Nungwi
“Cor Blimey ‘gov” chirps Ali, leading us through his repertoire of Mockney and Ozzy catch phrases. Ali is taking us on a spice tour as we head up to Nungwi, the northern tip of Zanzibar. He points out his younger assistant who will be climbing trees to bring back samples as he is too old and wants to focus on his ‘gift of the gab’
There’s four of us that have opted for this tour, the others have been travelling non stop from Nairobi and are towards the end of their tour; the option of a lazy morning and lying on a beach beats sniffing plants to guess the spice.
We pass huge Jackfruit trees, mangosteen, mahogany and teak. The young assistant ably shimmy’s up a tree to fetch cloves and pepper and demonstrates the healing properties of the Iodine tree. Martina tests if cloves really do numb the tongue (yup) and finds that Tangawizi means Ginger in Swahili. Stoney Tanagawizi is her favourite drink of Tanzania and it’s probably also my favourite ginger beer too.
The assistant fashions a necklace from flowers and leaves for the ladies and a hat for me. Ali beckons to try a ‘cup of char’ or lemongrass chai with local vanilla. We have a delicious lunch cooked by a local woman in her home who watches us kindly whilst applying a henna tattoo on her hand. Martina tries to play peekaboo with one of the little children but he bashes his head on a concrete pillar and cries.
We meet up with the rest of the group in Nungwi and get acquainted with them. Some of them have already done the trek from Nairobi that we have planned later and have very good experiences of it. The tour guide has arranged for a birthday cake during dinner for one of the group. The staff sing, dance and bring a cake out to find that she’s popped to the shower and repeat it a little while later.
The next day I go snorkelling with the group whilst Martina nurses a sore knee by having a massage. We join a sunset cruise on a dhow boat for the afternoon. The crew introduce each member and their specific task. Actually they’ve just brought their mates along for the party. The dive master who took us snorkelling in the morning is the DJ and the guy responsible for chucking the anchor is happily dancing along. Martina has naturally brought her camera and cajoles them into jumping off the top deck for photos. Belly flop seems to be an African specialty.
