Safari Part IV: Lake Malawi to Zanzibar

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February 11 - 12, 2006 - Chitimba to Iringa to Dar es Salaam

We drove all day to get from Chitimba to Iringa, in Tanzania. The border crossing was a bit of a nightmare, as Tanzania was the first country that we all required a VISA for. We exited Malawi, drove across the border, then got our VISAs, then entered Tanzania. It took only took just over an hour, which apparently, is quite good. We stopped for lunch quickly on the side of the road, and were surrounded by kids watching us eat. As we loaded back onto the bus, one kid came up to Lucinda and shook her hand, then stole her sunglasses right off her head. She was fuming! We couldn't believe his nerve!

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day driving and arrived at the campsite at night. It got quite cool at night, as we were up in the mountains (about 3000 metres up), and the campsite had lovely hot showers (the first in awhile!). We also had hot chocolate with Amarula (a local drink that's kind of like Baileys). We were all to bed early after a long day.

The next day was another long day on the truck as we travelled from Iringa to Dar es Salaam. When we arrived in Dar, everything was closed, because it was sunday. John and I were amazed at how similar Dar was to Dakar. The streets and stores were similar, as was the atmosphere and (unfortunately) smell. Because we were back in a Muslim city, we were all covered up again, and dying from the heat! We spent the night at a campsite in Dar, before heading to Zanzibar the next day.

February 13 2006 - Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar

We were up early, and since I was on cooking duty on the truck, I was making scrambled eggs for twenty people at eight. We were all packed up and ready to go to the docks to catch the ferry to Zanzibar by nine. After taking a small ferry from the campsite to the centre of the city, we had a few minutes to look around Dar before heading off to paradise. One of the guys on our trip, a lovely guy from Manchester, plans on proposing to his girlfriend, Sam, on Valentine's Day in Zanzibar. Gaz asked me to go with him to find the ring (a girl's opinion), and so we hurried off to find something in the half hour (can you believe it?!?!) before the ferry left. We found a jeweller, but nothing that he really liked, so we planned to do it on the island. We all caught the ferry at 12:30, and settled in for the two and a half hour ferry ride. It can be really rough and choppy, which can make for an awful time, but we were lucky enough to have smooth water the whole way. We watched ConAir while we chugged along, and got there before we knew it.

After arriving at the docks, we had several forms to fill out, and our passports needed stamping (even though Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, they like to think they're separate, so they require a quasi-immigration process that just takes up time). It was cool to add another stamp to our passports though, so it wasn't all bad. We caught taxis into Stone Town, the city on Zanzibar. We spent the night in Stone Town, before heading up to North Beach the next day. After arriving in Stone Town, I went with Gaz to find the ring (which we did, and it's beautiful!), while the others found a Chinese Restaurant for lunch. We were all starving, because we're used to being on the truck, where we have a very regular meal routine. We gobbled up lunch before we had a look around the markets, because we all needed our secret Valentine present for the next day. We then went to a restaurant/bar called Africa House, to watch the sunset with a 'sundowner' in hand. We had very tropical drinks, sipped out of a coconut (which almost got John a nomination for Princess - whoever on the truck does or says something that sounds like a 'princess', has to wear a little tiara and viel and carry around a handbag the entire next day). The sunset was beautiful, but not as nice as the dinner we had afterward! We headed over to a night time market. They sell all kinds of food in this market, which they cook for you right in front of you. John had shellfish and baracuda, and I had tuna and nan bread. There were also a lot of stalls selling crafts. Most of the crafts were Masai, which was a nice change, as their crafts are different from the others which we had seen. We had a look around, before heading off to bed, to get ready for our big day the next day!

February 14, 2006 - Stone Town to North Beach

We spent the morning in Stone Town, taking the "Spice Tour". Zanzibar is known as 'spice island', because there are so many different spices grown here. The mix of ethnicities here also means that the food requires a variety of spices. The two strongest influences are African and Indian. We started by going through Stone Town, and seeing some of the interesting buildings and ruins. Then we visited a spice farm, and had a chance to see how the spices are grown as well as have a taste! We saw lemon grass, cinnamon (the cinnamon is actually just the bark of the tree, which is left out to dry then ground up. Our guide peeled the bark off for us, and we could smell cinnamon right away), peppercorns, cocoa, ylang ylang, vanilla, custard apple, coffee beans, cardamon, tumeric, ginger and cloves. After the tour through the farm, we taste-tested some lemon grass tea, some ginger tea, and spiced tea. It was all wonderful...even in the heat! We followed the tea up with some amazing fruit...a huge pineapple (one fed all twenty of us), custard apple, passion fruit, papaya, and mangosteen. It was incredible.

We took the taxi back to our guides house where his wife had prepared lunch for us. We ate coconut rice and beef, salad and fresh squeezed pineapple, mango, passionfruit juice. Completely stuffed, the girls sat and had henna tattoos done on our feet (mine came out beautiful, but is supposed to be worn off before I get home...). I couldn't believe how fast the girl was at doing them! She did a different design on everyone, and they were all beautiful.

We headed out around two, for the drive up to North Beach. We arrived at a hotel that was definitely worth what we were paying (not a lot!). It was simple, but clean, so we were happy. Not having to sleep in a tent was enough for us! We soon found out though that the beach was incredible. At first we were confused, when we took the stairs down to the beach and were knee-deep in water and had to walk to the sand. We thought that it was really bad planning, but found out from the others that had headed up north earlier, that it was just high tide (plus a full moon). We swam in the beautiful turquoise water for a few hours. The sun was hot, even in the late afternoon, and although the water was also really warm, it was still refreshing! John and some others played volleyball (it was supposed to be beach volleyball, but because of the high tide, he was in the water up to his knees). Afterwards we got ready for our big Valentine’s Day buffet dinner.
Our restaurant was right on the beach, and we made the reservation for sunset. We watched the sun go down while having drinks, then watched Gaz propose to Sam, on the beach near the water, then began the celebration! The buffet dinner was incredible, bbq octopus, calamari, red snapper and prawns, as well as garlic bread, salad and coconut rice with vegetable curry. We celebrated late into the night, along the beach after watching the acrobat demonstration.


February 15, 2006 - North Beach, Zanzibar

We decided to have an easy day today after having a big night out to celebrate Gaz and Sam's engagement. John and I took a walk along the beach in the morning (while the tide was still out and there actually was a beach!). We saw a bunch of cool starfish, and miles of snow white sand and turquoise water. North Beach is beautiful. After lunch, some of us rented snorkel gear, and headed out from the beach. We didn't think we'd see much, because we were so close to the beach, but we swam out and found some coral. The coral itself was fairly unimpressive, but there were some really cool fish around it. We saw more starfish, some clown fish, trumpet fish and a bunch of 'tropical' fish (this means they were really colourful, but we have no idea what they were called). We were out for about an hour, which was perfect. We had a beautiful dinner at a restaurant that was up on stilts over the ocean, while watching the sunset. The seafood was outstanding. Afterwards, we headed to bed to rest up for our big day the next day!

February 16, 2006 - Swimming with the Dolphins!

We've just had the best day of our tour yet! We woke up early in North Beach and took a taxi back to Stone Town. We quickly checked inot the hotel before heading down to the south of the island. Zanzibar is only 80km long, so the drive didn't take long! Nicola, Daniel, John and I arrived at Kizikami Beach, where we boarded a small wooden boat to be taken out to where the dolphins were swimming. Each morning the guys who run the tour go out and find out where the dolphins are hanging out. There's always dolphins in the area, so there's a good chance of seeing them, but no guarantees, since it's just the open ocean, and the dolphins are all wild. We loved the idea of doing it this way, rather than swimming with them in a tank or something like in the Caribbean. So, we had flippers and snorkel masks on, and just sat on the edge of the boat. When we saw a group of dolphins, we just all jumped off the boat. The excellent part was that we were starting a bit later than everyone else, so there weren't any other swimmers in the water around us. We were out there for two hours, and saw a ton of dolphins. At first, there were only a couple around us. We had to chase them, which is where the flippers came in handy, but later on, there were plenty that came up to us and near the boat. We had a whole group come up near us, underneath us and all around. One came up so close, that I reached out and touched all along its back and tail. We saw a few mothers with their babies right underneath them. Even when you couldn't touch them, they were so close that we felt like we could. It was like watching a Discovery Channel show. We hopped into the boat once they disappeared below us or swam away. They would drive us to a new spot and we'd hop out again. We had a group of six or seven come up from the bottom and swim all around us. It was absolutely amazing, and really good exercise!!

Afterwards, we had lunch on the beach before heading to Jozani Forest. Zanzibar has a species of monkey that only exists here. First we walked through the forest, and our guide explained all the different types of trees and animals in the area. Most of the trees in the area were red mahogany. Then we saw the monkeys, which are wild, but pretty used to people, so they get quite close without running away. There were black and red monkeys, and we watched them play and jump from tree to tree. We also saw a mangrove forest, which survives in salt water, and has really weird roots. The mangrove tree is used for the roofs of houses here, because insects won't eat them because they taste salty, and therefore they last longer than roofs made out of other types of trees. Overall, we had an excellent day! We're spending our last night in Zanzibar in Stone Town, and tomorrow we head back to Dar on the ferry. Next highlight of the trip is the Serengeti!

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Photos

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On the spice tour in Stone Town, Zanzibar