Early morning in Dar es Salaam, we threw a few days worth of clothes and passports in a smaller bag and boarded the ferry to Zanzibar.

Two hours later we were in Stone town. The spice island is nothing like Eastern Africa. Its complicated history with the Portuguese, Omani Arabs, Persians and its location as a massive trading hub for India and Asia meant it has a bit of influence from everywhere. For all intents and purposes it is a part of Tanzania, but still likes to remain separate with its own flag and identity, hence the need for a passport at entry.

In Stone Town, the buildings all look similar and are not arranged in a logical fashion. Each corner looks like the last and it's very easy to get lost. We grabbed a map and went exploring to find the Zanzibar Coffee House for some spiced chai. For dinner we met at a seafood market where we could pick and choose skewers of prawn, lobster, octopus, barracuda, tuna and squid, then wash it all down with sugar cane juice- amazing!

We caught up on a bit of history by visiting the old slave chambers and slave market and finished in a plantation where we sampled fresh fruits and spices straight out of the garden.

The following two nights we stayed at the northern end of the island at Sunset Bungalows. We tanned on the white beach, swam in the clear water where you could see your feet, drank cocktails for 5000TSH ($3.20 AUD) and generally did nothing.

We sadly left the island to return to the truck in Dar es Salaam and all we had to look forward to was 2 big driving days (both leaving before sunrise and arriving at camp after sunset) to get to Malawi. We promised Zanzibar we would be back next time we returned to Africa.