Stone Town, Tanzania

Our adventures are coming to an end. Today's boat trip to Changuu Island will be our last chance for exploring the sights before we head south for some r'n'r away from all distractions.

Khamis meets us after breakfast and leads us down the steps to the beach where a little boat with two crew awaits. The crossing to Changuu takes 30 minutes, bouncing on the waves until we pull up at the jetty, one of a flotilla of day-trippers.

Changuu is commonly known as Prison Island, where criminals were to be housed in the late 19th century. However, while construction was still going on in 1893, there were outbreaks of cholera in Egypt, bubonic plague in India and yellow fever across the tropics so the jail was opened instead as the quarantine station for all British Territories in East Africa.

The government of the Seychelles gifted four tortoises to the British governor of Zanzibar in 1919 and they were moved on to Prison Island in the 1920s to prevent poaching. An endangered species, they soon got frisky and there are now well over 200 of them, ranging from a few days' old to the eldest at over 192 years of age - the only one of the original quartet still alive.

Tourists wander around grabbing photos with the animals, avoiding the giant piles of tortoise poo that litter the ground. Not ones to miss a photo opp we do the same, getting a selfie with the ancient daddy, who is more than four times older than us and was born soon after the time of Napoleon. Incredible.

The island eventually became a private hotel resort in the early part of the 21st century, boasting exclusive villas, but the cost of maintaining the hotel meant it closed six years ago and the facilities are now abandoned. After seeing the remains of the hospital and landing dock, we look around the hotel, peering into the windows of the dining area still set for guests and wandering around the still-full pool, the whole enterprise having the feel of the Marie Celeste.

We're due to go snorkelling on the reefs just off Prison Island but Khamis spots jellyfish in the water. As we bob up and down on the choppy sea, snorkellers from a nearby boat all start swimming furiously for their vessel, getting out of the water as quickly as possible. Unsurprisingly we decide to give this part of the trip a miss and head back to the safer confines of the hotel.

Rather than lunch again at the Park Hyatt we choose to investigate local restaurants, our first two choices - Ocean Grill and Livingstone's - not hitting the spot so we end up at Buni's Cafe near the entrance to Forodhani Gardens. Continuing along the seafront afterwards we stop for a cocktail at popular tourist haunt, Mercury's.

Paying homage to Zanzibar's most well-known son, Farroukh Bulsara, later to become one of the most famous men on the planet as the legendary Freddie Mercury, it is situated right next to the busy port; which is rather appropriate as Freddie would have loved a sailor.

By the looks of it, Mercury's hasn't been updated since he died, or possibly even since he left Zanzibar aged 17 at the end of British rule. In tribute to "the greatest frontman who ever lived", Coman has a Bohemian Rhapsody cocktail (campari, white rum, vodka and fruit juice) while I go for Freddy Mercury's Baba (a mix of dark and white rum, Afrikoko and pineapple juice). The bar also serves a Fat Bottomed Girl cocktail, and rather inexplicably drinks named Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky. The toilets are, of course, labelled King and Queen.

On our return to the hotel we pass the nondescript apartment block which was the childhood home of young Farroukh, now re-named Mercury House. Fading photos of the singer, and a history of Queen, are posted outside, their yellowing appearance giving the feel of a seedy drinking den or dodgy strip club.

We finish our visit to Stone Town with a recommendation from a friend - dinner at the next door hotel, the Serena Zanzibar. Listening to the lapping of the waves we drink red wine and eat pasta and gazpacho, returning to our room to pack our bags.

Africa, you've been amazing! Our next few days will be spent lying by a pool on a beach down south, but our adventures end now. We'll be coming back soon...