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Travelling 2020

July - November 2020
Our travelling plans collide with the global pandemic Covid 19 and take some unexpected turns. Quite literally making it up as we go and travelling to any countries that will take us! Read more
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  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 103

    Tanzania Day 64 - Jambiani

    November 5, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Our last day of the trip had arrived! It's crazy that our spontaneous plan to leave the UK mid covid pandemic had resulted in our first trip to Africa, climbing Kilimanjaro and a close encounter with a cheetah on safari.

    We enjoyed our last breakfast by the ocean. We'll miss the amazing fresh fruit that we've had every morning for the last few months.

    When the tide was low enough at around 11am we walked out the sandbank in front of our hotel. It was lovely to be surrounded by a a shallow layer of glistening ocean. Of course we had the whole thing to ourselves (apart from the odd bird). We also saw few sea weed plantations on the way.

    We decided to venture out to a different resort for lunch called Reef and Beach which was only a 5 minute drive from Kimte. It had a great jetty bar and a family of colobus monkeys roamed the resort. It was a lovely was to spend our last meal.

    Back at Kimte we packed up our bags and played a few games of cards (I won both again, sorry Craig!). We said our goodbyes to Alvin the bartender who had gone above and beyond to look after us. He told us his plans about opening his own guest house one day and invited us back to stay with him for free once it's ready!

    Our taxi to the airport was the perfect end to the trip. Rama our driver was hilarious. He was blasting Tanzanian music from the radio and dancing along. He was impressed when we knew some of the artists and songs just from being in the country so long. We all went mad for Diamond Platnumz's song 'Baba Lao' (the song our hotel in Nungwi was named after). We actually played him a song that he didn't know from one of his favourite artists Harmonize!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 101

    Tanzania Day 59-62 - Jambiani

    November 3, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    On Sunday 1st November we walked along the beach down to Jambiani (an impressive 2 hour walk). We met our Spanish friend Carla for lunch at Summer beach and relaxed there for most of the day. In the evening we headed down to Drifters and as usual met a great new mix of travelers, Jesse from Colorado and his two Bulgarian friends, plus Arturo from California but Columbia originally. He has already agreed to send us mountains of info for when we reach Columbia which is perfect! We stayed again for another great night and got a taxi back.

    On Monday and Tuesday we relaxed - reading, sunbathing and on Monday having our last meal with our friend Farris, who was heading to Stone town but we had already agreed to meet in Colombia next year, and on Tuesday at Coral Rock but for a daytime relax rather than an African party so everything was very chilled.

    On Wednesday we walked back down the beach to Drifters to settle our bar bill and say our goodbyes, after braving the same walk again back we got back early evening and finally got to use the tins of beans we bought 3 weeks ago in Nungwi - exciting!!!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 98

    Tanzania Day 57-58 - Jambiani

    October 31, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    On Friday with the election results released the night before there was mixed feelings about the safety of being out and about. Some suggested staying in completely, others suggested avoiding Stone Town only and others said it wasn't a problem!

    We took a taxi down to Paje and if anything the streets seemed quieter, we assumed this was due to people heading to Stone Town to protest. We finally found a shop willing to take slightly more money for a sim card in return for not giving our finger prints etc so we were back online!!

    I finally decided the hair was too much and went for an African haircut, I tried to keep it simple as I wasn't sure how it could translate so went for 'grade 1/2 on the sides and grade 3 on top' whilst pointing where I meant. It seemed to work ok and we were both pleasantly with how it turned out, although gem now thinks it's hilarious to say I look like an egg 😂😂

    We headed to Paje beach with the intention of jogging back to Jambiani (about 8km) but before we could start the wind/torrential rain seemed to come from nowhere, we took cover at Drifters but as it was early-ish there was nobody around. Whilst we waited an American guy arrived to check in, he had just been staying in stone town and said it was pretty wild with tear gas and police beatings. He was in a hotel with a balcony so they had sat outside watching until the tear gas became too much. We mentioned our plan to run back and he asked to join as his friends were in a hotel near ours so after the rain passed we set off. The run was nice and we got as far as the Blue Reef restaurant (about 6km) before deciding to stop for some lunch. We bumped into Farris and made plans to head to Summer Beach for their party that night. We had a drink at Drifters and gem watched a film and had dinner at B4 and then we headed towards Summer Beach. We had a good group together with american 2 Bulgarians a Hungarian plus some others and it was a nice party with loads of locals. We stayed a while, and even managed to dance with some Massai before sharing a taxi home with Farris.

    Saturday was a complete right off though as we spent all day on the swing beds by the beach just reading, sleeping and relaxing.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 96

    Tanzania Day 56 - Jambiani

    October 29, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    With the lack of internet this morning finding a local SIM card that worked became a priority, mainly due to not being contactable from home but I did shock myself by saying 'how are we going to be able to book a flight' as if it were an impossibility to just go to the airport, what a millenial..

    We had heard you could use a Zanzibar SIM card providing you change your phone's location setting so it thinks your in another country so we gave it a go. However the shops all require ID and fingerprint scan for new SIM cards but couldn't access their machines due to the lack of internet... We tried a few places and eventually gave up to stop for lunch. We found a lovely place called Blue Reef which was a fishing place that also had a gym! We chatted with a lovely dutch guy who worked their and the food was amazing!

    That afternoon we relaxed at our hotel and managed to hotspot some data from our Sudanese friend Farris who had managed to get a sim card before the internet was shut off - knowing everything was all good we relaxed at ours for the evening and got an early night.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 95

    Tanzania Day 55 - Jambiani

    October 28, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    The past two days were voting days for the elections here so we have struggled to get internet on our phone as the government shuts it down. Up until yesterday you could still get WiFi in bars but then they stopped too somehow... it's crazy that they can get away with that!

    So whilst moving around was made harder we decided to have our most active day in a while... It started with a trip to local fishing town Dongwe to get a small boat to a Blue Lagoon. The snorkelling was great and the coral vast but there were far less fish here than on a previous trip to Mnemba Island.

    On our way back to the hotel for lunch we luckily bumped into our German friend Ahmet who told us Djorje was in Coral Rocks so we headed down to apologise for not being in touch as we had made plans to visit a local cave with him. Luckily he hadn't already been so we decided to visit it that afternoon.

    After lunch we took a taxi 10 minutes from our hotel to Kuzo Cave - it was impressive to see the clear water (you couldn't tell where it started when trying to get in)!! We took some pictures and swam for a bit, but there were some small white creatures (like tiny jellyfish) that kept biting us so we decided to get out.

    From here we planned to walk along the beach to Drifters as the owner David had invited us for a BBQ. En route to the beach we were jumped by a group of local kids who had polystyrene guns - they were shouting in Swahili what I can only assume was 'hands up' as they all seemed to find it hilarious when we did!!

    The BBQ was really nice and we were introduced to some more new arrivals, one Peruvian guy who had grown up in Madrid found it hilarious when I told him we staying in Guadalajara for the Champions League final 'its miles away'. He laughed 'you could have stayed with me for free' he added later! I also mentioned to our new friend Alfonso about trying to learn Spanish. He was so nice, he started asking me basic questions and even pretended to be a waiter! I was delighted when he was impressed and said he thought I'd be able to get by after a few weeks of being in that environment daily!! After a while the owner David, who's Peruvian himself and a bit of a joker, shouted at me to leave the poor boy alone as he wasn't a Spanish teacher!!

    We spent the evening around the fire and after taking a taxi to say goodbye to our Irish/Moroccan couple who were leaving we headed home.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 93

    Tanzania Day 52 - 54 - Jambiani

    October 26, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our last day in Paje was just a chilled out day on the beach and an early night watching a film.

    On Monday we moved further down the east coast around 15 minutes to Jambiani. Our new hotel called Kimte is right on the beach and luckily as we were their only guests at the time of arrival we got a free room upgrade so no shared bathroom 😀

    It was a short walk down from our new hotel to Coral Rocks (which is the live music night we also went to last monday) so we arrived early to see it in the daylight and to try their food. Gem's work friend who had been inspired to holiday in Tanzania because of gem's Instagram came to meet us for dinner, she had been on Kilimanjaro when the fires happened and actually had to evacuate her camp and run back down the mountain at a half way point to avoid it! But her and her sister both still made it to the top.. fair play!

    After they left we had a drink with a German and a Sudanese guy we had met in the day who were both moving into our hotel the next day. Right after we finished talking about how crazy the conspiracy theory that 5g masts cause Corona is (the German guy was a believer) we met a Serbian PhD student who worked for Ericsson as a 5g specialist!! We spent most of our evening with Djorje the Serbian and also bumped into a Spanish girl from our last hotel Carla who introduced us to an Irish and Moroccan couple who lived in Dubai. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with them as the place was quieter than the week before but still had a great night.

    We had expected Tuesday to be a write off and after getting home so late we both just relaxed all day. Although weirdly in our hotel bar today I noticed a girl with a London accent and turns out she's from Wembley and lives about 5 minutes from us by North Wembley station, it's a small world!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 91

    Tanzania Day 51 - Paje

    October 24, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    After an evening at another hostel called Drifters we met a group of travellers from Slovakia, Belgium, Denmark, Costa Rica and Peru who were all travelling alone - we agreed to meet them again this evening for a party at the beach bar B4 that we had eaten at earlier in the week.

    After a day relaxing at our new hotel Summer Beach (which is so nice!) we headed out around 9ish and they already had a campfire burning when we arrived at Drifters. The mix of people was varied and at times we found ourselves looking at each other thinking 'what are we doing here...' but everyone was friendly so we stayed for a while. An American guy started doing cartwheels on the beach when he saw some stars in the sky so we took that as our cue to move on!!

    The beach party was quite busy when we arrived and we got a seat right next to the pool. We spoke with Ingrid from Costa Rica about where to travel in South America and also gave her some tips for Stone Town but left shortly after as it wasn't really our kind of thing.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 90

    Tanzania Day 50 - Paje

    October 23, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After a chilled out morning we headed to Fisherman's for lunch, which was a locals place so cheaper (and from our experiences mostly nicer) I tried barracuda and gem had a fish curry and both were lovely! We also asked about kite surfing as everyone here seemed to be a pro and it looked really fun, the price was high so we decided to find out a bit more before committing!

    After more shadebathing in the afternoon we went back to B4 for some sunset drinks.. luckily at the time we also saw someone on a kitesurf lesson, it was the first time we had seen someone not being perfect and watching her get nowhere and constantly tangled in wires confirmed that it wasn't the sport for us    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 89

    Tanzania Day 49 - Paje

    October 22, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Feeling fresh from our early night we were up early, packed and ready to get our taxi down to Paje. The next stop (and the one after Jambiani) have been the ones I have looked forward to most as the kite surfing and diving scene makes them busier with tourists and giving us more to do!

    Our hotel room was cheap and modest but plenty nice enough for us, more importantly it backed on the beach which is essentially the main road in terms of people, bar, restaurants etc. After some exploring we settled on 'Bounty' for lunch which was a lovely french run restaurant serving fresh fish!

    After some relaxing we scanned the beach further and for dinner had burgers at B4 - which had lots of veggie/vegan options so great for Gem and the burgers were easily the best we've had in zanzibar! It was early as we walked home so most places were still not busy so we finished the night with a game of cards in our room... 18-10 now to gem....    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020
    Day 88

    Tanzania Day 48 - Michamve Kae

    October 21, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We woke up this morning for a breakfast and one of the four really nice guys that worked there had accidently given us sachets of Cockroach Killer instead of coffee!! Luckily Gem noticed and went for a Ginger Tea instead....

    After a quiet day relaxing in our room we came out for lunch around 2ish and were greeted with a worried looking waitor who must have apologised around 20 times when he realised his mistake from breakfast. We of course told him it was no problem and joked with him about it but as we had been in our room all day he genuinely thought he had poisoned us and we felt bad!

    This evening we were booked on a sunset paddeboard through the mamgroves! As the far weaker paddle boarder I, for some unknown reason, was responsible for the valuables bag and inevitably feel in drenching everything! Luckily gem's phone is waterproof but mine could not be saved... Lesson learned as the complety dry gem stepped off her board at the end of the trip....

    The boarding itself was great, although they didn't mention the fact we to go through a choppy/windy sea to get to the mangroves! Once there it was great to explore the winding aquatic maze and some parts were so narrow you had to lay/crouch down on the board to get through!

    The sunset on the way back to the start was brilliant and we both somehow felt closer to it being on the water.. We finished the day with a nice Indian dinner at Wing It By Sunset and got an early night    Read more

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