31 July 2013

Kendwa & Nungwi.

 The shared ‘shuttle bus’ taxi only took 1 hour to get to the hotel in Kendwa. Driving in this place looked amazing! Driving TO this place was a little scary - lets just say potholes and dangerous overtaking are a prominent part of Tanzanian roads!

My little room 16
I was staying at Kendwa Rocks, a great hotel from what I had heard from others...then I was shown my room… Naturally I’d paid for the cheapest option (apart from the $20pppn dorm which was fully booked!) and found two single beds, a fan and a door which locked with a sliding bolt :S All of the 'basic' rooms had access to the same 3 shared bathrooms, with hot water if you were lucky, and broken toilet seats.
It was the beach (and honestly the food) which made this place. I have never felt more in paradise! Except for the roaring tourist trade and regular local men trying to sell you things while you sunned yourself.



It was properly white sand, turquoise waters and palm trees. Uh, lush. The first afternoon I literally laid on a sun lounger by a sun hut reading a book, and drinking 5500TZH cocktails (£2) at happy hour (3pm – 7pm). The next day I had planned to walk to Nungwi but decided to spend it relaxing and washing my 'smalls'. The sunsets here were lovely, so long as there was no cloud. Unfortunately, for the last three nights, we were blighted with cloud and rain during the day!

It took just under an hour to walk north to Nungwi along the beach. You can only do it during low tide, so you have to plan accordingly. It rained most of the way there, but was still lovely and warm. The turtle sanctuary was a natural coral pool that filled up more during high tide. The turtles were rescued from hatchlings on the beach, and are brought up to full adult size (about 3 years) before being released. This place had also turned into some kind of make shift cat sanctuary. The owner said he had one cat which he had neutered, and since then all the stray cats that are found in the village are anonymously left at his back door. They had the three cutest tabby flea-bag kittens, which took to me like a house on fire, all three falling asleep on me. 
Trust me to go half way around the world and spend my time stroking cats!

As I mentioned before, the food at Kendwa Rocks was really really good; a fusion of Thai, Indian and Western cuisine. One night I had a coconut prawn curry for around 13000 shillings, another a slightly spicy beef mussman curry. The breakfast was excellent too!



I really enjoyed my 4 days on the beach, even in the torrential rain, and the beach massage by Mama Zanzibar was a brilliant way to relax before starting what I assumed would be a very tough 4 weeks in Lindi! 

10 days did not seem like enough in Zanzibar!






Me being 'good mother' to the three kittens. 


... yes one is nuzzling me in the bottom photo.

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