18^th August

The names of Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar invoke exotic thoughts of their history and the view of this bustling harbour of ships from rough coastal traders to giant container ships and ferries of all sizes to traditional Dows and skiffs with one man standing fishing with the skyline of the city and its Arab architecture is a sight to behold.

Today we leave our resort on the beach at Dar-es-Salaam and travel to another resort on Zanzibar near Stone Town a World heritage site of old buildings with its labyrinths of narrow streets lined to the edge with buildings two or three stories high with the Arabic architectural influence. With its history of Arabic trading, British occupation and birth place of Freddie Mercury.

We walked along the water front of Dar-es-Salaam with its mix of modern and old buildings.

We used two ferries to cross the harbour to Zanzibar, the first was fine, quiet people going to work but the second was like you see on telly, hundreds of people trying to get through this narrow doorway, women with children strapped to them who were getting crushed one man tapped gently on Tony,s shoulder to let Tony know there was a women with child slung to her front beside Tony and to be careful, we got through okay by waiting for the others to get on first and we were all so much bigger than them. There was a man with a baton who hit people that were trying to get through the wrong gate.

Some crossed by small boat a very risky job considering the big shipping plying these waters.

People were queuing for any means of transport to cross the bay.

Got on the ferry and spent the 2 hours chatting with a school class going to Zanzibar it was neat the kids learn English and this 10 year old boy spoke really well, he was happy to tell me all about his life, what a neat kid I can see why people want to take them home.

The Dhows were first designed more than a thousand years ago, some consider by the Venetians and others by the Indians and have been used extensively since. It is surprising how fast and moveable the dhow is with lateen sail. Dhows can be any size and with twin masts.

We reached Zanzibar with wharf at Stone Town passing this magnificent steel hull schooner that fitted right in with the era when Zanzibar was in its heyday under British rule in the 1920s to 50s.

In 1499 Vasco da Gama visited Zanzibar and in 1504 later it became part of the Portuguese Empire for 200 years when it became under the control of the Oman Sultan and trade in spices, Ivory and other exotic goods and the start of the Slave trade commenced. In 1890 Britain took control of Zanzibar as a protectorate after Livingston who was campaigning to stop the trade in slaves and took his view to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, this caused Britain to outlaw slaving and take active roll to prevent slaving. The Sultan died and one of his relatives who Britain did not approve of took control of the palace building with the clock tower in the proceeding picture. This caused the British to fire on the Palace knocking down the tower and killing the wannabe Sultan and the battle was over in 45 minutes and has been known as the shortest war in the world. This ended the slave trade in Zanzibar and Livingston and his supporters are revered by the people of Zanzibar.

On arrival at Stone Town our local guides had not showed up so we took the opportunity to have a drink for Freddie at Mercury’s bar on the waters edge.

We passed the old British Club (below), called Africa house on the way, more about that later.

The view from the Mercury bar was worth coming back too.

Once our guide arrived we set out in a small van to our resort at a stunning location overlooking the Indian Ocean.

We did not expect to get a water front room and jokingly said to our guide Nico we want one of those. Nico said “I don’t think so”! To our surprise that is what we got, it was amazing. Built a couple of metres above the beach with panoramic views this beautiful room with ensuite and fitted out in deep rich African furniture we were in heaven.

Are we looking forward to this bed.

Time for a swim.

Those African sunsets from our window.

19 August

Next day the weather was a little cloudy with the old rain so we stayed on the beach had a swim and just enjoyed this beautiful place, while Karen and others went on a dhow to do some snorkelling. We must be getting old.

We walked along the beach to some shops and had a look at their stuff but the harassment of the sales people put us off

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That night we were entertained by the local tribe while eating our dinner, fortunately they had not been invited to eat or we may have been dinner, they were very enthusiastic.

Eating dinner with a view of the beach like this stunning.

Sun set at Zanzibar from our room.