When we last left our heroes, they had just made landfall on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean. What magical sights await? What shrieking animal will disturb the night air?
Which recurring characters will buy the first round of tequila shots?
Stone Town is the front door of Zanzibar, and it’s a nice-enough town, but we wanted to get out to the beaches in the north and east.
You’d think after traveling the world for 4 years I’d be pretty immune to stomach bugs, and so did I. I was very wrong. Something was terribly broken in my gut, but slowing down was not an option. We were still well behind schedule after my Sudan visa fiasco, so I manned up and begged Dave not to put me on a minibus. He agreed to a private taxi that turned out to be a private minibus. Compromise is key to long-term group travel, you see.
We got to Nungwi in the north and checked into an odd little beach guesthouse resort. Other than all the rooms being built on stilts in sand, the most notable feature was the indigineous population of canines.
The room was among the fanciest we’d seen in Africa. They gave us a 4-bed ensuite for the same price as the 2-bed shared bathroom we booked.
Remember when there was that total lunar eclipse a while back? The one that is to be the longest total lunar eclipse of the century? The one that is most visible from central Africa? Obviously we’d plan to be in the wilderness on an island in central Africa on the night of the eclipse?
Nope, it was dumb luck!
When the sun let the moon out and came up again, we got up and went to see what the beach looked like.
Someone told us that the coast here has a really flat section with mangroves. I didn’t really know what mangroves were, so I was game to check them out.
The walk out showed how flat this beach really is — when the tide goes out, boats are laying on the sand. Their moorings are exposed as ropes tied to rocks. You may know that Dave has an attachment to wooden boats.
It wasn’t long until we were stumbling over somewhat confused wildlife.
Keep walking and you see the exposed sea floor under a disturbed but captivating sky.
So what is a mangrove? I didn’t know either but I’ll tell you what I learned: mangroves are trees or shrubs that grow in tidal saltwater areas. They get flooded twice daily and form a mineral-rich habitat for wildlife. Basically, really cool water tree playgrounds for fishies.
When they grow up, they can look like proper trees.
Among the wildlife we saw were literally a hundred thousand tiny little black crabs scurrying away from us as we walked, like a moving carpet, sometimes diving down into the sand.
Maybe these were all babies? I wondered where the adults where and what they looked like.
It was a long hike back through crab-infested waters, but we had people to meet. Specifically, two German ladies we’d met in Moshi recommended checking out the Rock Restaurant.
We ended up instead meeting them at a little resort across the water while we waited for the tide to come in.
Eventually the tide came in and our heads were sufficiently lubricated to try to swim to it.
One thing we were not wearing was footwear, and somehow we got ourselves onto a wide, sharp rocky bottom. Trying to get back ashore through the pounding waves was a trial – I ended up with cuts on both feet and a skinned knee.
You’d think we’d have awesome tans from traveling through northern Africa in the summer, but it’s a pretty conservative area and we often even wore long sleeves in the burning 46C (116F) heat. Getting to take our shirts off here was a novelty, and a disaster.
The east side of the island was pretty nice, but we really liked our new backpackers spot in Michamvi Kae. It was a wonderful mix of chill and well-appointed, and we had the lazy day we needed after our mad rush through Kenya and Tanzania. Plus the train south didn’t go until Tuesday, so we didn’t even feel guilty.
It feels beachy as you walk around in the sand and sit on log furniture, maybe with a beer in hand. We took the time to do some laundry too, in between chatting all day with a nice Austrian couple who taught us naughty German phrases.
It was on our last chill, complacent evening when we heard the shriek of the legendary “bush baby”. It’s a lemur-like tree-dwelling monkey that is known for a cry like a chimp crossed with a hyena, very unique and confusing because it comes from above your head.
Perhaps that was the wake-up call we needed, as it was time to move on. We had a schedule to keep and indulging in beach tequila with charming company wasn’t going to get us closer to Cape Town.
We caught our 0700 taxi to our 0930 ferry for our 1350 train to Mbeya. The 90 minute ferry crossing this time was rather choppy and they were handing out sick bags. As you’d imagine, Dave and I were just fine. We were less amused having to wait to disembark so a gentleman reputed to be the Vice President and his entourage slowly made their way down the gangway…
Next time: a fancy train breaks, our heroes get lost
P.S. Dave doesn’t say anything because we just said our goodbyes and split in the Dubai airport. The end of an era! (or really, 3 months)
👏🏽👍🏽 🤗
I love the commentary and have enjoyed following your 3 month adventure!