Tanzania

Border??

As I mentioned in my last blog, we had successfully crossed the border and had just under £15 in Tanzania shillings. We spent £2 of this to get to the nearest small town where we were told we could get an onward connection. It was around 4pm and with a possible 6-7 hour journey to our destination, Mwanza. We were wondering whether it would be possible.

Low and behold, a mini bus was waiting, but we were told it would take 2 hours to fill up. Well, with no other choice, we decided to go find some food. It was a small town and it seemed everywhere served chips or chippy omelette. We managed to find some good old beans and rice (another £1 gone).

We walked back up to the mini bus where our bags were. And as the driver starts to walk towards us, we already knew what he was going to say. They weren’t going to leave till the next morning.

So now with £12 to our name in local currency, we tried desperately to find a cash machine. It was clear this town didn’t have one.

Weighing up our options, we checked the price of a small hotel (the only one in the town). He told us the price was 8000Tsh, a mere £3. Great! But we couldn’t afford to pay that and the bus the next day, so we asked if we could pay him in dollars and that would mean we were sorted. He apparently mistook ‘dollars’ for ‘toilet’ somehow and kept on saying it was free to use. With some difficulty and slow and loud shouting of ‘US DOLLARS, MONEY, PAYING, PRICE,’ we eventually got him to understand us, but he said he didn’t take dollars or know the rate.

We eventually jumped in a taxi, with the driver assuring us the next town, another 25km away, had a cash machine and definitely took VISA. Although his face said different, we had no choice but to chance it.

Another £2 down from the taxi fare, we walked up to the bank’s ATM knowing full well that they didn’t accept VISA or any other card but theirs, but a small naïve slither of hope nonetheless!

We walked out the bank… still with £10 to our name, and some kind guy who spoke fairly good English informed us the next town took VISA. Great! Where is it, we asked. Oh, only 300km away!!!

At this point we just thought…BOLLOCKS. (Sorry Mum).

We had dollars on us, but nobody would take it for a room for the night. We asked a few people about exchanging dollars. People kept mentioned Fred’s shop, which we eventually found. He managed to give us such a good rate (better than the banks), we ended up exchanging $50!!

He even called up a cheap hotel for us and got someone to take us there, and even booked us a shared taxi the next day to Mwanza for less than a mini bus price!

We dined on the town’s finest chips and beer that night, feeling like we’d found an oasis in the desert.

The next morning, we got up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am, and with a knock on the door at 5, we were up and in the minivan that took us on a journey across half of Tanzania, towards Lake Victoria, over it on a ferry, eventually arriving in Mwanza around 2pm. The journey took us off road, right next to it in fact. It seemed that even though it was perfect tarmac, the road was still ‘under construction’ and had fallen trees every couple hundred metres over the road to stop people driving on it. I’ll never understand the logic here!!

Mwanza

The skies opened up when we arrived, but instead of getting our bearings, we dashed into the nearest guesthouse to find shelter. We ended up staying 2 nights, not because there was anything to do, but mostly because we didn’t want another 5 hour journey the next day.

We took a look at Lake Victoria, and saw some… yes, you’ve guessed it, more Marabou storks! We popped down to the busy market to buy some fruit and even found a buy one get one free offer in a supermarket for dairy milk (little Easter treat to myself)!

Musoma

We eventually took a big bus onto Musoma. There was also nothing to do in this town, except book another onward bus! This next journey was a bit different. It was going to be a 13 hour journey, but was passing through Ngorongoro and the Serengeti!! We had to part with $110 for gate fees, but considering we weren’t going to do any safaris to these national parks, we thought we might as well try and see some of it rather than taking a bus that goes around them instead.


Hills of Ngorongoro

Another early start, we were on the bus by 5.30am. We had seats, but it became evident as the bus went on that some people didn’t, and at one point there were 25 people standing along this bus. Uphill, we were going at walking pace from the load!

We jumped out at the Serengeti gate and paid our park fees - $60 each. The locals on the bus did too, don’t get me wrong… but it was a mere $1. We worked out that we paid more together than everyone else on the bus combined. Oh, Muzungu.

Serengeti had great, expansive views. The vast savannah just stretched on forever, and was dotted with a couple hundred zebras and wildebeest here and there. We saw a group of buffalos, and the inevitable gazelles of all different kinds. Luke swore he spotted a cheetah by the road too, but my poor eyesight couldn’t verify that for you!


Wildebeests at Ngorongoro

We jumped out at the Ngorongoro gate to part with another $50 each. And looking out at the road, Luke grabbed me excitedly and shouted ‘look at all the animals!’ I told him they were just trees…I was wrong!

As soon as we entered the park, we came across a group of giraffes. Then before we realised it, we were in the thick of it and animals were darting out of the road. We were surrounded… by THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of zebra and wildebeest. They were everywhere, and as far as the eye could see. We were in the middle of the great migration! It was a David Attenborough moment, and I could just hear him in my head ‘the wildebeest migration, slowly making its move up North to the Masai Mara, a number reaching 1.5million!’

We even drove past the crater, which was beautiful, and rolling hills which held the livestock of the Masai tribe. We passed a couple of their basic settlements – little compounds with straw roofs and cow dung walls. We even dropped a couple of the Masai off at their homes.

I couldn’t believe our luck. We saw so much, and although the bus was quick and the journey bumpy, we managed to get a couple of photos that didn’t look too blurry or lopsided.


Bus through Serengeti and Ngorongoro

Arusha

We arrived at Arusha at around 7pm at night and found a guesthouse. Again, the usual, ‘we have internet, hot water and electricity, just not now.’ We’ll take it! Too tired to argue…

We set off the next day, only a couple hours to Moshi. With music blaring on the bus, Luke started to feel a bit more upbeat and was starting to dance, moving his shoulders. “What on earth are you doing???” I asked. His reply was ‘crimping!!!’ After I settled down from about 10 minutes of ‘can’t contain yourself laughter,’ with him not knowing what I’m in hysterics at, I just said ‘I think you mean crumping, you rude boy.’ Haha!! It wasn’t his finest hour, not so worldly after all! 


Masai at Serengeti

Moshi

Moshi was great. It felt like the first touristy place in Tanzania so far, and was probably the first time we had seen so many ‘Muzungus.’ Our hotel had a great balcony restaurant with views of Mount Kilimanjaro when the cloud cleared, early morning or night.

We had a few beers –Serengeti and Kilimanjaro were just a couple of our favourites! And even found an Indian restaurant to relieve our taste buds of the regular beans and rice we were used to.

We got back to our regular fruit salad mornings of banana, passion fruit and mango. And we even found some mouth-watering jack fruit and pears. Jack fruit lady and I got well acquainted… did you beaming smile when she saw me mean she was grateful for the custom or ripping me off?? I didn’t care, for 30p for a massive bag, you can’t complain! 


Mount Kili

I managed to get my rucksack sewn up again. It had started to rip at the seams all the way down both sides, so annoying! Luke’s was completely fine, same bag, so it was just a manufacturing fault. But £1 later, and a little smaller, it looked good as new. Just hope it holds up!!

Dar es Salaam

We eventually left our little oasis for Dar es Salaam. We were told it would be an 8 hour bus journey, but 10 hours later, we eventually rocked up in Dar, starving, hot and tired. It was sweltering- probably about 35 degrees and so humid, there was no wind at all. We fell into a hostel and went out in search of some Indian food. We collapsed into a restaurant and ended up ordering some pretty decent noodles. We also found some delicious wada, which is made from... heaven. It’s actually made of flour, carrot, onion and all kinds of spices that just shout INDIA! And comes with this amazing coconut sauce and chilli sauce… all for $1.

Zanzibar





Stone Town alleys

We jumped a ferry the next day to Zanzibar, with Luke sweet talking the lady when she said the next one was full, to eventually securing us a spot. The ferry ride was around 2 hours…2 hours of waiting for beach time! Although it had absolutely chucked it down in the morning, it led to bright blue skies and scorching weather. I don’t know what all this ‘rainy season’ worry is about, when it’s sunny 3 out of every 4 days! That’s enough time for me to get snorkelling and lounge on the beach, and shelter at a bar with a few beers on that one rainy day!

 

 So we arrived in Stone Towna t the port and were immediately followed by a tout trying to drag us to a hotel. We headed for the centre of the town, with no real idea of which place we’d end up at. We just wanted something cheap! We managed to find a quiet place for just under £10. Not so quiet it turns out… our bedroom right next to the speakers of a mosque. Can’t wait for 5am prayer calls! Although these days, Incan sleep through pretty much anything.

We went exploring that afternoon in the scorching weather. A Muslim guy in a white robe and cap, watching the football, gave us some directions and we eventually got our bearings. We ate an amazing vege biryani (thanks Sharma for the recommendation)!


Melon man

We sat at a bar on the beach on our first night, watching the sunset as people took in the last of its heat whilst going for a dip in the ocean. Boys were doing flips down the far end of the beach, and kids were doing tumbles into the waves whilst small fisherman boats bobbed out further to sea.

The next day we set off for Nungwi, a beach at the Northern end of Zanzibar. It was meant to be the best beach for tidal patterns. We scouted out a good hotel to come back to in a few days, and found a spot on the beach with crystal clear blue waters. It was gorgeous! We spent ages in the water… mostly because it was too hot in the sun to even lay down for 10 minutes.




Stone Town beach

I did warn Luke about getting sunburn and told him a story of a man in Kampala that didn’t listen to his girlfriend and ended up looking like a lobster. Apparently he didn’t want to listen again, and was he’ll bent on using the suncream ‘sparingly.’ What a muppet…red again!

We got back on a dalla-dalla (mini bus), back into Stone Town and headed straight for this little place we had gone to the evening before. Where we had food with amazing coconut sauces. I had a gorgeous fish dish, which both myself, and the meowing kitten under my legs enjoyed a lot! I couldn’t help but feed her- she was skin and bone!


STAR Fish

In the morning, we set off foe Jambiani beach, which was to the East this time. Again, it was unbearably hot, and we were desperate for shade. The tide was also out, so we couldn’t even take a relaxing dip! We managed to find a lodge on the beach that had shut down for the low season, we took shad underneath some palm trees whilst waiting a couple of hours for the tide to come in. Eventually, it came! And we dove into turquoise waters that felt like you were stepping into a warm bath.




Nungwi beach in Zanzibar

The tide eventually started to come in right up to the walls of the lodges, and it was time to go. We tried to flag down a dalla-dalla but it was full, and someone told us there would be another in an hour! It was too hot, and even the cows started coming up to us to drink from the small puddle in front of our tiny bit of shade. We started trying to flag down anything that was going in the right direction. A few smiling (but not stopping), Muslim men poked their head out the windows, holding onto their caps, a few muzungos shot past. But then…a little 4x4 stopped and two German guys, both called Sebastian, offered us a lift. They were living here, building houses in the south peninsula near Stone Town. Expecting to building 150 houses, they had nearly completed 2, waiting to see the response and interest they get from locals. It sounded pretty cool, and what a place to have a job! They were on a short weekend break, but told us that this rainy season was unusual, in that there barely is one! Agreed, and not complaining! 

The following day, after an early morning wake up call from the mosque, we packed up and headed to Nungwi. We settled into the room we had found the other day, and did a mass load of washing (that needed to have been done a few days ago), whilst waiting for the tide to come in. And before you knew it, there it was! It was a beautiful aquamarine colour in spots, and dark blue from coral reefs in others. We walked down and found a quiet spot and took a long dip. I can’t remember seeing the sea this clear since Thailand. It was just incredible! And to top off the day, we watched the sun disappear over the ocean, whilst drinking a nice cold beer (and getting bitten by the occasional sand fly).


Zanzibar sunset

We spent 4 nights at the beach, happy to not be moving around and just in love with the pure white sand, clear sea and a good book in hand.

We got to know a couple guys who had just head up from Malawi, having travelled from Cape Town, and it was good to know what was coming ahead.

One day, we took a boat trip to Mmeba island for snorkelling. Although you couldn’t go on the beach itself, the snorkelling was pretty cool, with beautiful fish, starfish everywhere and gorgeous coral. After lunch on a beach nearby, we sailed back and took in the beautiful beach views as we went.




Fruit man

After 4 days lulling on the beach and getting myself a pretty decent tan (that I’m sure helped in getting me the name ‘cappucino’ from a local guy in stone town trying to guess my background), we headed back for a ferry to Dar. It was painful leaving the island! So hard to know that we wouldn’t see the sea for another couple months! And that clear too.


Nungwi clear warters

After much deliberation, we decided to skip Mozambique because of the wait in getting a visa and the fact that we would just be going there for beaches. We might pop in from South Africa at the end of our trip, but we’ll have to see.

Dar –Iringa - Mbeya

We spent one night in Dar before jumping on a bus to Iringa. The bus was pretty decent, but as ever, Africa time took over, and a 6-7 hour journey turned into 9 hours.

The journey took us through a national park, and along with the regular antelopes, buffalo and the like, we spotted LOADS of elephants, right by the side of the road. It was pretty cool to have another drive by safari.

We stayed the night and got up early the next day for an 8am bus to Mbeya that we thought would take 4-5 hours, but ended up being near on 7. Finally getting the hang of these white lies, we thought we wouldn’t chance getting to the border that evening with no money and the border being closed by that time. So we settled in Mbeya for the night and booked a bus out the next day for 6.30am. 



Zanzibar house boat

Turns out that this time they weren’t lying, and just over 2 hours later, we rocked up to the border, ready to make it to the next country. Being hassled by money changers, motorbikes and taxis, we walked the 10 minutes to the border and got our stamp out of Tanzania without them even looking at our passport photo! Goodbye Tanzania…you’ve been amazing!