Sunday, December 20th - Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar, Tanzania

I was up early today so I could go for ah hour-long walk along the beach before it got to hot.  That was between 7 and 8 a.m. and by the time I finished it was getting hot.  However, there was a beautiful breeze blowing so it cools you off.  The sand is lovely but there are a lot of newly broken shells by the edge of the water and some of them

 are sharp on the feet.  I had to keep changing paths as I walked along but that wasn't too hard a chore.  If I really wanted to do a faster run for some better exercise I might want to put some shoes on but I'll worry about that later if the mood for exercise, versus a casual walk, hits me.

As I walked along today I had to go through a herd of cattle who were just sort of lounging in the sand.  That meant I also had to dodge some cow patties but they were easy to see against the white sand.  There were some stray dogs wondering around but they didn't seem too dangerous.  And other than a few tourist walking or jogging there were very few people about.  It was a very nice walk but I have to say that I was very hot and sweaty when I got back.

Once back we had breakfast.  It comes with the room and was very nice with lots of fruit (banana, orange, watermelon and pineapple), eggs, toast, jam, tea and coffee.  We enjoyed that and then just sat watching the action on the beach for quite a while.

There was a group of boys at the beach.  They dragged palm branches down with them and used them to sit on and as shade.  It must have been some school group.  Their attire said they were Muslim so perhaps they get Fridays off as their holy day and Saturdays, and then have to go to school on Sundays - just a guess on my part.

Another group of men came down and they had palm leaves too.  They also had drums and other instruments so we were expecting to be serenaded or something.  As it turned out they were there to help move a boat out of the water.  So the question is, how many men does it take to move a diving boat out of the water and up on to the beach?  Well, the answer is a lot.  There must have been over 100 of them and others, including some white tourists, joined in to try and help them.   The palm leaves were to put down on the sand for the boat to slide over.  They had ropes coming out both sides from the back with 50 people pulling on each side, people pushing from the back and once on the sand another group pushing up on the boat directly.  It took them a long time as they only moved inches at times.  There is quite a bank up from the water then the sand levels out.  Once they got up the hump they did much better from then on.  After they made a bit of progress it was time for some drums and dancing but then, generally once the palm branches had been moved from the back to the front of the boat, they went back to their coordinated pulling and pushing.  One guy in a yellow shirt was the leader and he was telling them when to pull and trying to keep them motivated.  It was fun to watch but seemed like so much work.  However, labour is cheap here, and in this case we're guessing free, so it probably was a very cheap way to do it.

There are a lot of boats out in the water.  The dhows are most popular and they seem to be coming and going from early morning until evening.  A lot of the tours are done on them and I think the locals also use them for fishing.  We are planning on going out on one of them one evening for the sunset cruise although the sunset couldn't be any better than from our beach.  Randy, being a sailor, really wants to get on a dhow.  There are lots of tour packages available from here, some of which we've already done liek the spice tour and the Jozani Forest.  I don't think there are many others that I want to do which is good since they are expensive.  I am happy just relaxing.

And indeed I did a lot of sitting around and relaxing today - some at the restaurant, some on our patio, and some on the beach.  I gave up on computer work and switched to a book, which was very relaxing.  

There are some vendors on the beach and some of the art work and scarves and wraps are very nice.  No one is really pushy but they can be annoying when you are just trying to have a walk and they are following you everywhere.  The beach is covered with other hotels, restaurants and little stores.  We certainly shouldn't have any trouble finding places to eat while we are here.  I think our beach is as good as any I've seen.  Some of the hotels are up on coral cliffs and the y have very little beach at all.  Ours is quite wide and so lovely.

About 5 p.m. i decided to go for another walk on the beach.  I started off with my water shoes which made it easier to walk as far as avoiding sharp shells was concerned.  However, the sand in the shoes was not all that comfortable either so they eventually came off.  When I got back to the hotel Randy was waiting for his drink in the restaurant so I went and showered and changed and joined him for a drink and dinner. 

Tonight's drink was a banana daiquiri, which also wasn't quite what I expected but it was good.  Both it and the pina colada last night came with a section of banana on the side of the glass - not your typical adornment but very tropical.  Dinner was grilled king fish.  It was good and had some nice seasoning on it but was overcooked so it was a bit dry to eat.

After dinner we sat for a while and tried to do some computer work but the internet is virtually impossible to use.  Eventually I called it quits and moved to the room to get ready for bed.  We left the windows open all day today instead of relying on the air conditioner.  It didn't feel too bad inside the room so hopefully it will be good for sleeping.