Visiting Zanzibar’s only national park

After spending New Year’s in Michamvi Sunset Bay, JJ and I headed to the quiet fishing village of Kizimkazi. En-route to the south of Unguja Island, our taxi driver dropped us off at Jozani-Chawka Bay National Park. The national park is home to the endangered Zanzibar red colobus monkeys which are endemic to the archipelago’s main island.

JOZANI FOREST RESERVE

To walk around the national park you have to be accompanied by an official guide. We arrived at around 10:30 AM on a Tuesday and the forest’s reception area was packed with tourists. We paid our US$10 p/p entrance fee, but no guides were available to take us. The reception staff weren’t sure when a guide would be coming back. Quite a few other people were milling around and were obviously in the same situation as us. Eventually, our taxi driver managed to negotiate with a guide that was escorting an Italian family to take us with him as well.

Who you staring at?

We followed our group about five minutes down a road to an area of forest where some Zanzibar red colobus monkeys were hanging out. There were about 20 or so people there already. We only had a couple of minutes to take some photos of the monkeys before our guide wearily asked “Are you done?” and ushered us away.

Upon leaving the colobus habitat we got back in the taxi for a short drive to the start of the mangrove trail. Our guide hurried along a boardwalk, all the while impatiently shouting “Andiamo!” at the Italian kids who were trailing behind.

Little mud crab

Once we’d reached the end of the mangrove boardwalk our tour was over. JJ and I happily said goodbye to our unenthusiastic guide. I can’t say that I was overly impressed with our rushed Jozani forest tour. It was a tourist trap, but worth a visit to see the rare colobus monkeys. It’s possible that if we’d booked something further in advance that we might have had a better experience, but I always like to leave some flexibility in the holiday itinerary.

ZANZIBAR BUTTERFLY CENTRE

The Zanzibar Butterfly Centre is an interactive butterfly exhibit very close to Jozani Forest, just outside the national park boundaries. The exhibit consists of a netted tropical garden with hundreds of butterflies, all of which are species native to Zanzibar. Entrance costs TSH10,000/US$6 per adult.

African monarch butterfly

In contrast to our experience in Jozani Forest, the guide who met us at the Butterfly Centre could not have been more friendly. He was super keen to share the conservation project background, as well as his knowledge of the butterfly lifecycle. Once our introduction was finished the guide let us into the tropical garden to have a look at the many beautiful butterflies.

We left the butterfly centre after 20 minutes or so of exploring and got back in the taxi to finish the drive south. Kizimkazi was our final stop on Zanzibar and the end of our African adventure. You can read all about what we got up to at our next destination below.

More posts from this trip:

Stone Town (Old Zanzibar City)

Michamvi, Chwaka Bay – Southeast Coast Sunsets

Kizimkazi – Scuba Diving South of Unguja Island

8 Days in Rwanda – Primate Tracking

3 Day stopover in the United Arab Emirates

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