Day 10 – Serengeti to Zanzibar

Day 10 – Serengeti to Zanzibar

So the Safari part of our Tanzania adventure is complete and we are headed for a Zanzibar for some beach life rest and recuperation. The early mornings and early nights to bed have become a habit we easily slipped into. Sammy even said she could get used to getting up early as you get to see the early morning sunrise and the best part of the day which is very true.

Last night we were treated to an amazing sunset and enjoyed a super dinner with Goddy and were given a great send off by the staff who presented us with a farewell cake accompanied by great singing and dancing. We think the other guests were a bit bemused as to my we were getting this extra special attention but joined in the clapping that went along with the dancing and singing. They also got the left over cake! The whole team treated us so well during our stay and we have come to adore the camp and its surroundings. It’s a very special place set in the mist of an even more special place if that makes sense.

One thing we learnt over breakfast is that the head of house in the Resturant, a great young guy (everyone is young when you are approaching 67!), called Victor trained at the Breezes resort in Zanzibar we are going to be staying at next week. He gave it a great review so fingers crossed. We took our picture with him to see if any of the resort staff might remember him.

Heading to Zanzibar.

The journey from Gremeti airport (hut actually) to Zanzibar was a little bizarre and could only happen in Africa. There is some sort of organisation but its very haphazard and with planes involved it had me at least a little concerned.

Our route was from Gremeti (Serenget to Seronera is also in the Serengeti, then onto Kilimanjaro where we had landed on the way to Tanzania. Following this we would take a short 15 min flight to Arusha, a journey we had driven in 1.15hr on arrival and then finally from Arusha to Zanzibar.
The first plane was very small! Around 8 seats. I could touch all of the planes controls from my seat as we sat right behind the pilot and co-pilot. No one checked our ID at any time to match our printed E ticket with our passports etc. No security scanner and interestingly, no bagged weight check which we had been told they could be strict on.

The weather was clear and the sky blue with little breeze so we hoped for a good flight on this first leg at least. In a plane the size of a caravan that helps a lot. It was with a heavy heart that we hugged and said our goodbyes to Goody who now had the 8-9 hour drive all the back to Arusha where we had started our journey with him. We exchanged WhatsApp’s so that I could send him some of the photos he wanted and vowed to keep in touch. He is such a genuine, lovely intelligent human being and was an amazing guide and great company for the past 8-9 days. We will miss him.
We took off into bright blue skies and as the Serengeti savannah fell away from us we both knew that we would never return again. Too much to see and do in the time that is left and repeating this experience would most probably never justify itself again. Another Safari most certainly but we would go to pastures new, especially as we doubted that we could top this experience and would only be left disappointed.

The flight to Seronera was uneventful and around 40 mins. It made us laugh when the pilot, once on auto thank goodness, started to taking photos of the Great Migration on his iphone which we could see below us! Once we had landed into we were told that we would change for a larger plane for the onward journey. We were not unhappy about this as the space was cramped and 2 engines beats one any day!

Seronera airport was larger than Gremeti (not hard when you see the pictures) with 5-6 planes on the ground around the small terminal building. It was again very haphazard and at one point a family of Americans which we knew were headed to Zanzibar with us started walking towards an airplane (I have to say from a different airline so you have to ask what they were up to?) to board. I asked a guy if we should also be getting on the same plane and he yelped and started to run after them across the dusty dirt runway to bring them back. As I said a little chaotic.
The flight to Kilimanjaro was uneventful if a little bumpy in parts and we stayed on the plane while quite a few passengers disembarked. The 15 min flight to Arusha was over before it started!

One thing we did really enjoy as we flew towards Kilinmnjaro were the brilliant views of of the volcano itself. I have vowed the limb it one day but it better be soon as its a tough and arduous climb, especially on the last day to the crater as its hot as hell and you need to be up at 2am and starting the decent by 11am.

On arrival in Arusha we were again told to stay on the plane however they then had a change of heart and we were told to deplane as others were going to join us and it would take a little longer. Something very odd then happened. When we got to the terminal building they ushered us to a security scanner and told us to put our bags on the belt, remove the usual PC’s etc and go through a body scanner. I politely pointed out that this made no sense as we had just got off the plane they were going to put us back on. Sammy gave me a ‘just wind you neck in and don’t be a knob’ look so I left it there but I think they understood that this made little sense and were sort of laughing at how crazy it was, especially as our checked bags which had never been scanned were sitting in the plane hold! What is more bizarre is that as the bags went through the scanner nobody bothered to sit and look at the screen!

We reboarded and got back our emergency exit seats and headed to Zanzibar without any further major happenings. The flight took around 1.30hrs and was pretty smooth. The airport in Zanzibar, named the ‘Golden Tulip Zanzibar Airport’ was much busier as you would expect for a major holiday destination. With that said our bags arrived quickly and we soon found our driver to take us across the Island (west to east) to our resort.

The drive took us through the main a built up area and we immediately spotted the difference from Arusha. Zanzibar is majority Muslim and the signs in terms of dress were clear to see. The area is clearly poor with ramshackle houses and shops interspersed with market stores. The market for secondhand white goods must be strong as lots of shops were selling old fridges, cookers, mixers etc. As we headed out into the country area we came across young boys selling apples on the side of the road and more road side market stalls selling what looked like lovely fresh fruit and veg. The road surface in a round the airport was pretty rough and our driver mentioned the ‘African Massage’ to us. When we told him that we had just spent 8 days in safari he laughed as he know that would have been a lot worse, which it had been.

The journey to our resort was around 1.5hrs. About midway the roads went from rough track to smooth newly laid tarmac. We suspect that the Chinese had been at work as they are investing hugely in Tanzania as they are in all of Africa. The age of American and European influence in this part of the world is diminishing and the are Chinese slowly but surely taking over using investment as the tool to do so. They call it ‘sort power’ and it’s very influential and persuasive for countries like Tanzania that are trying to develop and tend on their own two feet. Not that we have seen too many Chinese tourists. Lots of Japanese, English, Americans (too many!), Scandinavians and Germans.

On arrival at the Breezes resort we received the usual friendly welcome of cool towels, refreshing drink etc. Our first impression of the resort was ‘Wow!’ It is beautiful and made a great first impression. The beach area is simply stunning and the sand so fine that it’s like talcum powder. But on the resort in the next post for those at all interested! 

Some snaps of the Breezes Resort.