Another Travel Dream Comes True.......

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6th August Day 10 Chitimba Beach, Malawi to Iringa, Tanzania
We had an early start this morning and pretty much drove all day with a border crossing into Tanzania taking quite a while. We stopped at a gas station for lunch….yes we only go to the best places on this tour! And we hit a bit of an all time low point with the food situation as we ran out of salad and meat with 7 people still left to eat. It seems that food is a whole lot more expensive in East Africa and the budget just wasn’t covering all our expenses.
We made it to camp at Iringa just on sunset and managed to get our tent up fast and run to the showers before the other trucks arrived in camp. It was bliss…..we hadn’t had a hot shower for a few nights and this one was steaming hot which was probably a good thing given how cold it was outside.

7th August Day 11 Iringa, Tanzania to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
We had a huge drive ahead of us today so were up by 5am on on the road by about 6. Another long day that ended with us getting stuck in rush hour traffic driving into Dar and finally getting across on the ferry to our campsite in the dark. We left Martina and Gunther behind in Dar as they were making their own way to Zanzibar before heading home to Austria. A few others were also finishing in Dar but were going to stay with us at camp tonight.


8th August Day 12 Dar, Tanzania to Zanzibar, Tanzania
Yay we were off to Zanzibar. A lifelong dream of mine was coming true and yep I was just a little bit excited. We had to catch a ferry from our campsite to the city to catch the next ferry over to the island and as we stepped off the truck to catch the first ferry the sky opened up and we were all drenched as we tried to run to the ferry wharf. The ferry ride out to Zanzibar was pretty uneventful with flat seas and sun which was good as I was still a little nervous after my ferry experience in Thailand last year.
We made it to Stone Town for about 12.30 and were transferred to our minibus that took us to our hotel…..yes we were actually going to get to sleep in beds that night and have an ensuite bathroom…..Kath and I were in heaven! Kath and I decided to head off alone to have lunch and found a lovely little restaurant down near the water and then wandered around Stone Town for the afternoon taking photos and soaking in the atmosphere. Zanzibar is such a contrast to the rest of Africa that I’ve seen and quite refreshing to see. There is a large Muslim population in Stone Town so there were lots of mosques and men and women in Islamic dress.

We met up with a few people from the tour for dinner that night at Africa House, which was like a British club back in the old days. The view, setting, company and drinks we’re fabulous ….the food however was pretty dire.

Two of the girls off our trip from Holland we’re leaving us the next day so we carried on to a bar called Mercury’s (after Freddy Mercury from Queen) and drank until midnight before staggering back to the hotel and saying our goodbyes to Judith and Eveliene.

9th to 11th August Day 13-15 Stone Town, Zanzibar to Lungwi Beach, Zanzibar
Happy Birthday for the 10th Dad!

We were picked up from our hotel by minibus and taken up to the northern coast of Zanzibar to Lungwi Beach and on the way stopped for a spice tour which was lots of fun tasting all the different spices growing in the area and even eating cinnamon straight from the tree bark. We met the butterfly man who climbed a coconut palm singing the Mambo song all the way up and performing acrobatics at the top before chopping down a few coconuts and coming back down to let us all taste the yummy flesh and juice. A couple of local guys followed us around and wove hats, ties, frog necklaces and handbags out of the coconut palm leaves for a tip at the end. We also sampled different fruits like jackfruit, local oranges, star fruit etc.
We arrived at Amman Bungalows at about 1pm and quickly settled into the beautiful surroundings, white sand beaches and turquoise blue water. The whole of the waterfront is a mix of bars, restaurants and resorts. In between are Masai people selling crafts, small stores and lots of local guys hanging around doing not a lot of anything. Dhow boats bob around in the water while the tourists lie in the sun and soak up the rays.

Kath and I spent the next few days lying on the beach, sleeping, drinking the cheap cocktails in the waterfront bars and eating as much fish and seafood as we could.

12th August Day 13 Zanzibar to Dar, Tanzania
We woke up to high winds and rain this morning which made leaving this paradise a little easier. The minibus picked us up at 10am and we made our way to the ferry wharf to board our boat back to the mainland. The trip back was pretty hideous with high waves crashing on the boat and most of us suffered from varying degrees of sea sickness.

We dragged ourselves off the boat at the other side and met up with Cassidy our guide who had come back early to do grocery shopping etc. He met us with some bad news regarding our truck driver Bernie….Bernie had stayed back in Dar to look after the truck and had made a trip into the city to sort out a few things. He had been crossing the road and was hit by a car….he woke up later that day in hospital with concussion and a broken hand along with lots of bruises. He had checked out of the hospital that day (Bernies a tough guy!!) and was back at camp but still very tired and in lots of pain….and unfortunately would not be able to continue the rest of the trip with us. At this stage we were starting to think that the tour was jinxed! Luckily another Nomad truck had arrived from the north the day before and the passengers were over on Zanzibar for 3 days so their driver was able to drive us to Arusha the next day before catching a minibus back to Dar to be there when his group arrived back.

Another night in Kipepeo camp with free wifi and the night Kath and I decided to finally finish off our bottle of gin that we’d lugged from Vic Falls.

13th August Day 14 Dar to Arusha, Tanzania
We had a big drive today so had an early start leaving camp at 5.30am….hopefully the last of the early starts! And we drove pretty much all day with a stop for lunch on the side of the road arriving in Arusha at about 7pm tired and just a little bit over long truck drives………

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Photos

Gunter and Martinas last truck trip
You can see the relief in their eyes!

View from the breakfast table
Amman Bungalows, Lungwi, Zanzibar

View of Dar from the car ferry
We had to catch a car ferry in Dar to our campsite

Comments

[sara]

Oh my god dont you just love Zanzibar and did you find the infamous ice cream shop in Dar SO JELEOUS!!