Raining on the beaches

Trip Start Jan 22, 2008

Trip End Aug 22, 2008

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

jambo brothers

(Nungwi hotels)

Flag of Tanzania Nungwi, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
Saturday, July 19, 2008

As we travelled up the coast on full moon party night we did not stop at Kendwa since all the rooms would have been booked up so instead continued to Nungwi in the north. Also when we arrived in Kendwa it was on a really pot holed dirt track and all we saw was the back of a couple of hotels it really did not look very nice at all and I thought perhaps Nungwi would look better.

When we turned up at Nungwi , however , it was a similar story of a dirt track road through a poor village and we arrived at the one story ensuite rooms on the beach, Jambo Brothers (Us$40), with what seemed very little around. The place was not at all like we were expecting of the big tourist destination of Zanzibar. We went out of our hotel and headed north and only saw a couple more hotels, spread along the beach that were covered in dhows and fishermen mending their nets and ended up at an Aquarium which contained sea turtles. We thought that perhaps we were not near the main resort and had gone somewhere completely different

nungwi

.

From then on my time in Nungwi went downhill since I started my stomach upset and was in bed for 2 days, while Karl went and kept the beach cafes going with his beer drinking! That is a little unfair.. he came and checked up on me every few hours to make sure I didn't want anything, but I wasn't much fun! At least it kept raining so I didn't feel too annoyed that i wasn't able to top up the tan!

Once 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 beautiful - with wide stretches of golden beach (even at high tide) and only a few hotels that may have been crammed in on the road but looked pretty spaced out on the beach - all with large beach restaurants. We found the price of one of the cheapest basic double's in the area was US$60 and the food was a little more pricey, but it would have been worth it to stay there - if you were feeling well of course

dhows

! The clear blue seas were stunning... even under the dark cloudy skies. unfortunately we had to head back to Nungwi before the tide came back in or get a 10,000Tsh/US$10 boat back.

In the evening a couple of bars have campfires and music, but apart from that it still wasn't as loud and brash as we thought it was going to be. karl was very bored of the choice of food - burgers, pizzas, chips, meat mainly (oh and seafood for about US$15 ) and there was nowhere to really just get a cheap snack. Beers ranged from 1500-4500Tsh and that wasn't even in the expensive hotels! It just felt like we were on a package holiday and it really wasn't to Karls liking at all. Was good to see some local dancers in a restaurant though for entertainment on my one and only night out!

The next day we were going to head to the East of the Island to see the other beaches but the rain just bucket'ed down and therefore we decided to head back to the mainland (and ended up feeling completely sick on the rough seas instead!)