Our first night in Tanzania was spent just out of the chaotic capital city Dares Saalam. The next morning we headed off in 2 seater tuk-tuks to the ferry wharf to make our way to the tropical island paradise called Zanzibar. The line just to get through immigration and onto the ferry was absolute nutters. People pushing and shoving, pretty much doing whatever they could to get onto that ferry first. In 30 degree heat, at 9 in the morning, with a combination of fish market smells, rubbish tips and people's BO it was definitely an experience. But boy was it worth it! Zanzibar exceeded all my expectations and that was before I had even discovered the beach. Stone Town alone was just incredible. Our instructions once we hit Stone Town were to just "get lost" as it was full of little alleys with hidden shops and markets, with some fantastic little restaurants like a Spanish wine and tapas bar, Indian buffet style restaurants and Italian gelaterias. Stone town really was something different for me as I heard people describe it as similar to parts of Morroco and Istanbul in Turkey, which are all countries that are still yet to come for me.

For dinner on our first night in Zanzibar we headed to the night street markets where you could find any type of cuisine all cooked fresh infront of you at prices you could bargain for. It reminded me so much of Pai in Thailand as we got these delicious chicken kebab/schwarma wraps with garlic sauce and lettuce. And for dessert, nutella pizzas (who could complain!)

The following morning we had a 2 hour spice tour which involved guessing the spices of a number of plants, drinking and eating coconuts and trying some different African fruits. After this, we headed to the beach which had been described as heavenly by a number of people I'd spoken to. White, cocaine-like sand combined with the warmest, crystal clear blue water with a number of activities to keep you entertained including wind-surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling, jet-skiing, parasailing, kayaking and ofcorse just swimming. As we arrived at our beach front resort, the sun was shining strong and just made me feel so blissful. For a lot of people, this was their first time swimming in really warm ocean water which was really exciting to watch as the couldn't believe the temperature. The whole vibe of Nungwi Beach was just so Bob Marley, chilled and jammin'. Very similar to Byron Bay but with less surf and warmer, crystal clear water. I could have very easily spent a week there, and hopefully we will come back sometime.

The second day at the beach, we had organised a group snorkeling tour which was really fantastic. It was some of the best snorkeling I had ever done, with so many different colourful fish, starfish and sea urchins - a turtle even happened to be released the day we were there. The only thing it was missing was the insanely bright coral colours however the fish were enough to make me happy. There were about 20 of us on the boat but only 5 from our G-adventures group. The majority of our snorkeling boat were all Norwegian student teachers which made my tent buddy Anna very happy to have people to speak her language with. Since we call Anna "Norway" dad named the Norwegian student teaches "Norway 2 to 14" as it was too hard to remember everyone's names.

Later that evening we had a group seafood dinner down on the beach followed by a wild beach party - Zanzibar style. However we made a quick stop to the grocery store to buy a few beers and a bottle of rosé first (to save money) and get the party started a little bit early. It was very awkward because I told Norway 2 - 14 to all come to the beach party however they came at 10pm and it was still pretty dead then … Luckily by 11 it was so packed you could barely move, there was people dancing everywhere - on the dancefloor and around the fire. Anna and I were very pleased to see all these people come however we have no idea where they came from. After 11 it all turned into a blur (as usual) but photos seen the next day suggest that I had a really great time. Shots of Konyagi (local stuff - often leaving people blind the next morning if consumed excessively), dancing or rather jumping with Maasai warriors (not sure how legit this was - as I'm pretty confident that the nomadic Massai tribe who drink goats blood mixed with milk and live in mud huts, don't party on the beach of Zanzibar too regularly) and going for night swims in the warm ocean in between time spent on the DF. It was a pretty awesome party!

Our final night was spent back at Stone Town where we all went to the Spanish Wine & Tapas Bar for dinner, which was scrumptious. A perfect way to end a wonderful 4 days in Zanzibar, before we adventure off into the Serengeti and Ngorogoro crater. I really, really enjoyed Zanzibar and would recommend anyone to come here if they were in Tanzania. It really is very different to the other parts of Tanzania.

Catch you on the flipside!