Kendwa Beaches...

The rest of the Zanzibar trip has been amazing. After a few days in stone town, we headed north to the beaches of Kendwa. There's not much in Kendwa apart from the picturesque white sands and a couple of beach resorts, and whilst we were unsuccessful in getting a room at our first choice hostel, we soon found a room at the Kendwa Beach Villas (right on the beach).

Beach life in the north of Zanzibar are just as you'd imagine it - white sand, turquoise water and blazing sunshine. There are a lot of tourists in Kendwa, but everything is pretty laid back and the only slight downside is that all the places to eat/drink on the beach have hiked up tourist prices. We also noticed that they have a soft spot for Shania Twain and Celine Dion - we heard it everywhere we went. Also, almost everyone thinks we're German.

There's not much more to write about Kendwa, seeing as we spent most of our time there lying on the beach or swimming. Some photos will no doubt get the general vibe across.

We are heading to Moshi tomorrow, in northern Tanzania. You can see Mount Kilimanjaro from the small town we're heading to (Machame) and they grow Arabica coffee beans there. Will hopefully update when we get there (after another 9 hour coach trip)....

Zanzibizzle

We are in Zanzibar! I'm feeling too lazy at the moment to write this entry properly, so I will bullet point accordingly all the interesting things that happened since Iringa. Here goes:

• In Iringa, we met some SPW volunteers (they work in rural communities educating young people on sexual health matters) and decided to go out celebrating with them. For them it was the completion of an 8 month volunteer scheme and for me, celebrating getting a new job. Beer and dancing ensued, including a trip to a local club called 'Twisters' where we grinded to 'Bongo Flava' beats. Wild times, Africa Style.
• The next night we celebrated again, but this time with the inclusion of too much gin for Kate. The following day we had a 9 hour coach trip back to Dar Es Salaam and Kate had a hangover. This = recipe for a not so enjoyable journey.
• We stayed one night in Dar, then met Kate's friend Sarah the next day, before boarding a ferry to Zanzibar - which is not just one island, it is an Archipelago. Fact.
• Zanzibar has amazing buildings, with architecture shaped by Arabian, African and European influences. We've already visited the House Of Wonders (!), a very old fort, and gone on a Spice Tour to nearby plantations where they grow Cinnamon, Vanilla, Cloves, Turmeric and Lemongrass. We had a lovely lunch, which somehow managed to combine all these different spices, before looking at some caves where they used to hide slaves, and swimming/sunbathing on a very Zanzibar-looking beach (white sand, palm trees, Dhows on the beach etc...)

I'm sure I'll update in more detail soon - along with some pictures. Hope everyone is well x x

Safari in Ruaha

We've just got back to Iringa from our Safari, and I can safely say that it has been my highlight of the trip so far. We set off on Tuesday morning, after a bit of an uncertain start involving a broken Land Rover and comfusion over pick-up times. But we were soon on the bumpy road heading to Ruaha National Park, a ride of about 3 hours.

The park itself is huge - over 10,000 square kilometers - all protected land comprised of savannah and woodland. We are in the height of the dry season at the moment, so the 'great' Ruaha river running through the park was more of a trickle in a dusty river-bed than a raging torrent - but apprently this makes animal spotting even easier, due to the fact that animals have fewer options of where to find water. We stayed in 'bandas' which are essentially metal huts with beds inside, perfectly fine for us, although they had a tendancy to get a bit warm during the day (much like sitting in a raging infreno). We certainly weren't disappointed with the animals we encountered...

Our guide, Essau, took us out on two game drives per day, usually early in the morning and then later in the afternoon. on our first day, we saw Giraffe, Elephants, Hippos and even a Leopard - which apparently is quite a rare find. The animals are amazing to see up close - the most common of which in Ruaha is the Impala, which is like a small Gazelle. Elephants and Giraffe are fairly abundant too, along with small rabbit-like creatures called Hyrax, which sun themselves on rocks in the mornings. Some of the most amazing sights were the Lions. We saw quite a few during our four day trip, including a pride which had just killed and eaten a Giraffe - the carcass of which was laying nearby, surrounded by Jackals and Vultures. There were loads of Baboons around, as well as banded mongoose (mongeese? mongooses?) Kudus, Hippos, Zebra. We also had a few sightings of Dik-diks, which look like miniature Gazelle, and are only about 40cm high, even when fully grown. Brilliant.

The bird life in Ruaha is also incredible. Forget regular Starlings - when you're faced with a bright blue and purple 'Superb Starling', England's selection of birds starts to pale in comparison. We saw storks, Guinea Fowl, Hornbills (Like Zazu from the Lion King), Eagles and miniature doves (all animals seem much more interesting when in miniature form).

We had a couple of close encounters when a Giraffe and Elephant wandered into our camp (see photo) as well as the last night, when we found a giant cockroach in our room, along with a sinister looking spider and several massive lion ants. After a lot of fuss, and being laughed at by some locals, we employed a ranger to get rid of them.

There's so much to write about from the Safari that I haven't really done it justice from what's written above. I've put up a few photos, but took about a million, so will have trawl through them when I get back and pick out the best ones. We are staying in Iringa for a couple of days, before getting on the bus back to Dar Es Salaam and then heading to Zanzibar! Hope to update again soon...

x x

Karibu Iringa...

Greetings from Iringa!

I've bagged myself two hours on the internet this time, seeing as most of the time you pay for out here is spent waiting for the pages to load - it all goes hand in hand with the 'Pol-e Pol-e' (slowly slowly) way of life here. On the upside, this keyboard seems to have keys for punctuation marks - all the faves - commas, full stops, exclamation marks and semi-colons. But enough of that. You can see that I've managed to upload a few photos, including this one from Iringa market of some nice looking pineapples.

We travelled from Dar Es Salaam down to Iringa in the south of Tanzania yesterday, by 'Scandinavian Express' coach (they are recommended as the drivers tend not to crash into things and drive the wrong way down the highway - good enough reasons for me). It took about 9 hours, but the majority of it was spent driving right through the heart of the Mikume National Park, where we were treated to a few fleeting glimpses of Zebra, Elephants and Giraffe. We also saw a baboon sitting under a tree, looking a bit fed up and lots of Gazelle and Antelope. I don't think the locals were too impressed when they had to endure Kate and I squealing with excitement like 12 year old girls at the sight of an elephant (which to them is probably like someone getting overexcited seeing a pigeon in Trafalgar Square) but it seemed to pass the time, and after a long meandering journey through the mountains, we finally arrived in Iringa just after sunset.

We've both decided that Iringa is, so far, our favourite town. It's cooler than Dar Es Salaam, and the people seem much more friendly. They have real pavements and we even found a cafe serving real coffee this morning. Even though the lifestyle is still very much as laid back as everywhere in the country, there seems to be more energy and pro-activeness, which is really refreshing. Our hostel is great, with massive rooms and hot water. Last night, we had to share with a Dutch lady called Saskia - but she turned out to be very pleasant, and even gave us some tips on where to go/stay in Zanzibar and some information she had picked up about Safaris.

Today we arranged our Safari, which will begin tomorrow, and will take us into the Southern National Park of Ruaha. We are going for four days, before heading back to Iringa and then back to Dar, where we'll meet Kate's friend Sarah who will be going with us to Zanzibar the following week. The Safari was surprisingly easy to arrange, and we've managed to bag ourselves our own 4x4, driver and guide for the four days. We also visited a crafts workshop recommended to us by one of Kate's friends, which is staffed and run entirely by disabled locals - most of whom are deaf. This is where we enjoyed some real fresh coffee and watched some locals making cards, quilts and cushions. This afternoon, we headed to the local market and stocked up on food for the next few days (buying food and water during Safari can be quite expensive). I took a picture of a chicken, which has just taken me about 15 minutes to upload - not the most revealing insight into our travels, but a nice picture of a chicken nonetheless.

Seeing as I've worked out how to upload photos, here are a couple of highlights - the first of which was the view from Irente Viewpoint in Lushoto. The second photo is of a Dhow on the beach at Kivukoni Fish Market in Dar Es Salaam (much like the dhow we sailed to Meziwe - the one that subsequently broke on the journey home). Hope everyone is well, and I'll probably be updating the blog after the Safari.

Hakuna Matata! (Which I found out today is an actual Swahili phrase, not just a popular song from the Lion King. As the song correctly states, it does in fact mean 'no worries' - who knew?)

xx

Back to Dar...

Hi all,

Firstly, let me apologise for the lack of punctuation in the following post - this keyboard is from Sweden and is proving too difficult to find apostrophes and question marks.

Kate and I are back in Dar Es Salaam after a long coach trip yesterday from Lushoto. The weather is definitely much hotter down here, although the cool weather in the Usambara mountains was a welcome break (and let us get over our sunburn from Pangani).

Our highlight of Lushoto was renting bicycles to cycle up the mountains (around 7km) to the Irente Farm and viewpoint. Anyone with half a brain would be able to tell you that cycling up a mountain isnt the easiest of tasks, but we finally made it (despite one of the bikes having no working brakes). Halfway into our ascent, it started raining heavily - which didnèt please me too much - and I think Kate and I provided an amusing sight for locals, having donned our massively oversized raincoats and skidding around in the mud on a couple of rubbish mountain bikes. The rain, however, did ease a bit as we arrived at Irente Farm, which we heard served amazing lunches with locally produced cheese, butter and jam. The farm certainly didnt disappoint, and we ate lunch overlooking the Usambara mountains and valleys. After eating, we continued up to the Irente Viewpoint - an outcrop of rock where the Usambaras suddenly stop, and give way to wide plains as far as they eye can see. When we first got to the top, we couldnt see anything but mist and cloud, but luckily the fog lifted and we were able to take in the spectacular views (Ive stolen a photo from the internet to give an idea of what we could see).


We havent done anything particularly exciting since we have been here - just arranging our onwards journey and, more importantly, our Safari. Its taken us a bit of shopping around to find something to suit our taste (and budget), but we are finally sorted- and heading south to Iringa tomorrow (9 hours by coach) before embarking on a 4 day safari in the Ruaha National Park. We are promised sightings of Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Cheetahs, Gazelle, and Zebras as well as loads of bird species and my personal favourite, the Lesser Galago, more commonly known as a bush baby (according to the guide book, they have inquisitive fingers and a fondness for bananas).


We enjoyed a Lebanese meal yesterday evening and were even treated to a whole free Kingfish by the chef, who came and placed it on our table (probably after he saw us hungrily looking at other diners plates)

We are also currently very excited by the fact that we have just discovered a supermarket selling Weetabix and Kit Kats (amongst other things). Weve mainly been eating dry bread and jam for breakfast for the past few days, so this discovery is good news all round!

Hope all is well with everyone, and Ill hopefully be updating again either from Irente or after our Safari. x x

Karibu Tanga, Pangani and Lushoto

Jambo!

Since my last update, we've travelled quite a lot. After posting my lat blog, we managed to catch the 4pm bus from Tanga headed towards Pangani, a coastal village described by the guide book as a 'small and delapidated Swahili outpost'. The journey was incredibly bumpy (surfaced roads aren't all that popular here) and I was sure that the small bus we were on was going to fall over into a ditch. For this reason, I spent most of the 2 hour journey working out elaborate escape routes if such an event were to occur. Fortunately we arrived safely in Pangani, if not a little shaken and were immediately met by a tour guide from the local Cultural Tourism Programme, who was called Ali - but prefered the name 'Rasta man Ali'. We had decided on accommodation before we arrived, but found out almost imediately that it didn't exist anymore. Ali was able to show us another hostel though, called Seaside, which was run by tiny nuns who we kept seeing riding around town in giant 4x4s.

The hostel was great, with a big bed, mosquito nets, running water and was right on the beach (which is where we headed after dumping our bags). The beaches in Pangani are incredible and completely deserted - with only tiny crabs for company. I think word got out, however, that there were a couple of pale looking 'Mzungus' on the beach and we soon had a small fan club (mainly of small kids singing Westlife to us). We had some dinner at the hostel, and turned in early. There was a bit of a party going on next door when we went to sleep, with loud music and singing - which unfortuantely continued till about 4am. The earplugs came in handy.

The following day, we spent walking around the town and lazing on the beach. Pangani used to be a major export point for ivory and slaves in the 19th century and you can still see the ferry port where the slaves were loaded onto ships, the original customs house, and Pangani's oldest building, the "Boma", built by the Germans, who buried a live slave under each of the building's four corners to ensure sturdy foundations. Despite all this, Pangani is a really happy place, and very laid back - sometimes a bit too much - but everyone is friendly and willing to help ridiculous looking tourists like ourselves. The region produces over half of the total output of coconuts in Tanzania, so there are massive coconut shelling camps at either end of the town, where you can see huge piles of cocnut husks. Ali took us to see one, and we were even treated to a freshly cracked coconut, which we ate on the way home.

The following day, we arranged to sail to Maziwe marine reserve, about 30km off the coast. Rather than go in a motor boat, we decided to take a tradition Dhow, and set off at about half 7 in the morning. The Dhow was a great experience, but maybe not one I'd do again. Our captain had to keep bailing water out of the bottom, and kept plugging the leak with cotton wool (which wasn't massively effective). Highlights of the trip to Maziwe included a small ghecko, which appeared on my shoulder, jumped onto Kate's head and then threw itself overboard (apparently the Dhow was too stressful), seeing dolphins just off Maziwe beach and snorkelling amongst the coral reefs. Maziwe is pretty much jus a bit of sand in the ocean, and although the weather was a bit windy, we managed to see loads of different coloured fish amongst the coral, as well as Starfish, Sea Urchins and dolphins. The journey back to land was a bit more stressful, mainly due to the fact that one of the Dhow's supporting wooden beams snapped in half. We were obviously a bit worried, floating around in the middle of the Indian ocean in a broken home-made boat, but we were assured there was no problem and successfully made it back to shore.

A two hour nap ensued, followed by dinner at a local house - served to us by a lady called Mama Amina, lovingly nicknamed 'biggy' by the town's residents. Biggy certainly knew how to feed her guests - we ate a massive portion of rice, beans, spinach and barracuda fish.

Today we made the journey from Pangani back to Tanga, where we caught another bus to Lushoto, which is where I'm writing from now. Our bus broke down on the way, but in keeping with the laid back African way of life, we were packed onto another bus which came along shortly afterwards (too many people in one small space) and arrived at about 2pm. Lushoto is high in the Usambara mountains, and definitely much cooler than Pangani. We've found a great hostel here, and are spending the rest of the day settling in and seeing what Lushoto has to offer.

We've been brushing up on our Swahili as we've gone along, but some on the key phrases we've been using are as follows:

Jambo! - Hello! (mainly used for tourists)
Sawa - OK
Asante Sana - Thankyou very much
Wapi? - Where
Hoteli - Hotel (when in doubt, just put an 'i' at the end of the English word)
Lala Salama - Sleep well
Bomba! - Fantastic! (a slang word, apparently bomba literally means 'water pipe'
Paca - Cat

Some more Swahili nuggets of wisdom in my next post...

Hope everyone is well - I will be updating again soon.

x x

Arriving in Dar - That's not my bag

Hi all,

The first update since we arrived in Tanzania on Thursday morning. Flight was great, and the stop-over in Doha (seemingly the hottest place on earth) was only for about an hour. Kate and I arrived in Dar Es Salaam at around the same time - only to hit our first problem before we had even left the airport. Having spotted what I thought to be my bag on the luggage belt, I had a look in one of the pockets just to make sure. It wasn't mine. This is around the time I remembered seeing a guy in the queue at Heathrow with exactly the same bag as me. Seemingly, Mr H. Capper (whose name we found on a packet of anti-malarials inside the bag) had picked up my bag - thinking it was his - and swiftly left the airport.

This = not ideal after a 12 hour flight.

Anyway, after a lot of form filling and calling home to explain the situation, I recieved a call from my mum who had been contacted by Mr H. Capper's girlfriend. They had realised their mistake and found my home number inside my bag. To cut a long story short, H Capper and girlfriend returned to the airport where I was able to get my bag back, H Capper got his bag back, and we shared a taxi into the town centre. They were actually a really lovely couple and were even able to give us some tips, along with paying for the taxi to say sorry. After this point, we were both glad that we had somewhere booked for our first two nights. The hotel in Dar was amazing - with a swimming pool, massive double bed and amazing buffet breakfast. Our first evening, we ventured out into the town for something to eat (after enjoing the swimming pool) - finding a great place serving tandoori chicken on the street. We also bumped into H Capper and girlfriend again which was nice. By this point, we were both quite tired and decided to have an early night.

Dar Es Salaam is a great city - but unlike anywhere I've been before. The driving is pretty ropey (don't expect anyone to indicate - or drive on the right side of the right side of the road for that matter) The people are very friendly, and the weather has been great so far. There are loads of taxis everywhere offering you rides, as well as street vendors tyring to sell you things (football stickers are an absolute fave).

Yesterday, Kate and I had a long walk around Dar again - trying to find an internet cafe as well as the Kivukoni fish market. It was a public holiday, so no internet places were open - but we did find the fish market - which is situated near the main port. It's incredibly busy, with fishermen bringing in fish, jellyfish, squid, crabs - as well as cooking them in massive pans and selling the hungry members of public. The fish smell at times was a bit overwhelming, as were the occasional blasts of hot, raw sewage odour - but the atmosphere was great, so we decided to buy some fried fish and eat it overlooking the bay. We made good friends with a man named Chaz, who told us all about the market and the wooden dhalas (fishing boats) as well as recommending what fish to try and how to eat it. After a good walk around, we returned to the hotel for more swimming - and were lucky enough to watch an Indian wedding which was taking place in the hotel grounds.

Today we got up early to catch a bus to Tanga, just north of Dar, which is where I'm currently writing from. Sorry the post is a bit rushed - we have to leave soon for a bus to Pangani, a coastal town about 50 km away. I will write in more detail soon.

Hope everyone is well. We are both fine, and neither of us have Malaria OR Cholera, which is always a result. Will be in contact again soon! x x