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Published: July 28th 2009
Crocodile!!!
I cant believe im actually holding a croc, OK its small but Mike was still scared!Day 21 Snake Park Arusha - Ngorogoro Crater 28.6.09
We had a free morning so we went to look at the snakes and crocs before heading out of camp to ride a camel, not the most comfortable experience but an experience none the least, after this we ventured into some masai shops/huts and purchased a couple of necklaces and bracelets (mike bartering to pay more than the lady was asking in a outburst of generosity/confusion from her sophisticated selling technique, “YOU BUY, BUY NOW!” ). After this we were picked up with our group and taken to a camp close to the Ngorongoro Crater where we’d be doing another game drive the next morning. The camp was very nice and we were cooked a three course meal (the dessert was water melon) Then it was off to bed for a 5am wake up.
Day 22 Ngorongoro Crater - Snake Park Arusha 29.6.09
Up bright and early at 5am and ready for a breakfast of pancakes, sausage, toast and fruit then it was a short 20min drive to the entrance of the park, which was swamped with baboons, a trend amongst the game parks in Africa, always have baboons
at the entrance to remind visitors wild animals live here! It was then another 20min of very bumpy driving through ever thickening mist, although it probably would have been less if our back door hadn’t kept popping open and threatening to throw up our luggage for the baboons to scarper with, however, eventually and with the help of a large log wedged in the door, we got to the top of the crater. It was stunning, the thickening mist we where driving through on the way up was falling into the crater from all sides giving the look of a waterfall and reminiscent of a witches caldron bubbling over, and then the sun breaks through, lighting indiscriminate patches of the sand coloured grass. This place was visually spectacular and we hadn’t even seen any animals outside of the baboons that greeted us on the way in. When we got into the crater the animals came thick and fast, warthogs, zebras, wildebeast, lions, countless bizarre birds, all in huge volumes. The day was draining even before midday and we were crashing out in the back of the safari vehicles! Me and Chelle went back to the camp while the others went
straight from the Ngorongoro Crater to camp in the middle of the Serengeti (a privilege we were both agreed wouldn’t be worth $250.00 each). With the camp pretty much to ourselves we relaxed the rest of the afternoon and were treated to a tour of the snakes and crocs of Snake Park by one of the keepers and even given the opportunity to hold some of the animals, Michelle held a Snake, Baby Tortoise and a Baby Crocodile! I held the Snake and the Tortoise but avoided the Croc due to a rare allergic reaction to crocodile skin that makes me a big girl!
Day 23 Snake Park - Free Day 30.6.09
Today was a free day to do as we pleased, so as we didn’t have to be up early the first thing we did was lay in bed and not get up until around 9am, then we slowly got breakfast before moseying down to get a shower (free days are fantastic for being lazy). For some reason we decided to disrupt our relaxing day by taking a trip into town using the local suicide transport, aka dala-dala, aka a mini bus that doesn’t arrive at it’s
destination until at least 20 people and sometimes livestock are hanging out the windows! We had around 20 on the way into town although we were fortunate that we were the first on and therefore got to sit on a seat. When we eventually arrived in town (with a huge sense of relief and satisfaction that our lives were still in tacked) we checked our emails and grabbed some lunch before again hailing a dala-dala back to the park (this time filling up with 22 people and several very large sacks of corn). When we got back to the camp Michelle started feeling unwell and went to bed around 5.30pm
Day 24 Arusha - Sigera 1.7.09
A drive day, so most of the day spent on the truck except for a quick food shop. We arrived at the camp site in Sigera fairly late (around 6.30pm) and to everyone’s disappointment discovered it was a Muslim campsite and forbade drinking on site. Not a huge problem for us as Michelle was still feeling unwell and Mike was today endeavouring to give up the fags, although he had already had 1½ cigarettes in the morning!
Day 25 Sigera -
Mikadi Beach, Dar Es Salam 2.6.09
Yet another drive day and this one was hot but not as long as yesterday, getting into Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania’s Capital) at around midday. The place was hectic, traffic everywhere and a warning from our tour leader that thieves are quite prevalent and would steel off the truck had everyone on guard. Amongst all the noise and the mayhem we witnessed a boy of around 12 get hit by a motorbike, he was alright and an argument ensued between the boys mum and the rider, then the rider got back on his bike and rode off while the boy and his mum seemed to happily carry on with their day. When we eventually got out of the horrible bustling city where road traffic accidents are evidently as common as tripping on a high curb we arrived at Mikadi Beach (minus a rear break light, little bastards!) and everyone was very excited, one because we’d all spent about a month in hot conditions without even the slightest hint of a beach and two, because this beach was the campsite which meant our tents where on the sand looking out over beautifully clear waters.
When we staked our tent spot, closest to the beach with no impaired view, it was down to the important business of getting a drink from the bar, sitting on the beach and then going for a swim in the warm, clear water that stayed up to your waist for ages from the shore. Michelle (feeling slightly better from the night before) was on cook group so could only appreciate it for an hour or so before getting on with feeding us. Come the evening everyone was on the booze after going a whole 2 days without the stuff, I held back from drinking too much as today I had officially given up smoking and it was already tough by the evening (so much so that I bought a packet but left them alone all night). Everyone was very excited about our camping location and even more excited that tomorrow we’d be heading to Zanzibar, home of East Africa’s best beaches!!!
Day 26 Dar Es Salaam - Zanzibar 3.7.09
Up at around 6am to watch the sunrise from the beach while Michelle collected shells for her mum, then it was tents down and a breakfast of porridge (fantastic),
Michelle also got a text informing her that she’d be aunty to a niece by the name of Eloise (this made her feel a lot better). We then all jumped into taxis and headed to the ferry port for a 5 min ferry to central Dar, then a 20 min walk through smelly streets to the next port, where we waited an hour for our ferry. When we got on it was a very choppy hour and a half speed ferry over to Zanzibar (lots of people threw up). When we got there (some people now very pale from the journey, including Michelle) it was through immigration (odd as Zanzibar is still Tanzania) and into a bus to take us to Kendwa (on the north of the island) and to Kendwa Rock, our new home for the next few days. The accommodation wasn’t great, consisting of two crappy beds, mozzy nets and a fan however after a short 30 second walk from our room we were in paradise, white powdered sands, a sea with about 20 shades of blue ranging from dark at the top to a green closest to the sand. This place was a postcard paradise and although
there were activities to do on Zanzibar such as Diving, we both knew that the next few days would consist of laying on the beach, laying in a hammock, laying in the sea, an awful lot of laying!
Day 27 Kendwa Rocks, Zanzibar 4.7.09
A pretty relaxing day consisting of sitting on the beach, walking along the beach, getting virtually pushed into local curio shops with the promise that “it‘s free to look” when what they really mean is “it‘s free to look, but buy something or I shall inform you of how bad business is and Tiny Tim wont live to see Christmas if you don’t buy the crappy bracelet for $8!”. Oh and we also discovered the down side to paradise, it’s really bloody expensive! After buying the bracelet for the knock down price of $2 it was back to sitting on the beach and walking along the beach (this time closer to the sea away from pushy traders). Tonight is the monthly full moon party (not a full moon tonight) and it promises to be a good night, with acrobats, load music and a bizarre drink token system that is more confusing than inland revenue
forms. Naturally the full moon party turns out to be a huge disappointment with Michelle still not feeling 100% and not drinking, me still not smoking and therefore avoiding too much drink, awful music and an atmosphere more suited to a sleazy nightclub where local guys crotch dance with teenage Americans enjoying daddies bonus. We last until about midnight and cut our losses. The room is making noises with what sounds like termites in the walls, Michelle has trouble sleeping, Mike is out like a log!
Day 28 Kendwa Rocks, Zanzibar 5.7.09
After a disappointing night we again headed to the beach for some R&R with some R&B and of course reggae in the background (wouldn‘t be a tropical island without Marley on the speakers), we discover that the bar 2 stops down sells cheaper food, has a happier happy hour and has free wifi, meaning that we can sand wedge some emails and smug Facebook updates and of course update the blog and check the latest football news on bbc before going back to the important business of sitting on the beach, laying on the beach, drinking on the beach. God I love the beach. In the
evening we head back to the bar with the happier happy hour and order some food whist watching Roger Federer make history in the Wimbledon Men’s Final (I personally wanted Roddick to win but not really passionate about tennis really). Then as part of the bar’s film night we watched Reservoir Dogs, for half an hour before the power went out, during the blackout we decided to leave. Forgetting to pay for the Burgers that took over an hour and a half to arrive even though Michelle ordered a Chicken Mayo SW! Oh well, they still had free wifi and a happier happy hour!
Day 29 Kendwa Rocks, Zanzibar - Stone Town, Zanzibar 6.7.09
We checked out of Kendwa Rocks at 10am with mixed feeling, partly sadness that we’d be leaving possibly the best beach we’re likely to see on our travels and partly annoyance that our stay had been marred by probably the poorest / laziest service we’re likely to experience (we‘re aware that the African way is Pole Pole (slow slow) but this place took the biscuit in snail pace service), however after some words to the management from the tour guide (possibly along the lines
of “we‘re never coming back here again“) we were on our way.
The plan was to spend our final night in Stone Town, Zanzibar’s tourist hub, however, not wanting to spend another $25 each on a hotel room we decided to head back to Mikadi Beach a day early. Our tour leader made the call and it would just be a case of jumping on the 4pm ferry, easy…
So with a good few hours to spare we had a wonder around Stone Town, famous for it’s spice market, narrow streets and again expensive prices! We had a drink at a bar/restaurant called Mercury’s (named after Freddy Mercury who was born in Zanzibar) then explored the mazy and narrow streets of the town, it had a real Indiana Jones type feel to it! Then it was time to get our ferry. Or so we thought.
After cuing for ages and getting to the front the guy said “NO, WRONG FERRY TICKET” to which we tried to explain the tickets been changed but with no avail, we where sent backwards and forwards by everyone until we eventually ended up in the offices of Mr Haji, the boss of the ferry company
that refused us entry and probably the boss of a few more shady organisations. He was a big fat, friendly Arabian looking guy who was surrounded by guys running about for him, he seemed to try and help but the best he could do is get us a cheap hotel and tell us to get the ferry we were supposed to get. So we checked out our hotel room and were quickly appeased buy the situation, yeah we were stranded but there are far worse situations than being stranded on Zanzibar with a really nice hotel room and the rest of the evening to relax. So we watched the sunset on a local bar balcony and had our dinner from the fish market, we tried Lobster, Marlin, Barracuda, White Shark and lots more. At about 9pm we walked back to the hotel and watched the first bit of TV we’d seen in weeks (other than the Wimbledon Final) and CSI New York was on, result, The day turned out pretty damn well!
Day 30 Stone Town, Zanzibar - Bush Camp 7.7.09
Up and out of the hotel by 6.30am we make the short walk to the ferry terminal
to get our originally scheduled ferry back to Dar (this time with no complications). The ferry was even worse going back than on the way there and again people were giving us an insight into last nights dinner, Michelle coming close a couple of times to retching all over me. But finally we got back to Dar and were greeted by our truck ready to take us to the next location, which would turn out to be a bush camp that had previously been on fire and was now covered in soot and charcoal, lovely. After a revolting dinner of lentils and ginger it was off to bed for an early night (tends to be the only thing to do in a bush camp, that and praying you don‘t need to poo).
Day 31 Bush Camp - Bush Camp! 8.7.09
We left nice and early to make our way to the next bush camp, not a prospect we had really come to terms with, two drive days and two bush camps back to back, but necessary for us to get to the Malawian boarder on schedule. On the way out of the bush camp we drove through a
national park and saw giraffe, warthog, baboon etc, although the wild life is starting to wear thin lately and we try to sleep more than get pictures. A few more hours up the road and we drive past an overturned Coke lorry hanging off a cliff with guys frantically unloading the crates of Coke from the back, unfortunately the camera wasn’t to hand so we can’t prove the ‘Italian Job’ style scene, but it was really cool. We arrived at our next bush camp, a slight improvement on the previous night and while waiting for dinner had a conversation about who had needed a number 2 whist on a bush camp (a process that first involves digging a hole!) and Mike was quick to point out that “for some reason I never seem to need a sit down toilet when bush camping”, a statement that would indeed haunt me this very night. After a dinner, that wasn’t spicy for a change it was again an early night ready for yet another drive day and a boarder crossing the next day. At about 9pm on the dot needed my first bush camp number 2 toilet. Then again at 9.10pm. Then again
at 9.20pm. And then again at 9.30pm. Me and my big mouth!
Day 32 Bush Camp, Tanzania - Chitimba, Malawi 9.7.09
Off to the Malawian boarder and I was still feeling iffy from the diarrhoea last night we managed to grab the beach on the truck (the large front platform for people to sit on and stare at the locals and wave) and I pretty much slept the whole way to the boarder in my sleeping bag, although it was really hot outside. At the boarder we all got off and got our passports stamped, although by this point all I wanted to do was sleep. We were in Malawi, famous for its lake (Lake Malawi has more different species of fish than any other in the world) but I didn’t take in any of the scenery. All I could do was lay there on the truck shaking with an oncoming fever. When we arrived at Chitimba we didn’t bother with tents instead opting to upgrade to a room in order for me to sleep. At this point my fever was getting worse, as was the diarrhoea, and now I was starting to vomit, nice. I was putting
it down to a bug going round on the truck as a few people had been ill although with slightly less severe symptoms. After lots of Michelle running about for me I attempted to get some sleep, although it was patchy due to the fever and me taking off then re applying the covers every two minutes!
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mr mrekkwa
non-member comment
nation
I want to know y people are not respect Zanzibar Island is natio. any there you go if same body ask where u came from if you say zanzibar they olways say, I dont know what that? what the couler of nation flag is upset really for a person born there respect the county. today friand of my from kong disrespect me torld me zanzibar is not nation tanzania is nation becose the police is presdent vicepesdent pramminister so who the presdent of zanzibar, I say loob blaaab mean he nothing