Zanzibar is a tender port, therefore we needed to be up early to meet our tour group and collect our numbered tender tickets together (by having the sequenced tickets we all travel on the same ship’s shuttle and arrive in shore as a group). Now to make things a lot easier, we gained another hour during the night so we weren’t as rushed getting ourselves ready.
Greeting at the wharf
Now which boat?
Leaving the main island.
Our private tour on Zanzibar started with a boat ride across the waters to a nearby island called Prison Island, which later changed its name to Quarantine Island. Originally the ruling Sultan bought the island from its former Arab owner and built a number of cells to house prisoners but by the time it was completed; a decision to use the site for a quarantine station was made. Zanzibar was the main East African Port and needed proper control measures for vessels and their passengers to avoid the risk of an epidemic in the Zanzibar Archipelago. The main concerns of infection were the Bubonic plague from Bombay and cholera from Egypt.
Onbard our island boat.
The island has is now called Changuu Private Island Paradise, home to the endangered Aldabra Giant Tortoise. We visited the area were these tortoises are looked after.
Endangered species Aldabra Tortoise on Changuu (Prison) Iasland
Some of the tortoises are nearly 200 years old
Various baby tortoises
Our return boat trip to the island was what I would call a challenge. We had to wade out from the shore line to the stern of the boat, and then climb up a three rung ladder to access the boat. Well, me will my lack of agility managed to crawl onto the deck before sitting down, DH had the same technique with same success. Mind you, after firstly boarding the boat, I then knew there were 3 more times this would happen. This was when most of our group climbed the ladder and then stepped onto the boat to walk along before sitting down. It was all worth it.
When we left the island, all these bats had arrived. Initially we were the first there.
Outside where Freddie Mercury grew up. It is now a museum.
Alleyways of Stone Town.
Inside the Old Fort where organizers were setting up a stage for a concert.
Once back to the main island we walked around the historical Old Town of Zanzibar. Memorial Museum, House of Wonder (built in 1883 and got its name by having different coloured lights in the tower visible to people approaching from the sea at night), Old Arab Fort, Slave Market and the house where Freddie Mercury from Queen, lived.
We lunched in Lukmaan Swahili cuisine café/restaurant, just a dozen doors from the slave market site. It is always a conundrum deciding what to select from the menu of a foreign country. The dilemma in this instant, of converting shillings to USD, then to AUD, just to know a dish’s cost. Then making sure we have enough USD to pay. Not only that, we also needed to consider if the food had been prepared hygienically: washed in clean water, cooked correctly, stored in hygienic containers and refrigerated. DH and I have experienced food poisoning and wish to avoid the experience again!
The Swahii Restaurant.
Cathedral Churt of Christ alongside the Old Slave Market site.
Also where Dr Livingstone willed his heart to be left after his body had been returned to Scotland to be buried.
Hot, tired but happy to have experienced our day in this exotic port, we made our way back to the ship via one of the ship’s tender boats. Once back on board we celebrated our day with a cold beer and in my case a swim in one of the ship’s pools.
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