2
AUGUST 2005 ‚ 1215 HOURS ‚ BREEZES BEACH CLUB ZANZIBAR TANZANIA
We are homeless here on the island. As of 10:30 this morning we checked out of
our room and are now content to sit under a canopy of dried palm fronds and watch
the tide come in under gray skies excepting when the patches of blue sky pass
over and the sun comes out to play, turning the Indian Ocean a beautiful blue
green color.
Good gawd, but was it ever a
sumptuous and wonderful dining experience last night. Set up in a cabana
built for two with our own personal server, Susan
and I enjoyed
a bottle of Libertas merlot and canapÈs consisting of bread slices with black
olive and tomato and avocado spreads, flavorful foil-wrapped chicken drumettes,
and pieces of pineapple, mozzarella and tomato skewered on toothpicks. After
that for appetizers we were served plates with prawns in a savory sauce, deep-fried
avocado and crab cakes with a trio of sauces: chili, tartar and
soy. A lime sorbet was dished up as a palate cleanser and then it was on to
the main
course, a full-blown Jahari lobster presented by our server and our chef for
the evening who described the lobster as being sautÈed in garlic and spices
and finished in brandy. Crazily decadent and triply delicious. I managed to
finish
mine but it was too much for Susan. Dessert was a delicious chocolate mousse
of which I couldn't get to the bottom. All I can say is ìWow!î
Leaving the cabana we stumbled in the darkness and the starlight to the extreme low tide line of the water, driving tiny white crabs away from us in surprise at our intrusion. Then it was to the room where we wasted no time getting undressed and under the covers. After a dreamless sleep I awoke this morning early enough to catch the sunrise. Up at 5:30 I took a peek outside the terrace doors and figured I had as good a chance as any to capture the first rays of the day. So kissing Susan awake and letting her know my plan, I left her snuggled in bed and made my way down to the shoreline. Though there was a cloud bank hovering off over the horizon, the sun climbed up above it shortly before 6:30 and gave me some spectacular images of the calm water beneath some beautiful sky.
Down the beach from
me was a couple who had set up their camera on a tripod and afterward
proceeded out into the water. It didn't take long before they were wandering beyond
the palm-fronded platform, yet the water was barely up over their ankles.
Despite
going much further out, thre water didn't get up over their knees, so
I unzipped my convertible pants and stuffed the leg bottoms in my pocket
and headed
out soon finding myself in the midst of urchins and sea cucumbers and
tiny cyclid
fish living amongst the coral growths. I spied what looked to be a small
version of a puffer fish, and an even stranger almost all-white creature
that blended
in perfectly with the sandy bottom. I managed a few pictures of it, but
as it was very wary of both me and apparently my camera, almost everytime
I
would point
the lens at it it would scoot off in a cloud of sand and I would have
to 
search for it again. The oddest of all the underwater animals was
one that
looked to
be almost reptilian in color and shape. Long and slender like a snake
or a tail, I saw several of them usually with one end secured from a
patch of
coral and
the other end out in the open water. On its exposed end was what looked
like five appendages, that would be used for catching prey perhaps.
About an hour's worth of wandering found me far out from shore, I'd estimate at least a quarter mile, and still the water was mostly only up to mid-calf and then only if I stepped into a depression in the bottom ‚ and I wasn't alone. Though there was only one other hotel guest out there (and he a couple hundred yards closer to shore sticking to one spot in hopes of catching a shot of the sun should it emerge from the cloudbank), there were several of the locals ‚ referred to by the hotel staff as ìbeach boysî out looking for the catch of the day. Three of them went out nearly as far as Susan and I had in the paddleboat yesterday, several hundred more yards away from where I was at (and only hip deep in water), and it was at that point that I realized I could either go on my watery wanderings for a much longer time, or start heading back. Feeling a bit guilty that I hadn't returned to the room to rouse Susan and have her join me, and not wanting her to worry where I might be, I started back toward land.
The path I took
in led me to the strangest creature of the trip. Either it was a very
long version of the reptilian thing I found earlier or it
was
a dozing
eel. Whatever it was, it was long, at least three feet, with most of
its body fully exposed in a little nook and its head tucked safely
into a patch
of 
underwater
plants. Turning to look northward I spied a heron of some sort standing
in the water perfectly still in search of prey several hundred yards
up the
beach from
me and I proceeded to close the distance to it as quickly as I could
before it
took wing. Grabbing some images of it on the prowl, it finally got tired
of me narrowing
the gap between us and launched into the air, allowing me to grab a few
stills of its lift off.
Back inside the room I excitedly told Susan what I'd done and showed her some of the images I'd made. She had already begun the process of packing so I got to it as well.
ìIt's always so much easier to pack at the end of a trip than at the beginning of one,î Susan said at breakfast later. Very true. After eating we inquired as to a late checkout, but were informed that our room was needed for a party arriving shortly so we went back and finished packing and then came back to settle our bill. While Susan was doing that I signed the guestbook:
ìI can't think of a more wonderous conclusion to our African adventure/honeymoon than our time here at Breezes. Beginning with mountain gorilla trekking in Rwanda and continuing on the plains of the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, there is no better way to end our journey than on the beach here at Breezes. We miss it already and we look forward to our next visit.î
-Will and Susan Campbell
Los Angeles, California USA
02 August 2005
And with that we adjourned back out to the sand to lounge and watch the tide come in and the sun play peek-a-boo. We'll go have lunch in a little while and then shortly after that we'll be on our way at 3:30 p.m. to Zanzibar Airport for our 6:30 flight to Nairobi, followed by our 10:45 plane ride to London. Our nonstop destination after that: Los Angeles. Home!
As sad as it is for our journey to be ending, we've done so much and seen so much (and in really so short a time) that anymore time here would almost be redundant and somehow unfulfilling ‚ at least that's how I'm rationalizing it. Still, it has been a magnificent experience. I'm not glad it's ending, but I'm very satisfied with how it's all turned out and I think we're both ready to go home and begin the process of reintegrating with our everyday lives (and compiling the thousands of photos and some 180 minutes of raw video footage into a travel log), certainly more enriched by the voyage and definitely more aware of a previously undiscovered area of our world.