From the village of Kizimkazi
on the south coast of Zanzibar, there’s the opportunity to go
out in a local boat and swim with the large resident pods of humpbacked
and bottlenose dolphins.
This trip can be great fun and the prospects of seeing dolphins are
excellent, but those who have visions of clapping flippers and riding
fins will be disappointed. These are wild creatures and not descendants
of Flipper.
They’re intelligent creatures, and quite capable of swimming
off when half a dozen flippered people jump simultaneously into the
water.
There is a good chance of seeing these beautiful animals from
a sensible distance and you may well be rewarded with sightings of
turtles, manta rays and sharks. If you are lucky, you may have the honour
of snorkelling with them and occasionally they get close enough to
touch.
Try to enter the water as silently as possible and let them approach
you - you've got no chance of catching up with them. The best bet
to give you more chance of a sighting is to find a boat to take you
out at sunrise when no one else is around.
Most organised excursions from Stone Town start at 9am and charge
after the poor creatures. Half a dozen boats chasing
after a pod of dolphins will not encourage them to hang around.
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