Island Life at Nungwi Beach

I arrived in Stone Town to a downpour to which I ended up having to sacrificing my runners.

*sigh*

I really should have stayed on Pemba!

Also, so many white people! More than I had seen the entire trip and it freaked me out a little.

TC and I reunited with overpriced non-alcoholic drinks at Mercury's (where the picture above was taken) before heading back to the hotel, avoiding two more downpours, and then heading out for dinner, drinks, and English Premier League soccer.

Obviously, we have our priorities straight on this trip,

We headed to Forodhani Gardens for dinner. It did not disappoint.

The next morning, we headed to Nungwi for a couple of days of beach time.

That's our bungalow on the right, hotel restaurant on the left.
This did not suck at all.

I had stayed in Kendwa (5km south) and Nungwi on my previous trip. To say things had changed was an understatement. What used to be a backpackers hide-away with cheap accommodation has become overrun with resorts. I ran into a guy that I knew from my last trip and we ran through the list of changes. It was long. Like, we're-still-texting-each-other-the-changes long.

Don't get me wrong, I still loved my time in Nungwi (and as long as Jambo Brother's doesn't change too much, I'd gladly go back there because the village is lovely), but every once and awhile I'd trip over a memory from last time and marvel at how different it now was.

Still, it hadn't gone so upscale Mr. Moo and his family couldn't enjoy a day at the beach

But enough about my nostalgia.

We stayed in Nungwi for three nights and did almost nothing. It was glorious. We'd get up, eat breakfast looking at the Indian Ocean and then... one of us might wander down the beach, one of us might read, one of us might go for a swim, one of us might sleep an entire day away. Not me on that last one, by the way.

Morning traffic in Nungwi is crazy!

We did wander to Kendwa one day - a walk that can only be down at low-tide - for lunch and we walked to Gerry's Bar and back twice which was a bit of a jaunt, so it's not like we never moved. We were just very, very selective about when we did.

I mentioned that I ran into a guy I knew from my last trip, King. (Yes, that's actually his name. It was his mother's maiden name.) At that time, he was a tout who I found annoying, to be honest. (I didn't remind him of this, but I distinctly remember him annoying me to the point of swearing.) Now, older and wiser, he's a fisherman, and we had a couple of good chats about his trips up and down the coast following the fish amongst many other topics.

If these were the waters I got to sail in every day, I'd probably become a fisherman too

On Wednesday morning, we packed up our bags and headed back to Stone Town.

*sigh* At least I'll always have the memories... and about 400 pictures.

Prepping the fishing net for easy casting

Dhow at sunset

Helping the fishermen bring in their supplies after a day at sea