SANSIBAR, The Final Cut!

'Yesterday my girlfriend went swimming in the Indian Ocean and never came back up.
I don't think that's normal.
I give it 2 stars because it was still a beautiful day.'

Just now I stood with my feet in the sea, staring into the distance and sent the Google review for the local water...
July, for understandable reasons, can no longer return to Berlin.
And neither can I.
Because here I have the liveliest memories of her.

Please stick enough postage on our shared dog's hairy butt and simply forward him!!
Thank you.

. . .

Now I will tell you what we have experienced in the meantime since the safari:

This entry will cover about 2 weeks and I hope I can still sort it chronologically.

However, I can tell you whatever I want.

What do you really know about how it really was. 😀

.

Sooo.

It took us about 2.5 hours to get back from the safari lodge at Lake Manyara to Arusha.

Zebras and even giraffes suddenly stood on the property and said goodbye to us personally.
As you can imagine, it was not easy for us to leave all of this behind.
It's just difficult to shake off all the experiences we had before.
So. Of course, this is not our intention at all.
On the contrary.
We wanted more.
And of course, Zanzibar was waiting and was the bright spot in all this.
But the sad part was still pretty present.
Goodbyes are always tough.

.

The time in the car went by relatively quickly.

None of us said much.
When we finally arrived in Arusha, everything was way too loud.

Way too many people.

Way too dirty.

We were more and more looking forward to the quiet island.

Only 1 night later, which we spent in the cozy hostel of our safari company, we finally boarded the plane to paradise.
(And it was only 3 hours delayed)

.

Since I like to get lost in details, but nothing really tellable happened, I'll fast forward to the moment when we saw our resort in daylight.
(we actually arrived in the middle of the night)

It was just after 5.
The African roosters were still snoozing.
Not only July was still lazily stretched out in her pillow mountain, even the sun turned around, wrapped in its thick cloudy cover.
You could hear the sea more than you could see it.
It was low tide.
However, I had a really bad night and shortly afterwards sneaked out of the room to inspect the grounds and not miss the moment when the yellow fireball would wake up and color the sky.

It was huge.
The sunrise, of course, but also our new location.
A gigantic pool perfected the artificial large beach that was created in front of the cottages.
Around it, countless palm trees and tropical plants in all colors.
Just 4 steps further is the sea, which is now getting closer and closer.
The tide is coming in.
It was picturesque.

A few hours later, when we tested the swimming pool (all to ourselves), we spontaneously decided to double the originally booked 5 nights.
After that, we actually did NOTHING for the next 2 days.

Eat. Beach. Sleep. Repeat.

As paradise-like as everything is here-
The nights are really hellish.
And not hellishly good, but hellishly crappy.
Unfortunately, it is now day 23 in Africa and I can tell you exactly how many nights I have slept through and how many times I woke up in between.
-The result is ZERO.-
The mattresses on Zanzibar and especially in the new accommodation are rock hard and my body is reaching its limits.
Maybe you can relate to this yourself-

My body as a child:
'Oh, you fell off your bike down a hill.
Don't worry, you'll be back in shape in 4 hours.'

My body today:
'Oh, you fell asleep slightly crooked on the sofa.
Well, that means you will have back pain and need physiotherapy for a week.
Your own fault.'

So, what do you think my body has to say after spending over 2 weeks sleeping on rock-hard mattresses.

I really can't remember a vacation where I had chronic sleep deprivation and real OUCH on my body.

Sometimes I would wake up at 1 am and couldn't fall back asleep until 4:30 - just to be wide awake again at 6 am.
I counted at least 7 awakenings in one night.
Considering this unforgettable trip, that might sound like a lot of Moaning, but it really is exhausting!

Oh well.
Let's get back to the beautiful things and luckily there are plenty of them here.

The 2 days when the physically most strenuous thing was simply breathing flew by.

On the 3rd day, however, I wanted to experience something again.
I read somewhere that sloths sometimes slow down their metabolism so much that they accidentally die.
We wanted to minimize this risk of course.
And what better way to do that than by diving with dolphins. 🤩
Yeah, I've done it all before.
Seen it all before.
Told and written about it all before.
But. When something is good, you want more, you know that yourself...

By the way, July sleeps just as badly as I do.

That's why it was bearable for her to get up at 5 am again to do me a favor.

Just like in Berlin, I am always the early bird who still has to wake up the worm, while Juli is always the late bird who needs a lot of coffee first.

But everything is a bit... well... shifted in Africa.

That's why she was motivated (okay, it's a bit exaggerated) to get up early in the dark and take a taxi to the fishing village.. Unfortunately, we caught an overly motivated candidate who talked our ears off for half an hour straight.

That was a bit too much even for me.

😯

Oh well.

Just ignore it.

Smile.

Nod.

Hope he doesn't ask any questions.

Eventually, we were thankfully released when we stopped.

We were so relieved that the dude didn't come on board, otherwise I would have willingly thrown myself into the waves...

Although, I did that anyway...

You should have seen the waves.

Uff.

Of course, I didn't tell Juli, but I was a bit nervous about plunging into the water like that.

The play of colors in the sky offered the welcome distraction.

It was quite chilly and very windy, but being on the sea directly and watching the sun rise above it is a unique experience.

It took quite a while for us to see the first fins and as I said, the sea was more than restless.

We often had to hold on to something when the little nutshell we were sitting on was carried away by a big wave and then hit the water's surface hard again.

Sometimes it was a miracle that the boat wasn't simply torn in two.

The waves that I would jump into measured several meters.

And let me put it this way-

I wouldn't have been surprised if suddenly some surfers had appeared to hold a competition in riding monster waves, that's how big they were.

And I was right in the middle of it. 😅

And yes, I may tend to exaggerate.

But Juli does NOT.

And she was very, very worried when I was swimming all by myself in the open sea and being washed over.

But it was worth it.

Because as soon as I not only saw the dolphins below me, but also heard them, any fear of giant octopuses, sharks, killer jellyfish, or massive waves was extinguished.

There were countless of them.

And since there were no other boats nearby, each dolphin belonged to me. 😊

When they swam away, I had to maneuver my pudgy body through the current and hoist myself back onto the boat.

Since the captain always seemed to know exactly where they would move next, he followed them and told me exactly from which direction they would come next.

So once in a while, I struggled, glancing back and forth under water through my mask, and suddenly they all came straight towards me and playfully slithered past me.

There were only centimeters between us.

It was so amazing.

It repeated a few more times.

Into the waves.

Dolphins.

Back onto the boat.

Everything under very stormy conditions.

I was just gasping for air haha

Once I caught several fingers in the loose ladder.

Ouch.

I could have cried from the pain.

But of course, I didn't let that stop me from continuing to 'hunt dolphins'

(as Juli would say)

😝

However, after another 3 hours we were back at the resort.

Me with a big grin.

My girlfriend freezing.

.

In the afternoon we went to

'The Rock'.

You could call it a mini island.

But basically it's a rock in the sea where a restaurant has been built.

There's not much more space up there.

The capacity is exhausted with more than 20 people, so it is mandatory to book an appointment in advance.

At low tide, it doesn't take 5 minutes to walk there from the beach.

At high tide, you have to be chauffeured by boat.

It was quite interesting, but I wouldn't rate this experience more than just 'okay'.

The food was okay.

The cocktails were okay.

But I can tell you that we paid more for the 2 hours than a Zanzibari earns in a month.

No kidding.

If you ever happen to be there-

Make sure to have enough dollars with you!

The next day, we did nothing. The day after that, action again. (remember the sloths!)

We met up with a German-speaking local, whom I met in a Tanzania Facebook group, and set off for Nungwi with cloudy skies.

It is located in the far north of the island about 2 hours away.

It is the most developed tourist area and therefore not an option for us 2 misanthropes.

But since tides don't play such a big role there and you can go into the sea all day long, we didn't want to leave Zanzibar for the 2nd time without at least visiting Nungwi...

Najim, that was the name of our guide for the day, told us a lot of 'crazy' stuff in between.

We chatted about the local traffic, for example, and he said that if you hit a child or a goat, you should really run for your life and make your way to the nearest police station, otherwise a horde of villagers might kill you.

(KILL YOU)

Supposedly, real lynch mobs can form there.

Well, good thing I'm known for my careful driving style. 😜

Because I finally managed to rent a scooter this time. 🙌

Without going into more detail-

It was only half-legal.

And of course, I was promptly stopped by a... Hmm... Yeah, what was he actually... He was uniformed, but definitely not a policeman. After a long and tough discussion, he demanded quite a lot of money (and got it 😑) so that we could continue driving.

To be honest, the money went straight into his own grubby pocket, I would bet on it!

Well... Let him be happy with it.

.

To pick up the thread again-

Najim brought us to the wrong beach on the day of the trip.

He mentioned about a million times before that he likes this one the best and I assume that this was also the reason why he just dumped us there, as if we were trash, and said he would be back in 4 hours.

Ööhhm.

Irritated, frowning, and almost wrinkling our noses, Juli and I looked around and asked ourselves how anyone could voluntarily take a vacation here.

We found it terrible with high, ugly hotels and construction sites, and we comforted ourselves with cocktails for the 4 hours.

Sometimes alcohol is the only thing that helps.

🥂

Happy when the time was finally over, we finally drove to the real Nungwi.

And you know what?

-The cloud cover broke! Hallelujah.

That was exactly how we imagined it.

Many small stalls.

Countless restaurants.

Supermarkets.

Everything that we had only in small quantities in Jambiani.

And the water was really inviting.

Unfortunately, we didn't really have much time to let everything sink in because our stay here had a different purpose....

Have you ever swum with turtles?

We hadn't either.

At least not until now.

And honestly, I don't really know how to describe the experience.

It was beautiful, exciting, great, unforgettable, breathtaking, and somehow even funny...

Julie just said it was incredibly soothing for her.

Being able to experience the animals above AND below the water up close as they glide powerfully yet gracefully, almost majestically through the water is incomparable.

For a short moment, I held on to the shell of a particularly large specimen while swimming, and they let me touch their fins without any problems.

All of our fingers are still intact.

After a final turtle high-five, we set off to our final stop of the day, about 1 hour away.

.

On the east coast, where we are staying, you never see the sun set.

But we wanted to experience this spectacle once, so we had to go to the north of the island.

So, in the end, we sat on a traditional sailing boat with 20 other people and stared at the shimmering sea and the sun slowly saying goodbye behind it.

The spectacle was musically accompanied by a group of Africans, who played drums for 2 hours or more NON-STOP and with no rhythm, causing me to develop tinnitus.

I don't mind local 'music', but THAT was unbearable.

Julie even wanted to give them money, but I steadfastly refused. 😅

End of the day.

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The next day, we moved for the 2nd and last time within the island.

Maybe some of you remember our very first accommodation from February?!

The one I uploaded a whole video about on Facebook...

Anyway, we're back here now.

We have to declare personal bankruptcy after 5 days, and we can't really afford the food.

But we can pretend, and we're good at that. 😝

.

Right now, I'm lounging on a comfortable beach chair, typing on my phone, and sipping my Mojito...

To my left, just a few steps away, is the Indian Ocean...

On the side, I observe brightly yellow birds, who have a lot to talk about less than 3 meters away from me...

1.5 steps forward and I would land in the pool...

High up between the palm leaves, palm-sized spiders spin their webs...

And speaking of that,

I'm sure you all know the game:

'He loves me,

He loves me not,

He loves me,

He loves me not,

He loves me,

He loves me not,

He loves me,

He loves me not, ....'

New spider.

...

Apparently, someone had no desire after the 3rd leg and left the spider, which now only had five

left , to its fate.

And where's the best place for a spider cripple to live?

-Of course, with Juli & Vivi !!

At first, I thought my girlfriend was exaggerating when she suddenly stood there in front of me, screaming.

But for once, I had to agree with her-

That was really the spawn of hell!

It was big, moreover, it was quite battered 

& ugly as the night,.

As mentioned before, it had 5 crooked (and very hairy) legs.

With stalk eyes, it stared at me from its chosen corner.

Disgusting!

This thing simply had to go.

And don't worry - I didn't kill it.

1. Too big.

2. Too ugly.

I can't handle that.

In the end, I threw it over the garden fence in a high arc...

...And if it didn't die, it is now waiting in other resorts for its missing limbs to regrow.

(or it has crawled into Juli's backpack in the meantime and in Germany it will become her new disabled pet *wink*)

And by the way, while we're on the subject of the wild African wildlife:

We recently saw a PYTHON.

A real live... Um... A real python.

It didn't move anymore. It was only moved by a dog

who was trying to drag the dead headless snake from the road into the jungle to devour it there.

Maybe some of his buddies were already there, in any case, she was missing a huge part of her 'upper body'.

That's why I can only estimate her former size.

So I guess something between 3 and 10 meters.

Yes, I'm going to stick to that.

😜

It's a shame,

that she was no longer alive.

Amen.

But what was definitely alive was the insect the size of a small car that dropped into our front yard like a helicopter last night.

Di-sgusting.

I'm usually really tough, but sometimes even I reach my limits.

One of the crew ladies here was cooler about it though,...

'NOTT DÄNGEROSS' ...

she muttered, laughing, grabbed the leg (the L-E-G) and dragged the creature out of our vicinity.

I must not forget to give her more tips for this heroic act.

.

Oh man, everything is so paradise-like here!!

(yes, even despite the killer insects)

However, the weather has been really bad the last few days.

Normally, June/July is the driest time in Zanzibar, but we just have no luck anymore when it comes to that.
I guess that's what I get for not forwarding all those chain letters back then.

However, the only good thing about monsoon-like rainfalls on vacation is the fact that I don't feel like I'm missing out when I spend hours on the blog. :)

But now I'm going to enjoy the first rays of sunshine in the last 48 hours and switch off.

In more than one sense.

We're actually going back to Germany tomorrow

Our adventure in Africa is truly over.

Double colon closing bracket

25 days are now behind us.

We have experienced things that we will never forget.

Everywhere it looked, sounded, smelled, and tasted different, and my tiny brain has to deal with all of that now.

Speaking of tasting:

I have traveled so much in the world, but I had to travel to the farthest corner of Africa to find a restaurant where the food was better than anything I've ever gotten in a restaurant.

Honestly. We were crazy about it and agree that it hit our taste perfectly.

Well. One day we'll definitely come back to this continent.

But I'm also looking forward to the next things that are planned.
And also to my 'new self'.
Or rather, to the new sides I have discovered of myself.
Before, I sometimes got stressed by stress before there was even stress to be stressed about because I already assumed there would be stress.
And really now - I always thought of myself as a fairly relaxed person, BUT when I compare it now, I suddenly see it differently.
Currently, I have the feeling that I have arrived more in my center... And of course, I hope to be able to take as much as possible with me.
It feels a bit like after the summer vacation, when you were allowed to start a new notebook and you promised yourself to only write nicely from now on.

(So get excited for my beautiful handwriting! - I certainly am.) 😝

Cool, that so many people follow my shit here.

And thank you for any form of attention...

             I'm out.