It feels slightly selfish when you think you need a holiday to recover after a holiday. With some big driving days in the truck over Africa, it was fantastic to be able to have a resort-style relaxing couple of days planned for the island of Zanzibar. Didn’t take many photos – either too relaxed or just sitting on the truck.
Into Dar es Salaam
Unfortunately to get to the island, we had a mammoth driving day. We spent the night near the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and it was a long drive (14 hours on the truck) to the ex-capital of Tanzania – Dar es Salaam.
(best photo I got – cloud cover didn’t help)
After some seemingly endless and torturous hours sitting on the truck and cycling through Ipod, books, playing cards and sleeping we arrived to the traffic of a big city during peak hour. Our campsite was situated across a short bay which required a short (but time consuming) ferry crossing. Quite an experience with us leaving the truck and walking over with a crowd of locals in the dark. Didn’t lose anyone thank goodness.
Ferry to Zanzibar
Next morning had another early start, back on the short ferry and then over to Zanzibar ferry (also called Kilimanjaro – seems there’s a Kili anything over here – water, beer…) Trip took a lot longer than I was expecting but fell asleep watching a Mr. Bean movie.
Stone Town
Our first night in Zanzibar we spent in the historic centre and World Heritage Site called Stone Town. Was super warm and I retreated to my surprisingly air-conditioned room during the hottest hours. Joined the group to watch the sunset and have a nice restaurant meal. Walking back to our hotel (not a tent which was a nice change) that night reminded a bit of Venice and its snake-like pathways. Was one of the first places in Africa I’m glad I was walking with a group of people.
Spice Tour
Had a bit of a sleep-in in an actual bed before being herded into a mini-bus. Unfortunately had a bit of good news/bad news – good news was that we had air-conditioning in the bus; bad news was the air-conditioning somehow broke the bus and we were stranded waiting for another bus just outside a Navy training facility which we weren’t allowed to look into. Some grumpy guys came out and told us to stand on the other side of the road which was a bit weird. Rather than having our backs to the super-secret location we were herded to the other side where we could safely stare back over the road at what looked like a run-down college. At least the Navy security guys would have slept soundly that night…
Our 2nd bus arrived and we were driven to a spice farm where we were given a tour of the different spices that grow on the island. Lots of different smells and the obligatory tea tasting afterwards with the sales pitch. Didn’t drag on too long and we headed further north to our hotel for two nights.
Beach living
So began the holiday within a holiday. Mix together great weather; room with bed, hot showers and air-conditioning; hammocks on the beach and some great snorkelling and you have a very relaxing two days. Only downsides were the sunburn and the dodgy power outages resulting in lukewarm drinks. Also had time for a sunset cruise in a dhow – seeing the sun set over the water was a magic way to end the day.
Ferry Trip Back
It was tempting to spend the next few weeks here in Zanzibar just relaxing but we had more countries to visit so back on the ferry to the mainland. It was a crowded ferry with some super noisy kids. I put on some loud music and just tuned out and it wasn’t until we got to the other side I found out that most people had been sick due to the rough conditions. Even the person sitting next to me had thrown up while I was cocooned in my Ipod sound shield.
Torturous Travel Days
Spent another night in Dar es Salaam – same campsite we had been in before. I upgraded for $10 into a beach hut since there was going to be a ridiculously early morning start.
So began some longs days leaving Tanzania (14+ hours on the truck). We arrived in a campsite at Iringa after driving through a National Park – campsite had no power and we got there when it was dark. Left early the next morning and crossed into Malawi. Spent a night at Chitimba which was on Lake Malawi. Crazy distances we’d covered…
Malawi
Another somewhat early start (especially with the sun rising at 5:30am due to a time change so Malawi can be similar to South Africa) we headed further south down the lake to Kande beach. This is a popular stopping point for overland tourist trucks and there were 4 different trucks there including ours. We got to spend a full day just by the beach – and it was weird being on the shores of a lake which looked like a beach at the sea with waves and everything. Bit of a shock with the fresh water however…
Another weird occurrence were the insects, it looked like a dust storm coming over the lake towards us but turned out to be millions of bugs. Everyone retreated inside and waited it out but at least there weren’t too many mosquitoes. Overall a very nice day watching the Australians scrapes past South Africa in the rugby and having a few games of beach volleyball.
We’re now heading to the capital of Malawi before heading towards Zimbabwe with a couple of border crossings to look forward to.
Week Ahead
Tues, 11th of Oct Nyamapanda ?, Zimbabwe
Wed, 12th of Oct Harare
Thurs, 13th of Oct Masvingo
Fri, 14th of Oct Bulawayo
Sat, 15th of Oct Bulawayo
Sun, 16th of Oct Hwange National Park
Mon, 17th of Oct Victoria Falls
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