Day 3, where we got our energy back

I forgot to mention the deadly sarong-man-of-war incident. This is a true story and happened while we were attempting to snorkel on the local reef.

Being both paranoid and neurotic I thought I'd covered off most of the lurking dangers of the deep in terms of blue bottles, sea urchins, stone fish and lion fish. All of which do nasty things to you if you stand on them (understandably so).

However, whilst snorkelling with my sarong tied around my costume strap a piece floated free and I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. At once I realised I had forgotten the devilish Portuguese Man O' War (which can apparently kill you almost immediately with one touch) and assumed the worst. This is exactly what happens when you don't consider all possible dangers. It's not easy to scream through a snorkel so it was more of a strangled yelp that came out, and, at the same time, I propelled myself right out of the water (well, up to waist level anyway) and leaped about frantically to get away from it, thrashing my arms around, but it had me in its deathly embrace already!

Of course Brian heard the commotion, saw this and nearly drowned he was laughing so hard.He immediately told me that now he had a story to tell about me (apart from the tequila one, which happened 22 years ago so doesn't count), so best I remember that next time I tell the story about how he tear-gassed himself in Sarah's car. He thought I was concerned it was a shark (how could I have forgotten about sharks too?) which I denied.

Now that the record is straight....

Day 3, hard to believe the trip was almost over. Off to the dining room for breakfast

Yum - all kinds of options available, and the chef makes your egg selection right in front of you. Fresh juices and fruit (Bungu juice - apparently a real fruit, a little like passion fruit and quite tart) but the best is the mango juice.

Later, in a fit of madness, we did the water aerobics class - we felt very virtuous afterwards and Brian had custard with his pudding at lunch since he'd earned it.

After lunch we snuck out separately past reception so as not to raise any suspicion. Since we didn't bring a useful kit bag we took our snorkelling kit wrapped in a sarong (a different one, the other one brought back bad memories) and walked up the drive to meet our black market tour guide who was to take us to Mnembe Island to snorkel.

The black market operators are not allowed onto hotel property so it's very undercover as the hotel doesn't approve.

As it was low tide we had to drive quite far past little villages (the Zanzibari villagers seem to keep ducks and goats rather than the chickens and goats one would find in mainland villages) on a shocking road. These are not dirt roads, they are coral roads, all pointy rock and gravel, but the spotless, airconditioned taxi managed well. Not sure I would risk my suspension and tyres for all of $100 that had to be split a few different ways. Arriving at the far north of the island we boarded a little traditional boat for the trip to the reef

This is an example of traditional boats, not the actual place we embarked (didn't have a camera after all)

Mnembe/Mnemba Island (seems to have different names) is apparently owned by Bill Gates, according to our tour guide "Captain Peter" and has a lodge that charges $1500 per night. Not sure how true any of this is, but if the boat operators land on the island they are fined $100 so we stayed well away from the beach.

The reef is a marine reserve but local residents are allowed to remove some shells and octopus. Obviously we didn't remove anything, nor did I buy the shells the beach boys were trying to sell us on the beach. Imagine the ecologist's (Sarah)response if I had

Again - not my pictures, but this is really what its like. Quite unbelievable sea colour and visibility

What followed was the best snorkelling I have experienced anywhere in the world. Forget the Maldives, Mauritius, Lake Malawi, Sodwana, Knysna, Ilha do Sol - this is paradise. Captain Peter brought us cushion starfish to look at (carefully put back in the same place afterwards)

and there were blue starfish as well as a little electric ray, sea-snake cucumber, thousands of tropical fish like sergeant-majors, emperor angelfish, surgeon fish, wrasses, and quite an ugly moray (sorry - but it's true) trumpet fish, damsels and others with split caudal fins we couldn't identify. The coral is incredible, Captain Peter carefully brought up a loose piece of hard coral and warned us not to touch anything, explained the difference between hard and soft coral and then took it back down again.

Brian and I both popped up and said "Rosie would love this" (my dive buddy/travelling companion/good friend/fixer of things and great photographer)

I saw a banded sea snake following a trumpet fish, but by the time I called Brian to look at it, it had disappeared

Brian and I swam into each other at least twice, it's quite ridiculous. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't have his bootees, which meant his fins rubbed his toes raw, requiring me to sacrifice my leopard-print dress to lovingly tear strips to wrap around affected toes. Personally, I think this caused him to swim in circles which meant I had to keep an eye out for him as well as all the dangerous things.

After around 2 hours we got back on board where our captain (not Captain Peter, who was our guide, strangely enough) had prepared a tray of fresh fruit, lovely sweet pineapple and mangos. There was also a cooler with mineral water and some cold drinks. All of this is included in the price (so far: 4 people to pay, new tyres and suspension, a boat, fuel and the food and drinks) so the value for money is outstanding. Our contact had mentioned that a $10 tip would be more than adequate.

I saw some dhows returning from sea and asked if it was a regatta (since my sister and her captain Peter are boat people I can speak boat) but no, it was the local fishermen returning with their catch. I also asked about sharks - but Captain Peter assured me "There are no dangerous sharks here, only mako, white shark, tiger shark and hammerhead. Only dangerous fish the barracuda. She will definitely bite you if she sees you". If only I'd known!

We headed back to shore. Since it was high tide we landed much further south - almost back to the hotel in fact - and found our taxi which took us back to the hotel.

We had also decided not to give up an entire day to do Stone Town/Spice farm, and had asked Gilbert of Gallery Tours to arrange for our airport transport to come a few hours earlier on the final day. This is well worth considering if, like us, you have little time and a mid-day flight.