It was very sad saying good-bye to Kathy, Mark and the friendly staff at Sazani Beach. On our travels, this was the longest that we had stayed in any one place and we felt very at home here.
We were picked up by Karim and the taxi headed off to the Kendwa Rocks Resort to catch our boat. This north western side of the island is much busier than the less populated north eastern side, where we had been staying. Clearly the western side is more tourist orientated, with accommodation ranging from 5 Star hotels to backpackers hostels.
Yannick, the manager of the lodge where we will be staying in Tanzania, was there to meet us with his skipper. From Zanzibar to Tanzania was a 42km boat ride and took us around an hour and a half. It was a very smooth ride and we came across a few fishermen in their wooden boats and flocks of birds feeding off shoals of fish. After having watched the ferries arrive and leave from Stone Town to Dar, I was relieved to be travelling with just the five of us in this high speed motor boat. The ferry ride takes 3 hours and is loaded to the brim with people and all their luggage.
We were dropped off on the beach in front of Tulia Beach Lodge, where we will be spending the next 2 nights. We were greeted by Nem (who informed us her ‘nem’ was Nem – ‘her name was Nem’ - took us a while to work this one out), she is a very friendly lady and welcomed us with fresh mango juice. Our huts are again basic but comfortable and right on the beach.
After dumping our bags in our rooms, we headed along the beach, to the lodge next door (where Gray stayed before Zanzibar) to fetch our car and trailer. Along the way we met Kirsty (another one) and Wim, they are involved in a turtle protection program and have an enclosed area, where green turtles have laid their eggs and dates when they will be hatching. They have another area at the local village next door, where eggs have been laid and are due to hatch any day, they have promised to let us know if it happens while we are still here.
It was pretty exciting to see our car, it’s like seeing an old friend, and it was so clean. Robs drove back to our huts on the roof of the car. We then had lunch – fish and chips (Kirst – the fussy one – doesn’t eat fish, so her meals are kind of limited, she is dying for a big steak).
After lunch, the girls and I played board games and then headed next door (the lodges are linked) to swim in their pool and try out their cocktail of the day. As we arrived back, Gareth called us to say Wim had popped past to say a nest of turtles had hatched. We set off down the beach to find Kirsty and a few locals at the nest. The turtles were fairly weak as they had finished the yolk of the egg and would not be strong enough to leave the nest and make it down the beach. We helped her collect the baby turtles and assisted them by taking them down the beach, so they could make their way into the water. This is possibly a once in a life time experience, watching these little reptiles take their first swim into the ocean. We have dived with leatherback turtles in S.A. and it always a great thrill to watch these somewhat ungainly creatures glide under water. The little turtles were about 6cm and as a mature adult they grow up to 1.2m in length and live for around 120 years. Only 1 in a 1000 turtles reach maturity, 40% of the babies don’t make it to the sea as they are eaten by birds and crabs. Adults are often eaten by the locals. With the turtle projects like the one Kirsty and Wim are running, they assist the babies down to the ocean and so the majority of the turtles hatched make it to the sea and they are educating the local community and assisting them financially, as much as possible, to aid in the project.
We returned to Tulia to find that they set our dinner table on the beach, complete with flowers, lanterns and candles. To make the day complete (for Kirst) we had steak for dinner.
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