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Carts pulled by cows. Frolicking monkeys. And shores of the purest white sand: Exploring the delights of Zanzibar
Halima greets me with a smile, a towel and a pair of paper underpants. 'Jambo!' she says – 'hello!'.
The turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean lap on to the blinding white sand in front of the cabana as I lie on my back in the outdoor spa. In the distance, women are wading in the low tide, collecting seaweed that will be exported around the world for medicine, food and cosmetics. That seaweed is also being used by Halima.
I sip from a glass of tamarind and beetroot juice as she mixes it with coconut oil and salt to create a body scrub. It has been a long flight and I had walked into the spa exhausted, but I leave in a state of bliss.
We – there are four of us – are in Zanzibar at Lux Marijani, a new 82-room resort on the north-east coast. It is the ideal place to be refreshed and replenished before exploring this remarkable island that is as rich in history as it is in natural beauty.
The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we head north along the coast, our driver swerving past carts pulled by cows carrying young children. 'We call them Zanzibar Ferraris,' he laughs.
Sarfraz Manzoor travels to Zanzibar, an island group in the Indian Ocean. Sir Richard Burton described Zanzibar’s beaches as a 'cocoa-fringed shore of purest white'
Sarfraz takes a boat to Mnemba Island (above), the 'finest place to go snorkelling in Zanzibar'
Above - a red colobus monkey, which is unique to Zanzibar
We take a boat to Mnemba Island, reputed to be a favoured holiday destination for billionaire Bill Gates and the finest place to go snorkelling in Zanzibar.
‘Pole, pole,’ (slowly, slowly) says Ali the skipper as he lowers my seven-year-old son into the sparkling water. I don’t swim, so instead I watch Ali chop mango, watermelon and pineapple, which we feast on when the others return from snorkelling with zebrafish, parrotfish and scorpionfish.
The 19th century explorer Sir Richard Burton described Zanzibar’s beaches as a ‘cocoa-fringed shore of purest white’, and while he wasn’t wrong there is more to Zanzibar than beaches.
South of Lux Marijani you will find Jozani Forest. Our guide leads us through the dense mangrove and mahogany trees. We’re in search of red colobus monkeys, which are unique to Zanzibar. He points out, with undeserving enthusiasm, a few squirrels and millipedes, before suddenly shouting: ‘I can smell monkey!’
We traipse through the forest, following the scent, and then we see them – three monkeys crossing a telegraph wire stretched between two poles. One leaps from the wire to a tree branch, misses and falls before landing on a lower branch. We gasp in delight.
Then we head west along roads lined with banana trees and fields of sugar cane. A minibus overflowing with passengers passes. ‘We call them dala dala,’ explains our driver, ‘because the fare used to be one dollar each way to Stone Town.’
Sarfraz checks into Lux Marijani, pictured above, a new 82-room resort on the north-east coast
A street market in Stone Town, which Sarfraz describes as the 'bustling, beating heart of Zanzibar'
Stone Town is the bustling, beating heart of Zanzibar. Our base is the Neela, a newly opened boutique hotel a stone’s throw from the Freddie Mercury Museum.
The Queen star grew up in Stone Town, and his old home is now the somewhat underwhelming museum.
‘Stone Town is all about getting lost,’ says Zak, the hotel manager. He’s right, and it’s certainly easy to lose yourself amid the old winding alleys where Zanzibar’s stew of African, Indian, Arabic and European histories are present behind every ornate wooden door.
Men and women with charcoal crosses smudged on foreheads emerge from the Anglican cathedral, a late Gothic building built on the site of where 60,000 slaves were once sold every year.
The altar, we’re shocked to learn, is where the whipping post once stood.
Zanzibar was the hub of the Arab slave trade. There is an excellent exhibition next to the cathedral, but to get a starker insight visit the dungeons where the slaves were held as they prepared to be sold. Here the past feels painfully present.
While in Stone Town, Sarfraz visits the former home of Freddie Mercury, pictured above, which has been turned into a museum
We spend a morning driving down to the south-east of the island to visit Kuza Cave, where my family go for a swim. Instead, I join a group of musicians who are playing ngomas – traditional goat-skinned drums – and singing a song called Jambo Jambo.
Our last evening in Stone Town is spent strolling during sunset at Forodhani Gardens, a waterside park. The call to prayer in the distance merges with the sound of a musician playing the oud in the square while a song by Rihanna floats from a bar.
Young children kick a football while mothers paddle in the shallows. An old man clacks shells as older boys play makachu, a sport involving running off the seawall and leaping into the water.
We drink it all in one final time, before returning to the hotel.
Zanzibar has been wonderful, and I’m hoping it’s not too long before I can say ‘jambo’ to this most extraordinary of islands once more.