This morning we ventured across to Prison Island in a Dhow (local wooden boat). Prison Island is an island about half an hour from Stone Town by boat and was originally built as a prison for badly behaved slaves but was never used for this purpose. Instead it was used as a quarantine isolation point for any boat travelling to Zanzibar. The main building was utilised as a hospital and the diseased bodies were cremated on the island instead of being buried for fear of spreading disease to Zanzibar.
Also on Prison Island are a large number of tortoises some of which are over 150yrs old and weigh up to 300kg. We were able to feed them and one of the younger ones (age 30) really enjoyed a scratch on his head.
After exploring the Island we were taken out a short distance for some snorkelling. The visibility was very good, and there was quite a number of tropical fish to see.... including a lot of “Nemo’s”. Unfortunately Brii felt like she was being bitten or stung by something repeatedly in the water so she got out quite early, but we still both enjoyed ourselves.
On returning to Stone Town we boarded a mini bus bound for the north of the island, to an area called Nungwi. The trip was just over 1h and quite a pleasant drive through many small villages and tropical landscape.
We settled in to our bungalows which were to be our home for the next 3 nights and were thankfully slightly better than our previous nights accommodation. Our first dinner was on the sand overlooking the stunning blue water and spectacular sunset. Aaah, a holiday within a holiday!!
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