Mwembetanga

We're off to Zanzibar today, which we are pumped about. Just the name Zanzibar sounds so exotic, one of those places that seems unreachable when you're a kid.

To get there, we need to take a ferry from Dar. Just getting the tickets is a bit of an adventure, as the ferry terminal is full of touts and scammers. There is one specific office for the Ferry company, but everyone outside tells you that they will sell you tickets. We almost get caught out- we are led into what looks like a proper office- it has computers and a card machine and official-looking signs. We clock onto the scam when we're asked for our passports. We had left them at the hotel and tell them as such. They say that actually, it's not a problem, we don't need passports after all. Laura read about this scam in the guidebook, and drags us out of the shop. We decide to play it safe and book online.

The next morning, we head to the terminal to pay for and collect our tickets. We're quite hungover after a night on the town, and we rudely wave away all the touts. Feeling decidedly un-British, we collect the tickets from the office, which has no computers, doesn't take card, and makes the scammers look incredibly sophisticated.

We arrive into Zanzibar mid-Afternoon, and head for Paje, a strip of beach on the eastern side of the island. Unfortunately, the miles of pure white sand we were promised have been taken over by masses of seaweed, rotting in the hot sun. We opt to have cocktails in a beach front bar instead, and talk football with the bar staff. They tell us that there are two big teams in Tanzania- Simba Sports Club and Young Africans. If you're a Man United fan, you're a Simba fan, and if you're a Liverpool fan, you're with the Young Africans. From that moment, we are die hard Young Africans.

The next couple of days are spent snorkelling and relaxing on the beach. We move to a different resort further north for a change of scenery. It's a little bit more expensive- around $35 per night, but we have a beach to ourselves. It's a nice treat.

One morning, we head out on the reef at low tide. Dodging sea urchins, we look for starfish, sea sponges and other weird marine life. It's a little disconcerting how our guide just picks up the creatures and hauls them out of the water. At one point, a man dressed as a Maasai Tribesman (Zanzibar locals call them Fake Maasai) is holding about 10 starfish, stacked one on top of the other.

Next, we head to Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar and birthplace of Freddie Mercury (there's a pub quiz question for ya!). It's an incredible place, with winding alleys leading to markets and cafes. We spend time getting lost among the souks, mosques and forts.

There's a dark history to the town- it was one of the most important locations in the Eastern slave trade. Slaves would be brought here from all over Africa before being sent to the Arab world. This continued long after the Atlantic slave-trade had been abolished, and there is evidence that slaves were still brought here at the start of the 20th Century.Read more