Well, this is my last blog, and I have no photos to offer because we were on the ocean Thursday and Friday - literally. I didn't know what to expect in terms of whether I could keep the camera dry, so I didn't bring it.
With that being said, I am attaching two photos Abdul took on our Safari Blue adventure on Friday. And I did take a portrait of us in front of our Jambiani Villa.
It's my last blog because we intend to do nothing the next two days, our last two days in Zanzibar and the last two days of our two-month adventure.
We're trying to ease back to reality. We watched a John Oliver segment about Kavanaugh and a Samantha Bee segment also. What a mess, and we missed it (thank goodness). I read some stories in the New York Times, but not many, because it makes my stomach turn - for lots of reasons. I also watched PBS NewsHour yesterday, and I hope to watch a live streaming this evening of the third round of the LGPA Hana event. Anywho, I digress.
We went snorkeling Thursday with quite a lively young man - Ibraham - who was a good guide. But, as you may have figured, I'm done with hiking, and the description of the snorkel trip did not say anything about hiking down the beach a quarter of a mile during low tide. And that was after we hiked a quarter of a mile from where the vehicle was parked through a resort (it was a pretty resort with beautiful flowers but….).
The morning began with a half-mile hike down the beach to the other Jambiani Villas, to eat breakfast. It's where the restaurant is located. The first morning we were here, they delivered breakfast but then I was told that they don't have "room service," and they've been taught how to be courteous when declining guests wanting their breakfast delivered. Breakfast is included in our daily rate. Whatever.
Catching my drift? Yep, we had hiked at least a mile before we even got into the boat.
(Beth inserts: Cindy sounds really crabby, but really it's just that her hip hurts, and we are ready to come home : ).
Aw, but once we were in the boat… we were under a motor and went to what they call Blue Lagoon. It was low tide, and it was very calm, and the water was shallow enough that you could float just inches above the coral.
It was about 11 a.m. when the sun is just beginning to be at its burn-your-skin brightest, and we're only six degrees south of the equator. Did we wear shirts? Naw. Should we have worn shirts? Yes.
We snorkeled two sites. Ibraham guided us through the coral so we could see tiger fish and a plethora of other fish that are beautiful but we can't identify. Note to self: know your fishes next time you snorkel.
He also coaxed a large clam to open so we could see it. It was at least 24" across! He even scared up a lion fish. There were about five of them hidden beneath the coral so he kind of harassed one to get him into the open. He was beautiful. You can see why they're called lion fish.
They provided water and fresh fruits between dives.
I must mention the fresh fruit here. It is absolutely excellent. Fresh pineapple is my favorite but we've had watermelon, oranges, coconut, papaya, mango, passion fruit - all fresh and so yummy. The fruit juices here also are wonderful.
We snorkeled for about an hour and got back to our villa about 3 p.m. Went immediately into the pool, where we remained until we cooked up some hash for supper. The hash consisted of potatoes, onions, some chicken I previously grilled and some "beef sausages," which are really hot dogs. We bought a package of them, and I swear there were 30 in the package so I'm obligated to eat most of them before we leave Monday afternoon. :
Friday was another adventure that began at 6 a.m. We were up around 5:15 a.m., ate some toast and drank some coffee - and greeted the sunrise.
First thing: the driver who picked us up (can't remember his name) had an odd comment as we were driving to our first spot of the day. He said he felt like he was the car with his father and mother. We didn't know exactly how to respond so we questioned him about his parents. Ha!
A 30-minute drive and we arrived at Kizimkazi Mtendeni, a fishing village on the west coast of Zanzibar. Apparently, the village used to be a walled city but now is home to lots of boats for hire to take tourists off shore to watch bottlenose dolphins and swim with them. Our guide hired a boat called "Ladies Free" to take us to find dolphins because we were supposed to swim with them.
The ocean was pretty rough with swells about three feet high, which made the boat rock pretty good. We motored around for at least an hour and didn't see any dolphins Our guide, poor guy, got sick and was hanging over the edge of the boat throwing up. Finally, we spotted some boats on our way back to disembark and, sure enough, there was a pod of about 10 dolphins BUT there also were a pod of about 20 boats, all of which raced to the dolphins. It was insanity, much like the land safaris when the wildebeest were thought to be crossing. We felt sorry for the dolphins. Neither of us had any desire to throw ourselves in the water to swim with the dolphins 1) because it would be difficult to get back in the boat for two old women with a three-foot swell and 2) we needed to return because we had to drive to our next spot and be there by 9 a.m. (Beth adds: 3) we didn't want to get run over by the boats.)
Another drive to a launch where, again, there were several boats. Most all of them had at least 20 people on them but we paid for the Safari Blue Deluxe so we got our own dhow for the day with four crew members.
After wading some distance (it was low tide), we successfully boarded the dhow and took off. We were under motor for about 45 minutes before we stopped and two crew members stepped off onto a "private island," where they took ashore various cooking items and coolers.
We continued to Kwale Sandbank where there were at least eight boats with people in the water snorkeling. We chose to continue to the other side of the island where Abudl wanted to show us a baobob tree. A boat of Muslim women landed with their various items for sale at what was sort of a bazaar area set up for all those people who were snorkeling and visiting the sandbar. Abdul helped carry items. We were not asked to help, which was fine as - you guessed it - we hiked a quarter of a mile in the hot sun over slippery rocks at low tide.
The baobob tree was interesting because it looked like it had been blown over, yet the roots were reaching down and the tree began growing on its side, and up from the felled trunk section. We were invited to climb it - yeah, whatever. I declined; Beth tried it but didn't get too far, as there was a step so high she couldn't do it.
We hiked back to the boat and went back to the snorkeling spot. Everyone else was on the sandbar so we were pretty much the only people snorkeling - for a little while.
We snorkeled for about an hour, and the site was quite different from the previous day's site. The water was deeper so the coral was much larger, and we saw some different fish such as the rock fish. We also saw an octopus.
I struggled getting my fat butt into the boat but finally did so and we motored back to the private island where we were served lunch: coconut rice with a traditional tomato stew; a salad of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and carrots (did I say carrots are big thing here too?); deep-fried octopus (which was chewy and pretty good); some kind of fish; shrimp; and rock lobster. Yep, it was delicious, and we felt very pampered.
Abdul and the others erected some shade for us (see attached photo), and we took a brief nap after lunch. Abdul and the others napped longer than we did.
We watched crabs excavating the sand, where they live. They don't live in the water. So we watched them get closer and closer to us, as the tide was coming in, and our little strip of beach was getting smaller and smaller - waiting for the boys to awaken.
It was late afternoon, probably around 4 p.m. before we left the island - under sail this time - to the mainland.
All in all, it was a terrific day although we were a little alarmed that one of the crew members was constantly bailing water from the dhow when we weren't in it. But we did notice a life jacket (yes, just one jacket) on this boat. There were no life jackets on the boat the previous day.
We were very pampered, and Abdul was pole pole (slow) and patient with us.
We were pretty much exhausted when we got back to our villa around 5:45 p.m. We did our best to stay awake until a reasonable hour but we took a nose dive around 9 p.m.
We rested well and got up around 7 a.m. and hiked down for breakfast.
We are going to do nothing the remainder of the day nor tomorrow (Sunday) hike to breakfast, swim, read and relax before Ozman picks us up at 2 p.m. Monday for our arduous trip home: we leave Zanzibar at 5:30 p.m., arrive in Doha at midnight, fly from Doha at 6:50 a.m. (yes, we'll be in the airport overnight for nearly seven hours) to Chicago - a 13-hour flight; a couple of hours in Chicago before we leave around 4:30. Destination: La Crosse at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Abdul brought his phone (everyone here has cell phones) and took this photo of him and us when we landed to go view the baobob tree.
He also took this photograph of us lounging in the shade he and the others erected for us and before we were served lunch that included octopus, shrimp, fish and rock lobster.
Consider this a self-portrait of us at our Jambiani villa in Zanzibar. :)
I sure did enjoy traveling with you! David
ReplyDeleteWhat a great trip. Thanks for taking us along. Chad
ReplyDelete