Awoken at an ungodly hour to the sound of a storm raging through the Kampala dark, my first visitor Helen (on her reconnaissance ‘Look and See’ trip) and I woke, grabbed our bags and passports and made our way through the early morning gloom to find Dennis our Special (taxi) driver. Rushing down the Entebbe road dodging Bodas, Matatus, people walking to work and fallen trees the sun swung up into the sky as if shot from an Dark Ages Trebuchet and illuminated our Air Uganda jet waiting for us at the very quiet gate. Shortly after clambering aboard and paying, probably far too little, attention to the inflight safety demonstration, we were airborne over Lake Victoria and its many islands headed south-east to the azure shores of the Indian Ocean. The pilot threading his way between Mt Kenya (“to your left…”) and the snow clad Mt Kilimanjaro (“...to your right”) before touching down on the sunny and exotic Spice Island of Zanzibar, thankfully free from the high season tourist mobs and, strangely enough, the weather that keeps them away. The sun beat down on us as we snorkelled in the warm clear blue waters, tore across the island on a Vespa and hunted for bargains in the tight ancient walls of Stonetown under a haze of cloves and other numerous spices on sale in the bustling market. Aside from the weather and the seafood, one of the highlights of the week had to be the dolphin tour which turned into more of a mix between a frantic hunt for our aquatic relative and a military boot camp. Where at a brief sighting of a dolphin we would be commanded to put on our flippers and masks and “get ready, get ready!” to jump/roll into the water and ‘swim’ with them…while they fed at high speed. As the waters above them suddenly became overpopulated with strange land mammals they quickly made the option between playing or feeding and obviously didn’t hang around for long, whereon we were ordered back onto the speedboat for the cycle to start once more. While in Stonetown the locals are used to fleecing the American tourists and can be a constant pest, out of the town Zanzibruns…Zanzibians…Zanzibarians are nearly as friendly as Ugandans, offering to show you around (not always at a price) or chatting away to you (in Swahi-lish) while you are cramped into the corner of a tiny Dalla-Dalla island bus between two ladies of larger proportions while balancing their shopping on your lap. However don't be worried if you spot the unusual sight of a Masai warrior cycling along the dazzling white beach with a mobile phone clamped to his ear, you haven't had too much sun!
