Anyways, Christmas day we went snorkeling out on a nearby island reef…heaps of bright fish but the coral was nothing by Australian standards…PLUS some sea lice had a serious thing against Gret…enough said!

Jem seems to have taken after his dad with getting sea sick even in the shower, cause WHILE snorkeling he felt queasy!!

So the sea lice and queasiness combined did not make for the best xmas morning we had had…

Xmas lunch consisted of a 2.5 hr wait for a pizza…perfect African time ….lets just say we were not in the best mood after it finally arrived and then being accused of not paying…!!

A sleep in the arvo and some drinks at night, and xmas was all over for another year...

We are now back in stone town, after spending 8 nights up north in Kendwa rocks… Hope the photos do that place justice, as it was really quite spectacular…

Every night we would sit on our balcony & watch the local kids playing a massive game of soccer…finally Jem got up the guts to join in, and the ‘mzungu’ even managed to set up a goal!!.. plus jem spent hours in competitive volleyball games with crazy south Africans/aussies…

Days were spent drinking cocktails &eating surprisingly good meals, (though Gret is sticking to Cadbury for breakfast!!)

Plus hours of hard bargaining for those must have African souvenirs… jem lost his cap (sorry boys, think it’s gone) and t-shirt off his back in order to get one special gift!!

Spoiled ourselves one night for a belated xmas dinner at the only 5 star restaurant

5 star meal

8 days later though we were well and truly ready to head off…so it was back to stone town for our NYE celebrations…spent last night having sunset drinks with our new 5 Swedish friends who turned out to be Muslim…so not much drinking was done by them but we had a few for them that’s for sure…

NYE

cocktails..

Currently waiting for the ferry back to Dar, where we will meet Douglas who is the coordinator of our volunteer program….the unknown awaits!

NYE sunset

Until next time, when we will probably have some teaching dramas to tell, enjoy summer!!

Keep in touch…we love getting comments on this blog and texts!

Love Gret & Jem

written by  jem_gret on January 1, 2007 from Zanzibar, Tanzania
from the travel blog: East Africa and beyond....
Send a Compliment

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Sounds spectacular, I get more and more jealous every time I read!
Although your holiday sounds much better, you did miss a pearler of a NYE party at Jono's that didn't finish till 5pm 1.1.07.
On that note, apologies to anyone who received text messages from my phone, while I swam, someone helped themselves to my phone!

Tried to call again this arvo but to no avail, think I might need a calling card - will look into this tomorrow!

Keep on making me jealous!

Cheers

Si

written by  Simon Turner on January 1, 2007

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Hi Gret & Jem, I almost feel as tho' I'm there with you; this blog is great the way you can put in the photos! Granny says she can just feel the sun on her back when she looks at the photos!
Great to hear your voices again yesterday. Kirsty and Alan are coming at lunchtime today altho' Alan not staying. He is off to Robe with a few mates. Kirsty flys back to Roxby on Friday to 45C days and 30C nights!!! She can have it. Dad's arm slowly getting better, fed out hay yesterday. Had 7mls rain! Great for house tank after all the visitors. The lawn has even got a green tinge again.
Granny here till Sunday then fly to Barwon Heads to drop her off with Ro & we fly on to Tyabb for 4 days golf with Tiff & family - will be full on! Hopefully Dad can Play golf by then.
Twiggy nearly recovered from cut on neck' another 4 stitches.
Lots of love and enjoy this next part of trip, from Mum xoxoxo

written by  Belinda Ellis on January 1, 2007

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Hey Gret,

So glade and jealous that you are having an awesome time....between you and shell you have put my NYE of staying in Bendigo to shame..Am loving seeing all of the photos, they look abseloutly spectacular....keep them comming....

love ya lots, keep them comming
Andrea

written by  Andrea McDougall on January 1, 2007

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Thankyou for the latest updates & the photos. As they say a picture says a thousand words. Looks spectacular & you both look very happy and relaxed.
Hope the next part of your adventure is also exciting - in a differnt way I suspect.
Aussie's 4 nil in the cricket with the Sydney test currently underway.
Life continues on in Aussie so make the most of your opportunities and look after one another.
Love,
Dad.

written by  ian ellis on January 2, 2007

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Dear gret anf jem,
Thannks for the calls and texts over christmas...was great to hear your voices. Your adventures sound great and living up to expectations.Looking forward to hearing and seeing what the next phase of your journey has in store for you....good luck with the teaching!
Love Rod and Jenny

written by  Rod Holmberg on January 2, 2007

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Hi Guys
Loved the photos and thrilled to hear via Granny that the teaching is going down well!!What an amazing experience you two are having...do I sense a best selling novel on rturn/ We are trying to get into shape after much Xmas NY celebrating...lots of walks on the beach. Pete came across from Portsea yesterday and spent the day with us ..he still loves Nutshell which is a relief!All back to work and the newlyweds are entertaining a lot. G and I saw F& H's home just delightful. Ian and Bindi brought GM here by car today as it is too windy to fly. We all send you tons of love
Ro Geoff and Granny xx

written by  rosemaryforsyth on January 7, 2007

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