The traditional Dhow fishing boats rest on the shore line after been sailed out to sea.

We where lying on the beach sipping ice cold cocktails when we noticed a group of fisher men pushing and heaving one of the Dhow fishing boats onto the beach.

They lifted the boat onto two solid wooden blocks and left it there for a while. The owner of the boat started covering the wooden blocks with sand and then proceeded to fetch dried palm leaves. He covered the entire bottom section of the boat with these leaves and then dissapeared again…

After a while he came back and set the palm leaves alight – controlling the fire with a stick, sending the smell of smolder and smoke across the beach. He obviously covered the wooden blocks with sand in order for them not to catch fire.

Clearly there was more to this than just some guy burning his boat – so I found out that this was a regular procedure to fix the Dhow, since the heat of the fire would expand the wood, sealing it and thus making it waterproof.

I thought it would be appropriate to begin posting pictures of my recent travels to Zanzibar with a picture of a traditional Zanzibari Dhow. There will most definitely be more Dhow pics to come as it is one of the iconic features representative of Zanzibar.

Many, many more Zanzibar photographs to be posted here throughout the next few weeks, hope you enjoy!