Stone Town was the colonial capital of ‘the spice island’ unfortunately since Tanzanian independence 50odd years ago none of the many splendid buildings, balconies and arches have been maintained, painted or even cleaned, apart from the beautiful intricately carved doors (it’s famous for them). When this place falls down (and I’ll give it 10 years tops!) the doors will be all that is left.

Still despite it’s rough and ready feel, we wandered the narrow alleys, browsed the stalls and shops but made sure did not partake in the food on the hawker stalls of the night market (one risk too many me thinks) and generally enjoyed the slightly scary, slightly amusing Afro/Arabic mix.

If you’re ever here try the spice tour, the Shwartz spice rack contents in your kitchen almost certainly started out here and it was more interesting than I expected (that’s the tour not your spice rack), plus you can buy handfuls of vanilla pods, nutmeg and cinnamon for a couple of quid.

Next, Jambiani village to start the beach bit, we arrived via what is locally know as the main road – in reality it’s the gaps between the buildings, there are more cows, goats & chickens than vehicles!

We crash on the beach for 4 days and do nothing. Our laziness is interrupted hourly by the local kids…

“Jambo, jambo, pen for school?”
“Jambo, jambo, chocolate?”
“Jambo, jambo, football?”
“Jambo, jambo, t-shirt?”

This is one of the poorest places in the world, tourism is helping but apart from a couple of places on the island the big hotels and big money has not arrived – just the back packers, the kids are entertaining if not a little persistent.

At low tide the water recedes almost 2 miles, the local ladies come out to harvest the farmed seaweed and collect coconut husk pinned under rocks overnight. We walk out amongst them past stranded fishing dhows and make for the rock pools nearer the waters edge – there are many crabs and little fish around but for the bigger stuff a boat trip is required to get out to the reefs.

Next stop the attractively named Dungwe.

Our last night in camp was again eventful. Firstly I (KC) woke up convinced there was a warthog on the tents veranda area and so woke Dave up, who on further inspection pointed out it was in fact an impala, 20 feet away. A few hours later we both woke up to loud growls outside the tent and visions of angry lions on the prowl flashed through our minds. False alarm as it was just a very angry hippo having a bit of a moan & shout.

The next morning a quick breakfast, off to catch our twelve-seat plane to Zanzibar. On the way, we had to make a stop at another camp to pick some more guests up and supposedly drop one guest off. Unfortunately when we landed it appears the guest had other ideas and had actually gotten off already at the wrong camp (unbeknown to the pilot). Next stop Dar Es Salaam to change planes for Zanzibar. Thankfully the plane was waiting for us so off one twelve seater onto another. On board there was only 2 seats left so I grabbed the window seat and buckled up, turned around only to see the door had been closed and no Dave. In a very nervous voice I called out his name only for him to shout back “hello”.
Yes you’ve guessed it, he was only bloody sat next to the pilot in the cockpit with a grin spread from ear to ear, oh well at least that meant I got a bit of peace for the next 20 minutes. And we did not crash!

We land on a dirt track, there are two impala males going horn to horn on the runway fighting for territory & the female herd. If the 12 seater propeller plane hits them their dominance worries are over (and perhaps mine). Our pilot uses all his skill & many years experience to avoid the showdown. He is 23 and has a tube of pringles on his lap!

We leave the outlook lodge this morning (if your ever in jo'berg stay here!) and fly to tanzania. The moment we land we're millionaires, I hold a 500 shilling note in my hand adorned with pictures of impressive buildings and a majestic rhino, it's worth 20 pence. we check into The Holiday Inn.

I wash my boxers and socks and hang them to dry from the balcony, tomorrow we jump on a 12 seater plane to selous safari camp, our future king and his boys stayed recently. I wonder if they hung their smalls out to dry here?

Our first game drive in the ‘mosi-o-tunya’ park, a small reserve next to Victoria Falls, which turned out to be a successful start to our animal spotting…










Baboon, bison, buffalo, crocodile, elephant, fevet monkeys, giraffe, hippopotamus, impala, warthog, white rhino, wilder beast, zebra and the pet cat from the resort!



But by far the most moving experience was the early morning boat trip back at the lodge. The guide Chris and myself 10 meters off shore in a canoe watching an elephant on the banks of the river and over the next 10 minutes a family group of 30 elephants padded out of the bush to join it, drinking at the waters edge.


An amazing sight to see the bulls guarding on the outer edge of the group, the females along the waters edge watching for crocs whilst the babies drank from the river.

I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat!