As part of the safari package, we found that most companies ended the safari with “rest” days in Zanzibar. This is a view from my room.
Resting wasn’t what I traveled to Africa for and, while I wanted to see the Indian Ocean, I wasn’t interested in a holiday resort atmosphere. We did spend one day and night in the city of Zanzibar and took a tour of the city the day we arrived and then a tour of one of their famous spice farms, where many of our most exotic spices are produced. The harbor was especially colorful with enormous boats and small archaic fishing boats, lots of cats. We got some sense of the culture of the city. As an aside, we stumbled on a house in town with a plaque on the building saying Freddie Mercury was born here. That was a surprise! Here are some pictures of the harbor and vicinity.
Much of the tour was devoted to learning about the slave trade to the east that thrived there for hundreds of years, long before the slave trade to the west began. I found it illuminating since, in our public schools, we only learned about the slave trade to the Americas. The eastern slave trade was a huge business and cruel beyond belief. If you want to read more about this, here is an article from the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/26/slave-markets-zanzibar
Reading this article brought back many of the images I hadn’t had the heart to photograph. I did, very reticently, take a picture of the life-size statues of slaved in a pit.
On a cheerier note, our visit to the spice farm the next day was a great deal of fun. While we were hearing about the difference between green and red bananas, I spotted a little rodent and left the group to see what it was. It turned out to be an elephant shrew or sengi. The people there said I was very lucky to have seen it as they are rarely seen. It’s obvious where they get their name, and they may even be an ancient spin-off of the ancestors of elephants.
Jackie had found us a wonderful quiet resort at the south of the island and, as it turned out, we were the only guests for those days. Their busy season is in Dec. apparently. Our rooms were directly on the water and only local people walked past our cottage. It was truly restful without crowds and noise. Here are two views from my patio and a further look out on the Indian ocean from the beach. The color of the water was always changing!
But the main draw for heading sound was the nature preserve about 25 minutes from us. Zanzibar is the only place in the world where Kirk’s red colobus monkeys are indigenous. There are only around 6,000 individuals in existence. They apparently live in complete harmony with the many blue monkeys found there. I have read that the two monkey species do everything together but do not inter-mate! Be prepared for many pictures beginning with a fun little group of mother and baby colobus with a young blue monkey, seeming like one family. I actually think the baby bit the blue monkey in the 2nd picture – like two squabbling kids.
In the next photos you can see the red part of the colobus monkey and, if you look closely, also the little baby clinging to the mom.
I was able to get some better photos of the blue monkey than I those I had taken on the mainland. The monkey in the final pictures was very intent on not sharing the fruit. Looking closely at the 6th picture, it looks like monkeys don’t like seeds either.
Here are some more shots of the colobus monkeys. I only include the last one to show size and how unintimidated they were by people. The guide on our walk through the forest severely admonished a few people not to feed or pet them.
We also visited a butterfly farm where they raise and then release 4 types of local butterflies. This was a marvelous project involving community people in the preservation of the species. Every night they open the tent to let the butterflies out to go procreate. The people in the community are paid for bringing in caterpillars and eggs. There are always many pupating in cages and then let free to fly around in the large tent area. Later that day they are freed.
Also fun in that same place was a chameleon enclosure. What strange and wonderful creatures with their ability to look in 2 directions at once.
The beach was indeed very restful and we had it largely to ourselves. My enthusiasm (obsession) with birds was in full swing! The Dimorphic Egret visited at low tide every evening – usually only one although occasionally a second tried to encroach on its fishing domain. The egret would kick its feet in the water to stir up the little fish, or hunker down and creep along on its belly. All for tiny little fish or shrimp. There was a lot of bird activity at the far end of the first shot, but when I went over there, I was told by a man, in no uncertain terms, that photographing in that area was not allowed as it belonged to the navy!
Another local African island bird is the Crab Plover, a large plover hunting crabs, as the name implies. I only saw him once and in a disadvantageous light, unfortunately.
This would seem to be a good time to insert pictures of the sand crabs. They were everywhere and very busy. Some were almost translucent. On my last walk, ready to leave for the airport with my camera packed up, we also saw Fiddler crabs with red claws. Oh well… next time!
An excavator!
Back to birds, there were also several Striated Herons (very similar in shape to the night heron family) and Whimbrels which we often see along the Atlantic coast.
Land-based birds at the resort were also plentiful.
Sunbirds, only slightly larger than our hummingbirds – the most stunning being the Scarlet-breasted which I only saw high up in the trees.
And the less flamboyant Amethyst Sunbird, immature.
Another small bird at the resort was the Black-backed Puffback, but since it never puffed its back at me, I’m not 100% sure of the ID. (Hard to spot in the trees.)
Lesser Striped Swallows in flight
African Crow
There were chickens everywhere so why not include them here?
Finally the people for whom the water is their livelihood. One tries to not take identifiable pictures of people without permission. This fellow walked by me while I was photographing waterbirds and asked me to take his picture. The others are working on their fishing boats.
And finally farewell to the day and to our trip, a thrilling 11 days.
