Matemwe Beach - Zanzibar

When we first arrived on Zanzibar, after our travels on mainland Tanzania was over, we hit the beach for some relaxation time! We stayed at the small Zanzibar Retreat Hotel which is actually owned by two Scandinavians. The hotel only consist of eight rooms so it was rather quiet and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves – which was amazing! On Matemwe Beach there are only a few hotels so it’s very remote and one doesn’t get caught up in the middle of hundreds of other tourists :) It’s a long streched beach with beautiful white sand, lots of palm trees and some of the most stunning ocean colours of blue and turquoise that I have ever seen.

 

                                   View from the airplane

 

    Jambo! (= hello)                                         View from our room

                      

             Cheers!                                          Zanzibar Retreat Hotel

 

                    A little neighbouring hotel where we had lunch a few times

The water temperature on Matemwe beach was around 26 degrees! Needless to say I spent a lot of time in the water :) One day my sister and I went on a boat trip for her to go scuba-diving and for me to go snorkelling. I saw an uncountable number of colourful fish and swimming amongst them was as always – incredible! I was also so lucky to see an octopus for the first time! They are very difficult to spot as their colour adapts to their environment. Everytime the octopus swam from one spot to another it’s colour changed. If it wasn’t for the snorkelling guide I would have never spotted the octopus myself. I also saw several sea cucumber snakes! And I was so lucky to see a bluespotted stingray which are a light green colour and have blue spots on them. My favourite fish that I saw, however, was a purple, blue and green parrotfish. I think their colours are absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I don’t have an underwater camera, but I hope the photos from the beach make up for it ;)

 

 

 

 

                            

                    Sending my love to all my family & friends – miss you all!