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Published: July 28th 2010
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When it was time to leave Cape Maclear, Jeff and I waited outside on the local road for about an hour and then hitched a ride with a German family to the highway, then caught a taxi to Venice Beach in Monkey Bay. There we met up with our friend Victor for one night, then took off early the next morning for Blantyre, the main industrial city of Malawi. There we met up with our friends Mitsue and Elena, and caught another mini bus to Mount Mulanje. We found a guide to take us up for the following day and a place to crash for the night.
The next morning we got up early, met our guide, and headed up the mountain. The first part of the hike was very casual, walking through a sea of neon green tea plants. Malawi is well known for their tea. Once we hit the base of the mountain, it became steep very quickly. The trail had little to no switchbacks, so it was pretty much straight up the mountain. It was by far the toughest hike I have ever done. It took us about 6 hours or so to reach the top to
a flat, grassy plateau. There we hiked some more to a cabin to drop off our bags. We rested for about an hour, then took off to see an area they called 'the crater.' While gazing into the crater, I got a sudden stomach ache, so we decided to go back to the lodge. I had a bit of a rough nite fighting off whatever was upsetting my stomach. Cipro to the rescue yet once again.
The next morning we got up early and started our decent. Going down we had some amazing scenery as much of the mountain was above the clouds. When we got down, we headed back up to Blantyre, spent the night, then went back to the capital city of Lilongwe where we spent the night. The next day was spent running around town getting ready for the 27 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We said our goodbyes to the girls, and took off around 7pm. The 27 hour bus ride turned into about a 35 hour bus ride. We got stopped by the police around midnight about 100K outside of Dar es Salaam. They said buses cannot run at that time
of night, so they took the bus drivers paperwork and would not let us resume until 430 am. Jeff and I found a nice slab of concrete to take about a two hour nap near the parked bus. I passed right out as I was exhausted.
We finally rolled into Dar es Salaam at around 7am. We got a cab and went to Econolodge, the place where I told my friend Stephanie to meet us who I had assumed made it ok from Denver, but I wasn't sure until I walked into the lobby of the hotel. She was happy to see us. She had arrived the night before around 10pm, and the hotel was full, so she ended up sleeping in the lobby. The three of us eventually got a room at this hotel for two nights. We spent the next two days exploring Dar es Salaam and trying out the food. I tried the local fish market. It was good, but not nearly as good as it was in Maputo, Mozambique. A couple of days later, we caught a 3.5 hour ferry ride out to the island of Zanzibar. We disembarked in Stone Town. I was surprised
that we had to go through immigration as Zanzibar is part of Tanzania. We walked around for a while and eventually found a hotel for two nights. That night we walked around the streets of Stone Town and got lost. The streets are very narrow and are like walking through a labyrinth. The city has a very middle eastern feel to it as it has a large Indian and Muslim influence. There were many small shops, bazaars, and small fires lit up on the narrow streets. Our hotel was right across from a Mosque and every morning at 500 am we would be woken up to the sound of very loud Muslim chants over a loud speaker.
The next morning Stephanie and I decided to rent a little 250 CC motorcycle and run around the island real quick. We made it to the extreme north to a town called Nungwi. We hiked along the coast running around a few coral cliffs. At one point, I was trying to dodge a wave and didn't see the cliff behind me. I turned toward the cliff and hit it so hard with my head that a chunk of the rock fell off.
My head hurt a little bit, and I thought I was ok, until I noticed a small piece of rock embedded into my scalp. At that point, we decided we better go take care of it, so we walked back to the bike and headed back to Stone Town. Back at our hotel I had Jeff try to get the rock out with tweezers, but it was in too deep, and there was no way to get a grip. Eventually I decided I better go to the hospital. I jumped on the motorcycle, grabbed a local to ride on the back to show me where to go, and took off. The doctor struggled with it for a while and eventually took me to a room that said 'casualty' on the outside of the door, and made a small incision in my scalp to get it out. He wanted to give me something to numb my head first but I wouldn't let him. I said no needles. I asked him if I was the first person that he has had to remove rock from someones head. He laughed and said yes. $10 later I was on my way. That night we
went to Africa House for dinner and drinks to relax after a long day. Africa house was a favorite hang out spot of Livingstone and Stanley (the guy who found Livingstone) who would spend time there relaxing in between expeditions.
The next day we got up and took a minibus to the town of Jambiani, on the Southeastern part of the island. We found a nice little Bungalow on the beach next to the water. It was fairly secluded, and not as touristy. We went there to relax for a couple of days and bum at the beach. This was one of the nicest beaches that I have ever seen in my life. The sand was white and very fine, almost like a powder. The warm water was turquoise in color. I had never seen water as colorful as this before. It was amazing. Zanzibar is truly a tropical paradise in the Indian Ocean. When we were ready, we caught a mini bus back to Stone Town and took a ferry back to Dar Es Salaam.
Next up we are going to take a 10 hour bus ride up to Arusha and hire guides and porters to take
us up Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. After that, we hope to go to Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater. All these activities are very pricy, so hopefully we can pull it all off and find a decent bargain. Time will tell. I also want to hit Olduvai Gorge which has human like footprints that are over 3 million years old.
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Georgiana Cave
non-member comment
oh
good grief