Escape to Prisoner Island

Since arriving on Zanzibar 5 days ago I have done pretty much nothing! Really! I've made a couple of shopping forays into Stone Town but beyond that and hitting the spa at the hotel, my only adventure was the ride on a traditional Zanzibarian fishing boat (Dhow) to Prisoner Island for a little snorkeling, a quick tour to the prison which has been converted into a resort (oddly it works), and a tortoise sanctuary.

Zanzibar Dhow (not mine)

The cruise started off late but as I haven't really paid too much attention to time for the past two months what do I care! It was wonderful to be back on boats again! The crew wasn't too sure what to do with me as I was willing and able to wade into the water, hop into the boats, and jump back out again - all without assistance! I think I threw the guys totally off when I insisted on checking out the mask and snorkel before we even left the beach! :)

The Dhow ride was about 30 minutes of cruising across a relatively narrow strait to Prisoner Island which is visible from my hotel. Unfortunately we didn't travel under sail but rather a rattly old outboard. On the plus side I was confident that I could pitch the 'captain' overboard and control the boat myself if necessary... I beginning to think that I've read too many romance novels as I keep imagining pirate scenarios (of course I'm not always throwing the pirate overboard)!

Once we reached the island we headed over to a small patch of coral reef that was my snorkeling grounds. I had been warned before hitting the water that the fish populations are not all that good and man did I see that. Not only is there very little diversity in the fish stocks but the numbers are really low as well. The corals show evidence of a lot of damage but seem to be redeveloping in many areas. By far the healthiest animal population (other than coral) was spiny urchins!

Picture the purple sea urchins that we have growing on the BC coast but add spikes that are at least one foot long!!! It was crazy how many there were and how long the spikes were. These ones have spikes so long that there was no way you could consider picking one up with your hands! They also had something (breathing hole??) that glowed florescent orange! Way too cool. The upside of not being blinded by the amazing number of fish is that you end up seeing so many different things!

Sea Stars Prisoners Island

I watched a sea cucumber feeding - too cool! It has a mouth (?) that looks like a bouquet of flowers (5?) that it leads with and I can only guess that it was somehow eating algae or something (not familiar with sea cucumber food!). I also saw the mantle of a clam buried into the sand. I kind of looked like it was a scallop but the mantel was zebra striped...too cool! The sea stars were somewhat similar but glowed with vibrant colours and had some serious bumps. The ones in the photo were collected by a young kid but they are representative of what I saw. There were also sea stars with long arms (about 1/2 in diameter and 6 inches long) that were bright blue!!!

After snorkeling for a while we headed to the island and after a brief and somewhat odd tour of the former prison - which is now a lovely resort (closed for renos) - we headed to the sanctuary for the giant tortoise! Incredibly habituated animals and I'm not sure the real point but I have to say the tortoises were very cool! Some of them were upwards of 150 years old!!! They have a breeding program but I'm not sure if they end up as food or sent to other places.

While on the island we also saw two small Dik diks! No that is not an obnoxious Zanzibarian (though I have met a few of those) it is a small antelope! We saw a few of these while in the Serengeti but they are very shy so I haven't gotten a decent picture before.

Back to the tortoises! They are these huge lumbering animals that literally creak like old leather creaks when they walk! It was kind of creepy as you could hear them moving towards you. If you had the lovely greens that they snack on you could hear them turn towards you and start moving at a slow but steady pace to get the food! Their legs are very short and more shuffle/drag than really lift and move. Their toe nails are something out of a horror story - long, dark, and in need of a pedicure! Combine that with them moving along concrete paths ways and you could sample the sounds of them moving for the next Wes Craven horror movie! Attach of the giant tortoise!!

After that there was time for some shell gathering and a quick swim! On that note - I have enough time to gather up some Zanzibar sand before packing my bags and heading to the airport for my trip to Nairobi. I hope you enjoy the pics below of the animals/sites of Prisoner Island.