Ras Nungwi Beach Hotel

... Green Prissy B!#%h Potato", A3 was Ashlov (German swearword...) and M was dubbed The Wasp after her wasp sting, among many others. We introduced ourselves to our 3 new people as these names, haha!
So the morning afterwas a trip on the ferry where we adopted a dutch couple who weren't really sure what they were doing so tagged along ...

... ready for our tropical island destination. The diet and nutrition in africa is really something.... having a diet of chips, chicken, rice and beans is regarded as perfectly fine... the teachers I work with freaked out when I bought to school some raw vegatables and ate them like carrot and tomato and lettuce. I think they are very used to cooking all veggies, which is fair enough when you think about the illnesses etc

So the Dar Express was long ...

... about 2 and a half hours to cross the channel separating the island from mainland. The sea was a bit rough, and several people were getting sea sick, but I was fine. To my surprise, we had to clear customs and immigration again in Zanzibar, even though it's part of Tanzania. The first three nights we were going to stay in Kendwa, in the North West corner of the island, which has some of the best beaches, and of course, the famous Full Moon party. How lucky, were ...

Mmmm – white sand, blue sea, sunshine, hammocks, and a beautiful room with a huge mosquito netted bed and an ensuite bathroom – what's not to like. We did as little as possible, making the most of the hammocks, swimming, taking gentle strolls on the beach, collecting sea shells and eating coconut curries.

C.

... wind and current weren’t playing ball and the mission was aborted! Still we did get to see hippos scarily close up!

We’d been told of a reasonably priced beach resort close to Pangani and decided to check it out for a couple of nights before heading back inland to the mountains. Peponi beach resort is lovely (Peponi means paradise in Swahili!) and we rented a tent pitched under a bamboo shelter. The resort has its own dhow and run daily snorkelling trips which we took ...

... to make our way back. The man was wrong about the tides, we left the village at 11.45 just to make sure, but found we were cut off at the first corner - it wasn't too deep, just up to our ankles, so we continued on, the next point we were cut off, it was around shin deep so we tried clambering over the rocks with the sea swirling in around us. We got round that corner, then there was another small stretch of beach and some more rocks to ...

... I was feeling slightly better (and Karl was thoroughly bored) I ventured out along the beach to the South of the hotel and saw a very different scene. We were in fact at one end of Nungwi beach, which when the tide comes half way in causes little sandy bays with many hotels and restaurants perched on the rocks above. It all felt a little crammed in, but the beaches were beautiful golden sand. We walked the 20-30 mins to Kendwa beach, which we found was absolutely ...

... and Bheirger. Another early start - get on a deathtrap Dalla Dalla (15 seater bus, 30 crammed in) heading for the border at Songwe. We laugh as 3 students from Northumbria end up being made to pay twice. That soon changes as we realise the tickets we bought for onward travel from the border to Chitimba in Malawi are part of a big scam. So instead all 5 of us + backpacking gear somehow fit into a 4 seater taxi driven by that kid from Different Strokes ...

... acceptable outcome for me The evening is spent as usual at the bar with a comfy chair, a couple of beers, and the backgammon board, tonight its a 1-1 draw, other people play scrabble, 3 in a row, or omali (mao mao) After supper (squid starter, fish curry main, choc mousse dessert - magnificent) we do the normal night time ritual - crab chasing and hammock star gazing The crab chasing is good fun, but anyone that sees it must think we are ...