Our Wild Journey Travel diary

TANZANIA

Thursday 16th April - Sunday, 19th April 2009

At 1pm we paid road tax, registered in Tanzania and got our stamps into the passport. Till the first town everything looked the same - landscape and people. Only it got a little colder. Our first stop was in Moshi, where we visited the local market to get something in the stomach and started shopping for Andrea's birthday. Then we headed on towards Arusha, where we spent the night. In the morning, after changing money (slightly better rate than in Moshi) we went to Arusha's big market and bought a live chicken for a good dinner before continuing towards
We must say we have been really lucky to see the Kili in all its "majestic pride" - here in Tanzania it was shrouded in clouds. Originally we planned on climbing it but unfortunately we arrived in the wrong season and prices have gone up drastically, instead of 1000 USD we would have to pay 2000 USD now. Of course, one can have it still cheap, but it is a serious health risk to go up too fast, many (even) young people die each year from rushing it to the top! Ah well, we will have to do it at a later point. We continued on the road to Dodoma to the Lake Manyara and originally wanted to continue on the back road till Dodoma, but locals already warned us it might be in a very bad condition. Tarangire National Park wasn't too far away so we went there to camp close to it. Amidst nice palm trees and acacias we found a perfect spot for killing the chicken and even decided to camp there overnight. The next morning Rene prepared a very nice breakfast for Andrea's birthday with cooked breakfast, fruits and vegetables. After breakfast we already had to pack up because we wanted to try to get to the palm ringed beaches to celebrate Andrea's big day. But on these 270km to Dodoma with an average of only 20 km/h we turned down and instead chose to go back the same way via Arusha and asphalt and anyway we wanted to get to the beach to continue Andrea's birthday under coconut palms. We tried looking for a bushcamp in the Usambara Mountains but it was quite densely populated. It got a little colder here but after all the heat in Southern Kenya we were happy about this.

Only the people here were not quite as friendly as in Kenya anymore, maybe a greeting or a very reluctant smile, but nearly always followed by an open, begging hand. Our original plan was to get off the beaten track and somewhere south of Tanga turn off the main road and cross the country towards the beach...well, people don't seem to be too informed about their area and showed us all different directions to some side road, which, finally, we didn't find. So after a lot of wrong turns towards South and North we gave up and went back to Tanga - a quite "run down" town which once was a centre port for the sisal industry, which, in the late 60's stopped growing and had a sort of "end of the world" feel - maybe also because of the grey sky and heavy rain. Not many white people live here anymore, one can only find "Ndogo" - people and a lot of abandoned houses. This town could be very beautiful indeed, if more people would show more interest in it and if there would be less corruption! We did some shopping on the local market and continued towards Dar Es Salaam along the coast. But of course we couldn't miss these lines of women sitting alongside the road selling sweet pastry called "Vitambua" - a sort of yeast dough fried in oil - very yummy!!! Just before dark we arrived in the Peponi Beach Resort, unfortunately we couldn't do bushcamping at the beach because of safety and it's quite hard to get to the beach. For us, the Peponi had some sort of "melancholic" atmosphere and the beach isn't really that great for swimming (seagrass, not too clean beach). Even for snorkelling it's not too great, one must swim quite far out and still not see too much (half dead coral). So this would have to wait till Malawi or Mozambique. Anyway, we stayed there for a few days and took our camp in the first line behind the beach. We had nice potatoe salad and grilled chicken for dinner, which we enjoyed with a glass of red wine before going to bed for a night without too much heat!

Monday 20th April - Saturday 26th April 2009

We hung up our hammock and mixed cleaning of the car with relaxation. During low tide we found a few big rocks with oysters on, which we collected. Rene couldn't convince Andrea to try them raw, but when cooked in soya sauce, she licked all 10 fingers! :o) We weren't very lucky with the fishing but it didn't surprise us - every morning maybe 60 dhows went to put their nets out and then sell 20cm big marlins on the market (in many countries it's forbidden)! What a shame - they just take everything they can get! We think it's very alarming for the future. In Europe, we talk about the poor and hungry Africans, but not many people talk about poaching and fishing oceans empty (ok, these are not just Africans, we know!) But when going snorkelling or diving, one finds the Indian Ocean quite empty, except in Marine Reserves. The day wasn't as nice anymore, we had strong winds and quite a lot of rain, so in the dry periods we finished organising the car, Rene changed bushes on the back springs and early the next morning we drove on towards Dar Es Salaam.

When we finally came into town the embassy was closed so we went to the harbour and bought our tickets for Zanzibar - 40 USD per person return. We would leave the next morning at 12. So before that we applied for Andrea's visa to Malawi (100 USD - Rene for free) and parked our car at the YWCA for 2000 TSh per day. We took place on the "Flying Horse" among many Arabic people. When arriving on Zanzibar, we were surprised to find immigration there and straight away had trouble. As we were in Tanzania only with a transit visa we were not allowed to enter Zanzibar, as this would be holiday. We dealt with a quite discriminating official who wanted either a bribe or more money for a tourist visa, so we turned around and took the night ferry back! :o((( The night ferry is a different story, we don't know if the captain has ever driven a boat before or if he stole it - the ride back was an absolute disaster. Our VIP lounge with armchairs and couches was in the front of the boat and the sea was very rough, Andrea had to throw up on the stinking toilet and into the rubbish bin!
Back in Dar early in the morning we went looking at big fish on the fish and vegtable market. We spent 3 hours there, going from stall to stall, till we found 2 lanes of cooked food at the end of the market. It didn't look the cleanest but there we tried "ndizi" - fried banana, "misaki" - meat kebabs and cooked octopus soup, banana in a sauce and fried liver and greens - and all this for only 3 USD! It was very delicious and we didn't suffer any indigestion or else! With a Marlin in a bag we left the market and went to the Sunrise Beach Resort south of Dar, well priced with electricity, hot shower and a beautiful white beach without seaweed or dirt! Only it was a little full and we had only rainy days under the palm tree. Nevertheless we went out to catch crabs and take oysters, 2 local boys came to help us. The marlin we had for dinner and we can only recommend, it's nice meat without big hassle of bones...

Monday 27th April - Saturday 2nd May 2009

In the morning we returned to Dar for more bureaucratic running around, but unfortunately we had a bad situation and spent the whole day on the police station because of theft and robbery. :o( We hung around Dar Es Salaam for another few days to wait for Andrea's visas and other things. Finally on Thursday we left towards Southern Tanzania. We broke our own rule not to drive at night once again, this time really! We crossed the boundaries of the Mikume National Park around midnight. The park stretches out for approx 50km on both sides of the asphalt but most of the wildlife can be seen just around the main road. As we were quite tired we just turned of the main road for a few metres, had some quick dinner and had more improvised sleeping on the front seats. Early the next morning we moved on and even saw a few Maasai giraffes, elephants, impala and a herd of wildebeest. Just big cats we didn't see any, unfortunately. Just after the park we got stopped by a biker - Claudio Angelini from Switzerland. He is on the way for already 2 years, nearly touring the world. We had a long chat with him, exchanged useful information and also met 2 Australian guys, travelling northwards in their VW Golf I. Because of our change of plan and route we wanted to go from Tanzania to Zambia direct so we had another 600 km waiting for us. Finally, after a long, quite green and beautiful road with a lot of tomatoes for sale (we bought about a ton of them!) we arrived in Tunduma, just before the border. Well, this border was one of the worst for us, not from the official side, this didn't take long (except explaining them that the wood on our roof is for campfires!), but it was worst because of all plonkers and hawkers surrounding our car and NOT knowing the meaning of "No, thank you!" So we walked around there from office to office with about 20 ticks on us, wanting to change money, have our passports and diverse other things. But believe us, these stamps and signatures you can get without any helpers. So around 15.00 we left Tanzania.

Our 7th African country and 3rd "black" one was more or less just a transit into Southern Africa for us. We didn't visit any overpriced parks and tried to get through Tanzania in a straight line (more or less...). People here changed as well, but not too much to the better, they were, we think, not quite as friendly and smiling as Kenyans and even stole from us. And on top of it we unfortunately came into quite big rains, even our tent got a bit mouldy! :o) What we liked were the Usambara mountains, white "coconut beaches" south of Dar Es Salaam and beautiful landscape like around Lake Manyara. The shopping, as usual, is best on local markets or on the roadside, where prices are a lot lower than in the supermarkets or big towns. Bushcamping is possible nearly everywhere and quite often one finds not so many people, probably because Tanzania is nearly twice the size of Kenya with the same amount of inhabitants. As you surely know, in the Northern part there are a lot of Maasai, as well as Chagga and further South a lot of Bantu tribes and also Ndogo. Only don't look for any tribesmen wearing traditional, you will not find them - they all wear "European" style.
So, this time we didn't really fall in love with Tanzania, but maybe it will change in the future...