Category: Tanzania

Zanzibar to Nairobi

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We got the ferry early in the morning from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar. The entrance to the ferry terminal is quite small and it was a little frenetic getting through the security and into the departure area.

The ferry journey was about 2 hours, and the sea was thankfully reasonably calm as I had forgotten to bring any seasickness tablets with me.

We arrived into Stone Town in the late morning and started with a walking tour of the old colonial town. Through the market, to the slave museum (which was very interesting, I didn’t previously know much about the slave trade in East Africa, so it was very illuminating), churches, the narrow streets, and finally to Freddie Mercury’s house.

Sights in Stone Town, Zanzibar

We stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Stone Town, called Maru Maru. It had the best shower I’d had on my entire Africa trip. I was also apparently in the presidential suite as there was a photograph on the wall in the room telling me that Bill Clinton had stayed in this room some years ago…

A free afternoon so I took the opportunity for a bit of downtime before a wander around the town which was curtailed by some over-eager locals, which was a shame.

The next day we headed to north Zanzibar for a couple of days, to Nungwi Beach. It was so nice to have a couple of days downtime after the travelling so far. At this point it was 34 days since I left Cape Town and this was only the 8th time we were staying somewhere for more than 1 night.

The beach at Nungwi
Sunset at Nungwi

After a relaxing couple of days we were up early to get back to Stone Town in time for the 9.30am ferry. Again a fairly chaotic check in experience, and this time the sea was quite rough so it felt like a long journey back to the mainland.

After being reunited with our truck back at the hotel in Dar, we hit the road north towards the coastal town of Bagamoyo. We arrived in the late afternoon and had a bit of a stroll along the beach where there were lots of dhows being loaded with goods, which we assumed were heading for Zanzibar.

Dhows at Bagamoyo, plus a nearly full moon

Another long drive the next day, to Moshi, which is the gateway town to Mt Kilimanjaro. It was an early start and I was surprised to see the local church full at 6.15am! We were all kept interested for the last hour or so by trying to spot Kilimanjaro peeking out from behind the clouds. It just about appeared when we’d arrived at the accommodation in the late afternoon.

Kilimanjaro peeking out from the clouds

A shorter drive the next day, to Karatu in preparation for a couple of days in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.

We started early (again!) and got in our jeeps to drive to the Ngorongoro Crater. It was very cloudy and misty, and as we drove along the crater rim, we could barely see where we were going. I was a little worried at what we would be able to see in the crater but as we descended below the cloud, my fears vanished. The Ngorongoro Crater might be the easiest place to view animals that I’ve been to. There are just so many of them everywhere. Lions, zebras, ostriches, warthogs, so many birds, flamingos, elephants, buffalo, serval cats, leopards, herds of wildebeest, I could go on.

Ostrich
Flamingos
Serval cat
Zebras feeding
Lions chilling
Elephant and their bird friends
So many wildebeest

After an exciting morning and packed lunch at a watering hole, we then headed to the Serengeti and our camp in the park. It took such a long time to get there, we got lost at one point and arrived in the dark. But we did have a delicious dinner waiting for us, and the most glamorous tent I’ve ever stayed in!

Another extremely early start the next morning, for my big splurge on this trip. A hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti at sunrise. I’ve never been in one before and I doubt I will go again, not because it was scary, it was actually very serene, but I figure I’m once and done with hot air balloons!

It was such a smooth ride, and incredibly peaceful, rising up and down over the plains, and only occasionally hitting the tops of the trees! I was pleasantly surprised at how many animals we could see. Hippos running, elephants, crocodiles, zebras. The light as the sun rose was incredible. And to see the sunrise from above, with the full 360 view was something I’ll never forget.

The landing was a little bumpy, but we did end up upright! And afterwards we had champagne and a cooked breakfast in the Serengeti, certainly a once in a lifetime experience!

After breakfast I joined back up with the rest of the group and we then spent the rest of the day on a safari drive around the Serengeti. Aside from the hot air balloon in the morning, the highlight was seeing 2 lions roaming around, jumping across a small stream and then settling into the shade under the bush. Despite all the animals I’ve seen in Africa, it remains incredible to see the animals in this environment.

Surveying the audience
Weighing up the surroundings before leaping across the water
Straight down the barrel
Sheltering from the heat

We finished up and were back at camp at about 4pm. It was so nice to be back early (ish) and I enjoyed a bucket shower and then a relaxing glass of vino in the lounge tent. Another delicious dinner followed, to round off a truly excellent day.

We finished our Serengeti adventure the next day as we drove out of the park and back along the Ngorongoro rim, and eventually arriving at our final hotel in Tanzania, at Arusha. This was the final night of the trip as it would conclude when we got to Nairobi (a fairly short 4-5 hour drive, plus the Kenyan border) the next day. It’s always bittersweet when a trip ends, and this one more so as I’d had to cancel my original plans to carry on to the Maasai Mara and into Uganda to see the chimps and gorillas. I’m hoping I’ll be able to return one day in the not too distant future to complete this final leg, but, for now, it’s farewell to Africa.

Tanzania – Malawi border to Dar Es Salaam

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As soon as we crossed the order from Malawi into Tanzania, there was an immediate improvement in the quality of the road. Unfortunately the roads in Malawi had broken something on the truck so, along with the 50kph speed limit, we limped to our first overnight stop in Tanzania, at Utengule Coffee Lodge, just before sunset. A lovely location just outside the bustling city of Mbeya, which was much more like what I’d imagined an Eastern African city to be like…noisy, busy, lots going on.

Transport in Mbeya
Sunset at Utengule

We started the next day with a tour of the coffee plantation attached to the lodge. Afterwards we hit the road towards Iringa. It was a long and slow drive as we followed the Great East Road which would eventually get us (in a few days time) to the port city of Dar Es Salaam. This road is the main route for trucks going to and from Dar, taking goods into and out of Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trucks and, as it was a single carriageway road, it continued to be a slow journey.

Beautiful scenery despite the slow journey

This was another long day and we got to the next accommodation about 20kms outside Iringa in the dark. We left before sunrise the following morning and it was a real shame not to be able to enjoy the accommodation (or even see it in daylight) as it looked nice and quirky.

After 2 long driving days, we had a shorter drive the next day to Mikumi, where we would be staying 2 nights – woo!

On the way to Mikumi, we stopped off at the Baobab Valley where there are avenues of baobab trees. I first saw a baobab tree when I was in Zimbabwe 3 or so years ago and I find them fascinating and quite alien (to this Brit at least) with their fat trunks.

We arrived at the lodge just outside of Mikumi National Park in time for a late lunch. I then had a relaxing afternoon at the lodge and did my handwashing where I was able to wash enough to get me through to the end of the trip. Fortunately my room was big enough for me to drape a weeks’ worth of clothes around to dry!!

Another early start the next day but this time it was for a half day safari drive into Mikumi National Park. The first thing we saw were some impalas with their heads up and alert for danger. Hiding nearby in a tree was a leopard. At first I thought it was sleeping on a branch, but it soon stirred, and dragged the remains of its prey from its hiding place in the tree. The leopard deftly climbed down the trunk of the tree, clinging on to the remains of an impala before getting about a yard from the bottom of the tree where it then flopped into the long grass. Such an incredible sight to see.

A leopard with its breakfast

Not long afterwards we came across probably 8 or 9 lions lying in the long grass. At first I though there was only 1 or 2 but then as we continued driving they all revealed themselves just chilling in the grass.

And then not long afterwards we came across a family of elephants again very close to the road. We stopped and watched for quite a while. Just such an amazing experience to witness these animals in this environment.

The sightings became a bit more sporadic after this as the day heated up and the animals were taking shelter. The grass was also pretty long which made spotting anything lurking in it quite difficult.

As we finished up in time for a late lunch, we did get another lion and some monkeys as we headed out of the park.

I enjoyed another relaxing afternoon at the lodge before we headed off early the next morning to Dar Es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania. A city of over 5 million people and easily the largest city since I left Cape Town over a month ago.

We arrived in Dar in the early afternoon. It was quite a change of pace from the last few weeks. A busy city, lots of traffic and lots of people. After a brief walk along the front near the ferry terminal, we escaped into the air-conditioning in the Hyatt for a cold beverage.

Dar Es Salaam

Next up, an early morning ferry to Zanzibar…