We were woken up at 4:00 by a particularly loud, vocal and zealous Muslim prayer, we had a repeat session at 5:00. There is no order or specific timing to these broadcasts but I guess, with 99% of the population being Muslim, we have to go with the flow.
After our rooftop breakfast, we packed and our taxi driver, Karim was waiting for us, he was ½ hour early. We meandered through the alleys, with all our bags, to the ‘parking area’ and set off north through Zanzibar Town and then headed to the coast at Nungwi The trip took about an hour; after Zanzibar Town we drove through the rural areas, where the houses are pretty run down. We passed a number of schools where the school uniforms are traditional Muslim clothes.
I guess we must have travelled most of the length of the 52 mile long island (it is around 25 miles wide), to reach Sazani Beach Lodge – where we will be staying for the next 5 nights. This is going to be a huge hardship!!! Our bungalows are on this tropical beach, with white sand, clear azure waters and hammocks hung under trees for us to lounge in after we have dipped in the calm, warm Indian Ocean waters. Sazani Beach Hotel is plain and comfortable, not fancy or pretentious but with all the natural beauty around us, we could ask for nothing more.
After dropping off our bags in our rooms (the beds were all decorated with bougainvillea flowers) and being treated to some tropical fruits, we headed down to the beach for a swim. The area reminds me a lot of Inhasorra (sp?) on the Mozambique coast and certainly rivals any of the Indian Ocean Islands. After a swim and a chill on the beach it started to rain, perfect timing as we felt a little peckish, so we headed off to the dining room, an open plan structure overlooking the sea. The menu varies each day and is dependent on local fresh produce, such as the catch of the day – it just happened to be my favourite, Tuna, which had been caught this morning.
As we finished lunch, the rain stopped and so it was back to the beach and hammocks. The hammocks are causing much hilarity, as we have not quite mastered the delicate balance of climbing on and settling into them without doing a 180° flip and landing in the sand, Panda has kept us particularly amused with his ungainly flips. I must say, the thought of my friends and colleagues having to work, in the Johannesburg winter, while I relax in paradise, has left me feeling a little guilty.
In the evening, we went to the bar area, an open plan hut with beach sand floors and tried various tropical drinks, Mango and Malibu was my favourite – not sure if this would work in Johannesburg but with the sea and palm trees around, it was perfect.
Dinner was delicious, everything is so fresh, I just love the delicate balance of spices that is used to bring out the flavour in all the food. We met the owner of the hotel, a lady from the UK, who built a house on the land but according to law cannot own property on the sea without using it for commercial purposes, hence the few bungalows where we are staying.
Being low season, there are only 3 other guests here. After dinner, one of the guests, on hearing we were South Africans joined us, Norman is Zambian and is high up in the Comic Relief Organisation and in charge of distributing money to organisations around the world, including the Nelson Mandela Children’s fund. He greeted us in Zulu and is clearly well connected in political circles. He is married to a Scottish lady and has been living in Scotland for the past 20 years, he is a personal friend of Kenneth Kaunda and has offered to organise us a visit with him, if he is in town and when we return to Zambia. Not sure all this will come together but it would be hugely exciting if it did.
The hammock, Gray is on the sand below
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