New Year in Nungwi

On New Year’s Eve we headed to the north of the island, and Nungwi, which is much busier with more lodges and lots more people. The tide is also different as in Bwejuu it was only really possible to swim early to late because the sea would disappear for hundreds of metres during the day. Whereas in Nungwi there was virtually no tide so at any time of the day it took only a minute to walk from our lodge to reach the warm bluey ocean. For New Year everyone seemed to head to one of the largest lodges that was holding ‘the’ big party. We danced on the sand, enjoyed the fireworks at midnight and crawled into bed in the early hours; the following day was definitely a time for reading on the beach and swimming when the sun became too hot. Our last full day in Zanzibar was also the best one for snorkelling. A boat took around two hours to reach a small island just off the northern part of Zanzibar and upon jumping into the sea we were surrounded by thousands of fish. They were everywhere in all shapes, sizes and colours. There were plenty of jellyfish took which at times felt like your body was constantly being pricked by a needle but this did not take away from the enjoyment of seeing the fish. The starfish were big and colourful. For me the sleek, black and yellow striped fish shaped like arrows were my favourite. On the journey back we ate freshly caught tuna, baked on the braii whilst we were snorkelling. None of us wanted to leave.