Tanzania

I get the sense we’re going to be in Tanzania for a while…
We arrived into Tanzania from Zambia at the Tunduma border post at the top of the Zambian “Great North Road” (nothing Great or even Road about it) – by far the most chaotic border crossing I’ve ever experienced. But once on the other side of the border, you get a real sense of how dramatically different Tanzania is from Zambia. Suddenly, instead of thatched mud huts, there are brick houses. The roads are great. The markets are alive with people, produce and commerce. There are dalla dallas and motorbikes darting in and out of traffic. Tanzania is clearly a lot more wealthy – and a lot more vibey.
As the border crossing took us 3 hours more than expected (papers, visas, thunder storms, electrical failures, bizarre forms of insurance, “no, no, we don’t need your help thanks”, “your live chicken is nice but we don’t have room, thanks” etc etc) we missed the place we wanted to stay for the night and ended up taking rooms in the Kabuni Center missionary in Mbeya – a biggish town set in the moutainous highlands in the south of Tanzania. I’m not usually drawn to missions, but it was dark, it was late, we didn’t have a lot of choice and our hurriedly downloaded Lonely Planet Tanzania was reassuring. We arrived in the pitch black as the electricity had gone African, and were led to our rooms by the caretaker by lantern and then ate dinner by candlelight with the missionaries in the dining room – romantic in a murder novel sort of way. The next morning we headed off to the Old Farm House in Iringa, a guestfarm in pretty much the middle of nowhere where we were treated to an amazing candlelit 4 course French meal in a thatched mud hut – cultural fusion extraordinaire. We then drove to Mikumi, a National Park in the southern part of Tanzania and upon our arrival late in the day were faced with a decision whether to spend $170 for a single nights camping in the park or to find an alternative. Tanzanian national parks are really expensive… and we’d been used to $40 – $60 per night in the Botswanan, Namibian, Zambian and Zimbabwean national parks – so we beat a sticker shock retreat to a private camp in Mikumi instead and gave Mikumi National Park a miss altogether. The real wildlife draw cards for us in Tanzania are the Ngorongoro & Serengeti parks anyway.
Our (ahem) plan was to start to head up towards Arusha/Moshi (near Kilimanjaro) and then head westwards towards the Ngorongoro and Serengeti parks but we didn’t pack up until noon and that left us with only enough time to get to Dar es Salaam and not enough time to get to the decent/safe places to stay on the road to Arusha/Moshi. So we ventured into Dar es Salaam to find a beach camp on the south shore that was recommended to us, accessible by ferry from the center of Dar es Salaam. We arrived into Dar es Salaam at rush hour – hectic – no one respects anything: lights, signs, life. It took us about 2 hours to work our way through the 10 kms of chaos in Dar es Salaam, get to the ferry and cross to the southern shore… but it was worth it. We camped at a beach resort/site about 20m from the water – really beautiful. As we awoke in the morning, Masai herdsman in full traditional dress were herding their cattle along the beach – an amazing sight. The weather was gorgeous, the ocean was 30c, so we weren’t going anywhere – and there were finally lots of kids around for the boys to play with. The boys swam with some of the local Masai kids for the day and generally chilled out… as did Chris and Fiona after a string of one-nighters. We figured that as we weren’t likely to drive back through Dar es Salaam, that we should head out to Zanzibar while we were here. We’ve left the Land Cruiser in a cathedral parking lot in Dar es Salaam (will it be there on our return?), we hopped on a boat to Zanzibar, have rented a car here (lots of spoiled kid groans upon sight of our “girly” Suzuki 4×4) and have found our way to our guesthouse. We’re not camping – there is no camping on Zanzibar – but staying in a guesthouse on Matemwe beach in the northeast of the island. I’m guessing we’ll be here for 3 or 4 days and then off to Kilimanjaro…
Tanzania, so far, has been wonderful. It’s real Islamic (and much else) Africa – really beautiful, friendly, diverse and vibey. We haven’t seen a lot of Zanzibar yet. It’s dark. But it holds a LOT of promise too… What is clear is that to do this trip properly, we should have taken about 9 months.
We’re all well, Hugo’s weird eye infection and my man cold notwithstanding. The Land Cruiser needs a new shock or strut (Zambian road abuse) and possibly some new tires – so it’s going in to the doctor in Dar es Salaam when we get back from Zanzibar.
We all hope everyone is well – you are all missed!