Days 10-16:

From Arusha we had two drive days ahead of us to reach Dar es Salam, from there we would catch the ferry to Zanzibar island. The first night we stayed in a very nice campsite about halfway between the two called the White Parrot Campsite. It had nice little hedges around the grass where you could put your tent. It was my turn to cook again and we made burgers with potato wedges and salad, everyone really liked them. The next day we got to Dar es Salam in the early afternoon and we relaxed by the pool and on the beach. The campsite had some dogs running around and when we woke up in the morning one of them was asleep outside of our tent, so we had our very own security gaurd!!

At 8am we got into tuk tuk's to take us to the ferry. It was quite funny how they dart in and out of the traffic and push in the queue of traffic for the ferry. We were in first class on the ferry and it had air conditioning so it was a nice change to be cool!! The ferry crossing took 2hours and whilst on the ferry we watched a film about a tribe in the jungle but the only prioblem was it was all in a foreign language! When we got to Stonetown we met Isacc our tour leader while we were in Zanzibar. He took us to our hotel called Safari Lodge. Our room had two double beds, air conditioning and a massive fan, ensuite with bath and shower, a very nice change from a tent. After putting our things in our room we went back downstairs for the Spice tour.

We all got into a very nice air conditioned bus and drove about 15minutes to a house, this was where we were going to have lunch. There were lots of cushions on the floor for us to sit on whilst we ate. We had some tuna, rice and a red spicy sauce and a yellow spicy sauce. When we had finished we got back on the bus and drove a few minutes to a farm. This is where the spice tour began.

A man showed us around the farm areas pointing out all the different plants, letting us smell them and sometimes taste them as well. We saw things such as nutmeg, lemon, jack fruit and liche. There were other people following us around making things for us out of banana leaves. We all had a banana leaf basket to collect the spices in but they also made rings, watches and ties out of the leaves and the best was a frog necklace. When we came to some coconut tress a man climbed up a tree to get some coconucts for us to try. It was very hot walking around the fields and non of us had any drinks or anything we were quite glad when it finished actually and were pleased to get back on the cool bus.

In the evening we went to a local food market where we had Zanzibar Pizza, which isnt really like a pizza at all, more like an omlette / pancake. It was like a pancake mixture with what looked like the filling of a shepards pie inside. It was quite nice actually, I wasnt very keen by the look of it but it didnt taste too bad.

The next morning we got back on the nice air conditioned bus and drove to Kendwa beach where we were staying at the Sunset Bungalows. Again the rooms were very nice and had a big fan on the ceiling. We spent the afternoon chilling on the beach and paddling in the sea.

The next morning we went snorkling. We went on a speed boat further around the island to where there is some coral and began snorkling. There were lots of brightly coloured fish including ones from Nemo. I also saw star fish, eels and sea urchins. I was impressed with myself as I could actually snorkle this time as last time I couldnt keep my mouth shut!! We got back on the boat and the guides gave us some mango and pineapple to eat. Whilst we were driving back to the mainland we passed some dolphins and we were allowed to jump off the boat and swim along with them. They were really amazing but the problem was they were such fast swimmers we couldnt keep up, we kept getting back in the boat and catching up with them and then jumping back in. Once the dolphins were swimming quite low and we were on top of them looking down. There were about 6 of them and one was a baby one. After that we continued back to the beach and just chilled out again in the afternoon.

The next morning I went swimming with turtles. We drove about 15minutes down the road to an aquarium where they have turtles that fishermen accidently catch in their nets. They look after them for a few weeks before returning them to the sea. The lagoon that had the turtles in at first looked green and slimy and we werent very keen to go snorkling in it. When we saw the turtles we decided to go in but not snorkle as we could stand up onthe bottom. There were 15 turtles in the lagoon, some were big ones and some were smaller. The man gave us some seaweed to feed them. They would swim past you and use your leg or body to push off by pushing against you with their legs. They have quite big mouths and you had to be careful they didnt bite you when giving them the seaweed, they also squirt water out of their nose to breathe. Afterwards we went to see some baby turtles which we could hold. Most people got ones that kept flapping their legs about but mine kept perfectly still, I had a good one. Then we went back to the beach.

In the evening we went for a sunset cruise as it was our last night in Zanzibar. We got on a sail boat and rode up and down the coast watching the sun go down over the Indian ocean. A beautiful end to a beautiful stay on Zanzibar.

The following day we travelled back to Stonetown, caught the ferry back to Dar es Salam, this time an open air ferry. We stayed at the same campsite as we did before where we were reunited with Shaggy our big yellow truck and our tents!!