Location: Jambiani, Zanzibar

Good news! I am on the mend! Surprise surprise it’s almost like sleeping well is good for you.

With all my energy I woke up excited for a tour day! I really enjoy tour days, and Dula booked all of us into a famous one here called Safari Blue. A bunch of the group went out clubbing last night until 4 AM and dragged themselves to the breakfast table about 10 minutes before we were leaving.

I’ve never been so happy not to have joined an activity before. While it did produce some great stories I am sad to have missed, my body is sick of my poor life decisions. (Spoiler alert: I will probably make poor life decisions later today).

After a bumpy back road bus ride we made it to a white sand beach and were ushered out into the ocean, walking up to our thighs towards a wooden dhow boat. These boats reminded me a bit of the long tail boats in Thailand, except they have massive sails to conserve fuel when the wind is right.

Our boat captain, Rama, was really enthusiastic and excited to invite us on the boat to show us the literal and figurative ropes. He fed us local snacks, toured us through a mangrove cove and took us snorkelling in the middle of the ocean.

I wanted to try to get a day of diving in but with my congestion I think snorkelling is the next best thing. I was happy to see box fish, puffer fish and trumpet fish all swimming between the larger schools of colourful fishes. All 17 of us floated around, happily pointing out this or that.

They took us to an island for lunch where a massive grilled seafood meal awaited, lobster and giant prawns included. Decorum went out the window when we devolved into eating with our fingers and trying everything that came across the table. My favourite new thing today is halwa, which is like a cinnamon, cardamom and brown sugar jelly with sesame seeds in it. I also really liked eating raw sugarcane it turns out – you just chew it and sweet juice comes out, then you spit out the fibres. Not at all the type of thing I would get back home!

Further inland on the island a massive baobab tree fell down a few hundred years ago, but is still alive so we went to climb it! I knew baobabs were big because on our safari Isaac mentioned that some Maasai people will live inside them… but I still didn’t expect it to be THIS big. Over 15 people were crawling all over it and more could have easily fit. Just running my hands along the bark it was clear that this thing was ancient, and Dula said it is more than 500 years old!

I was a little sad that so many people had carved their names into it and that there was a lot of garbage in the surrounding forest, but it was still wonderful to see one of these majestic trees up close.

We returned to the hotel and quick quick cleaned ourselves up for what is our final dinner with the whole safari crew. Most of them are leaving to go home tomorrow. It’s weird that it’s almost over but I am very glad Pauline and I booked a few extra days on our own to go at our preferred pace!

We are about to head out to dinner at a fancy Italian place nearby and I have resolved that if the group wants to have a fun night out tonight, then my body will just have to handle it. I’ve skipped all the other late night shenanery for the past 10 days in favour of sleep so that I would be sure not to miss out of anything, and I got sick anyway! So booo to responsible decisions!

Wish me luck!

Sav