A Day in Paradise!

What a perfect family and fun filled day! My aunt owns property on a small island off the Tanzanian coast called Kimbinjii. The property is on a beautiful piece of land, right off the Indian Ocean, and looks like Paradise. The trip to the property took approximately four hours, but it definitely didn’t feel like 4 hours. As our car travelled to our destination, we were all captivated by the sights, and sounds that surrounded us. The experiences of today will truly last a life time, and I feel so blessed to have been able be part of it. The trip consisted of my self, siblings, parents, paternal grandparents, and my cousin. We embarked on our journey at 7 am in the morning, to avoid rush hour traffic. We weaved our way across the city to the Indian Ocean coast. There, we took a ferry to the island of Kimbinjii.

The ferry trip itself was an experience! The ferry transported both people and vehicles. It pulls up to the coast, attaches itself with ramp, and when the horn blows, travelers prepare to board the ferry. The middle of the ferry was literally like a two lane road, and cars would just drive up the ramp into the ferry and park in two rows. To ensure a comfortable trip, my family decided to take two vehicles. The first vehicle consisted of Me, my mom, grandma, and cousin. The second consisted of my grand pa, father, brother and sister. On our way to the island, we caught the ferry just as it was preparing to leave. We quickly boarded leaving a small space just big enough to fit the vehicle behind us. As the second half of my family boarded, we realized they were parked dangerously close to the ramp, but I wasn’t fearful because I had assumed that when the ferry began its journey, the ramp would rise up and close all of us in. But it didn’t! The ferry just pulled away leaving about 3 feet between my family’s SUV and the ramp that lead to nothing but the ocean! Need less to say it was quite a scare! But with God’s grace and protection we were all able to make it to the island. Once the ferry arrived, the ramp on the other side connected onto the dock and the cars and people slowly crept off the ferry onto land.

After the ferry ride, we settled in for the drive ahead of us. As mentioned before, the sights and sounds of the trip gave us such a thrill, we almost didn’t want it to end. We stopped in various villages and market places to buy some food, beverages, and just mingle with the villagers. I will never be able to explain the village feel, but it is such an awesome experience to be welcomed into the homes of complete strangers and just be embraced with warmth and happiness. Nothing like sharing the road with chickens, and other life stock. Nothing like smelling the smell of food cooking on open fires, seeing women balancing humongous buckets of water on their heads, and men heading towards the fields with their machetes to complete their day of work. Nothing like it at all.

As we passed through the last of the villages, we passed through what I would describe as a sparse rainforest. Rain forest because, the trees and plants we passed were tropical plants, with tropical fruits hanging off them. Sparce because of the new development that has been occurring on the island, a lot of the trees and plants have been cut. During this portion of the trip we passed monkeys and deer (they looked like deer, probably wasn’t), and it was just captivating.

After driving through that, we finally arrived onto the property of my Aunt, and it was paradise; tropical plants and flowers, trees with coconuts, and the view and sounds of the beach just over the horizon. My aunt had built pathways that led to her little “cottage”, beach, and guest house. The pathways were lined with tropical plants, which housed many various tropical looking insects. We walked to the cottage, and it was a great structure. It was resembled the look of a hut. Made of brick and cement, it was round in shape, with a thatched grass roof. It consisted of two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. While we didn’t even have cell phone reception where we were, we had running water and electricity (thanks to the solar panels on the roof), so it still consisted of the necesseties we were used to. There we had a quick breakfast, before heading to the beach. The trip to the beach was a bit challenging. After following the pathway for a while, there was a flight of stairs made of stone. The stairs were very steep, and were crumbling in some areas, so it required some hiking skills to maneuver safely around them. And of course my family had only flimsy flip flops on...something to remember NOT to do when we go back. Haha… To me it was quite unnerving as not only did I have to be careful and watch my balance, and footing, I also had to watch for snakes and scorpions, but thankfully while we saw both of the above, they were at a safe distance from us. Once we arrived at the bottom, we saw just how beautiful the beach was! Completely secluded, it contained no trace of civilization. Looking up at the staircase, and the pathways we left behind, we saw they were barely visible as they were on the other side of the cliff like surroundings. The white sands scattered with seaweeds, and seashells was captivating. There was even blowfish and other types of sea life that had washed ashore. My siblings and I literally spent hours swimming in the water, rushing to meet the rising high and pounding waves and gleefully laughing as the salt water tickled our skin. It was a great.

After swimming, we were called back up as lunch was ready, so we carefully climbed up and back to the hut where we were met with the mouthwatering smells of fried fish, roasted lamb, stew and ugali. It was delicious. When our meal was finished, my sister and I helped in the clean up while the men (minus my brother) enjoyed a glass of beer on the porch of the hut. When it came time to leave, I looked longingly at the hut and wished it was mine, and that I could have stayed longer. But I was thankful to have been granted this day, and hope to be back soon. It truly is such an amazing place, and possibly even my future honey moon spot. Seriously! Haha…

The trip back held sights and sounds just as thrilling, but this time rather than captivating, it seemed to be more mesmerizing, and the blurring sights slowly lulled me to sleep.

Wow… let me end this post here. This is getting too long. That was my attempt to explain the days experiences in a nutshell.. I am very exhausted right now, so Ill end it here and call it a day.