The classic route after a safari in Tanzania goes like this: To the beach in Zanzibar or for the sporty people, climb Kilimanjaro – safari – Zanzibar. We research and decide for the neighboring island Mafia. This island doesn’t appear to have the dream beaches like Zanzibar, but for exactly that reason it isn’t clustered with high-rise hotels. And there are whale sharks. 😊 But primarily we’d like to get to know a bit of the real Tanzania.
We rent a Bungalow with sea view in Kilindoni. People with significantly more money prefer a lodge in the marine protection park for 300 dollars or a private island for 2000 dollars a night. We are very happy with our accommodation. Every morning we get mango juice, eggs and pancake, at night fish and seafood. The place is run by locals, the power comes from solar panels and it is beautifully imperfect.
At the end of our world trip we’re no longer keen on constantly moving. We’d like to enjoy the last 9 days, see the local life, chill. And that’s exactly what we do. We go snorkeling, go more than 100 km in a tuk-tuk to the other end of the island, go swimming at a dream beach without other tourists, see villages, where no white person ever lived, wave the screaming kids from the tuk-tuk. Next to our bungalow there is a lobster farm where they explain me how breeding works and I am allowed to have a look at the baby lobsters with a size of 2 cm. We go for walks on the beach, observe the local women sorting and drying fish, donate the remains of the medicine in our first-aid-kit to the local hospital. And we meet other nice “mzungus”, as the white people are called here. A Belgian woman that has already been living 12 years on Zanzibar and is now escaping the package tourism, golf courses and casinos and an Austrian who worked for doctors without borders as a logistic specialist in several countries and is now trying to establish a Vespa safari business on Zanzibar. We have plenty of things to talk about and the days are passing by rapidly… Next stop: going home.
Mafia island has been exactly the right place before our departure, soaking up the sun, seafood, mango, passion fruit and coconuts every day. But now we are looking forward to the lights in Dresden Neustadt, to Christmas, sour dough bread, really good cheese, not moving anymore, a proper bed, different clothes and to you!
