Goodbye Zanzibar, Hello Mikumi!

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May 14th

We all had to wake up early to make it to Stonetown and catch the ferry on time, so we were on the road by 8am. The drive to stone town is a little more than an hour, and it cost only $7 a person for a private taxi van, good deal really.

After leaving my cell phone in the taxi, (I was able to get it back, whew!) we went through immigration (a formality really, Zanzibar isn’t separated from government and country of Tanzania) we jumped on the ferry. This time around we were able to get some decent seats and it made the two hour journey seem to go a lot quicker, at least until the waves and the constant up and down motion sickness got half the locals on the ferry sick. People were laying down on the floors and every once in a while you could hear someone yack, that was what almost made me get sick. Thank god I didn’t have to smell it, that woulda put me over the edge! Hahaha…

Ookay so after we got back to Dar es Salaam we headed back to Mikadi Beach Camping and got settled in. This time around we weren’t going to be using the tents because when we were there before, (before going to Zanzibar), we had reserved a few bungalows on the beach.

We had dinner later that night after a couple other African Trails trucks had arrived. We chatted with other travelers and heard stories and got advice about where we were going and had already been. It was cool to talk with some of the people that were on the TransAfrica trip, they were about 26 weeks into a 43 week trip from Gibraltar through West Africa and south to Cape Town, then back north through Eastern Africa and ending in Istanbul, Turkey. That would be such an awesome trip!!

Beers were drank and stories were told and jokes were made, and everyone had a good time. Before going to bed a few of us played marco polo in the pool and it was a great laugh. This vacation is tough on me, I gotta tell ya! 😉

Anyways, hope you like the photos!

May 15th

The next morning the five of us got up on time and started our day. We were to leave Dar-es-Salaam and head south-ish (if I know my geography of Tanzania well enough, but I haven’t been keeping an eye on the map sooo…) towards Mikumi National Park. The traffic was bad and so we didn’t take the ferry across the bay but opted for the drive around which took made the trek out of the city longer than expected. Because of this delay we weren’t able to make it to the western world style mall and get supplies before we left. Unfortunately that meant I wasn’t able to get some vital batteries for the video camera mask for snorkeling and scuba diving.

Soo anyways we got out of Dar and made it to Mikumi that afternoon, after a stop for lunch and snacks. The drive through the park was great, we were able to see elephants and giraffes in the wild again and we weren’t even on a game drive! The elephants and the giraffes were a lot smaller than in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, it was like going through a mini park, or as Justin put, the “midget version” of the Serengeti! Hahahaha!

After picking up some vegetables for dinner we headed for the Tan-Swiss campsite on the outside of the Mikumi National Park. We got in at a reasonable time and setup our tents and Nicio and Cameroon got to making the dinner. The rest of us got settled in and comfortable with our tea. The Brazilian and New Yorker made a good team, the dinner was a nice pasta with beef sausages and loads of vegetables. We all sat around after dinner and drank tea and chatted and talked about the trip planned for the next day.

Farron was to take us to a spot he had only been once before (a place where no other overland trucks and tours go), on the mountain side about 70 kilometers (about 50 miles?) of Mikumi (the city). We were to go on a hike of about 3 hours to a set of waterfalls that are meant to be spectacular. We all looked forward to the next day in our 7 week journey to Cape Town. The five of us (Wendy, Cameron, Nicio, Justin, Farron and I) went to bed pretty early in preparation for a long next day.

Enjoy the photos!
Until next time, Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!

-Brendan

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