Day 87 – 88: Nungwi to Matemwe

It rained through the whole night and into the morning. We went for breakfast at 09:00. It’s amazing what expectations can to do an experience. As we expected the worst again, two small changes actually made the breakfast quite nice. The green banana was replaced by a piece of avocado and the bread was still soft. We also came prepared with our butter and limes.

After breakfast, Kristyna called a Taxi driver to take us to Matemwe. They agreed on 25. The taxi came (with 3 ‘operators’ and after about 2km they said we should pay now as we’re next to a exchange office. We said we’ll pay the 25 000 shillings as agreed. They said no it is $25 and then all hell broke loose as Kristyna verbally fought with them over trying to cheat us. In the end they drove us back to the accommodation, we wanted to get out, but then we would have to pay they said. They dropped us and then pointed to another taxi and said that taxi will take you for 25 000 TZS. It seemed a bit dodgy, but we got in and made it to Matemwe without incident. Petr, however, did have to tell the driver where to turn to get to the place we wanted to stay.

The Miramont Retreat is a Romanian owned and operated ‘resort’, their basic double rooms cost $30, but at least the cushions smelled OK and there was supposedly hot water. We paid for 2 nights and checked into two adjacent rooms.

Caro went for a walk on the beach with the Czechs, while Hugo pretended to work (he took a nap). It rained again on and off into the evening. We didn’t realise we were going to be so far away from a town and that we would have to restaurant. Hugo found a shop not too far away, but could only find water and nothing to eat.

For dinner the Czechs suggested we try one of the other resorts restaurants, but the one they had in mind only had a set menu for $20. It actually sounded quite nice, but it was too expensive for them. We thus had dinner at Miramont. We shared Red Tuna with Chips for $9, which turned out rather good (only seared on the outside, etc.)

While waiting for the food we played some card games again. Hugo, however, got distracted and saw that the one manager was struggling with a WordPress website, so he got up and helped him.

Day 88: Shallow snorkelling

We got up for breakfast, which was really good. They have something different every morning, but also ‘fixed’ options. We ordered chipati with cheese (the variable option) and Fried Eggs (the fixed option) and shared it, thus making a chipati with cheese and egg roll.

The tide was lowering, so we put on our swimming clothes, grabbed our snorkel gear and put on the complimentary water shoes. On this side of the island the water pulls back almost a kilometer. It’s not completely dry beach all the way, but we slowly walked through ankle deep to knee deep water until we reached the waves behind a reef. It was slow going as we had to walk through a mine field of thousands of sea urchins. We were joined by a lot of locals who searches for anything that they can eat.

On our return journey we did some ‘snorkelling’. The water was still lower than knee deep and the openings between corals not even long enough to lie down flat, so we basically just squatted and put our heads in the water. The feeling is indescribable. From out side the water it looks like I just described, a small ‘puddle’ with some rocks visible through the water. The second you put your head under water it instantly transforms into a massive underwater world with chambers and columns and valleys and all kinds of sea creatures. We saw the most colourful fish yet and so many different ones. Even a dangerous venomous Stone Fish and Lionfish. Also a water snake and the usual clown fish.

By the time we reached the shore again the high tide was coming in and all the reefs that were visible were already covered by water. We went for a quick dip in the swimming pool and was looking forward to the promised warm water shower, but alas, there was no water at all. We had to ask several different staff members to help us, as some would just disappear after pretending to ‘look into it’. Eventually some water would come out just to disappear again as soon as you put soap on.

We shared grilled chicken and chips for lunch, again $9, while doing some computering (this is how I will be describing work, study and googling from now on). The rest of the day just floated by. We had dinner in the restaurant again and ordered coconut chicken curry.