I want to break free (Part 1) - Getting there

Everyone dreams of going to that tropical island one day. Where the sand is so white and powdery that it reminds you of baking powder,  and where the sea is the colour of sapphires and topaz, lapping at your feet at a constant temperature of 27 degrees Celsius year round... that place where you can lie in the shade of a coconut tree, sipping on cocktails all day long without a care in the world. Paradise.

 

Zanzibar is such a place - a tropical paradise.

 

The hubby and I both decided that this year we were going to spoil ourselves and spend a bit of moola on a luxurious, exotic holiday before we start thinking about expanding the Thomas empire. (Having kiddies is an expensive affair, and we were not about to go and spend all of our hard-earned money on little people before at least indulging in a little bit of fun ourselves!) We looked at all the typical island destinations - Thailand, Bali, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius - but finally decided that an all-inclusive package was the deal maker, and found ourselves booked up to jet of to the Spice Island and Freddie Mercury's birth place (true story) for a romantic, pre-children getaway for two!

 

So, a little over 2 weeks ago now, we hopped into Soobs and headed for the big city to catch our flight to Dar es Salaam. Driving in JHB is not for sissies, and I must say that two years of living the quiet rural farm life has turned both of us into serious country bumpkins in this regard! Wide eyed and completely drained, we finally made it to our overnight stop in one piece, a friends place in beautiful little spot just outside Pretoria called Die Akker. Who knew that you could find peace an tranquillity like this just minutes out of Pretoria CBD?! Regardless, we both battled to sleep that night in anticipation of the big trip the next day - needless to say, Africa was beckoning...

 

The classic country-bumpkins-in-the-big-city airport shot

I'm sure you have all been in an aeroplane before, so we can skip past the actual flight from JHB to Dar es Salaam, as that was pretty uneventful and not very exciting to write about. Maybe one random fact for you - there is a 1 hour time difference between Tanzania and South Africa, meaning that, although or flight was only 3.5 hours long, it appeared that we landed in Dar es Salaam an hour later than we should have, which inevitably confused the poor little Safas until someone pointed it out...

For anyone who hasn't been to an African airport before (not a South African one...that is very civilised in comparison), arriving in Dar es Salaam could be quite intimidating. There are no queues in passport control - only one very important looking Ghadaffi look-alike with a uniform on, who stands and looks at all the dazed and confused foreigners wandering around the customs area like a cloud of lost farts, before making some sort of indication that we should liaise with him if we want to gain entry into the country. One then has to slip $50 into your passports and pass them on to him, where he will then proceed to the nearest visa cubicle and proceed to deposit your passport at the bottom of a large pile. Luckily for us, we were close to the front, and were waved through quickly as South Africans no longer need visas to visit Tanzania. Once we had escaped customs, and proceeded through a rather dodgy looking luggage X-ray check, we found ourselves stepping out into a hot, humid, crowded courtyard, which is apparently the arrivals meet-and-greet area. Promptly, we proceeded to be accosted by several eager taxi drivers who took our bags from us and started heading in different directions! Retrieving our belongings, we made our way to a cubicle in the centre of the bedlam which purported to be the information desk for international arrivals, and found out that we needed to catch a lift to the departures terminal, which is in a completely different building about 2km down the main road! Talk about baptism by fire... so we got hopelessly ripped off and paid $20 to get to departures so that we could catch our connecting flight to Zanzibar.

Now, if you want to know how hot it was during all of this running about, imagine being in a sauna. The air there is so thick and sticky, and the temperature was about 37 degrees Celsius - it was like being in an oven - slow roasted Leechi and Daalchi... and not a breath of wind. Dar es Salaam domestic departures is literally a shed, our boarding passes were hand written, and the departures board was a white board with Velcro accessories! Very quaint, which I must admit, didn't help very much with the nerves, as I had never flown in a small plane before and was not looking forward to it at all! Oh, and don't expect western toilets ladies, the culture there caters mainly for the largely Islamic population. That one takes some getting used to...

Fortunately, we have friends who live in Zanzibar, and Hugh is actually a pilot for the airline that flew us across to Zanzibar. So he was kind enough to fly over on his day off to meet us and personally escort us to Zanzibar! What a treat! Dale enjoyed it thoroughly as he got to sit up front in the co-pilot's seat with a magnificent view as we flew out of Dar on our way to paradise.

Not such a bad way to travel, I must say! As soon as we had landed, we exchanged some info with Hugh (and a few luxury items brought across from RSA) before being whisked off to our Hotel on the North East coast at a place called Matemwe. The trip from Stone Town to Matemwe takes a good 45 minutes to an hour as the speed limit is 60km/h! So we sat back and enjoyed the view, encountering numerous scrawly looking cattle, Dala Dalas, rice paddies and verges covered with drying cloves.

Finally, at around 6pm Tanzanian time, we arrived at Azanzi, and retired exhausted to our welcoming, air-conditioned deluxe villa, complete with king size bed (with mozzie net to boot), as well as a gorgeous outside shower and a cold water Jacuzzi on our balcony! Not too shabby eh Nige? Being so hot and humid, we of course then made our way directly to the hotel bar for an ice cold beer and a Mojito, as one does on the first night of a holiday! Here we met with the hotel manager to plan our inclusive activities for the week, before indulging in a lovely traditional Swahili meal, and then flopping into bed, pleasantly exhausted from our travels, and looking forward to the adventure that lay ahead of us in the morning - exploring this gorgeous tropical paradise!

*To be continued......*