Day 22

The last day on Zanzibar

Even though today was my last day on Zanzibar that couldn’t stop us discovering another fine part of this Archipelago. On Day 17 we had a fantastic sail on the nice traditional fishing boats. Today we explored the making of these boats.

Ruins

On our way to the yard we can’t resist stopping off at some ruins that are located in the deep woods. Once upon a time these buildings were mighty palaces inhabited by sultans. The guide told of former times when these buildings were full of glamorous life and riches. Now there are only a few walls left and you need not a little imagination to visualise the bygone opulence. But nevertheless you can feel a special atmosphere of fading history here - it is very impressive to see how the hugeness of nature is recapturing the place.

The dhow yard

Leaving the ruins, we drove on to Nungwi, a large fishing village. What we found there on the shoreline next to the village obviously did not look like a shipyard at all. We felt more like arriving at the perfect holiday camp: a white sandy beach, blue-green water, palm trees and a few huts. But when coming closer we heard the sounds of hammers and spotted the dhows and the workers between the palms and bushes.

Building a dhow follows a hundreds of years old tradition. No written construction plan exists – all knowledge is “in here” as our guide Silima puts it, pointing to his head. The dhow builders pass the knowledge on from generation to generation.
To construct one of these fisher boats a bunch of components are necessary – all hand made, of course. The ships are made out of hard woods like mahogany or mninga (bread-fruit tree). The basis is the keel, to which they attach the inner skeleton. The individual pieces are formed slowly over an oil and charcoal fire. All nails that are used to connect the pieces are handmade at a nearby blacksmith. Later they add the outer sheeting. The complete ships body is then sealed with cotton strings soaked in coconut oil so that the boat stays perfectly leak-proof in the ocean. At last the mast and the sail are added. In the whole process only traditional tools are used – you won’t find any electric or motorized tools here.

So in the end building a dhow is hard work – even if the place of work seems like an idyllic vacation beach to us. I liked the atmosphere there: everybody is busy with his part of the work in order to complete a boat. But they do it in a non-hectic, sedate manner. Especially I envied their version of lunch break. One of them just climbs on a nearby palm tree and gets some coconuts down – you can’t get a fresh, tasty meal faster than that.

Mnarani Natural Aquarium

Around the corner of the yard lies a turtle aquarium. In fact this is a large salt-water lagoon with a connection to the sea, which is not passable for the resident turtles. In the aquarium live turtles that are accidentally caught by fisher nets or were injured. The people here nurse and study them and later release them into the open sea.

As we noticed on Day 17, time flows differently for turtles. As the local guide told me, the resident hawksbill sea turtles live for about 120 years. They can hold their breath under water up to two hours – I wish I could do this trick, too!

The rest of the day we lazed on tremendously pleasant beaches around Nungwi before we drove back to the Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski.

Goodbye Zanzibar

Sadly today was my last full day on Zanzibar. I really enjoyed my time on this beautiful island. As it turns out my first impressions about Zanzibar were absolutely right: it is a hard choice whether to venture through the deep jungle-like forests, see turtles, snakes and red colobus monkeys, experience fresh spices and fruits on the spice tour, walk through the amazing Stone Town – or just to relax on the gorgeous beaches beside the Indian Ocean on a sandbar picnic. My choice was to do it all and to just have a great time.

In addition I stayed in the wonderful luxury Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski. With its great restaurants, spa and of course the amazing Zamani Beach Club it made my stay extremely comfortable. The most friendly and helpful staff took care of me making for a pleasant stay.
So if you visit Tanzania it is definitively a good idea to round off your trip with a stay on the Zanzibar Archipelago!

My trip is leading me back to Dar es Salaam tomorrow – my last destination on my round Tanzania journey.