Prison Island

On the third day we wanted to go to the beach and swim! But around Stone Town the beaches are no good, the sewers drain all the dirty waters into the Indic Ocean. This is disgusting but what can you expect in such a poor land? We spoke to some people at the hotel and they advised us to go to Prison Island (also called Changuu Island), for 30 US$ we would be taken there on a boat direct from Stone Town and back. The boat which took us there was called the Gladiator, and the two sailors didn’t speak a word of English but were very pleasant calm fellows. The waters were calm and again the turquoise blue of the Indic Ocean was breath-taking. Prison Island was within our sight and we could recognize an old building among dense vegetation, soon we stepped out the boat onto the white sugary sand.


In Prison Island there is an Aldabra turtle sanctuary, over a hundred huge turtles live peacefully in this island, visitors are allowed to feed them spinach and be as close as they want to these tranquil animals. They were a gift from the Seychelles to the Zanzibarian Sultan. Clara was a bit afraid of them but soon also wanted to feed them! We were very happy to see her let go of her fear from turtles! We left the turtle sanctuary to explore the rest of the small island.

During the times of the Sultans this island belonged to a rich slave trader who kept his slaves on this island from where they had no possibility of escaping before being sold at the slave markets in Stone Town. Later, during English ruling the governor decided to build a prison on the island, however because of the bubonic fever it was used as a quarantine station for sailors traveling to Stone Town. Nowadays it is a restaurant. On Prison Island there has never in fact been a prison!

Finally we lied down on the fine white sandy beach, gazing the turquoise waters and eating chocolate cookies while birds jealously observed us. The water in the Indic is warm and calm, perfect for small children. We swam for a long time and collected sea shells. Clara enjoyed herself quite a lot. As the sun started going down we decided to return to Stone Town. We arrived and had dinner at a restaurant directly on the port from where we could see the car ferry being loaded. Crowds gathered round to see the cars being loaded, which had to drive first down hill and through a large sandbank until they reached the ferry. Many, many, many got stuck, and the people would BOOO! When the driver accelerated so much that the car would almost fly over the sand the people would cheer aloud. It was like watching a circus show.