Travelling by boat

Joining a group of 20 or so tourists from all kinds of backgrounds, we’re off today on a Spice Tour. Zanzibar is famous for its production, export and trading of spices through the ages and these include: lemongrass, cardimon, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, nutmeg, cocoa and coffee plus delicious fruits like mangoes, pineapple and a new one on me: the gluey ‘Jack’ fruit. Along the way we see the plantations, get to try some of the produce and see some interesting sights like a set of persian steam baths, some caves where slaves were kept and spend an hour on a beautiful and deserted tropical beach. It’s a little overcast to be truly special but nice nevertheless.
I enjoy the day more for watching the other people behave in the group than for the activities and both Lizzie and I are extraordinarily quiet and unsociable today.
Dolphins?
It is a nice idea but sadly badly executed by the locals. We go off on a ‘Dolphin’ tour today, pre-warned by the Book that this trip is a little “over-done”. We should have heeded the warning. It is raining again today quite heavily and this doesn’t help. The less said about the whole experience the better really. We (the tourists) are herded around like sheep, forced to hire badly kept snorkel gear, crammed into slippery wooden boats, driven to the site where dolphins swim in the water and then encouraged to dive overboard in a mad splashing panic to catch a glimpse of the beautiful creatures who then have the sense to swim away.
Up to four boats ‘attack’ the dolphins at once and as soon as one wave is over we’re all hauled back on board to repeat the pointless exercise. This is hardly exemplory eco-tourism and Lizzie remains on the boat in defiance of these fishermens’ desperate attempts to make money by exploiting nature. During the time I do actually manage to dive down and swim right above a group of five or six amazing dolphins about 3 or 4 metres down. Some have tiny calves and I can hear them whistling to each other under the water. For me though the beauty was totally detracted from by the hounding ‘we’ gave them (involuntarily) and the end result is disappointment for everyone.
Snorkelling for two
The snorkelling trip is of fine contrast to the dolphin one. Today the sun is shining brightly and we leave Stone Town in a tiny wooden boat captained by our boatman Seff and headed for the tiny Changun (Prison) Island out in the bay. The island houses a population of Aldera tortoise – large, ponderous old creatures who are funny to watch. Seff moors the boat just off the beach and sleeps on the boat in the sun while we swim and snorkel. We are just deep enough to be out of the reach of the coral but shallow enough to attempt a few skin dives to check it out. The water is cold down below which provides relief from the heat at the surface. There are lots of amazing fish.
The only problem is a whole load of jellyfish. I’m sure they’re not the stinging variety but they don’t get out of the way like the fishes do and its disconcerting to be always swimming towards them wherever you turn. For dinner we end up at ‘La Spice Rendezvous’, an Indian/French hybrid restaurant which serves great curries but sadly in far bigger portions than we can eat. Head for bed disappointed we couldn’t finish.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2000 at 11:29 am and is filed under Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.