Is "Zanzibar" the coolest name for an island in the world? Yes.

As we boarded the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam we made a point of sitting outside to enable an easy escape should the worst occur. Just 7 days later the worst did occur on a ferry leaving Zanzibar and 200 lives were lost. Tragedies like this are a good reminder of our own mortality, and I can only imagine how this will impact the island – I suspect it will take a long time for the magic to return.

Zanzibar is famous for a few things and it’s their beaches and spices you’ll find in the tourist brochures (they’re known as the spice islands), but the capital city of Stone Town is a gem of a place like nowhere I’ve been before. It’s kind of like merging Barbados, Cairo, Bombay, Europe, Nairobi and the Awesome Door Warehouse. It’s an island so it’s got that island vibe to it (Barbados) but the predominant religion is Islam which gives it a middle eastern feel (Cairo), there’s a strong Indian flavor which is seen in much of the cuisine (Bombay) and the narrow winding alleys reminded me of a run down European village. But it’s still Africa and that underpins everything about the place. Also, there are loads of awesome doors.

We had 4 nights in total in Stone Town and 3 nights on Chumbe Island, an impossibly beautiful little island surrounded by one of the planet’s finest coral reefs. If anyone was a gamer in the 90’s there’s a pretty good chance you played Myst (I got this for my iPhone a few years back FYI and it was still AWESOME!) – anyway, Chumbe Island is just like the island on Myst, lush green, small enough to walk around, lighthouse, rocket ship….. Ok, so there’s no rocket, but the rest was spot on. There are only 7 bungalows on the island so the capacity is just 14 guests at any one time, and the whole inland is eco friendly and totally self sufficient (apart from some food) with solar power and a brilliant rainwater management system meaning environmental impact is minimised.

I’ll do a special blog about the Spice Tour which was informative and unintentionally hilarious but I’m keen to get this one out now so you all can wind down on Friday afternoon while you’re supposed to be working!