Island Time

Travel from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar, Tanzania
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Today I would leave mainland Tanzania and head off on a bit more of an adventure. Lola was heading back to Riyadh later today but I had taken an extra week of leave so I could spent some time diving in the Indian Ocean and relaxing on some white sandy beaches. My destination today was the little island of Zanzibar, part of Tanzania but just a short distance off the coast.

While waiting for my transport I ran into our old friends one more time, Arshad and Hassan. They really were great on this trip so I was very happy to say goodbye to them one more time. I then loaded up in the airport shuttle and I was off. On arrival at the airport I ran into my first real hiccup as I quickly became aware that my flight booking had been cancelled. Apparently  a ticket number was not assigned by the system so the booking just gets cancelled.....without notifying anyone. Of course all the other flights out that day were full so there was nothing the airline would do to help me out. Lucky for me, I hadn't booked the flight myself. The very nice people at Zara Adventures had done it so I simply called them, told them the story and they went to work. After a bit of delay I was able to board a flight.......to Dar Es Salaam, which is not on Zanzibar (but is the Capital of Tanzania). After a bit of wait there, I finally took the short 20 minute flight to Zanzibar.

Once I arrived it was pretty smooth sailing. The airport is really little....so little all the baggage is unloaded by hand. My driver was already there to pick me off so it was then quickly off to the hotel (after a stop at the ATM of course).

It was nearly an hour and a half drive from the airport to the hotel and since it was still light for most of the drive I was able to get a good look at the land and it's people. Zanzibar's population is roughly 99% Muslim  but not nearly as conservative as you would find in Riyadh. That being said I certainly found some familiar sights and sounds in the occasional abaya clad woman and mosques, but while most women were covered, it certainly was a very colourful scene. There were plenty of school children as well, all covered up in large head scarves.

Eventually I pulled up to my hotel. Unfortunately it was already dark (and I was very tired) so I couldn't get a good view of the place, but first impressions were that this would be a great place for relaxation. 

My room for the 6 nights. It has a great big stone shower. Was not going to be a problem to relax here at all. My room is on an upper floor with large patio that overlooks the water. Tomorrow I'll get a great view.

After quickly settling in my room and unpacking a few things, I headed to the beach restaurant for some dinner and a drink. It was a long day that turned into a relatively early night.

Tomorrow I would finally get to set foot in the Indian Ocean.

Julie

A Weekend on Fraser Island

Fraser Island, Australia
Saturday, October 2nd and Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

If you ever come to Australia, I highly recommend that you spend some time.....if only a day, on Fraser Island. If you like to camp (which we all know I don't).......it is a must.

My Saturday morning started early with a pick-up from my hotel. I decided to go onto the Island with a small group. Just 13 of us in a 4X4 mini-bus. After picking up a few other people we started the drive back south to Rainbow Beach to pick up our last few passengers and then make our way onto the island. If you are looking at a map you are probably wondering why I didn't just stay in Rainbow Beach since that is where I needed to be to get onto Fraser Island. The answer is because I was trying to break up some of the travel. It is 2 hours from Hervey Bay to Rainbow Beach and it just broke up the trip a bit for me.

The transportation for the weekend. Seats 13 passengers plus the driver. No extra room for luggage though. We were all only allowed to bring a small overnight bag. Easy to do since we were only staying one night.

Fraser Island is basically a giant sandbar. It is in fact the World's largest sand island. It is about 120 kilometres (approx 75 miles) long and on average is 14 kilometres (9 miles) wide. At it's widest point, the island is 22 kilometres (14 miles) wide. There are a few rules to know before you get there. The biggest are that you are not allowed to bring any animals to the island, make sure you read and follow all signs and you must have a 4x4 to drive on it. Like many places in Australia, Fraser Island is a World Heritage protected site so it is very important to follow the rules. To get there......vehicle barge.

The anchor on the barge. It takes about 10 minutes to travel from mainland Australia to Fraser Island.

Rush hour traffic on the island. Yes this is indeed the highway. How many lanes there are totally depends on whether it is high or low tide. During high tide there are inland roads that you have to drive to get by certain points.

Once we arrived on the island, our first stop was at our accommodation for the night for some tea and biscuits (as in cookies). We stayed at a little eco research centre run by the University of the Sunshine Coast called Dilli Village. The place is basic to say the least, and totally surrounded by a dingo fence (I'll get to that) but a cute little place all in all. Basically we dropped off some extra luggage, finished our tea and then headed out to see some of the island.

One of the inland sand trails. Just so you know, there are speed limits on the island. 80 km/hr on the "highway" unless otherwise marked and 30 km/hr on the inland trails. There are also police in the area for speeders and others who break any of the island rules. Our driver, Neil, says he has only gotten stuck once and much prefers to drive when the weather is a little wet. The wetness makes the tracks a little harder which means it is less likely the bus will bet bogged down in loose sand.

Our first real stop of the day was at Lake Mackenzie, which is one of over 100 fresh water lakes you will find on the island. It is a beautiful spot although today the water wasn't quite as nice because, well the weather wasn't very nice.

The beautiful Lake Mackenzie. Even without sun.....totally worth the visit.

The important thing to know about Lake Mackenzie is that it's sand is almost pure silica which means it is very soft and gentle and nice. If you believe our tour guide, this sand is great for polishing jewelry (as long as it is real....it will take the coating right off the fake stuff), is great at exfoliating (skin, face, body, whatever) and it will polish your teeth to a pearly white shine (no I didn't try it). And the water is so soft and pure that it is suppose to be the best conditioner you can find.

The water was not that warm but that didn't stop us from hanging out in it for a while.

Once we all dried off we headed to the fenced-in picnic area to have some lunch. Everywhere on the island things are inside dingo fences. Not really because the dingos are so dangerous they will hurt us but mostly because we want to keep them as wild as possible and not let them get use to human contact. Of course touching or feeding them is very against the rules and it is very important not to leave any garbage around for them.

The goanna we found that was also outside the fence. I wasn't going to take a picture of it but everyone else was so I did too. So here he is.

After lunch we headed to Central Station, so aptly named because it use to be the location of the central forestry department station from 1920 to 1959. It is in the heart of the rain forest found on Fraser Island. For about 130 years the island use to be heavily logged. Now walking around you hardly see any signs of it. The trees here were used in construction projects all over the world including the Suez Canal.

A little look at the boardwalk.

From Central station we made a short 45 minute walk on the boardwalk along the Wanggoolba Creek. This fresh water creek is often known as the invisible creek because it's waters are crystal clear and it is runs almost perfectly silent. It is suggested that the water you see in the creek is 75 to 100 years old because that is about how long it takes rain water and such to filter through the sand.

Watch this video and turn up your sound. You should hear.....pretty much nothing.

Along the trail. The rain forest is full of all kinds of plants and trees (as you would expect). Along the creek is the only place on the island where you can find the king fern. They sprout the largest fronds in the world.

Once we were through the forest we made our way back to Dilli Village to settle into our little cabins and have some dinner and a few drinks. Neil, our driver, also doubles as the chef. Like most men in Australia......cooks a pretty good steak.

The little cabin I was in.

Cute little place. I had this one all to myself which was good because that meant I got an extra blanket. It was actually a little cold overnight.

The little swimming hole at Dilli Village. No I didn't test these waters.

One of the little dingo pups that found his way through the fence. He was the cutest little thing ever. We all just wanted to pet and play with him but had to remind ourselves that he is a wild animal so we couldn't touch. He did find the back door to the kitchen however. That didn't make the caretaker too happy.

He was outside the fence...probably waiting for the little one. At Dilli Village they are not too concerned about the little ones getting in the fence, they are more worried that they will stay inside and then be too big to get back out.

There are about 150 dingos on Fraser Island, all of which are pure dingo (unlike the ones you will find in other parts of Australia who have cross bred with domestic dogs.) They stay pure dingo of course because you are not allowed to bring any dogs onto the island. They track the populations through electronic chips. Originally they would have been brought here by the aboriginal tribes who once inhabited the island. The dingos are protected and you are not allowed to hunt them.

Dilli Village at night. A very cute little place. Certainly not big but clean and nice and eco-friendly. What else can you ask for?

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we headed back up the island to check out a few more things. The weather today....worse than yesterday but we still saw as much as we could.

One last look at our favourite little guy before we headed off. Don't let the sunshine spots in this picture fool you.....the day was wet and grey.

From Dilli Village we made our way north to check out a few things. The first place we stopped was at the Maheno Shipwreck.

This is the Maheno....or what is left of her. Originally built in 1905 as a luxury passenger ferry between New Zealand and Australia, The Maheno has had a colourful history. For 9 years she carried passengers between the 2 countries before she was refitted and enlisted in the Australian Navy. During World War I, she spent 5 years as a hospital ship carrying around an estimated 25,000 sick, wounded and dying soldiers on the English Channel.

After the war, she went back to ferrying passengers before being decommissioned in 1935. She was then sold to the Japanese for scrap. While being towed to Japan, she was shipwrecked on Fraser Island. Many attempts were made to recover her but since she is still here I guess it is safe to say they were all unsuccessful. I'm told 5 decks of this once great ship lie below the sand. It is also interesting to know the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) used her for target practice for a while. Apparently they have bad aim because she is in remarkably good shape all things considered.

Yes, I do look a little cold and wet because I am a little cold and wet. The rain and the wind make visiting a ship wreck....almost a little spooky.

Some of the waves off Fraser Island. They are not very inviting and no we did go swimming. This area is also known for stingers (that's jelly fish) and sharks so really nothing about this water is inviting.

After the ship wreck we continued our way north to a spot called Indian Heads. It is volcanic out cove and is the anchor of the island (you know, it keeps all the sand from just floating away....or something like that).

That's Indian Heads, so named because as Captain Cook floated by he saw a number of aboriginals assembled there. Back then, all people with dark skin were called "Indians" and so Captain Cook called it Indian Heads.

We actually had a chance to climb up the small hill, and even with the wind and the rain it was worth the trip up to see the view.

Looking down at our little bus.....at least it looks little from here.

I just find signs that have pictures depicting people falling head first off cliffs funny.

The view of the water. Somewhere in behind me are a few humpback whales. I'm not sure where because I didn't see them but I was told that they did swim by while we were up there.

Indian Heads was are farthest point north we travelled and once we had enjoyed the view as much as we were going to enjoy it we start to make our way back south again. Our next stop was at one of the coloured sand locations. Unfortunately in the rain it was a lot harder to see all the variations.

The variations of red, brown, yellow and orange colours you can find here are caused by the different levels of iron oxide in the sand. This is caused by the decaying of animals and plants.

From there we headed to Eli Creek. It is the largest of the fresh water creeks on Fraser Island. Most of these creeks eventually drain into the ocean by travelling across the beach that we drive on. This often leads to some interesting driving because those creek beds can get pretty deep.

Eli Creek. I know what you are thinking, the water looks dirty but I assure you it is crystal clear. What you see is the super soft sand on the bottom of the creek. Eli Creek actually has a very strong current and on hot days tourists love to lie in the water and let the current take them for a ride. I skipped the river float on this cold day. Maybe next time.

And after that we headed back to Dilli Village for some lunch and then back to mainland Australia. Our quick trip to Fraser Island was over. We arrived safely back in Hervey Bay at around 1600 (4pm) just in time to watch the clouds disappear and the sun come out. I assure you it was a beautiful sunset but one I could have gone without seeing.

Julie

Hey You.....Fijian Girl

Kuata Resort, Kuata Island, Fiji
Thursday, August 5, 2010

Today was a very busy day. I probably accomplished the most that I have since I arrived on these amazing little islands. It was my second day here in Kuata, which I think is my favourite resort. Ignore that fact that the water seems to run out several times a day and they turn the power off from 1300-1800 and then usually around midnight because the people and the food and well everything else makes up for it.

After an excellent breakfast of deep fried pancakes (think donuts but not as sweet and heavier like cake), we headed out in the boat to do some swimming with sharks. Now of course these are reef sharks that are perfectly harmless but still when I think shark I still think “shouldn’t be in the water with them”. But of course I had to do it so I hopped on the boat with a few other brave souls. We took a short ride out and then the boat dropped us at the reef.......which was in the middle of nowhere.

Today's boat captain Solomon, AKA king.

It’d be a good hour swim to any island in any direction from where the reef is. They tell us to get off the boat and follow our guide along the reef. Today;s guide was Dani.

Dani jumped off the boat somewhere early to catch this guy to feed to the sharks. He was a good sacrifice.......but probably not very willing.

Dani and King know where to head to find the sharks so we just have to swim there. Almost immediately when I hit the water I saw one…..and was surprisingly un-alarmed. It was just a little guy. We did meet a bigger one a little bit later but really the 3 sharks that hung out with us were cute and fun and there was no problem.

This is the big guy....or girls. I can't tell the difference between girl sharks and boy sharks.

These sharks were kind of funny. You could tell there are use to the tourists being around. They seemed to come out and eat a fish for a few minutes almost to humour us and then they would head back and do whatever they were doing before.

A video of my shark encounter just to prove I really was there.

Once back on dry land I took a nice nap in a hammock. I’m not sure you appreciate how comfortable a hammock is until you attempt to read in one and quickly fall asleep.

Dani showing off his catch. That's an octopus in case you weren't quite sure.

Anyway, my afternoon was filled with a visit to a local village, Naramara. It was a quick 10 minute boat ride. Here we got to look at how many Fijians live when not catering to tourists in the resorts. The population of Naramara is about 90 to 100 people. They tend to be very close and almost like family……even if they are not family.

Naramara Village from the water.

A few of the kids we met who aren't quite old enough to attend school. Not a lot of supervision for these kids. Guess they just know not to get into trouble.

Our first stop was at the local school. Now the kids are very use to tourists coming to visit and love having there pictures taken.

The school is about 95 kids from 3 different villages. Kids who don’t live in Naramara live in dorm rooms from Sunday afternoon (after church) until Friday afternoon when they head home to their villages. The families of those children take turns cooking meals for all the children in the dorms.

This is the girls side of the dorm (if you couldn't tell from all the purple and pinks in the room). It was very interesting to note the the boys side of the dorm was not only not nearly as tidy and also not as personalized.

The school yard where they play a lot of rugby (the boys) and Net ball (like basketball.......and for girls.)

The school houses kids from kindergarten to Year 8. There are no high schools on any of the islands so kids have to attend high school in Nadi. I also learned that the government does not fund kindergarten and when kids start school in Year One, there education is in English but they grow up in the villages mostly speaking Fijian.

I think this is a pretty good mission.

Because of this most villages feel early education is very important so will fund their own Kindergartens so kids will be starting to read and write in English before the start the very challenging English curriculum in Year One. When we were there, they had 2 volunteer teachers (one from Ireland, one from the USA) who were working with the Kindergarten class.

The school house.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of those school kids.

A few of the youngest kids we got to visit.

A few of the girls we met at the school. You will notice quickly that they never just stand and smile. Always have to pose. This group of girls was able to point out Canada on the map without hesitation.....and were very proud to do so.

Some of the Year 8 girls....

.....and some of the year 8 boys. They were in the process of preparing for a very big test but their teacher was kind enough to give them 3 minutes to talk with us and ask us questions. I have to say these kids, have some of the best hand writing I have ever seen.

Once we had disrupted the classes enough we headed over to wander through the rest of the village and made stops at the Shell Market, hosted by many of the ladies in the village. They mostly sell jewelry and little souvenir items. We also made a stop by the church which is the center of many social occasions in the village. There were a lot of people just hanging around, trying to stay cool. Many of those in the village who are employed, work for the local resorts. Most of them work a 6 day week and will be lucky if they can head home to their village for a day a week.

The main street in Naramara village.

Some one has to do the dishes. Of course there is a shortage of fresh water so it normally isn't wasted on scrubbing pots.

One of the families we got to met while visiting the village.

Super cute kids playing in an old fridge.

Eventually we had to leave and head back to Kuata. Before dinner I prepared for a hike to the summit of the mountain here on Kuata Island. It turned out I was the only one interest in making the hike so me and Bill made the trip (my guide…..they force someone to walk you up there). I was once again very happy to have dragged my hiking boots to the island. Now a few days later however, my socks seem to have disappeared. I have a memory of hanging them on my bunk in Coral View to dry. I have no memory of taking them down and putting them back in my pack so I am guessing they are still there. So I did what I shouldn’t and walked in my boots with bare feet. Still better than flip flops and well worth the difficult climb to enjoy the view.

My guide Bill. He did the hike in flip-flops but I think he has done it before.

The sunset. So beautiful.

See I was there. It was a great view. Just over my right shoulder you can see the resort.

After dinner I spent the night with the men and women of the resort enjoying a nice Kava ceremony. I even helped out by crushing some Kava……ok I didn’t do a very good job but that stick is very, very heavy. I am very happy to keep that being “men’s work”.

The tourists started with a bonfire but eventually I left and found some kava and some music and a great time.

The boys crushing the kava. They made it look so easy.

Me crushing the kava. Seriously I could hardly pick up the pole let alone crush some root with it.

Dani, Bill and "King" also enjoying the kava and some music. Tonight everyone was gathered to pay respects to a friend who had recently returned from Nadi to attend the funeral of a family member. Although respectful the mood was very upbeat and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Drinking the kava. I went round for round with the locals....however my bowl was much less full than the others. I would not have lasted long if I attempted to drink their bowlfuls.

I can't apologize enough for the poor video quality ( I really hope Blogger will include an HD video uploader soon!!!!). I would have liked you to have seen my friends. However I had to at least share some of the music with you. I really enjoyed it.

Eventually my night ended (just before midnight). The kava was starting to go to my head. For the Fijians though, the night seemed to be just beginning. Most of them were up until 4am.

Julie