Zanzibar

The white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters and palm-tree lined roads of Zanzibar became my home for around 2 weeks after I had left Mozambique. Luckily, an old South African Round Square friend (Andrew Morgan) now lives and works on this little island off mainland Tanzania, and so by staying with him and some of his friends around the island I managed to stay my whole time there without paying one single nights accomodation! (although I did take it as my duty to see that the fridge was always well stocked with beer...). So cheers Morgs...
The photo above was taken on one of the snorkelling trips I did. Dont worry the boats that take you out are much safer than they look!

The streets of Stone Town (capital of Zanzibar)

One of the many old-fashioned Indian style doors for which Stone Town has became famous for.

Just passing those lazy hours in the middle of the day...

On a 'sunset cruise', with Dutch friend Freddy in the background (pretending to steer).

Some of the Hotels and Restaurants well out of my price range which line the beach of Nungwi (on the North Coast).

My (much more affordable) accomodation. Yes that is the kitchen.

The guy on the left is the guy who was hosting me in the above 'kitchen-view' accomodation. The rest are his band, performing at a local bar. Many hours were spent lazing around the house jamming various tunes, and Im happy to say I have rediscovered my passion for guitar. Believe it or not they actually invited me to perform some songs with them, and despite bringing down the level of musical talent significantly, I think I did ok.

Hired a motorbike for 2 days to cruise around the island on! (Yes Dad, that is a Honda XR250!)

Hanging with some of the locals.

Yes Dad, that is a Sea-Doo sticking out of the beach!

Attempting to climb a coconut tree. This was as far as I got.

Me taking full advantage of my newly-acquired Scuba diving liscence, with instructor Marianne.

Daniel (the guy on the right) was a local painter who I bought some souvenirs from and who also was keen to show me how to paint African style! So here I am, amazingly, doing art! Wierd I know. I still have the final product to take home with me, so you can judge me on my ability then. The following series of photographs are my entries for best sunset photo competition. (admittedly Zanzibar - and a good digital camera - makes it very easy for you).

Locals doing flips on the beach.

Yeah baby.

M

Tofo

So, where was I? Tofo? Wow, that seems like such along time ago...In fact the time I spent lazing around this beach town in Mozambique spanned roughly the first 10 or so days of August...So yeah, over a month ago. Since then I've been from Zanzibar to Kenya to Ghana (where I find myself right at this moment!) So plenty more blogs to come...(hopefully)

The view from the beach looking back towards the backpackers. The biggest building on the sand dune on the left is the bar/restaurant. Yep, I was literally living on the beach!

Mmmmmm

Me looking very happy with myself at one of the local restaurants with a plate of calamari, chips and salad (tastes better than it looks).

The spanish speaking crew. Rodrigo (Chile), Lucas (Spain), Sebastien (Argentina) and Ignacio (Spain). Cool guys.

The restaurant menu, written on a cardboard box. I was lucky enough to witness a price increase while I was there, obviously due to soaring demand.

Another view of the backpackers from the beach.

The boats that the local tour operators use to do ocean safaris, snorkelling and diving.

So many people talk about the diving in Mozambique. So I thought that while I was here I should do it! This was taken on the second day of our 4-day course, just before we went into the open water for the first time! The girl on the left was my South African instructor, with my Spanish diving buddy Lucas on the right, who was doing the same course as me.

Practising in the pool.

So that was a (very) brief look at my time in Tofo. Lets just say that the rest of my time consisted of very civilized activities, and absolutely no drinking whatsoever.

M