As we had booked to go to the Rain Forest and a Spice Farm today we were up early for breakfast at 7.30am. Our driver/guide, Omani, arrived at 8.30am and immediately set off. Out of town the people live in small houses along the road side, some are stone houses and some rectangular mud and thatched houses. Native cattle were used to pull the carts, not donkeys. A rubbish dump that was burning didn’t seem to be the right place for children to be rummaging around but they were. Further along we passed a walled area in which there had been a Trade Fair years before and now abandoned to the elements.
As we approached a stretch of road there appeared to be Mango trees planted symmetrically. The legend was that at the beginning of the 19th Century the sister of the Sultan had a palace on the coast in this area she employed only male slaves. At night she took one of them to bed and if he proved sexually unsatisfactory he was killed the following day, however if he was good she would keep him for three nights and then he too was executed. So for every slave that had been killed a Mango tree was planted.
We arrived at the Rain Forest and were appointed a guide. Firstly we were taken to the habitat of the Red Colubus Monkeys. They were sleeping and we could see a couple of babies. Their preferred food is the Indian Almond Tree which was just beginning to come into leaf and they prefer the young tender leaves for food and ignore the tough ones. Like cows, the monkeys regurgitate the food to chew. Their gestation period is seven months. Perhaps we were too early because they were not very lively monkeys.
The rain forest was very impressive as there were huge Red Mahogany trees, Eucalyptus and Pine from Australia all reaching up to the sky. As there is a high water table, and some of the trees have short roots, they sometimes topple over, lurking in the ground are water crabs living in little burrows, elsewhere lizards, snakes, centipedes plus red and grey squirrels. Giant Ficus with Sycamores intertwined, palms that once they flower die. Emerging from the rain forest we entered the Coral forest, less dense and less humidity and came across more Colubus monkeys which were far more active, swinging through the trees and playing. There was a lot of coral rock and we were reminded that Zanzibar emerged from the sea as an island. The coral rock is used for building. When we arrived back at the beginning of the tour we had a soft drink and set off for the Spice Farm.
We retraced the original route and then after a short time turned off the main road and entered a small privately owned farm. All our preconceived ideas of how spices grow were removed. Our first spice was a vine growing up a tree with berries, they were unripe pepper corns. Cinnamon trees from which the bark is removed, dried and like cork trees they renew themselves. Ginger root was easy to identify, Turmeric is a root which surprised us. Nutmegs grow on large trees and like a coconut they grow in a husk, when that is removed there is a red membrane covering the nut and this is Mace. There is a custom that a bride one hour before her wedding is given an infusion of nutmeg which is an aphrodisiac and this ensures the bride will be ready for her husband! Cloves grow on a tree, they also were unripe, a Jack Fruit tree, the fruit is huge and eaten sliced and is very sweet. The flavour is a cross between banana and pineapple. From the Lipstick bush the fruit is dried and used for colouring for Tandoori curries. Vanilla was just coming into flower and the banana palms were in flower but also bore fruit. The Pineapples were very small and take a year to reach maturity.
Then the tour was over and we were driven back to Stonetown. At this time there was a petrol shortage due to some dispute and any petrol was coming to Zanzibar from Dar el Salaam on the mainland, therefore there were very few cars around for a few days. We were lucky that our driver has able to fill his tank.