   Today we left Kendwa. The four day stay was a real ‘beach’ experience with shoreline both north and south that seemed to go on forever. The air temperature hovered around the low thirties, while the ocean in the upper twenties. We were impressed the beaches were remarkably litter free, not so up in the town or along the highway, but on the beach little rubbish.  We saw evidence in town of a slight effort to contain the nonorganic waste but there’s definitely no infrastructure in place to manage it, remove it. Being an island makes it especially difficult and with drinking water being supplied exclusively in plastic containers the empty ones get scattered everywhere. Hopefully someday there’ll be a solution  and an alternative.

  We really have had a wonderful visit here in Tanzania. The experiences we’ve had have been quite varied and unique. We’ll go home with more open minds and some great memories. 

  We fly out of the Zanzibar airport tomorrow morning heading for Dubai. We’ll stay there overnight, then Wednesday afternoon fly to London first, then on the Vancouver. It’s pretty crazy - we leave Wednesday morning from Dubai and arrive in Vancouver the same day! 



Last day in Zanzibar…

This northern part of the island is noted specifically for its beaches, white fine sand and consequently the numerous sprawling, gated resorts. It seems that most of the tourists are from Northern Europe, probably similar attraction for them as Mexico is for Canadians… The vibe on the long uninterrupted beaches is so different than that up in the actual town where we’re staying (not too surprising, but interesting just the same). Kendwa locals (and real estate investors from wherever) are putting a lot of energy in developing the town’s infrastructure, power and drinking water sources, and ensuring locals are being included in the labour force required. This area will be very different in the near future as everywhere we see construction. Yesterday we took a walk up to the next town north - Nungwi, almost to the northern most point on the island. It too is under a major transformation. We were able to access the beach and walk all the way back to Kendwa before the tide came up too high. This is when we became aware of how much of a resort area this is! The beaches flow one right into the next without obstruction and it’s amazing how many people can be swimming, strolling along without feeling crowded. The sun was very hot, but to our surprise the sand wasn’t (we learned because it’s made up of so much coral…). 
   Today we wanted to explore away from the beach and hot sun. Even though we’ve began to wear hats our skin needs a reprieve! The air temperature today was in the low thirties and the ocean temp in the high twenties. We arranged to go to the east side of the island and take a ‘tour’ of a mahogany forest and an adjacent mangrove forest. It was a good diversion for today, exposing us to another type of environment here on Zanzibar.

   Last night was the beginning of Ramadan. We’ve been pleasantly surprised today that the religious observances of fasting from sunrise to sunset don’t have to apply to everyone! Being such a tourist oriented place food and drink have been available to us with no problem! 

   Tomorrow the tide will be very low in the morning so we plan to make our way down to the beach early. We have yet to actually get in the ocean and swim, wading as we walk along doesn’t count! 
  



Kendwa and surroundings 

   We finally decided it was time to visit our friend, Emmanuel, in his home country of Tanzania (after much discussion over the past couple of years!). Thinking if we left it any longer we might decide it’s too much of a stretch and too challenging to experience a place so unfamiliar. ‘Let’s go before we lose the momentum’, is what we told ourselves. So here we are - in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on a stopover for a few days to catch our breath, get over the fatigue of too many hours of flying and experience this very modern city. We flew from Vancouver to London Sunday night, then on to Dubai. With the time difference we ‘advanced’ twelve hours (not lost…!), so today being Wednesday means we’ll fly on from here tomorrow to Arusha, Tanzania. 
   Dubai, to say the least, is an amazing city, the architecture is phenomenal, many examples seeming to defy gravity! We spent our short day and half visit riding on the extensive metro system exploring as much of the city as we had energy to… Tomorrow will be a ‘travel’ day, filled with all that goes along with leaving one country, the excitement of arriving in another!

Here are some photos from the past few days…

Where the path takes us!

On our way to Tanzania… first stop is Dubai

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Last day in Zanzibar…

Kendwa and surroundings