Goodbye Tanzania

The last night in Dar marked the end of the second leg of our overland trip.  We’d said goodbye to Marc, Aaron, Krysten, Lizzie, Mark and Sarah on Zanzibar.  And at 4.30am the next morning we waved off Chrissie, Katie and Charlotte.  Fortunately, the early wake-up wasn’t wasted as we had to be on the road by 5am anyway.

Our group had shrunk from 21 to 11 – with the advantage that we each now had a double seat to stretch out. It was a long drive that day, made worse by the first ferry being delayed 90 minutes due to a car falling in the water the previous night.  We got to our destination at 8pm, The Old Farmhouse, Kisolanza Farm, a working farm run by the Ghaui family outside Iringa, which is in south of Tanzania.

After 15 hours in the truck we were all pleased to upgrade from our tents to rooms. Dragoman pay our camping fees towards the cost of the room, so Caro and my double room in the stables cost us just $14 US. It was simply decorated, with white linen, Maasai blankets and flowers from the farm’s flowers grown for export – really nice.

A meal was cooked for us – tomato soup followed by a beef curry with apple and banana. Unusual and really good. Then we adjourned to the cosy bar with floor seating where we snuggled around terracotta stoves to keep cosy and ate some delicious chocolate brownies.

Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar and back

The ferry trip over to Zanzibar was pretty uneventful (unlike the return leg, but we’ll come to that!).  Arriving into Zanzibar and the port town of Stonetown, you’re immediately struck by the difference in architecture.  A combination of colonial Portuguese and Arab architecture – its all in a bit of a state of disrepair, but certainly reminisces off European Med towns / Morocco.

We were met by Daniel our guide / fixer for the three nights we were due on the island.  Once checked in, he took us on an orientation on  the main town, showed us Africa House, and the ATM’s.  We proceeded to fail miserably to get any money out despite walking about ten kilometres to try almost every bank in town. We couldn’t tell if it was an ATM issue, a card issue or a visa issue – but we weren‘t having any luck.

The evening, once we got back from out ATM adventure, was spent in Africa House doing sundowners (brilliant sunset), and down on the sea front eating seafood and Zanzibar pizza!

The masses of seafood on offer was visually striking. It had all been pre-cooked and was then re-heated which didn’t do the squid or octopus any favours, but the rest of it was great.  The Zanzibar pizza was a cross between a pizza, a pasty and an omelette.  A piece a dough flattened out very thin, about 5 inches across, a second slice of dough 3 inches across smacked in the middle, meat & veg placed in the middle, a whole egg broken in – mixed up, then the edges are folded up.  Interesting combo, but all good!  Dessert was chocolate and banana pizzas – delicious. We finished the night drinking in a pretty dingy local bar – but it was quite atmospheric and quite surreal to play pool against a fully beaded and blanketed Maasai!

The next day we were off to the north of the island, to Nungwi beach for two nights. On the way we called by Barclays bank head office and managed to obtain cash (phew!) then headed for a spice tour and a local home cooked lunch, in the home of one of Daniel’s mates.

The spice tour was fascinating, and with by us trying a load of exotic fruits – the resounding favourite seemed to be the custard apple. Those who wanted to try durian were encouraged to wait until after lunch, because its flavour is so powerful it destroys your taste buds ability to taste anything else for a few hours. Caro and I both tried it. They say it smells like a rotting corpse – it’s certainly strong, but tastes a little like an onion. Not completely unpleasant – but not one for the shopping list either.

Amaan Bungalows where we stayed were stunningly located overlooking the Indian Ocean.  It was one of a number of hotels up and down the coast line.  We swam, had sundowners, a group meal, then a hell of a lot of booze at a nearby beach bar, called Paradise (highly recommend a visit here if you‘re in the area. A gorgeous setting with tables spilling onto the beach itself).  So much so, that I had to be carried part of the way home by Denmark, getting in at 4:30am the next morning – the less said about that the better!

Next day we were snorkelling around Mnemba island (a very exclusive island resort), which meant a two hour boat trip, two dives, a fresh fish lunch and a two hour boat trip back.  Not what I needed, given the night before, but enjoyable all the same.  That evening most of us went for a group meal at Cinnamon, part of the Z Hotel. It was a tasty meal and I drank a lot less than the previous night.  By 11pm I had sloped off to bed!

Next day we were back to Dar via Stonetown and the Zanzibar ferry.  The ferry trip was a strange experience. Despite being seemingly flat, the boat was up and down as if it was hitting 10 metre waves.  This led to Caro going up on deck to take in the fresh air, along with half the boat who were throwing up.  Dave wasn’t too good either – throwing up twice, both very calm and collected even keeping his sunnies on with the first effort.

As we commenced our journey, Caro was on the phone to Sameer (our friend and ex-colleague from UpMyStreet days) whose parents own an Indian restaurant in Dar. We hoped to head there for an evening meal, but hadn’t been able to raise Sameer’s parents on the phone. In the shake of a tail Sameer had managed to speak to his dad and arrange for his father’s driver to collect us from the ferry. We were in for a huge treat!

We were taken to the restaurant, Khana Khasana, to leave our bags and have a late lunch. We left the choice of food up to the restaurant manager and we weren’t disappointed. When we met Sameer’s father he explained that he sponsors five chefs from India to come to Tanzania and cook for him. They use only fresh fish and meat and all the sauces and gravies are made from scratch every day, thrown out if not used. The quality of the food was testament to the care and attention lavished on it.

After lunch Sameer’s dad took us for a drive around Dar for a few hours. He’s involved in a lot of projects: as well his restaurant he has a furniture business and he manages property development projects. So as we drove he took us to see his latest project, an enormous complex of large scale homes.

Sameer’s parents were off to a wedding that evening but they arranged for their driver to take us shopping to fill some time before dinner. We had another impressive meal, complete with a delicious dessert made from cardamon, saffron and cream.

The Usambara Mountains

On the first night, a few of us, whilst playing dice, decided to spice it up and played it as a drinking game.  Only shots of beer mind!  One shot for entering the game, one for not losing and three shots for losing.  So everyone was drinking that little bit more, which made it interesting for a few less hardened drinkers!  Later in the evening we migrated to the truck for a “Truck Party!” as Jono put it (the eight months pregnant bar lady needed to go home!!)

The next day it was a six hour village walk to take in views of the Maasai Plain, and lunch near the local cheese factory.  A good bit of exercise.  We arrived back around 3pm and found Jono and Denford working on the truck.  It transpired that that one of the steel sprung springs had snapped.  I elected to help out – not knowing jack about trucks wasn’t an issue, it was all about lending a hand to get everything done before nightfall.  So despite a few fractious moments, we got the truck fixed in time for dinner.

The following day was one long drive to Dar Es Salaam.  On the way we stopped to order a replica of our overland truck, from the fellow who makes models from drink cans. When we got to Dar we noticed several albinos who were certainly visually striking. We’ve since read that they encounter issues of victimisation and some are even targeted and murdered. A real shame, particularly in a country which seems so tolerant of race and religion.

Dar feels completely different anywhere else we’d been in Tanzania. We certainly felt we were at the seaside! There was just a very short ferry trip over to Kipepeo where we were camping for the night.  Next day, Zanzibar!

Good hearty local fare – in the mountains

The next day we spent a couple of hours in Arusha to sort out supplies and money, before heading towards Moshi and the nearby village we were staying.

Moshi is kinda like the base camp town for people to climb Kilimanjaro, and we were hoping for some good views.  Sadly, that day and the next, whilst we saw it, the view weren’t great.  Perpetually masked in cloud.  But it was definitely there!  The village we camped in, Marangu, was very pretty, and yet again we were cooked a meal  A meal of local dishes including yams and cooked bananas, beans and sukuma wiki  (spinach) were all very tasty, washed down with a few bottles of Kilimanjaro and some Konyagi – a great night!

In the morning we went on a village walk in Mshiri, where a Guerba supported village education project is located. One of their current volunteers, an English chap called Bob showed us around the we braved the steep and slippery pathway to the local waterfall in thongs and finished off with a locally cooked brunch / lunch.

Good local food - cooked bananas, rice, spinach and beans

The lady who cooked our yummy lunch

From there we were looking to make some headway toward Dar Es Salaam. Our next stop was Lushoto for two nights, in the heart of the Usambara Mountains.

Game viewing: Ngorongoro and Serengeti

Tim: Next morning we were picked up by five 4×4’s to take us into the Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Parks. We were staying in the Serengeti for two nights, so we were about to start three days of game drives.

We entered the Ngorongoro National Park surrounded by a large troop of baboons.  We drove on, speedily gaining altitude.  Approach the Ngorongoro Crater view point we were presented with a large amount of cloud. Since it was a bit of a white-out we didn’t stop for the view but continued our journey into the crater, eventually beginning our descent, at which point we had our first glimpse of the scale of the place as we dropped out of the cloud line.  Truly spectacular.  You could see all sides of the crater, most of which had cloud draped over the edges.

Worth mentioning that the crater is not a crater, it’s a Kaldera.  It was created from a massive volcano, as high as Kilimanjaro, which blew up / imploded, creating the crater as it is today. So, it looks like a crater but it’s not.  Dropping down into the crater, zebras were immediately a key feature, intermingled with the odd wildebeest.  We also spotted black and white rhino, hippo, lions, and elephant to name a few.

 

After lunch we headed out of the crater and onto the Serengeti.  The Serengeti was markedly different from the Ngorongoro for one notable reason, the sheer expanse. The name means “endless plain” and it is initially a huge plain, stretching as far as the eye can see.  Slowly, you approach pockets of fertility around river systems.

It was a longish drive (3 hrs) broken up by the entrance to the park.  As we drove in we started to see numerous wildebeest and zebra.  Then a few more, then some more, literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra.  We were driving through the annual migration that typically the two species undertake together.  Photos and video don’t do it justice at all, but it is something pretty amazing.

We eventually got to our campsite, Tumpuli.  The evening was spent musing about the days events, eating dinner, and listening to Chris play his travel guitar (I had a go, but without access to any music / chords / internet, the repertoire becomes a little limited).

The next day kicked off with a 7am game drive, not a huge amount of fantastic viewing albeit we saw a couple of hyenas and two separate lion sightings, including this striking lion up a tree.

Again we saw the wildebeest and zebra migration and headed back to the campsite for brunch.   Denford had cooked up a storm, pancakes, bacon, eggs, watermelon…a real feast.  Next departure was at 2pm to head to the park visitor centre.  As we headed off, we came across two lions  basking on a rock, literally 800m from the campsite.

After reading up about the Serengeti at the visitor centre we were due to head to a plush hotel in the middle of the park for a sundowner, not far from where we had been camping.  Heading off, we saw a commotion of vehicles in the distance, as we rocked up we realised they were all looking at a leopard lazing in a tree – one of those classic shots with it sitting in the crook, legs and tail dangling.  Seeing a leopard is a rare sight, and our driver, Zach, did a fantastic job getting us into a prime location  to take some excellent snaps – so much so that after around 15 minutes in the same spot, we felt we ought to give someone else a chance to take some photos.

As we headed away from the leopard, we saw yet another group of cars on a road parallel to the one we were on.  As we approached we discovered that it wasn’t another leopard, but instead it was four lions all sitting in the same tree.  Three of them were perched on branches on opposite sides of the tree, and one was sloping around somewhere in the middle.  Again it was a case of finding the best spot, which we did, and sat there for a good while watching and photographing them.  The lion nearest the road was almost hanging over whichever vehicle made it to that spot.  If the tree hadn’t been so branchy, it could’ve leapt on top of the vehicle – absolutely stunning stuff.

After a while we felt we had seen enough and needed to let other have a chance.  We headed off, and within minutes, excitement grew and we seemed to be approaching what looked like another leopard – then we realised it was the same leopard, we had just come to it from a different direction!  We still counted it as a second sighting…why not!?

We drove on and were slowly approaching the hotel, at which point Charlotte said it would be great to see some elephants because we hadn’t seen any in the Serengeti. Then, low and behold, we spotted a herd of elephants way over to our left.  This wasn’t just two or three, but 30-40 elephant ambling along.  But we were a distance away and the elephants were headed away from us, so our driver swung round and started legging  back up the road we had just come down – it felt like it was life or death to actually get there in time.  We got there and the whole herd just slowly walked past our vehicle, and off in to the distance.  We followed them for a bit and parked up as they crossed another road and stream, as did a few other vehicles.  They seemed to be revelling in the rain which made it entertaining viewing and a real treat to see.

NB: Worth mentioning that I’m writing this post a couple of weeks on, sitting at a beach bar on  Kande Beach by Lake Malawi feeling pretty rough from the session two nights ago – where Dave and myself got pretty mashed up on ‘Elephant’ beer brewed by Carlsberg in Malawi, 7.2%…an absolute killer but possibly rather apt!

At the hotel, we were so exulted in seeing three of the big five, in such a short period of time, in such a spectacular way, we decided to crack into some champagne…well Cuvee Brut or some such cheap imitation. 

A great way to end the day looking over the Serengeti plains.  That evening, it was chicken, wrapped in foil and roasted on  the campfire – tasted amazing, and never ceases to amaze the sort of food Denford can cook it difficult circumstances.  Next day, it was an early start, and a short game drive as we headed out of the park, and eventually back to Snake Park.  I was on cook group with Lizzie, and it felt like a real effort as we had to do breakfast and make packed lunched in the drizzling rain, mud and safari ants – blimey those little critters can bite.

As we approach the entrance to the Serengeti, our driver slowed down to look at an animal about 50m off to the left – this one turned out to be a cheetah – and whilst Caro and I had some impressive cheetah encounters in Botswana, it was great to see one in the wild.

So, on we went, eventually back to Snake Park, stopping for some photos on the Serengeti / Ngorongoro National park borders.

That night, Snake Park laid on a meat feast for us (easy cook group for me) followed by a few too many beers!