Friday 16th – Sunday 18th October : Kilindi – The Z Hotel

Our car was delivered to Kilindi and we set off for The Z Hotel after one last exquisite meal at Kilindi – open Steak Focasia with the most deliciously pleasing sharp dressing which brought through 5 or 6 different flavours, the sign of a wonder chef for sure ! A slight Brandy haze was washed away and we set for the open road.

10 minutes later we were driving along the main road into Nungwi looking for a sign for The Z but failing this we headed down towards Le Gemma and around the back of the hotels from Kwendra towards Nungwi. We later found out that Hafis ( The Z Hotel General Manager) is in talks with the village council to confirm a position for The Z Hotel sign. Self drive guests are very rare indeed in Zanzibar so we were pleased as punch when we arrived using our own local knowledge and the knowledge of a local when we hit a dead end which happened to be the wrong side of the reception wall of the Z, so near.....

We parked up in the courtyard and were met by smiling faces, cold towels and juices before signing in and putting names to faces of the Z team who we work so closely with.

After the lovely James, Haf’s right hand man, showed us around the hotel we settled into The Z Suite which takes the whole of the top floor of one of the two accommodation blocks – wowzer. One balcony was home to our roof top Jacuzzi & the other a seating area with a beautiful brass telescope to keep a look out for pirates. Tarquin had great fun with the Internet connection (TIA as our Leonardo does say in his lovely Rhodesian accent) but he managed to refrain from throwing the laptop over the balcony into the infinity pool below.

Sunset cocktails followed by some giant tempura prawns, crab cakes and two perfectly cooked fillet steaks with mash & vegetables = sleepy travellers and an early night.

The following morning, a full English breakfast was delivered to our room at 9.30am and we guiltily ate not on the balcony overlooking the ocean but in the Air Conditioned room watching Top Gear on BBC world satellite – our first viewing in 10 days and as I caught the end of the news i was deeply sadden that Stephen Gately of Boy Zone had passed away. My little sister Tara was a huge fan and Stephen was her favourite. God rest his soul.

The charming Hafis then took us for a hotel inspection and we were very impressed with what we saw. The 2 cottages set on stilts over the ocean are something else, the upstairs bedrooms have balconies with double doors opening out to you own private Oceanscape, impossible not to wake totally chilled.

Naturally I owed it to the future guests of Pure Zanzibar & The Z Hotel to sample the Spa and enjoyed an hour long deep tissue massage from Agnes at the Lemon Spa.

That evening we dined in Saruche on Surf & Turf for the boy and a lovely chicken dish for myself, delicious wine & after dinner we headed out to Matemwe for a little party and then on to Kwendra for an altogether larger ‘half moon’ party. Tarquin wants to bring chilled and intelligent beats to Zanzibar, I second the notion as after the run of Bob Marley and gangster rap Swahili style came what we guess is the DJ’s offering for the foreigners – YMCA, Boom Boom Boom, various Euro Cheese and a collection of what can only be described as a Yamaha Keyboard demo heaven with an overlay of Baby Baby Baby. The Spanish Costas circa 1992.