Having not seen the beach when we arrived the night before, but having seen the lights in the distance it's was interesting to wake up and find we were looking out onto an island. There are, in fact, a number of islands off the Tanzanian coast, obviously Phemba and Unguja that make up Zanzibar being the most famous and prominent. South Beach is a beautiful stretch of white sand with a number of hotels and campsites littered along it's length. As Martin had advised us in Tanga, it's hard to imagine you're in Dar Es Saalam but in fact you are merely in a suburb on the other side of the river.

We opted for a late morning ferry so that Sarah and Joey would have a chance to look at the tanzanite shop in the city before boarding. After packing all our stuff we left our car at Sunrise campsite as it would be most practical to return here for the night when we got back. Taxis are always a dogshow for a tourist, perhaps anywhere in the world. We had agreed to pay TZS 7000, which had to go up to TZS 25000 ("we thought you wanted to go to the ferry to cross the harbour") and immediately he started hussling us to buy ferry tickets from his friend. We demanded to be taken to the official ticket office and had to walk when he dropped us among the touts. In the main office they warned us that many people are mislead and scammed here, buying incorrect class, false times etc. so we were glad to get an official ticket. And at the same price so go figure!

It turns out there is a whole street of Indian tanzanite traders, and Sarah and Joey had a look while Ant kept the bags by the ferry. The prices were much the same as South Africa but the settings were less pretty so we left empty-handed. Back to the chaos of the ferry jettys and we boarded at noon for our 12:30 departure. We had been advised to take the Kilimanjaro III (the name is synonymous with just about every marketable product in Tanzania!) and we paid $5 extra ($40pp) for a first class ticket that got us big comfy seats, aircon and no crowds. This worked out well as soon as the rain started pelting down on the ferry for most of the trip. Unfortunately it was quite bumpy so Sarah and Joey were a bit jumbled up and sea-sick, but the international quality Bollywood movie kept us mildly entertained as well as Sarah's supplies!

We arrived on the island to a torrential downpour and although it was only an 800m walk to the hotel, being harassed constantly and thoroughly drenched would not be fun so we opted again for a taxi. It's a one-way route through Stone Town so the taxi trip was in fact quite a lot longer. Zanzibar is in most respects a separate nation to mainland Tanzania to the extent that we had to go through immigration to get onto the island.

We found the Abusso Hotel where Uncle Archer is living and quickly settled in to our room. Even though it's a no star hotel the luxury was far greater than the last few nights' camping and we really appreciated that. Back on the street again we immediately found Archipelagos restaurant and had a quick coffee before exploring the House of Wonders, a museum dedicated to Zanzibar's culture and history, one of the Sultan's old palaces. There is a lot of interesting content but it is just such a shame that nobody cares to preserve the building and it is looking very decrepit, especially the top floor.

That evening we met Uncle Archer and went out to one of his favourite spots, the Traveller and we all enjoyed hearty meals watching kids playing soccer on the beach in the sunset and then later the eerie fishing dhows silently slinking off into the night.

The next morning we headed out early in Uncle Archer's car to explore the Northern part of Zanzibar Island. First stop was a small cove beach just North of Stone Town where we explored around the coral rocky beach. Ant managed to stand on an urchin when swimming in the beautiful turqousie water that initiated a quick return to the car.

Zanzibar when you drive through its villages looks like anywhere else in Africa: desperate and impoverished. Here the government is only funded locally 17% of its budget, the rest being international donor aid. It's really is a stark contrast to the unbelievable shore line lined with expensive hotels and spending tourists.

In Nungwi we explored a few accommodation options before settling down to some pizza. The Italian tourism industry is big in Zanzibar and many hotels purely target Italians. Understandably all the restaurants now sell pizza and pasta. The beach is nice in that it does not have coral immediately lining the shore providing great swimming during both tides which we enjoyed. The water is crystal clear, warm and light blue, and the sand soft and almost pure white.

We explored the North East side of the island and chose our accommodation there before heading back to Stone Town, stopping for a drink at a South African sports bar to enjoy some of the England vs SA test match. In the evening, Joey and Ant decided to check out the food at the local market. We had some pancakes and beef skewers but on recommendation avoided the huge tables of sea food, even though they did look inviting.

The next morning we were up early for our included breakfast before heading to church, arriving slightly late for the 8am service. There was a new Anglican priest from America who preached a powerful message on John the Baptist to a congregation of about 25 people, including visitors. The chapel was wide enough to have three in a row, but it is an aside from the church which has a much larger Swahili service. After church we had a horrible cup of spiced coffee "for the experience" Uncle Archer said.

On Sunday we explored the south of the island, visiting the odd ruin to have a look and taking walks on the beach. We visited the famous Zanzibar picture of The Rock restaurant but chose rather to have a drink at the vibey shoreline hotel there. Uncle Archer dropped us at Waikiki where we had decided to spend the next two nights. It was a more budget resort run by three Italians (Flavio, Alberto and Marcello!) and we had a great room a minute's walk from an awesome swimming beach where they specialise in kite surfing. Our pasta dinner was mediocre but paying $8-$10 made it worse (Flavio blames the pasta for having to cook it al dente and obviously there's a reason why seafood was not all that good in it either!).

Early next morning we set out after a reasonable breakfast for Memba Island, perhaps the most idyllic place you'll ever see. A short bus trip to a boat that takes you out to the island and you are in truly the most fantastic waters. Teeming with life it is a coral reef that surrounds the island is a conservancy area. You aren't allowed access to the island, which solely supports an exlusive AndBeyond lodge (think $1700pppn) but we spent an hour snorkelling and enjoying the perfect coral reef. We were even able to swim with the dolphins that swam past to welcome us on our arrival.

The afternoon was spent snoozing and relaxing before a long walk down the beach. We intended to find a better place to have dinner but ended up getting bounced from the smart hotels and being forced to run the gauntlet through all the "beach boys". There is basically only the tourist industry to support the 1 million people who live on the island. All the big money gets scooped by the hotels owned by expats and while the Indians run all the other shops the locals are left to sell boat trips and curios. It really is a terrible situation and sadly so typical of Africa.

In the end it was another night at the restaurant and movies in our bungalow! Tuesday morning was a relaxing saunter down to the beach to swim and a real li-in for the ladies! We organised a taxi to take us back across the island and headed out at 10. We jumped off in Stone Town and Sarah was taken to the airport. We spent another few hours enjoying Stone Town's narrow streets and doing a bit of shopping before having a pizza at Freddie Mercury's, his name a real tourist trump card in Zanzibar.

Trying to buy a ticket we were offered taxis, porters, guides and assistants. The area around the jetty is packed, crowded, unsignposted and a den of deceit. First we were told the Kilimanjaro didn't run at 15:30. Then we were led to another office when asked to get to the official office (still not sure!). Then we had the "manager" of the ferry come to take us elsewhere. With such a saturated tourist industry people will do anything to get your business and playing on your conscience asking you to "just promote" them can be absolutely exhausting but they really are desperate for your business.

The ferry ride back was far rougher! It got to the point where many were going "to get air" and the cabin crew handed out sick bags to everyone. It was the most perfect weather we'd had whilst in Zanzibar so we really didn't expect such swells out at sea. Needless to say we were very glad to be back in Dar on terra firma!

Again the hustle and harassment on the Dar jetty but we got a taxi to take us to Shoprite to do our shopping for the next few days. There is no Nakumatt in Dar (yet) and we forgot about Uchumi so we were left at the under-stocked Shoprite, which really seems to be losing ground in Africa to the other two giants. Our driver wanted TZS 30000 to take us back to Sunrise so we opted to walk across the ferry and got a tuk-tuk on the other side. It ended up costing TZS 14000 (R70) in total but cheaper is always more adventurous! There we were, laden with 8 bags of groceries, a 5l water as well as our bags from Zanzibar, in the throngs of about 2000 people squeezing themselves onto the ferry. Luckily, as always, we managed to make friends with some local maritime students and they helped us carry our stuff and get the tuk-tuk, who's name was "So Much Trouble" but turned out to be a joy!