So, our third "pre-planned" trip was to see some dolphins. Dolphin tours run from Kizimkazi in the south of the island. We passed Jozani forest, but we decided not to stop to see the Columbus monkeys, as we saw them near Arusha (though, those monkeys on Zanzibar are very rare red Columbus monkeys - oh well, next time). After a long and dusty drive we finally arrived to Kizimkazi. The village seemed to have no tourist infrastructure and wasn't overrun by tourist. We embarked on a small boat and got our flippers, goggles and snorkels. Oh, did I mention that we [View Full Entry]

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Over the centuries, Zanzibar’s cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and many other spices brought the sultans of Oman across the Indian Ocean by dhow on the seasonal trade winds. For 15 US$ dollars, a full-day Spice Tour was available. It was said that will introduce us to most of Zanzibar's spices and fruits, and not only that, we'll see a few historical sites - old slave market and cave, ruined sultan's palace, baths and if you are lucky, a few historical sites too - such as the old slave market or a ruined sultan’s palace. Our tour was by dala-dala (pick-up trucks [View Full Entry]

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Prison Island (Changuu) is the most popular island to visit from Stone Town as it is only a short boat ride (about 10 minutes) away from town. Actually, everybody seems to visit this island... The island was in the 19th century owned by an Arab who used it, as the sign says, for housing "recalcitrant slaves". Basically, unruly slaves were to the island for discipline. Later it was owned by a British General who actually built a prison and it was used it as a quarantine station. The island offers the largest tortoises we have ever seen, and visitors can take [View Full Entry]

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Let's go to Zanzibar... All I ever knew before is, that is an island faaaaar away with sexy name... Oh, and beside that, Freddie Mercury (Queen) was born there... So, the our boat was already waiting for us... At first, I was thinking to go with a dhow, but as this is supposedly illegal and as it takes too long (just a few weeks before i saw Michael Palin travelling from Dubai to Mumbai on a dhow), we kinda agreed on something a bit faster... actually, we bought tickets a fast boat, Flying Horse, for 30US$... (two ways). Actually, this was [View Full Entry]

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Last night it was raining, so Arusha transformed into Finland - a land of thousand lakes (well, all the potholes were full of water). It was an early start, as this time we decided not to make again a mistake of starting late - so, departure was around 6:30 :) This time we got an extra baggage... a guy, presumably one of the owners of the safari agency that we went with, is also going with us to Zanzibar... some "business" to do... lets call him John (or was he David??). Thats OK, as he arranged us a bus tickets, and [View Full Entry]

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We came late night back to Arusha... so, we have some for planning our future trip. Let's climb Kilimanjaro... :) Cool, lets do it... And it hit us... well, guys... basically, you cannot afford it... it costs 500US$+ for just a few days, and you already spent almost half of your budget in the first week... damn... what a disappointment, no Kilimanjaro... Mount Meru is cheaper and lower, but the weather isn't favorable, and we are a bit not interested to stay in Arusha for a few more days... What about trip to the west, towards central Tanzania and Lake Victoria... [View Full Entry]

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Ngorongoro crater NP Finally we came to Simba Camp on the crater rim. Ngorongoro is a huge crater, 20km in diameter... From rim you have great views on the crater and mountains beyond. We were quite high, as I believe altitude was around 2700m above sea level. Besides, we had the best hotel, a thousand stars one...  I thought on the rim will be quieter than in Serengeti... how I was wrong... again  Strange voices, sounds, roars, throughout the night... again... Night was very chilly, no wonder as were quite high up. Infrastructure in camp was almost non-existent. Yes, [View Full Entry]

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Lets go to safari. The car came for us in time. Driver was only like 10 minutes late and that was excellent in »african« time... Jeep was quite big, made for 4 tourists including the driver, cook and a guide... Well... there were 6 of us, so, we had to squeeze a bit. Other 4 tourists consisted a couple from UK (he did some voluntary work for a few months in a village near Moshi) and two girls from Denmark (quite annoying, but they had an interesting gadget, a digital camera!!!). Some kilometers from Arusha roads suddenly became gravel, and soon [View Full Entry]

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We woke up early. Yep, mosque effect... Actually, we started taking it out easy... we decided not to catch the first bus, but the one at 8:30 am. Why should we go so early, as everybody says its only 7-8 hours to Arusha... Oki, at least we can have a proper breakfast. Of course... bus didn't leave at 9am. It left when full, at 9:30am... We got the best seats, thats infront, either because we overpayed them, either because nobody wanted to seat infort and look at the road :) More probably both. It took us long time to travel out [View Full Entry]

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Africa... first stop... Entebbe... where the hell did I hear that name from? Ups... some decades ago an abducted plane landed there, and some people never left Uganda... Again, since the beginning of 80th, this should be a relatively safe country. One thing struck me... the african heat when stepping out of the plane during our one hour stop. Soon, we were in the clouds again, passing Victoria lake and Kilimanjaro... Final stop... Dar es Salaam.. To be honest, i didn't know much about Tanzania before. Fortunately i bought myself a Lonely planet just a few days before. And let me [View Full Entry]

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