Hanging at the beach

The ride out of Stone Town the next morning traversed the crowded alleyways which turned into traffic laden urban roadways as you exit the Stone Town footprint and encounter densely populated Zanzibar city. No escaping that. We rode into the "My Paje Hostel" mid afternoon. The hostel featured elevated rooms with steep narrow rickety outside stairs which clung onto the entrance way. These made the next night's hostel stairs look like a work of engineering splendour. The days passed effortlessly. It was great to swim in tropical waters, and there was theatre in the haggling with the moto or tuk-tuk drivers as we traveled to and fro. It was a pretty relaxed few days. Mingi riode off a day ahead staying on the coast rather than inland via the main route. I hung with Madeg, who'd arrived after skipping Stone Town after another few days in Dar es Salaam. Going for some dining variety we found a nice little restaurant serving good takes on burgers, pasta and kebabs. The next afternoon I caught up to Mingi 75 km later as he navigated back to the main road via the Chameleon Park. It was a short ride to Nungwi from that point. As our luck had it we ended up on the 3rd story of this hostel, necessitating further stair navigation. At least these were masonry and solidly built. Nungwi had a concentrated beachside layout. The posh lodges and restaurants occupied the sandy beach neighbourhood at the tip of the island. A pleasant setting if you were good with the prices starting at US$100. Meals and drinks extra. Both Mingi and I were recovering from some mildish stomach issues we attributed to our final Stone Town dinner. Simple meals were preferred. Cheap, simple meals. I didn't go snorkeling. Maybe I should have. I was considering Kilimanjaro more seriously. At a cost of around US$2000, that's the budget option, more careful management of available funds was required.Read more