Beautiful beaches in Zanzibar
From Stone Town we headed North to the picturesque beaches of Nungwi. We caught the hotel tourist shuttle for the hour ride northwards. On the way we picked up and dropped off a lot of locals - their ride paid for by our dollars. We decided to indulge and took the luxury room with an ensuite and a verandah on stilts over the lapping water (when it was high tide anyway). We didn't do much with our days on the beach. We had hoped to go snorkelling but there were no prescription masks available so Phil wouldn't have been able to tell the fish from the sea weed. We explored the village; we explored the shore where the locals still made fishing boats and hauled in their catch. We also walked down to the next resort - this was harder than it sounded as the beach was split into coves; the walk involved a little bit of paddling and a lot of jumping waves and we did time our walk with low tide. For our last day on the beaches it just rained and rained and rained: we swam in the sea; read our books and watched a lot of David Attenborough wildlife programs in the bar.
Dar Es Salaam
The journey back to the main land took all day. We got a taxi back to Stone Town; spent an hour in the bank trying to cash traveller cheques (do not bother taking TCs to Africa); we then had to wait for the late ferry; the ferry was even later leaving as there were more people than seats (2 of our group sat in a toilet cubicle) and then it took even longer to make the crossing then scheduled. Once back in Dar Es Salaam had to go to Shoprite (affectionately called Shopshite) for food for the next few days. We ended up getting the ferry to the spit where the campsite was at 6pm on a Friday evening and it was heaving. We were carrying all of our luggage and 3 days worth of food (at least 3 supermarket bags each).
To get to our next destination we had to drive back across Dar Es Salaam. Despite leaving at 6am it still took us 3 hours to get out of the city. We were delayed by a small accident. A car trying to under take the truck as we were coming off a roundabout (we'd swung out for the corner). He couldn’t make the corner and drove into the side of the truck. There was not a mark on the truck but the other cars bumper was hanging off and his side lights were smashed. While our driver was “discussing” insurance details another car and another truck had exactly the same accident only 10m behind us. It is Africa.
Usambara Mts
From Dar es Salaam we drove to Lushoto in the Usambara Mts. Lushoto was a normal little town nestled in the hills. It was one of the first NGO community projects. It’s famous for its walk in the nearby hills. A lot of travellers come here to do a bit of last minute emergency training for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. We were walking just for fun. The walks aren't marked instead you take a local guide with you. In the tourist information centre they detail the most popular walks. We went for a rainforest and Irente viewpoint combination walk. It was advertised as 7 hours but the guide reckoned we'd do it much quicker - he didn't realise how unfit we were after 8 weeks sitting on the truck.
On leaving town we cut through the market place which was just beginning to come to life with locals still setting up their stalls. From here the road/track gradually climbed to the top of the ridge above the town giving views back down the valley. When we started walking it was a beautiful clear sky but it did gradually begin to cloud over. We walked along the ridge to the edge of the rain forest. We only just touched the edge of the forest as we scrambled up to the forest view point. There were a few ups and downs through the forests. It was a well worn footpath through the forest. Unfortunately we didn’t see the black and white colobus monkeys that live in the forest – though there were shadows and waving branches so we knew they were nearby. When we got to the viewing platform the cloud was just starting to wrap around our view. We snacked and rested there and headed off for the view point which rather bizarrely was 500m lower than the forest viewpoint.
We took a different route down to the ridge. We descended the other side of the ridge walking along steep narrow paths along the farmers fields. Farmers fields is an ambitious term for the patchwork of cultivated small plots that cover the steep hillsides of the area. The path was wet red clay and I'm surprised we didn't skid all the way to the bottom. We zig zagged through the countryside: through natural vegetation; clusters of houses; maize and cassava. We called into an old colonial farm and purchased some cheese (absolute luxury in Africa on our budget trip). From the farm it was another 30minutes to the viewpoint.
The Irente viewpoint was spectacular. The mountains drop down to the plains in a cliff that extends for as far as the eye can see left and right. We stood on the rocky outcrop looking at the plains below. Apparently we could see 100km. We had our luxury impromptu picnic of cheese and crackers - a glass of red wine would have been fantastic. We returned to camp a different way; a quicker way; mainly along the road passing the locals returning home from the market or church. It was a 22km walk (approx) and we completed it in 6hours – we walked pretty fast and the guide pushed us pretty hard I think he wanted to get home early.
Snake Park near Arusha
Arusha is the main hub for the safaris in Northern Tanzania. We stayed in a village just outside Arusha at a snake park in Mesari. The owner was English and very altruistic. He'd setup and was involved in running the local medical centre. The snake park was a side line - the main purpose was to provide anti-venom for anyone who needed it for free funded by the tourist attraction. The snake park was better than we expected. In a few of the cages were live mice in the other cages the snakes had a tell tale lump in their throat ;) They had a number of pythons with documentary evidence that a python can swallow a human adult. They also had a few other reptiles that had to be moved from their natural habitat as they were a problem from humans.
The Masai warriors who ran in the London marathon were from this village.
Game drives in Tanzania: Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara NP
We had 2 days of game drives. The first day we went into Ngorongoro Crater. This is adjacent to the Serengeti National Park and both are included in an all encompassing conservation area. The beginning of the day was ominous. As we entered the park we entered a thick fog. We drove up the outer edge of the crater. The driver, following his usual routine, stopped at the view point but you could only see 10m. We rimmed the crater to get to the descending road. It was 600m to the crater base. Once we got to the bottom of the crater we were below the cloud. It was a very flat grassed plain. There were only a couple of clumps of trees - all that broke up the grass plains were the dots of animals.
I had really high hopes for the crater and I wasn’t disappointed. As always there were lots of zebra crossings. We also saw lots of crowned cranes – just a pretty bird I’d wanted to see; no one else was that excited. We drove around all morning. The highlights were the young fluffy hyena by the road; and lions; lots of lions; 2 lion cubs in the road then suckling from their mother; 2 males lions zig zagging through the collected jeeps. To make it a little bit more fun our jeep wouldn’t start (flat battery). We couldn’t get out and push as there was a lion within 5m. Instead one of the other jeeps had to push start us.
Cathy got very close to a black kite at lunchtime. It swooped down and took her sandwich from her plate which was on her lap at the time.
The afternoon was just as good: a wild cheetah; a lion with a new kill (we missed the chase but watched the feast); a lion in a tree; lion sex; and the lion cubs playing in a ditch by the road. We were almost lioned out by the end of the day. The clouds had lifted by this point so you had beautiful views across the crater and better views as we drove back up the crater side and along the rim.
We didn’t really have time (given the expense) to go into the Serengeti so instead we went to the nearby Lake Manyara NP. It’s a small park with a lake and the cliffs of the rift valley towering above it. It’s one of the most smallest parks in Tanzania but also one of the most bio diverse. It was a pleasant change to the other scenery. The area around the entrance of the park was thickly rain forested. There were elephant tracks through the forest but we only saw vervet monkeys and baboons. We stopped and watched the baboons for a while. It was a massive troop and there was always some interesting interactions occurring. The rainforest gradually turned into acacia forest and then into scrubland. The thick vegetation meant that when we came across animals they were very close – and often in the middle of the road. However the grasslands at the lakes edge gave the most scenic photos of the elephants and giraffes. Our lunch on this day was interrupted by a baboon. Our guide yelled “baboon!!” I expected a baboon to be scouting around us – instead he was running straight at us. He was straight onto the table and sitting in the middle of the picnic. I naively thought he’d grab some food and run but he sat there filling his face. We started throwing things at him (water bottles; knives; plates) – in the end we tipped the table sending the rest of the food flying. He scampered with fat cheeks and a bag of bread in each hand.
We're still looking for a leopard...
This was the last night our group was together so we treated ourselves with a nice meal out. We reminisced; reviewed and enjoyed each others company as well as some good food and wine. Given we had travelled through tropical Africa in the wet we didn’t get that much rain – as soon as we articulated that thought the heavens opened. To get back to the truck we had to paddle through ankle deep water!
The end of the road; Nairobi, Kenya
We dropped 4 of our passengers in Arusha the next day and only 4 of us continued up to Nairobi. It was very empty in the back of the truck. We had a couple of days in Nairobi, or NaiRobbery as it’s usually called. There were no signs of the trouble that had plagued Nairobi in recent months but we were staying in one of the nicest suburbs. For the most part we lay low in our hostel – the only reason a tourist goes to Nairobi is the transport links. It doesn’t have many tourist attractions – our guide book suggested going to the cinema! We were intending to watch movies at the hostel but the rain kept causing power cuts so jenga; battle ships and card games were the distractions of choice.
We did venture out to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. This is an elephant and rhino orphan sanctuary that we’d visited when we were in Nairobi 3 years ago. The focus is on raising the elephants so they can be re-integrated into the wild populations of Tsavo East NP. The elephants are brought out to play in front of an audience between 11am and midday every day. They were 2 groups of elephants this time – grouped by age. The youngest elephant was 5months old and was wrapped in blankets to keep him warm. So cute! They are kept in Nairobi until they are between 2 or 3 years. They start by feeding them milk from a bottle. Some of the bottles get knocked down and then elephants suck up the spilt milk through their trunks. It sounds like young elephants are as demanding as their human counterparts and it takes at least 6years before they are ready for release into the wild. In the final transition phase the elephant’s stall (in the national park) is always unlocked so they can come and go as they please.
The further adventures of….
As we landed into London even the local air hostess described it as dreary – and then it began to rain. Our intention in coming back in April was to miss the winter but there was frost this morning. All the trees are still bare – its been 3 years since we’ve seen the bleak landscape of an English winter. The landscape looks washed out compared out to the verdant African countryside. I’ve particularly enjoyed the hot shower; the double bed; the washing machine (rather than hand wash) and all of the nice food that’s been stock piled for our return! We’re ready to start the next adventure – starting new jobs and finding a new home.
