Off to Stone Town, Zanzibar

I slept in until 6:00 a.m. today.  Packed my tent and gear that I will be leaving behind and packed my small duffel bag with the necessities required for our 4-night stay on Zanzibar.  We will be staying in hotels for all four nights (yahoo!) so won’t need to drag as much stuff along as we would need for tenting.  We had breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and then we were picked up by taxi at 8:00 a.m.  The taxis dropped us off at the main ferry, by way of the small ferry from the island campsite to Dar es Salaam. The main ferry then took us for a 2½-hour ride over the Indian Ocean to Stone Town on the Island of Zanzibar.

Oddly enough, we had to pass through Immigration when we arrived at Stone Town.  Even though Tanzania and Zanzibar are one and the same country, Zanzibar has its own administration powers and thus, we are treated as though we were entering a new country.

We arrived in Stone Town about 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon and were met by our Zanzibar guide sporting a new GAP 24-passenger bus (whoa! way too much luxury).  He hustled us off to the quaint Garden Lodge where we will be spending the night before heading to the north end of the island for a 2-night stay in a luxury seaside resort (relatively speaking).

The Garden Lodge is a small colonial style 3-storey building, located in old Stone Town that may have been a single family home in years gone by.  After checking in we had a short meeting to fill us in on the activities over the next three days and four nights.  After the meeting a few of us booked a walking tour of the old historic part of Stone Town.  The tour took us through the local fish, meat and fresh produce markets and then to the area of Stone Town where the slaves were housed and auctioned off, first by the Portuguese and then by the Arabs.  It was bad enough that the East Africans were rounded up to be used as slaves, but the conditions they were kept in and the treatment they received while awaiting auctioning was absolutely appalling.  It was with the help of David Livingstone and the Anglican Church that slavery was finally abolished.

Today, the Anglican Cathedral Church of Christ stands on the very spot where slaves were traded, whipped and auctioned off.  We visited a couple of local museums and an old Arab fort before the tour ended.  Stone Town is a neat place with a mixture of colonial and Arab style architecture, narrow winding streets and an endless array of shopping boutiques.  Old Stone Town was included in UNESCO’s world heritage sites in 2000.

After the tour, Tony and Jacqueline (from Vancouver), and myself went for an East Indian supper and then back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow we head to the extreme north end of Zanzibar.

Cathedral Church of Christ

Slave Memorial