Matts blog

< < back

After 4 days in the Serengeti everyone was happy to get back to civilisation and to have a shower, though strangely I don’t remeber feeling dirty, even after 4 days of not washing. Arusha to Dar es Salaam is a good drive through Tanzania, past overturned trucks and fields of Pineapples (more about them later…) but in the late afternoon we rolledin to the hussle and bussle of downtown Dar. After a week of pieceful countryside and the savanna, it was a bit of a shock and the energy in the truck multiplied as we grew closer to the sea.

On arrival at the campsite just south of Dar (Mikadi Beac) - a short ferry ride from the fish market - everyone sprinted for the ocean, a day on the truck required something to cool us down, and there was a queue at the bar We erected the tents on the beach front, looking out over a beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean, which was the temperature of bath water, very very enjoyable. That night we had more time to bond round the pool and bar. The campsite also had a very interesting feature - the showers were outside, open to the elements (luckily sun for us) and also used salt water from the ocean, which made for a very pleasant shower before heading for the ferry terminal for our hour boat journey to Zanzibar.

Apart from eating too many cheap cashew nuts and wtaching a 20 minute long looping nature program 5 times, the ferry trip was fine, and arriving in a dock with perfect blue water with the sun shining, got everyone into a holiday feeling. For the first part of the Zanzibar trip we were located in a hostel in Stone Town - the old part of Zanzibar Town, close to the dock, and the main street.

After a delightful meal of chicken and spiced rice in a local restaurant, we took advantage of a trip to the spice producing areas of Zanzibar, further north from Stone Town, nestled in the Palm covered Hills, we were shown all types of spice, treated to spiced tea, shown how to climb palm trees, and most interstingly, shown how pineapples grow, aparently they take around a year to mature, and then the parent plant dies off, I’ve not been able to eat pineapple without thinking about that since!

That evening we retired straight to the Africa House verandah for cocktails at sunset, aparently I had too much resulting on beer on the floor and I misplaced my lovely bananna leaf hat Strangely I dont remember the rest of that day! I seem to think we wondered round the market and bought delicous street food by the water front.

We moved from our hostel to the Northern Beaches of Zanzibar and stayed at a place called ### with beautiful clean beaches, a bar on the beach, and the clearest water I’ve ever seen. We spent most of our time relaxing on the beach, but did manage to tear ourselves away for a while to spend a day snorkeling in the clearest, warmest water I’ve ever been in, much better than Fiji. I took this chance to use the waterproof housing for my IXUS camera, and got some excellent underwater pictures of the brightly coloured fish. The resort was away from the main area of north beach resorts, and because of this was much more relaxed and quiet, and would highly recommend it, the food in the bar is good, infact the burgers and smoothies are excellent!

The time in Zanzibar was extreamly enjoyable, one of the highlights of the entire trip, and with beaches like the one below, there is no wonder why..

After a short flight back to Dar airport and some good skills at breaking in to the Truck(!) we returned to our tents by the side of the indian Ocean and had a night of debauchery before continueing our journey south.

next >>