A long time ago - well April 18th to be exact - I booked some flights to somewhere hot & exotic sounding in the hope that going away from Jozi would make us less homesick at that happy/sad time of Christmas. Being Welsh we usually go a little OTT at Christmas - the most memorable was a Caswell Bay break with 22 of us & a lot of booze, dancing around the house to "Is This The Way To Amarillo?" with my sister on the spoons!! You get the picture!
So - would Zanzibar deliver? Oh yes indeedy - almost! After a rather stressy mix up over flights with Precision Air (far too long & boring to go into here!), we arrived on December 14th in time for cocktails in the pool. As we had not really looked at where Zanzibar is, it was HOT!! Very hot - Day 2 was spent in the shade, asleep or drinking water - after Eloise had fainted (heatstroke) & I looked as if my botox implants in my eyes & lips had gone very. very wrong!
We soon got into the swing of things - easy really because there was no swing. There was nothing to do! Just nothing - other than play cards, swim, sleep & read! We became experts at doing nothing - even lifting the Kindle was far too much at times! The beach was working community & also an informal road - with Vespas & bikes up & down. The women farmed seaweed & men fished. Just wonderful to watch them use the local produce - perhaps Victoria Beckham's face cream started off here!
The first week we just all chilled, watched films, siestad, chatted & recharged those batteries that desperately needed recharging! The second week we were a bit more lively & visited Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is charming & smelly in equal parts!
One of our highlights (in fact one of the highlights of certainly my life) was swimming with dolphins - wild, free & please themselves dolphins who could have swum away merrily at first site of me in a swimming costume. But no, the 6 of them stayed around, playing & mating, whilst we snorkelled above them - at times they were as close as 2 metres. Not at all bothered. Amazing!
We saw the dolphins on Christmas Eve & then returned to a beautifully decorated restaurant & a splendid 4 course meal.
We managed to Skype the Welshies (screams & tears all round) & in fact the homesickness wasn't too bad - we certainly didn't want to be in rainy Britain, I think we would have liked to bring some of the rellies over to us! But it was definitely better than I had expected. Stockings in our bed (the norm) on Christmas morning, then pancakes for brekkie - made by someone else & then chilling again! FC had bought Ollie the complete set of Fawlty Towers, which proved a huge success with everyone!
Christmas evening was spent on a sunset cruise which was stunning - followed up by supper on the beach! Just perfect!
Definitely one to remember & sheer luxury - none of the stress of Christmas other than my dream that I had forgotten to book my Tesco delivery slot!!
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