Dar es Salaam is shit.  Even on Sundays the traffic is chaotic and after the efforts the day before none of us needed to be stuck driving through Dar for an extra 3 hours.  However Africa is Africa and we need to do the bad stuff to get to the good.  The following day we started out towards Zanzibar, a name that conjurs up images of the exotic cultures, of beautiful beaches and of shady pasts.  What you need to add to that is fricken hot, way to humid and slightly run down.  Stone Town is UNESCO listed due to what has happened here over the many years.  It started out as a trading center for anything Africa, has been ruled by the Omani's, concurred by the British and is now a Tourist Centre.  The town's claim to fame is being the place where all the Slaves from Eastern Africa were brought to to be sold during the 1800's.  It's other claim, the birth place of Freddy Mercury.  I'm sure that there are other claims it's just that I can't think of them at the moment.  Personally I was a little disappointed with stone Town, I'd had an image that wasn't quite right.  I think like most places in the world, tourism is starting to change is basic nature and beauty and appeal of a place and transforming it into something else entirely.  So far on the trip it is the one place that I'd wished I'd seen 16 years ago.

The beaches on the other hand are postcard perfect.  Big expanses of white sand followed by and an ever changing blue of the sea, throw in the palms and the dhow just off shore and you could lay there and watch it all day, IF NOT FOR THE BLOODY HEAT.  At least when we washed our clothes it dried within 2 seconds ...