Day trip to the beach and escape from Zanzibar (city) to Zanzibar (Pemba)

Bhav was getting a little restless and had decided to leave to try and head north to Kenya, while I was still to decide if I wanted to stay on. One thing we could both agree on was heading to Pemba (the second and smaller island of Zanzibar) in search of unspoilt beaches, hardly any tourists and some amazing diving. The only problem was that we couldn’t get through to the dive shop on the phone and we didn’t want to take a 4 hour ferry only to discover that there was a problem and no easy way to get back. In the end we decided not to bother and to head to the east coast to a place called Bwejuu.

We had heard from a few people that the beaches to the east were quicker to get to and not too developed. The beach was definitely worth the ride in the daladala and it was good to get away from the pushy souvenir sellers!

When we got back to Stone Town we tracked Craig down to a hotel not far from ours. He got a bit of a surprise when we just walked into his hotel room (which he’d already managed to furnish with 2 young and blond German girls).

Bhav and I had bought tickets for the overnight ferry to Dar but after talking to Craig about the diving in Pemba (he’s now totally in love with diving) we decided to try and change our tickets so we could take the overnight ferry to Pemba instead.

First class accommodation on the MV Maendeleio was far better than the last few times we’d travelled overnight. Aircon, almost comfy seats and reasonable peace and quiet made up for the worst toilet I’ve ever seen. I was glad I went before we left the harbour, it wouldn’t have been pleasant in the open sea!

Our transport, a Daladala

Italian speaking kids on the beach in Bwejuu

Relaxing on the beach in Bwejuu