Advertisement
Published: August 4th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Mt Kilimanjaro
view from air plane Tanzania was my first adventure overseas with out my family. Growing up I had always wanted to visit Africa from watching wildlife and nature shows but the idea to actually travel to Africa came to me while I was on a trip to las vegas with a friend. I had just turned 21 and going to Vegas was a common trip for most people who lived in western Canada and the USA on there 21st birthdays. when I got home I researched it more and then booked a Overland tour from Zanzibar Island, Tanzania to Johannesburg, South Africa with the tour group "g-adventures." And on september 9th 2011 I was off!
My fight first made a stopover in Amsterdam, Holland for 10 hours. while I was there I visited musiems and coffee shops, the weather was great and I got a good taste of the city. I then boarded a flight to the next stopover city Nairobi, Kenya. I only had 2 hours here so I didn't see much plus you needed a travel visa to leave the airport, but this was my first time in Africa and my first time south of the equator. The third stop over was
crossing the channel
boarding the flight to Zanzibar Dar es slam the largest and former capital city of Tanzania. when I arrived here I had to clear customs by filling out a form and paying 50$ USD for a travel visa. I also had to show them my yellow fever imunisation card (a shot you get before you can enter the country) once that had been complete my passport was stamped and when I was unsure of where to go after, an armed guard pointed his gun at me and said "you" then he pointed his gun to a door and said "there." I was extremely scared but did as he said and went through the door which just led outside the airport where everyone else was sitting and waiting, and that was where I was to wait 6 hours for my flight to Zanzibar Island. while waiting for the flight there is many cab drivers trying to convince you to take a ride to the city as well as others trying to sell water and coca-cola. the six hours rolled by and then I boarded a small plane for a 1/2 an hour flight to stone town, Zanzibar.
When I arrived it was 4pm and I
met the man who was to transfer me to my hotel. Unfortunately though my backpack had been left behind by the baggage crew and I had to wait until the following plane came in at 9pm till I received it. At that point it was very dark out and could see the fear in the eyes of my transfer guide and the driver. as we drove to the hotel the guide and driver kept yelling at each other in Swahili (local dialect). looking around you could see there were allot of people out and about but many of them looked like they were up to no good. At one point the car broke down and the driver raced outside to fix it while the guide was fearfully yelling at him to hurry up. when we got to the hotel I fell asleep instantly. Despite all the comotion after being awake for 2 days there was no way I was not going to have a great sleep.
The next morning i received a free breakfast from the hotel. This was pita bread with humus which I later learned was a traditional Islamic dish. Afterwards The transfer guide came and picked
me up and took me to the hotel where my tour guide for the next 2 weeks named Jules was as well as the rest of the tour group. It was a very interesting group of people mostly from Europe. The local guide named Salima drove us to a spice plantation where I bought some sope. We were then driven to the beach resort where we would stay the next 2 nights. It was my first time swimming in the Indian Ocean and was so amazed at the colour of the ocean surrounding Zanzibar, It was clear Aqua Blue it looked like Blueberry Kool-aid. The sand on the beaches was so white it looked like vanilla ice-cream. later in the day I got extension brads in my beard so it came down to my waist. The next day we went on a snorkelling tour which was very interesting except that it rained during the day and then had extremely warm heat afterwards. By the end of the day I was very burnt and I went to sleep early due to jet leg. The next day we returned to stone town back to our original hotel and later in the day
we took a boat out to this Island called Prison Island. Prison Island was once a prison and now it is a sanctuary for these giant turtles, the oldest turtle there was 185 years old. The next day we took a city tour of stone town and saw the first building In the continent of Africa to have electricity as well as the market and other interesting buildings. Later that night when we went out for dinner I discovered how cheap tequila was in Zanzibar which at the time seemed awesome. However the next morning when we had to wake up at 5 am to grab the ferry I did not think the same. The Ferry was from Zanzibar to mainland Tanzania and still to this day it was the bumpiest boat ride I have ever been on. There were many points when the ferry was fully flying in the air after hitting big bumpy waves. When the ferry docked we were In the city of Dar es Salaam which is the largest city in Tanzania and the former capital. We got in the big overland vehicle, met our driver Johnson and started on our road trip across Tanzania.
On the drive we drove through a few game parks where I saw for the first time in the wild and Elephant and a Zebra. We also had a party on the bus which allot of fun. That night we arrived in a town called Iringa in the south west of Tanzania where we set up our tents cooked dinner and drank. At this camp site I looked up at the stars and saw the southern cross constellation as it was my first time south of the equator It was like seeing a whole new night sky which was spectacular. The next day was to be our last day in Tanzania as we were heading to the boarder of Malawi a smaller country south of Tanzania. Before we left the camp owners gave us a map of a hike to a lake which we followed to find that this was not at all a lake but more like a swamp loaded with mosquito's which likely had malaria. After this hike we got back in the truck and headed to the final camp ground in Tanzania. We didn't do much here as the next day we had to be up early.
The next morning we were up at 5am and headed straight to the Malawi boarder. When we arrived at the boarder we were greeted by many pushy salesmen. we filled out our exit cards, got our passports stamped and exited Tanzania.
Tanzania was my first backpacking trip on my own and I now knew how much fun Africa really was. The people were so friendly, the scenery was stunning and seeing Africa wildlife in person was indescribable in how amazing it was. I hope to Return to Tanzania again in the future and hike Mt Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb