Tanzania

Tanzania,

Well then where to begin on this one?? From the moment we crossed from Malawi into Tanzania we knew it was going to be special. How can it not? This vast land contains Mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti National Park, Zanzibar and more Maasai warriors than you can poke a sword at... we loved it big style!!

We fell in love with their language immediately. Ki-Swahili is a very lyrical tongue and easier to have a go at learning than other African languages we have come across, Craig and Tinola might disagree with me on that one as they are studying it twice a week in Arusha :) The people were warm and friendly, the landscape varied, living outside of major tourist centres cheap and there was always something going on somewhere.

Our first day in Tanzania saw us stop off in some village over the border. With hunger pains gnawing we sat down in the usual 'plastic fantastic' restaurant and ordered a whole stack of bread type things and watched village life pass us by. My eyes met the intense stare of a young fellow who'd sat down at the table across from us. He was wearing a pinky purple dress with a sword tucked into his belt. He removed his gaze only when his friend arrived wearing similar garb and then looked back to us. Rather than giving the usual greeting he raised his arms straight out, pointed and jiggled his fingers. We looked at each other. Do we respond? Was it a greeting or perhaps some magic aimed in our direction? ...Ignorantly, I was expecting the Maasai tribes in Kenya, I didn't realise that there were now more of this tribe in Tanzania than Kenya. They are cool dudes man, seriously! I doubt you will find anyone who isn't a little bit in awe when you get your first glimpse of a Maasai warrior that isn't on the front of a national geographic. These dudes adorned in jewellery continue to herd their cattle with swords, spears and a skirt! They are also notoriously serious, don't smile a whole lot and have some weird rituals involving removing bits of men's parts.... at the request of the tribal women... no more info provided!

Our first big stop was Zanzibar. Actually, Dar es Salaam, where you catch the ferry from, deserves a bit of a mention. It has worse traffic than Melbourne and Johannesburg combined! For real! We were on a bike and it still took us two hours to get through it, including negotiating our way up and over pavements and all sorts of shenanigans. At one point our trusty GPS told us to turn down a one way street (apparently one way...the road sign was laying flat on the ground...so we obviously missed it) and we were promptly jumped on by the police. Here we go again! Luckily for us Tanzania has as much corruption as Zimbabwe, so I paid an agreed price to make it go away! I love Africa! Anyway, let's go to Zanzibar...a holiday in a holiday!

The nauseating ferry took three hours to reach Freddy Mercury's birth place, we definitely recommend travel sickness tablets if you ever intend on doing this trip. But the island is definitely all that you have seen and heard. It is exotic defined. The call to prayer from the surrounding mosques,the constant buzz of Stone Town through the narrow cobblestoned alleys, sipping cocktails from Africa house watching the sun dip into the Indian ocean, and that's not even having arrived at the infamous beaches. We spent three days wandering, admiring the exquisite Zanzibarian doors and getting lost in the maze of streets that have no names and meld into one another in an obscure fashion. Every night there is a massive sea food feast on the sea front and people come out in their thousands. Every type of sea food is on offer and we loved it. This happens every day, year round. We did wonder for how long these oceans surrounding Zanzibar would be filled with fish. Following this we spent four days kicking back on the white sandy beaches of Metemwe and thinking only of what we would have for our next meal. We swam in the warm waters, truth be told though there were millions of sea urchins. I stood on one of the savage things which wasn't so hot and Karla had to spend hours getting the stupid things out of my feet! We loved Zanzibar and we loved the diving we did there enormously. Two dives in Stone town, one wreck and one reef with great visibility. And then two dives in the Mnemba Atoll...well well! Unbeknown to us, a well known top dive site. Drift diving is quite incredible. You drop down to the dive's recommended depth, land in the current, and then float and watch the masses of fish, turtles and spectacular life under water just pass you by. I know of one recent convert to the world of diving, Jim-Bob, you should definitely get over to this side at some stage my man!

From Zanzibar, we headed north to take on the mighty Kilimanjaro. If you've been following our sporadic but lengthy tales you will be aware that we had quite an experience there. I still buzz when I think about the summit, especially when we meet people who are either going there or have been recently. We then moved due west, Serengeti National park was next.

A few phone calls and some negotiations and we had our own Land Cruiser and a driver for our safari. You can't get into the park without a guide and serious wheels, the roads here are rough. We saw countless fourbies changing tyres, broken down, rattled to bits. What's worse, every time they return from a single journey into the park, they have to be taken in for a service, this costs the locals who own these cars an absolute fortune!

So I thought that the Kruger National Park in South Africa was the be-all and end-all when it came to game parks and I knew it had a lot to live up to, even though we had met a few Kruger veterans who told us that the Serengeti was on another level. I am delighted to say they were spot on! We loved the Serengeti! It is a lot more expensive than other game parks we have been to, but the landscape is amazing and the actual driving is awesome, loads of rutted hills that definitely push the Land Cruisers towards their limits. It was also the first time that we saw cheetahs in the wild, two males right next to our car, they were so sleek and it was sensational. Hyenas, lions (many), elephants and a zillion giraffes! What capped it all off was that we could camp in our little tent in the middle of the park. No fences around us, you just pitch your tent in a little place that has a toilet and an enclosure for you to cook in therefore keeping the animals away from your steak (hmm, actually pasta). We started cooking and looked at our tent a few metres away and noted a rather large hyena sniffing around! Then, two large buffaloes and a lovely giraffe about four metres behind him. When I saw the hyena I was a bit concerned and asked this local chap who was cooking for another group whether they were a problem or not. No, he told me, but those two big buffaloes behind him are a big concern. Bloody hell!! Once the sun went down, the eyes came out...buck, jackals, hyenas and god knows what else reflected back from the light of our head torches. We were told that if we went to the toilet during the night we had to be careful not to walk in the path of a buffalo. We both decided that once in our tent we were going nowhere until the sun came up. It is amazing that you are allowed to camp like that! It gets better...

After dinner, we made doubly sure that our bladders were empty and that there was absolutely no trace of any type of food in our tent. Our guide slept in the Land Cruiser, smart man! Getting to sleep was not really that hard, there was the sound of the African bush, hippoes in the distance, lions somewhere not too far away, cicadas, and the haunting cackle of packs of hyenas. At about 2am I woke up to a noise, and my nose touching the edge of our small trusty tent. About 2cm's from my mouth outside the tent analysing my breath was a farging hyena!!! "Babe, babe..." Karla whispered. "I know, I can see him...", I replied before promptly deciding to stop breathing. Before sunrise we woke again needing a wee but decided it could definitely wait until the sun came up when we heard lions grunting close by. So no exageration, it is wild to camp in the wild...we were much more relaxed the second night when we pitched our tent amongst others and realised that these carnivores can apparently recognise the difference between a human and a buck. What a ride... We highly recommend a trip to the Serengeti at least once in your life, it is a magical experience.

From Serengeti, we had a projected five day slog through what appeared on the map and indeed was actually labelled as a "partly improved road or track". What a disaster that turned out to be. It was thick sand, blinding dust, bone jarring- suspension smashing rocks, and this was in the middle of being upgraded! Annoyingly, and I am going to be highly un-politically correct here, the Chinese don't know how to build roads! They have taken on this enormous project of sealing the road from Arusha to Dodoma which is around 1000km's. The locals tell us they have been building it for approximately three years and the entire thing is a big fat joke. They have not taken small sections, completed it and moved on but ripped up the entire length of it and finished none of it, set crappy diversions and basically condemned the locals to live covered in red road dust with no end in sight. Perhaps they were charging the Tanzanian government by the hour as it was a total shambles and they really didn't seem to be in any hurry to get anything finished. One part of the road was so bad that Yele was making some serious creaking noises but anyhow we made it out to Rwanda in 6 days but they were dam long and tiring rides. An afterthought and before I forget, let me just tell you that in these parts the locals just love the pop and crackle of our thumper and constantly whistle and cheer for us wherever we go. Aftermarket pipes are an absolute must have on any trip through Africa!

We have decided to cut down on the number of pictures for this post even though here we took the largest amount of photos to date. We have picked what for us epitomised that wonderful country. It is a magical place and its people are amazing. We missed the Wildebees migration due to timing so we definitely have to go back there one day which excites me massively. I think whether with kids, or on a solo jaunt, that place rocks!

Masses of love to you all, wherever you are.

Congratulations Alex and Doona...we can't wait to see your piccies!!

P and K

xxx


The magical Maasai warriors


The inhabitants of the fascinating Serengeti National Park


Mommy hippo and her baby


Two cheetah brothers, this was a first for us and simply defines the Serengeti


With age comes wisdom, the mighty elephant


Lions blocking our road


Another shot that defines the glorious Serengeti


Six days of literally eating dust will do this to you, on our way from Tanzania to Rwanda


The ferry in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania


Karla after a dive...like being in an aquarium!



The old fashioned dhows that sailed past made you remember you were some place exotic!


No sunbathers on this beach...just scooters, dhows and sea urchins!




A seafood feast every night on the waterfront at Stone Town.



Stone town's street life, Zanzibar.



Karla with Zanzibar's beautiful doors


This man was carrying some precious cargo...but not so precious as mine :)


Tanzania had an infinite number of violent speed bumps, an infinite number of crazy truck drivers and crashes, and as we found out an infinite number of giraffes