Zanzibar - Matamwe

After our adventures on Safari we took a plane to Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania and also famously where Freddie Mercury is from.

We spent a week on the island, first on the Eastern side in a district called Matamwe. Here we enjoyed the bright white sand beaches and stayed in a beachside bungalow. The owner of the bungalows had a giant dog named Tiger (who was part great dane and part mastiff of some kind) and a white and black cat named Simba who would occasionally come over and say hello and hang out with us if we were reading on the porch.

In Matamwe we spent lots of time walking up and down the beach, going into the different other beach resorts and using their pools or getting a bite to eat. One day we spent out in the water scuba diving, where we saw many types of fish such as a crocodile fish and a frog fish along with a big octopus and even a little shark who was hiding in the reef.

At the end of our dive we asked to be dropped off at the far end of the beach (to get to the only ATM) but also to then explore other parts of the area. We walked all the way back to our bungalow which was about a three hour walk all along the beach. We had protection from the sun from sunblock and I was wearing lots of scarves.. but we still ended up getting a bit sunburned and decided to take the rest of the day to chill out and relax.

The following day we went down to the beach earlier in the morning and decided to walk all the way out to the Atoll (which was a long sand bank further out in the ocean). This meant that the water coming into land was much shallower than normal, and so we were able to walk pretty far out with the water only reaching to our ankles. However we had to look out because the sandy bottom was also crawling with spiky sea urchins, who were not poisonous but would really hurt if we stepped on one. Lucky we made it out without any injury and we were able to make it to little coral rock pools which were full of little fish and other sea animals who were hiding within the rock formations.

After a while we noticed the water starting to come in, and so we began our journey back. The water was rising at the same rate as we could swim, so as we got closer to shore there were boats driving past where before they would not have been able to go.

The rest of our time in Matamwe we spent relaxing on the beach, eating lots of tasty food and reading our books - and hanging out with Simba and Tiger.