Christmas day in Nungwi Zanzibar

I woke up with the inevitable hangover after the excesses of the previous night. I had some toast in the hotel bar at the top of the beach and looked out, bleary eyed and squinting, into the dazzling sunlight reflecting off the white sands, and the ultramarine blue sea. After breakfast I went for a swim, but the tide was out and I had to walk through rocks to get to deeper water. I felt a couple of sharp stings around my ankles and realised that I was getting stung by sea urchin spines. I decided to turn back but in doing so I stood right on a sea urchin and felt an excruciating shooting pain in my foot and go up my leg. Luckily, I had water shoes on but a few urchin spines seemed to get through. I hobbled back to the shore and had to deal with twinging pain in my foot and ankle for the rest of the day. I then had a restful Christmas day - the incongruity of spending Christmas day on a beach in intense sunshine did not go away. I had some lunch in a nice beach front restaurant. After the tide came in, I had a nice long swim in the azure blue sea with only white sand underfoot and the sun blazing above in a clear blue sky. The beach and water were a bit too busy with people for me, but this is the nature of a beach resort. When I got back to my room, I started to get some very painful twinges from the embedded sea urchin stings. I felt nauseous and tired and decided not to go to the Christmas dinner that evening but rather stay in my room to rest and recuperate. It was disappointing not to be able to have Christmas dinner with my fellow travellers, but it felt like the right decision.Läs mer