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Zanzibar #1
That water.... From Cape Town I flew into Dar es Saleem and I was very glad to have had a driver booked. The airport was absolute bedlam! The driving was as crazy as I expected and I was grateful to get to my accommodation for some peace and quiet. The Acacia Africa truck where I would be joining a tour for the next 26 days was not here yet so I settled into the beach front bar for the afternoon. When the truck did pull up, I introduced myself to everyone and enjoyed a drink with them before an early night as it would be an early start as we headed off to Zanzibar.
Morning did come far too quickly and we joined what seemed like half of Dar es Saleem in jumping on various ferries to get us there but thankfully Zanzibar was slightly quieter. For our first night, we stayed in Stone Town which was a quaint little town which reminded me of small villages in Europe – like Greece and Spain. A few of us signed up for a spices tour and we learned all about the various spices grown here and watched the locals shimmy up
Zanzibar #2
Stunning beaches trees faster than most of us could walk! After that, we wandered back through the markets in the ridiculous heat before hiding in the accommodation for a while.
The next day we headed over to the other side of the island and at this hotel the air conditioning was amazing. I don’t think the temperature ever got below 35 and often pushed 40. As soon as you went into the room, it seemed freezing but within 30 seconds you adjusted which just shows how hot it was outside! I roomed with Luke, an Australian (though I didn’t hold that against him as he didn’t bring up the cricket) and what was even better was that he didn’t snore!
Our first night here we headed out on a sunset cruise aka booze cruise where I really got to know everyone better. The majority of the group had been on the tour already for a little over three weeks but they were all very welcoming. We had a few more drinks and it turned into a fairly late night. The next day was fairly quiet as a lot of people were in recovery mode.
Zanzibar #3
Our accommodation Our few days in Zanzibar followed a fairly similar pattern in that there was a lot of relaxing on the beach, dipping into the ocean to semi-cool off (not really – it was luke warm!), wander up and down the beach to explore the shops or grab some food, and occasionally be driven back into our air conditioned rooms by either the heat or monsoon rains! We did have one day trip where we jumped on a boat tour out to a distant reef where we spent a few hours snorkelling and having a BBQ lunch. This is where the majority of the Zanzibar photos with the azure water were from. Simply stunning!
Eventually we had to leave and we headed back to the chaos of Dar es Saleem before an insanely early start of about 4am as we headed out to a place called Pangani River. Before we headed out, our truck was joined by another couple of Kiwis – Laura and Lucy who were taking a short break from the insanity of volunteering at African hospitals as part of their medical degrees. We arrived in quite late and were only here for one night
Zanzibar #4
Sunset cruise which was lucky as the weather was pretty terrible. It was still fairly miserable the next morning as a few of us braved a village walk where we saw the local villages, a waterfall and we got to experience a cave system used by the local tribes to hide from the marauding Maasai warriors. I didn’t mind it down there but a few of the others were a bit freaked out by a combination of rabies infested bats and the claustrophobic conditions! On the way out, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the distant Mt. Kilimanjaro which Laura and Lucy would soon be attempting (and conquering).
The next day was another long driving day as we headed into Arusha which was our base for a quiet night before we headed into the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. The next morning, everyone was pretty excited as we started our journey into the Serengeti. We were split into two trucks and I was the thorn between the roses with myself in amongst 4 girls – Erin, Stacey, Laura and Lucy in our safari truck. On our trip in, we got some great photos of the view and
Zanzibar #5
Sunset cruise soon after entering the park we were treated to sightings of zebras, giraffes, hyenas, antelope, wildebeest, warthogs and many others. But it was after lunch we truly lucked in as we stumbled upon a pride of lions out for an afternoon stroll. They did not care about us whatsoever so even though our trucks were but metres away, they acted like we were not even there.
Eventually we had to call it a night and we stayed at a campsite in the middle of the Serengeti and we were warned to carry torches with us as there were snakes around and the camp was open so any animals could wander through – apparently elephants had only a few days previous! Sadly it didn’t happen again this time but I (and the rest of the campsite) was woken by hyenas screeching as they ran through campsite looking for food.
Our second day in the Serengeti was very similar to the first though the afternoon was a bit of a washout because of torrential rain. In the morning we were lucky enough to see more lions including one lioness dragging a freshly killed wildebeest back to
Dar es Saleem
More beachside accommodation the rest of her pride for a meal. That evening we stayed at a campsite with some of the most amazing views over Ngorongoro Crater and what made it even better were the zebras wandering around amongst our tents.
On the third safari day we headed out of the Serengeti and into the Ngorongoro Crater proper and saw and even greater abundance of animals and I ticked off another of the Big Five off my list when we saw elephants frolicking around. We also encountered yet more lions and lunched next to lake full of hippos eyeing us up for their lunch, but we left before they dragged themselves into motion. Sadly this safari was coming to an end as we headed back to Arusha.
We got back to the campsite and our luck at Arusha with the weather sadly continued as it poured down – just as we were about to go on a walk out to a Maasai village. We plodded along in thick mud which proved too much for my well-travelled jandals so I had to wander the rest in bare feet which Laura thought was hilarious. The kids in the
Arusha #1
Lauren's Birthday village were quick to spot us and found the women in our group putty in their hands. The walk around the village was certainly an experience and you could feel the outrage amongst the women as we heard about the customs of purchasing a wife and the general lack of any form of power they had in day to day life.
The evening turned into a farewell night as Laura and Lucy were off to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro and the rest of us were to head across the border into Kenya for our next adventure, and we celebrated the only way we knew – shots!
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