shuttle boat back to the beach, Richard fell off into the sea and lost his glasses. Back at the bar on the beach, he had problems standing up and ended up caked in sand. When he nearly knocked my bottle of beer off the table, he had to go and I had to virtually carry him back to his room. Apparently, his bed the next morning was like a sand pit. I ended up the last one out, drinking with a couple from another tour group (Africa Trails) who were doing a similar route to us and we'd met at various points. I went to bed at 2.30am, not a bad effort.

After getting up for a free breakfast at 8am the next morning, it was back to bed and then up again for lunch. An afternoon lazing about on the beach and doing some shopping. In the evening, some us headed off to nearby Marina Grill where I had a lovely steak dinner and wore my camera out taking shots of the stunning sunset. Most people headed off to bed by 9pm(!), I ended up drinking with Rich and Becks from the Africa Trails tour group again till 4am!

Unsurprisingly, I was a little bit rough the next morning! At 10am, we headed back to Stone Town. Prince Charles and Camilla were visiting the island so roads were closed off and we had to walk to the ferry station. Incidentally, Prince Charles had been given the title "The Helper of the Cows" by the Maasai people when he was in Tanzania a few days ago. I didn't want to think why. After the two hour ferry back to the mainland, we took tuk-tuks back to Mikada Beach camp. It was great racing through the manic African traffic in a tin can, facing death at every junction! This would be the last night of my trip and the others were leaving at 5am the next morning, I decided to upgrade to a banda hut again so I wouldn't get woken up when people were leaving. We had a delicious seafood dinner knocked up by the cook group, a few beers, a surprise birthday cake for me (a surprise because my birthday was still a week away, I suspect everyone just wanted some cake), before those that would be leaving said their goodbyes to those that would be carrying on the trip.

The next morning, the truck had gone along with those carrying on with the trip. It had been our home for the last four weeks. It was sad to see it and our tripmates go, tinged with a touch of envy for those that were carrying on the trip. The rest of us disappeared at various times of the day depending on our flight times. I had a fry-up for breakfast and savoured the beautiful surroundings; the next day, I would be back in cold, wet and windy Britain.

It had been a long, two months in Africa. It started off with three weeks around Madagascar's National Parks, with amazingly weird and wonderful wildlife, followed by four weeks in East Africa, with some magical wildlife encounters in itself. The highlight was the gorilla trek; despite the cost, I would do it again at the drop of the hat. However, I would quite happily have given the long travel ling days and camping a miss, although most of the time I managed to upgrade to a room.

After having spent more than half the last three years on the road, I was strangely tired of travelling, although that attitude would probably change after a couple of weeks in a British winter with the same routine every week. After doing most of the "big ticket" destinations over the past three years, I still had some more off-the-beaten track countries on my wish list. But, as the say, that would be a story for another time :-)

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