   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 

It’s hard to believe we’ve been able to cover so much ground and seen so much wildlife in its natural habitat over these past  couple of days. It’s been fast paced and exhilarating. Clause, our guide, has been insistent we can’t go home without seeing the ‘big five’ - Lion,  Cape Buffalo, Leopard, Elephant, and Black Rhinoceros… Today, we accomplished our mission! The rhino sighting was pretty special, we actually saw three - off in the distance (as with most of the animals we saw today), but we saw them.

We spent the day yesterday driving in the southern Serengeti, crisscrossing the savanna. It’s vast enough that driving off-road is allowed so we could get close to many of the animals who don’t seem phased by the tourists as long as we stay in our vehicles - pretty crazy! Today we drove in a different direction taking us into the Ngorongoro crater. It’s a huge flat grasslands thought to have been created about 2.5 million years ago when a volcano erupted creating a crater. It’s now a beautiful lush savanna, home to an abundance of different species, both fauna and flora. We ended our day in the town of Karatu in a peaceful lodge with lush tropical surroundings - Eileen’s Trees lodge.

Where the path takes us!

South Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater

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Last day in Zanzibar…

Kendwa and surroundings