Jozani Forest and Prison Island

On Thursday, July 7, our guide and his driver took us to Jozani Forest. It was about 45 minutes away by taxi. The drive to the forest was pretty interesting - dusty dirt roads, lots of cows pulling carts, crowded streets, and merchants selling just about anything.

We arrived to forest about 9:30 and we had a guided tour by a well educated conservationist. I never knew a forest could be so interesting. There were several different eco-systems going on, yet they were all intertwined. The forest was very lush and green - quite pretty.

There were probably four or five other small groups at the forest, and we all fanned out in search of the red colobus monkeys. The different guides all have cell phones. When a group finds the troup of monkeys, the other groups find out quickly. I have a feeling the guides will communicate in a similar way at the game parks. The monkeys were kind enough to pose for lots of photographs.

After we watched the monkeys, we went to the mangrove forest. The mangrove trees grow in brackesh waters, and it resists termites and rotting. It was very popular for construction, but it was over cut, and the parks along the coasts are trying to save the trees.

We got back to our homebase, Stone Town, around 1:30. After a quick lunch, we got on a speedboat and headed for Prison Island, home of the Giant Toroises. (The speedboats are basically rowboats or canues with an outboard motor attached. They are not very fast...)

Prison Island was about a 45 minute boat ride away. The Arab traders kept some of the slaves there before and/or after they were auctioned off at the slave market. After slavery was abolished in 1873, the island was used to quarantine people who were sick.

The Giant Tortoises came from the Seychelles Islands, northeast of Zanzibar. They were being poached for their shells. Many of the tortoises were shipped to Prison Island in an attempt to save them. They are also good for the tourist industry at Stone Town. They seemed pretty happy...

Prison Island also has some other animals. We stumbled across a dik dik, a tiny antelope. Apparently they are rare to see because they are skittish and they are so small. According to Wikipedia, they stand 14 to 17 inches... The one we saw seemed smaller than that.

After we got back from Prison Island, we walked around, had coffee at a little cafe, and then later we headed to the central park square area to enjoy some seafood.

The tortoises were fun. The sign said not to feed them, but the guides at the park gave us spinach to feed them. They were very used to people, and some of the tortoises begged for food. Some of them followed us around begging for food... The tortoises had their approximate age spray painted on their backs. The ages ranged from babies to 185 years! One was 185, and the next oldest one was around 150. I think most of the were in their 40's. They are very social creatures... Always in groups and nuzzling against each other.