29th of May
Hello everybody! Hopefully we have internet access again today and can bring you up-to-date again with exciting news and pictures. The last two days were really amazing!
Last night tom didn‘t feel to well and had stomach problems. During the night he had to worship the porcelain altar (as an old friend of mine use to say). But we also heard the rhinos at night very close. And before sunrise we could see two of them right in front of our cabin. An amazing sunrise and then they drive us to the airport where peter is waiting with his cessna c206. While taking off, there are some zebras and giraffes next to the runway bidding us farewell. The plane is pretty noisy and after 2 1/2 hours we land in dar.
Herr bürgi did a big service at the plane and it looks like new again; meaning also washed. Table is fixed and everything works perfectly. Thank you very much!
We take off and are flying low over dar and east towards unguja, better know as zanzibar. There are many planes at the airport and we are surprised how efficient they work here. It seems like a major tourist destination. The driver brings us to zanzibar town with its famous stone town. Since it is a world heritage site, we booked a hotel right in the center of it. Supposedly one of the best in town and with one of the best restaurant in africa.
When we drive through downtown, we are not sure anymore whether we are at the right place. This run down place a world heritage site?? Buildings are crumbling and cleaness has another definition than stone town. Our driver does not know the zanzibar palace hotel – another great sign! Finally we find it and get greeted by a dutch who is managing the place. The rooms really look great and we decide to stay here. We also get to know the belgium cook, supposedly one of the best in africa. Rainer and me decide to have lobster and barracuda for dinner; tom passes since his stomach is still no fine. The chef also recommends a good south african wine that we order. He has to go shopping now for all these things.
We decide to do a sightseeing walk on our own and are amazed how run down the place is. We walk along the seafront where the kids are playing, passing some bit old houses and decide to visit beit el-sahel, the house of wonders. The former sultan‘s palace is now zanzibar‘s national museum. The museum is in a sad state but they have an interesting special exibition about one of the sultan‘s daughters who married a german trader. Sad ending like most love stories.
From around the 8th century shirazi traders from persia established settlements in the archipelago; and between the 12th and 15th centuries, zanzibar became a powerful city-state, exporting slaves, gold, ivory and wood, and importing spices, glassware and textiles. In the early 16th century zanzibar came under portuguese control. Omani arabs in the id-16th century routed the portuguese and by the early 19th century had become so prosperous that in the 1840s the sultan of oman relocated his court here from the persian gulf.
I 1862 zanzibar became independent from oman, although omani sultans continued to rule under the british protectorate. In 1963 zanzibar gained independence and in 1964 signed a declaration of unity with tanganyika (mainland tanzania, forming the union with the new united republic of tanzania.
We watch the sun setting over the mainland and walk back through countless, narrow allies to the hotel. The place reminds us somehow of dubrovnik, croatia, where we were with the bikes two years ago. Except there it was a bit different…
There is wifi at the hotel and the internet even works reasonably fast. The webmaster tries to upload the pages of the last three days; and goes up the walls. He gets all kind of error messages that he doesn‘t understand! He tries at least 8 times to upload; without success. Do our dear followers have to wait another couple of days?
Dinner at the hotel is outstanding; simply the best meal we had in whole africa so far. And so is the south african cabernet. I try to upload all evening – no success. The system is now really slow! So we go to bed and i give it another try. Maybe it works while we are sleeping in our nice suites.
Today we left safari life in ruaha behind and flew back to the coast to zanzibar. Not only is the name of this ancient town exotic, so is also the history and the stone city itself.
30th of May
It is raining during the night and first thing in the morning: i check the mac. Another error message!! But somehow it uploaded part of the page. I try again while i take a shower. All of a sudden there is a power cut and the famous error message pops up. Now i know the reason; there must have been many power cuts one does not even realize! So i give it another try and this time it seems to work!! After 45 minutes without power interruption i finally succeed!! What a relief; our people at home have something to do now on this sunday morning.
Breakfast is as good as dinner and we decide to implement the plan we discussed yesterday over dinner: leave this super hotel and the crummy stone town and go to the beach. Rainer books 3 rooms at the fumba beach resort, supossedly 5 star, and colls the driver. He is half hour late but around noon time we arrive finally at the beach. The cabins are nice, the pool ok and the beach wonderful. Except that the sea is gone – low tide.
The dutch receptionist tells us that power breaks here are very frequent; actually the whole island did not have power for three months in jan-march. The government did not have any diesel anymore. And diesel is a rare commodity for hotels these days.
Anyway, we hit the pool, update the diary, plan the future route and relax. Weather is postcard like and the sea has at least 30 degrees. Hang lose! Drinks at the bar where jet pilot tom is the hero followed by a dinner with the pilots on a romantic honey moon lounge over the water. What can you ask for more!!
