Location: Jambiani, Zanzibar

The day has finally come: our last real day! Booooo. It feels weird to type that already! The end of a trip always comes so much faster than I think it’s going to.

Pauline and I spent the entire day extra making up for me being a psycho yesterday. Sitting on loungers reading, chatting away as we stuck our feet in the pool and soaking up the last bit of Zanzibari sun. It’s always wonderful every time her and I get back together – it’s easy to just be, which is a great marker of a good travel friend (or friend in general).

Overall I am really happy with the trip, despite some hiccups. We both got sick, I had a bed bug scare, some other safari guests were less than pleasant, the pace of the tour was aggressive, we had a little culture shock and goodness we spent a lot more money than expected.

But all of that still doesn’t negate the best parts of the trip. We got to experience new countries on a new continent and I was reminded that most of what we see in our media is inflammatory. People are just people all over the world, living their lives and I don’t need to be worried just because it’s new and unknown. Everyone has treated us so kindly and been helpful and welcoming. We got to have some incredibly interesting and enlightening conversations with locals and have made some lovely new friends I would cherish seeing again on future travels. I am very excited to return and explore other new countries in Africa now that I’ve had my first taste of this continent.

Speaking of taste we have had some wonderful food! And although it often gets delivered to the table in Africa time (late or maybe never), the Swahili dishes we tried were always fresh and interesting and yummy.

We got to see the Serengeti National Park in all its glory and it exceeded my very very high expectations. Driving down into the Ngorongoro crater out of a heavy fog was an unreal moment, showing us one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth in the early morning sun. So many tears as we got to see lions, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants, leopards, hippos, zebras, giraffes and one zillion gazelles – and that’s just some of the big guys! I won’t forget having a staring contest with a lion anytime soon. I asked Pauline what her stand-outs were and she said really all of day 1 of the safari, seeing a mama lion with 6 babies, the dead elephant circle of life moment, and when she spotted an elephant in the jungle before anyone else. I can confirm she is usually pretty chill but was emoting hard for all of these moments!

G adventures as a company was good – I’ll save my full review for their website but I have learned that maybe I should upgrade to the level 3/5 comfort instead of 2/5. Or maybe not and I just need to be mentally prepared next time for this level of intensity and just like… be less of a baby. Maybe I also need to consider doing the classic age group instead of the 18-30 somethings. I bet they wouldn’t make senior people wake up at 2:30 AM!

We have a taxi coming tomorrow at 6:30 AM to start our excruciatingly long trek home – almost exactly 48 hours start to finish. Good thing I like planes. We are spending tonight packing up, playing cards, enjoying our last sunset and eating some local food. Ultimately I am just happy to have one more evening with my friend before we part ways again.

I have an empty travel calendar for the next while as I save money for *very big* travel plans down the road so I bet my itchy feet will come back with a vengeance by then.

Thanks for following along. Until the next adventure,

Sav

P.S. favourite and most used Swahili words:

• Hakuna matata – no worries / not to worry (this isn’t just a Lion King reference, it is used in daily life here!)
• Mambo – hey (casual)
• Poa – cool / I’m cool (response to mambo)
• Pole – sorry
• Pole pole – slowly
• Haraka – quickly! Hurry up!
• Asante – thanks
• Asante sana – thank you very much
• Karibu – welcome / you’re welcome
• Karibu sana – you’re very welcome
• Maisha marefu – cheers to a long life!