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A village on the way
Building styles vary quite a lot depending on income and available materials. While some are basic mud huts like here, others have got little brick houses with corrugated iron roofs. After one day back in the office for me (the vols from outside Dar got the Friday off for travelling back), it was weekend and Kevin and Sandra stayed in town, so it was perfect opportunity for a weekend trip. Rita was up for going as well, so with four people we had a perfect sized group. Our choice fell on Saadani National Park, as it was one of the closest places around - some 3 - 4 hours North of Dar. It’s one of the smallest parks, but it’s the only one bordering the sea, so it has got a very different feel to it. I called the park office and reserved us accommodation at the government resthouse - for £10pp besides a guesthouse in Saadani village the only low cost option inside the park and with park fees on a 24hour basis and the gates open from 6am - 6pm, we really wanted to stay inside the park, so that we could go on a game drive at dusk and at dawn, when more animals are in the open.
After 2 hours on the Dar - Arusha road, we almost missed the turn of the tarmac road in a
village (well we missed it, but realised when leaving the village that there should have been one and went back). Then it was another good hour on dirt road, but very well kept with hardly any potholes, so we could go reasonably fast. Even after passing the park gate there wasn’t a single animal in sight, but it was midday heat, so not much else could be expected. When we got to the park office just by Saadani village, noone knew of our reservation and when we went to the resthouse nevertheless, we were told there was big group of Tanzanians arriving and no space for us. After a few phone calls to the important sounding guy, I made the reservation with, he assured me, they’ll find a solution.
Then we went to Saadani Lodge, as we thought about taking a boat safari on the river (Lonely Planet praised it highly…) and to check, if we maybe can stay there overnight. The boat safari didn’t seem cheap with $40pp for 2 ½ hours, but we all were for it. I meant to get some cash from an ATM on the way, but silly me, forgot I was in rural Tanzania,
so should have done that in Dar, as there weren’t any ATMs on the way. The others were a little short on cash as well, so we scraped our notes together to pay for the boat safari. There wasn’t even a thinking about staying at the lodge, the special turn-up-at-the-door residents rate would have been $160 pp, so way out of our league anyway. But it is a very nice lodge indeed, stylish but not over the top. As the boat safari wasn’t until 3pm, there was time for lunch, so we headed back to the village to a little café - there wasn’t really anywhere else: the choice was chipsi meiei, the Tanzanian national dish (an omelette with chips mixed in - very healthy with the double-fried potatoes…), or rice and beans.
The river was actually a 45min drive from the lodge, but as it was in their open safari Land Rover and through a nice part of the park, it meant we actually got a little game drive as well. On the way we passed flamingos (too far to get good pics of them) and passed sea salt harvesting fields - they let the sun burn of the
Government resthouse
Amazing setting, but quite basic water, so the salt remains.
The boat safari turned out really good as well, never seen these many hippos before (almost got bored of taking pictures of them!) and hadn’t considered myself to be a birdwatcher beforehand, but there was some amazing bird life with various kinds of kingfisher, weavers, an eagle and lots more. We saw a couple of crocs as well, but they were a little camera shy. On the drive back to the lodge, it started to get dark now, we saw a few giraffes and zebras.
When we got back to the resthouse, they had put up some tents, but we were told, they had sorted it out and we could stay in the resthouse after all. The rooms very ver basic, but the location is great, right at the sea with nothing else around with a constant wind blowing, this place really had athmosphere.
For dinner it was back to the village café (now I went for the other option and had my first chipsi meiei). Afterwards we drove back to the resthouse and chilled out in a wrecked fishing boat, watching the stars and drinking sodas with Konyagi (Tanzania’s national spirit). So the name
sounds a bit like cognac, it’s a white spirit with some artificial flavour and not too unpleasant or lethal…
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