My Beach Vacation, Inside a Vacation

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Day 87: Thursday, August 17: Arusha to Mt Kilimanjaro

Today we headed into the town of Arusha for a couple of hours and then made our way to a small village at the base of Mt. Kili. The roads were reasonable and it was only a 3 hour drive. We relaxed in the evening, a few beers and some card games..

Day 88: Friday, August 18: Mt. Kili

To hike up to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro is a 5-6 day trek. Obviously I don't have the time (and certainly not the endurance) to climb to the top. We did have an optional to climb to the base camp, but I decided not to. For a couple of reasons, 1) the park fees is $60, plus a guide. 2) You can't see anything at the basecamp, so there's no view or sense of accomplishment when you get there. 3) I was just being lazy, but the people that did go, were very disappointed for their money. We got a guide to give us a tour through the small village, which all has its own crops, including coffee. Walking through each property was very interesting as you could see the difference in rich vs poverty. Mud houses vs brick. Cows and pigs in nice pens vs roped or chained up. etc. We walked into the village center, got some lunch and then headed up to a nice little waterfall where we relaxed and enjoyed the views and sun. This was a 3 hour hike in all, so I didn't feel as lazy as I could have.

Day 89: Saturday, August 19: Mt. Kili to Dar es Salaam

Today was a LONG driving day to the east coast of Tanzania. After about 7 hours, we made it into Dar, wandered around town and then took a barge over to our campsite. This was a really nice campsite, Bar, pool and the beach. Although the beach wasn't all that great, and we were going to be staying on teh beach for the next 5 days. So we just took advantage of the bar. All night long ($1.20 beers, $1.50 shots)...

Day 90: Sunday, August 20: Dar es Salaam to Stone Town, Zanzibar

After breakfast we headed to the ferry for a 2 hour ride over to Zanzibar. Once checked into the hotel, we grabbed lunch and then went on a spice and city tour. We stopped off at the old fort, then a slave monument, as there used to be major slave trades here. Once done with all that, we headed to spice farms, where we saw them growing at least 2 dozen different spices and fruits. We had some tea, ate fresh fruit and then watched a boy climb up a 50 ft coconut tree to grab a fresh coconut. The guide we had was hillarious and is the only thing that kept us going.

We headed back to the hotel, had a shower and then headed out to the fish market. Its more than a fish market, as you basically walk up, pick any kind of meat or fish that you want, they grill it right there, put it on a pita and add in some fries, and you have an entire fresh meal, for $2. Add in a coke and it becomes $2.50. After wandering the market, we headed to a bar to celebrate a girls 20th birthday. Beers, shishas and a cake were in order. Got lost on the way back to the hotel and had the best sleep in 2 weeks.

Day 91: Monday, August 21: Stone Town, Zanzibar to Some Beach, Zanzibar

I forgot the name of the beach we are on.. so sue me 😊 After wandering Stone Town for a little while, we hopped into the shuttle for a trip up the coast. After an hour of VERY bad roads, we made it to the Sunset Bungalows. A pretty nice resort for A) $12 a night and B) For the roads we travelled to get here.

In the evening, we relaxed at the beachfront bar and watched the sun go down.. It truely is an amazing sunset.

Day 92: Tuesday, August 22: On the Beach in Zanzibar

Today, got up fairly early and headed down to the scuba shop. We grabbed our gear, hopped on the boat and went for a half hour cruise to this island where the hotel rooms are $1200 a night (remember, ours was $12). On our way, we ran into a group (pod ?) of dolphins and stopped the boat to let them pass, it was beautiful. Once at our dive site and gear on, we headed on down to the water. An amazing 50 minute dive along a reef wall, we saw turtles and moray eels and lionfish and just a bunch load of fish. At the top, we relaxed, had a light lunch and headed back down. This time to some bommies. Unfortunately this dive was not as nice. The current was WAY too fast and even though I saw the biggest lionfish I've ever seen and we passed a couple of turtles, you just couldn't enjoy the sites or the dive. Still worth it, just not as enjoyable as the first dive.

Once back at the beach, we relaxed with some beers and a horrible experience with dinner (oh well, its African and Island time in one) and went to bed pretty darn early.

Day 93: Wednesday, August 23: On the Beach, Zanzibar

Today was a later start, we took the boat out to the north east portion of the island and had the best dive of my trip. The reef wall was fantastic, the visibility almost perfect and more fishlive than I could name here. Almost an hour dive, I had the most air!!!! woohoo (a little feat for me).

We came back for lunch and then one more dive in the evening. We dove with a bunch of Italian Dive instructors and had a good time, not as good as the morning dive, but its hard to complain about diving in general. Some of our guys couldn't last as long on the air, but I held my own with the instructors, which made the dive just that more special for me.


Tomorrow I'm hanging out on the beach, doing pretty much nothing and then we are back on the road, headed to Victoria Falls, via more game drives and Lake Malawi.

~Dave

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