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Saved: November 30th 2021
Dar es Salaam from the Ferry
Leaving Dar es Salaam harbour and heading to Zanzibar.We were on our Tanzanian safari when we celebrated our one-year anniversary of being on the African continent. We can hardly believe that we have been travelling for this long and that a year has passed already! However, the state of our clothes attests to our length of travel as they are certainly worse for wear, our packs are filthy, and our shoes starting to fall apart - I guess it is time to wrap up this travel adventure before we have no clothes or shoes left!
The Zanzibar ferry terminal in Dar es Salaam is nothing like a BC Ferries terminal back home. It was pure chaos. Touts of every kind surrounded our group (which had grown to six as two girls from the bus were also heading to the ferry) and hounded us each step toward the ticket booth. The line up for the last ferry of the day was long and disorganized with people jostling for position - this is where elbows come in handy! We finally got all our tickets and found the nondescript gate that allowed us onto the ferry. It was a relief to finally board the ferry and know that we would make
Zanzibar Stone Town
Typical side street, just have to watch out for motorbikes and bicycles. it to Zanzibar that night.
After some negotiating with taxi drivers we managed to get a taxi to a budget place in Stone Town, only to disappoint our taxi driver (hoping to get a commission from the guesthouse for bringing us there) when we found another place a couple blocks away that was cheaper and better. It was now dark and the 4 of us were tired, salty (from the spray on the ferry) and hungry. After a well-deserved shower we headed out in search of food. Zanzibar is very much a tourist destination and the prices of everything reflect this. The ferry tickets and almost all other prices are quoted in US dollars and if you want to pay in Tanzanian Shilling, the exchange rate is always in their favour, not ours. We did manage to find a few local gems though and ate quite cheaply. We did pay the big bucks to have sundowners on the best patio in town to watch the sunset, and it was definitely worth it!
Stone Town in the daylight is like a larger version of Lamu, with lots of vehicles and no donkeys. The following day was Sunday, so it
Zanzibar Stone Town
Another narrow street. was a perfect day to wander around the narrow streets and get lost. Not much was open and there was not a lot of traffic. Monday brought back the busy streets and open shops, definitely more vibrant, but also nerve-wracking with the motorcycles and cars whizzing down the narrow streets.
One of the reasons we really wanted to visit Zanzibar was it's history in the Spice Industry. We booked ourselves on a Spice Tour and enjoyed our day out learning all about the many spices we use at home, but have never known anything about. We saw how many of these plants are grown and what part becomes the spice we use. Our first sight was a young teak forest, grown specifically for use in furniture building, this particular grove would need to grow for another 14 years before being harvested. The trees were planted close together to force the trees to grow straight and tall. We then saw clove trees and were able to sample the clove fruit, which is often used to extract clove oil as well as dried for the spice that we use. Many of the different plants we saw included: Nutmeg and mace, cardamom
Rambutun
Taste like a lychee! The outside had a rubbery feel but they were juicy inside. (a vine like plant), green curry leaves, pineapples, peppercorns (red, green and then dried into black), vanilla beans, cocoa pods, oranges, tandoori, lemon grass and others we can't remember! The young men that work the farm help out on the tours and when they are not cutting samples for us to view, they are madly weaving necklaces, rings, ties and hats out of palm leaves for us to all wear. We had a great group on our tour and had many laughs at our "green attire"!
Since we knew when we needed to be back in Dar, we didn't have a lot of time left on the island so we decided to head to the beach for our last few days and are glad that we did. Kendwa Beach is on the northern tip of the island and has beautiful turquoise waters. We enjoyed walking up and down the beach, swimming and just relaxing in the shade or in a hammock with a book. This is where we celebrated Peter's birthday - lucky guy! Two birthdays on the African continent! As you will see from the photos, Peter had a hard time relaxing on his birthday on the beach
Zanzibar Stone Town
Hand crafted Swahili doors. ...
We ran into the two girls from the ferry, Jessa and Jen, at Kendwa and the following day Dominique joined us as well. It was nice to see some familiar, friendly faces. We thoroughly enjoyed our time on Zanzibar's beaches and would recommend Kendwa to anyone.
Starting in Arusha and continuing on Zanzibar, we had been seriously researching an overland tour to see Zambia, Botswana and Namibia. Botswana is notoriously expense to travel through accommodation-wise and Namibia is difficult to travel on public transport as you cannot get to any of the sights worth seeing without your own vehicle or on a tour. Much thought went into this and we decided that maybe this would be the best way to see these remaining countries before heading back to South Africa. We got as far as negotiating with a British company who offered us a great last minute price and we conditionally held two seats. We printed and filled out the booking form and went on the search for a fax machine on Zanzibar the day our held seats would expire. We were not having any luck and the more we searched, the more we started to drag
Zanzibar Stone Town
Another beautiful Swahili door. our feet. We sat on a rock on the beach and talked about what was holding us back. We both had reservations about joining a tour and the primary hesitation was that we were worried we may not fit in. All the travel we have done in the past year has been on our own, and we were unsure how we would settle into the routine of a tour and a group of strangers. There were many other pros and cons as well and we discussed them all. We talked about it at length and decided that we would give it a go on our own and perhaps join a small tour in Namibia to see the highlights and then continue to travel to Cape Town from there. We both immediately felt better about our decision and promptly took the booking form to the fire pit and watched it burn! Here we go again on our own!
We found ourselves back in Dar on a Sunday and once again used the empty streets to orient ourselves to the city. Not much is open on a Sunday, no cafes or touristy shops, and only one restaurant in the city centre
Zanzibar Stone Town
Watching the sun set, having a beveragewith our safari mates. Back: Peter and Alex. Front: Dominique and Laini was open, luckily it was very close to our budget hotel! Our purpose for being back in Dar was to purchase tickets on the Tazara Railway that travels from Dar to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. We were able to get tickets on Monday morning for the Tuesday afternoon departure without any trouble. We arrived early to the train station and when the 3:50pm departure time came and went, all the train travellers were getting antsy. The officials finally announced that there would be a delay due to a derailment of a cargo train. We were advised to come back at 9:00pm for a 10:00pm departure. We knew we wouldn't be leaving the station as it is 6km out of town, so we went for a walk, found some ice cream, roasted maise cobs and saw the industrial area that the train station is located in. We got back to the first class lounge and nothing much had changed, so we decided to go to the restaurant and have a beer. While we were in the restaurant, the situation had changed and the train would not be leaving until the following morning at 9:00am. When we got back, we found the
Zanzibar Stone Town
Near sunset from the Africa House patio. first class lounge locked tight and would not be opened until the next morning. That was all fine, except our big bags were locked in this room and that meant our thermarests and sleeping bags were unavailable to us. They would have made sleeping on the floor of the train station tolerable - but with only our day bags with books and snacks we were not prepared to spend the night on the floor. So we headed out to the street, flagged down a taxi and headed back to our budget hotel. At least we got a good night's sleep before our epic train journey - but it certainly added to the overall cost of the trip.
After the 17 hour initial delay, our train got underway promptly at 9:00am. Since Tazara does not allow male and females to inhabit the same compartment unless they purchase the entire compartment of 4 beds, Peter and I were in separate berths (yes, we are cheap!). It was fine because we spent the days together in the lounge car (that sounds fancier than it really is, just some tables and plastic chairs) reading, playing cards and gazing out the windows. With the
Zanzibar Stone Town
Pand L in the glow of the sunlight. delay we were able to pass through the Selous Game Reserve in the daylight (we would have traversed it during the dark if we left on time) and had a wonderful train safari that made up for the extra expense in staying an extra night in Dar (which of course was our own fault for going for a beer!). We saw giraffes, impalas, zebras, buffalos, warthogs, guinea fowl, an elephant and lions! We were pretty excited at the lion sighting, there was a lioness sitting in the shade of a tree in a dried up riverbed and under another bushy tree was another one or two lions. Very exciting! Definitely helped pass the time on our 46 hour train trip! We also had a great moment with the border guards going into Zambia, they came to stamp our passports and Peter put down the book he was reading "Dreams from my father - by Barack Obama" and the male border guard picked it up and asked us where we had bought it (we had traded another traveller for it) and if we thought they could buy it in Zambia. Then the female guard picked it up and read the back
Night Food Market
This night food market set up every afternoon and served fresh seafood and yummy sugar cane drinks every night. cover, clutched it to her chest and beamed as she asked where we bought it (same answer) and if she could buy it in Zambia (same answer - we did not know). They were very friendly to us and when they were leaving I said to the female guard, come back before you leave the train, perhaps Peter will be finished by then. She smiled and nodded and they were on their way. When Peter finished the book, we decided we would like to have a rest, meaning we would not be in the lounge car. So we decided to search out the border guards and when we found them, they could not believe that we were giving them the book. I made her promise to pass it on so others could read it and she said she would and then grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug ever! Laughing I hugged her back and then she released me and gave me another bear hug! It was a very heartwarming moment and a wonderful introduction to Zambia.
We arrived into Kapiri Mposhi early in the morning, so it meant that would be able to travel directly to the
Night Food Market
Our new friend making sugar cane juice. capital, Lusaka, and arrive mid-morning. We were lucky to have two fellows from the train on our bus that were also going to the same backpackers as us and they had been there before so the four of us walked together from the bus station to our accommodation. We were tired, but decided to head out and explore Lusaka. We also had to change the rest of our Tanzanian Shilling to Zambian Kwacha, which we thought would be an easy task considering the number of exchange bureaus in town. No such luck. It turns out no one in Zambia takes Tanzanian Shilling and we were forced to go back to the bus station to do a deal. We did okay, not a great exchange, but better than the one offered on the train, but a pain in the butt as we visited most of the exchange bureaus and banks before we finally went back to the bus station.
Our first impressions of Zambia are of a very lush and fertile country that is not over-populated (in fact it is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Africa) and is very clean. The locals are very friendly and speak
Night Food Market
A very popular place for locals and tourists alike. excellent English as it is the linga franca (market language) since there are over 76 languages spoken in Zambia. Lusaka is a very small (population 1 million) capital city, with a relaxed feel and friendly locals. We never felt hassled (okay, maybe at the bus station, but that is normal) and enjoyed the small town feel of Lusaka.
The following day we decided to visit "the Mall" that is about 2 km out of Lusaka and this is where we found all the ex-pats and foriegn workers hanging out. It was like visiting a mall at home around Christmas it was so busy. It was a little incongruous with Lusaka, as any mall in Africa tends to feel, but we did manage to make a very good purchase, so we won't be too critical of it. There is a large Game store (a South African department store chain) and we were able to purchase a tent for our travels in Botswana and Namibia where accommodation is reported to be expensive. We found a good sized two-man tent for a very reasonable price and set off home with our purchase. We also stopped off to buy bus tickets to Livingstone
Spice Tour
The clove plant. Has a very strong clove smell when fresh. for the next morning ... we are off to the home of the world famous Victoria Falls!
Thanks again for following along, we are definitely in the winding down stages of our trip (unless that lottery comes through ...) and are expecting to be home in late March or early April. Of course, we have made predictions before ... so we'll just keep you posted!
Thanks again to everyone who submits comments to the blog or sends us emails - we love to hear from everyone!
Lots of love,
Laini and Peter
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Pam
non-member comment
Ahhh... Zanzibar...Zanzibar...Zanzibar...
Lovely, just lovely! Since reading your latest entry I have just been saying "Zanzibar" over and over... such a nice word to say ,and ,by the sounds of things.. a wonderful place! Your photos are amazing.. I learned a lot about spices too! So happy that you are still having a good time! Thank you again for sharing your travels with us! Take good care, happy belated birthday Peter... happy 1 year travelling anniversary! Big hugs to both of you! Love, Pam PS Bought some lottery tickets... so cross your fingers! :)