Day 58 – Freddy Mercury was here

Stone Town (Zanzibar) - Tambo House Hotel

We had originally planned to spend a couple of nights in Dar Es Salaam, then catch the ferry to Zanzibar – however the train delays meant we had missed our bookings in Dar so it made sense to head straight to Zanzibar from the station.

After a restless night’s sleep (lots of noise and shouting from the compartment next door, with another police intervention overnight for drunkenness!) we were awoken around 4am by a porter telling us we were about to arrive in Dar.

We pulled in to the station around 4:30am, found a taxi and headed off to buy tickets for the 7am ferry, however because it was so early the taxi driver told us it was too dangerous and that we should wait in the car – but we suspect it also was so he could get a cut from the ticket sales (why are we so suspicious/cynical?).

But wait we did, it was great to have Sarah, one of the German girls, with us as she previously lived in Tanzania for a year so has passable Swahili, what a difference it makes when the locals realize you are with someone who can speak their language! We eventually made it to Stone Town on Zanzibar after a 2 hour trip on the fast ferry – to arrive into pouring rain!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, a couple of times having to take cover as another downpour threatened to soak us – it is the wet season here after all. Stone Town is very different to other towns we’ve seen in Africa on this trip, it has a very strong Arab influence, as can be seen from the buildings (narrow streets and Arabic architecture) and the people (many more Muslims, including a large number of fully covered women).

We also learnt today that Freddy Mercury was born on Zanzibar – which we found when we stopped at a place called “Mercury’s” for a drink!

As Zanzibar is also a prime tourist destination, we had to spend a lot of time fending off pushy street vendors. In most parts of Africa it hasn’t been too bad – the worst would be Vic Falls and here. It may be time to get a t-shirt printed, with something along the lines of “NO! I don’t want to buy anything so don’t even ask!”