Tanzania Day 27 - Zanzibar

After planning to get an overnight train from Moshi to Dar es Salaam which was unfortunately cancelled, we instead chose to fly from Arusha Airport directly to Zanzibar. The plans changing last minute meant that I booked the flights with little to no consideration to the airline/plane and it was only en route to the airport that it dawned on us the plane was going to be a tinpot!!

The airport itself could be described best as an airfield with a canteen but the service couldn't be faulted, probably because we were 2 of only 9 customers! We certainly didn't need to arrive the customary 2 hours prior to departure!

After handing over our bags and receiving our boarding pass we headed on to the runway and I was drawing hope by judging the age of the planes, with the idea being 'if its that old it wouldve crashed by now if it was going to...

The take off was shaky and nervy for both of us and even as we ascended there was the occasional shake from left to right. After the first 15/20 minutes it settled and the next concern was the fact we only had one pilot! A few times I looked at him to check he was still awake/not having a heart attack and afterwards Gemma told me she was contemplating how she'd be able to get hold of Michael if the plane started going down!! Haha

For me the landing was the worst part, it seemed like a small breeze would knock us off path and approaching the runway there were times it felt we were side on and about to land wing first!! But despite there being more red flags than a Liverpool home game, this death trap flight made it and landed safely in Zanzibar!

We were staying in Spice Palace Hotel and after unpacking went out to explore... The winding narrow streets made navigation difficult but we made it to an Indian restaurant called Luckhmann - which was nice! I was given a chilli sauce which explodes after shaking, luckily it was nice as it ended up all over the food and me!

We then walked through the mazey streets and found the seafront, here we met Kassim who would take us for a walking tour later in the trip. We then found a nice bar on the beach called Travelers Cafe for sunset and finished our evening on the roof terrace of our hotel.Baca lagi