Nesh around The World

This post is the seventh in a set of publications which will describe the last trip I did in East Africa, back in August, leading me to Zanzibar and back again.
In my last day in Zanzibar, I had the chance to choose among several available tours: from properly visiting the east side of the island to even swim with dolphins, but I decided to visit Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, a great place to see monkeys and walk in the woods.

Once I arrived at the park, I was assigned a friendly guide who introduced me to the park and the animals there. I was the only one in that time slot, so we had the freedom stop in some parts I found more interesting.
On the way to the first area, he told me that there are 2 types of monkeys at the park: the more common and friendly Zanzibar red colobus and the Zanzibar Sykes’ monkeys, more shy and harder to see.


As the first part of the tour, we reached a small field, which initially seemed deserted but it revealed to be filled with friendly monkeys jumping around between the branches of the biggest tree.
The monkeys were so used to the tourists that even seemed to pose for the pictures.

Even the ‘mother’ monkeys were not afraid letting their babies freely playing around.



I was so impressed by how close the monkeys would get without seeming afraid or upset. After what felt like a million of pictures, the guide suggested to continue to the next area.
Seeing that I enjoyed more the wildlife than the flora, he asked me whether I wanted to finish the tour with looking at some of the mangroves in the forest or trying our luck with the shy blue monkeys, with a good chance to not even be able to see one, let alone photographing one.


We went through a small path and got to another opening where we could see another section of the park. After a couple of minutes of wandering around, the guide told me to stop and pointed at a tree, far ahead. It was rather distant from us, so only a small spot could be see from there, having my camera at hand, I went on to try to capture it.
As you could tell from the second picture of the post: I managed to get a decent shot of the sneaky Zanzibar blue monkeys (which are not quite blue).
We went back to the entrance of the park where I waited for the bus back, while taking some more pictures here and there.
On the way back to the Old Town, I was so excited and felt very lucky to see and take a picture of a blue monkey; I love the thrill of not knowing whether a certain animal will show up or not, perhaps that’s why I really enjoy wildlife photography.
In the evening I took the ferry to get back to Dar Es Salaam, and start my extremely long journey back.
The journey back was so long and unpredictable that it’s now among my ‘crazy experiences’ list (it includes being hosted by 5 cool bus drivers and riding on the now so-called ‘hell bus’ for 18 hours) but this is another story.
/Nesh