Sun. 14th July 2013
After all the exertions of climbing Kili for some and game spotting for others, it was good to know we were here for five nights with nothing planned. We spent the morning just chilling on the beach with a bit of blog writing to try and catch up. However we have been very delinquent as I am now back home on a cold November evening dreaming of the summer sun and fun we had in Zanzibar. It was just the best way to end our world trip spending time with Steve, Chris and Lucy catching up on their less adventurous but still interesting year. The only one of us in paid employment is Chris – if you can classify studying for a PhD as employment!
To say life on the east coast of Zanzibar is slow would be an understatement! We have learnt the service will in the hotel is slow but the food is excellent and it is all cooked to order. We know to time our food requests accordingly! After two good meals in the hotel we decided some exercise was in order so headed down the beach to check out Paje town.
Well it is hardly a town as there are a couple of small shops and a few restaurants. We did splash out on four bottles of water and shared the hard work of carrying it back to our hotel as it was quite heavy. We reckoned it was worth the money we saved as we were in town anyway but not worth a special journey.
As we got closer to town we saw many kite surfers reminding Dave & I of Christmas Day in New Caledonia. The shallow waters, breeze and large expanse makes it ideal conditions for the surfers. We loitered a while as the photographers amongst us tried to achieve some action shots. Also the blue sea and sky were amazing and the photos are typical of the beaches everyone dreams of.
The walk into town and back took longer than expected and it was happy hour when we returned to the hotel. The bar man did not seem to know what the Happy Hour deal was but we did get a small discount on our cocktails and beers. We share the beach with the local animals and watch a group of cows wander by. More cards games helped while (or is that wile) away the time to supper and beyond. This is so relaxed we could stay forever.