Last Days in Tanzania

Elephants on parade
see all photos »

Friday, 21st December, 2007

We spent the final morning on Zanzibar wandering round the old streets of Stonetown and doing some Christmas shopping. No pressure, but its been decided that we'll do a secret santa as well as do the bus up with tinsel.

Christmas crackers, Imodium and the stolen heart.

Annette has also decided that she wants to make some Christmas crackers and amazingly, it turns out she already has the glue and sellotape in her kit! The woman is amazing.

Lunch on the truck
see all photos »

The journey back to the mainland was uneventful and we spent the night camping back at the beach side site on the Dar peninsula. Given the experience with fleas previously, no-one seemed particularly keen to do the room upgrades.

Perhaps a good job really. I woke up at 2.00am with a dreadful case of Zanzibar's revenge and couldn't have made it to the loos if we'd been in the beach bungalows.

Saturday, 22nd December, 2007

Our last two days in Tanzania involved two long days driving. On Saturday we got up at 4.15am to catch the ferry from the Dar peninsula to the mainland and to let us get through Dar before the rush hour.

If we made it, I'd hate to see the rush hour. The traffic was probably the worst congestion I've ever seen in my life and particularly near the terminal it was near grid locked. Cars and lorries were going up and down each side of the dual carriageway to try and get through which added to the chaos, people were ignoring traffic lights and the pollution from the vehicles was almost choking in our open top truck.

We traveled about 550km and arrived at a farm camp site around 5.30pm and all in all, it was a very pleasant, if long journey through beautiful scenery but thank goodness for Imodium.

One of the surprises of the journey was that we transited through the Mikumi national park. We hadn't expected that and saw some fabulous elephants doing whatever it is that elephants do.

When we got to the site, our trip leader had arranged for us to have a traditional Tanzanian meal in the evening which meant we didn't need to cook. The maize based ungulu was OK and mixed with spinach, spiced beans and a meat ball dish made for a great evening. Even better, Annette and I opted for a room upgrade for just $11 for the room. Very basic but very nice and although we had to use the camp site loos, they were at least within running distance.

Sunday, 23rd December, 2007

Now I'm aware you may be thinking I'm going on a bit about the runs but it tends to be near the forefront of the mind on a long bus ride and on Sunday, we had another 10 hour, 350km drive to take us down to the Tanzanian border and through into Malawi.

The countryside again was beautiful and the people again came out to wave at us as we traveled on our way. All of which left me wondering what it is about Tanzania that I found so special.

It's impossible to judge the place as, with the exception of Dar, it's all so alien to the western way of living that it is difficult to properly comprehend. Many people live in mud houses with no obvious water supply, electricity supply or sanitation system. There appears to be a combination of subsistence farming and apparently successful commercial farming. Interspersed amongst all of this are places with satellite dishes, internet access and shops that you wouldn't want to go in. And people spend a lot of time doing ....... well who knows what.

And yet what comes across is a sense of happiness, good humour friendliness, a genuine pleasure to see us and a real sense of community, support and togetherness.

I've no idea whether any of that is true but it's the impression the country has left me with.

It has to be said, I've lost my heart to Tanzania.