2kiwis

September 30th – Day Six

Please note that on truck cleaning duty last night (the 29th) I managed to dunk my mobile phone in a bucket of water, and so far it hasn’t come back to life. As such any mobile communication is best directed to Keryn’s phone.

Sunrise at the Silver Sands camp site

With a journey to Zanzibar we had an early start. We had to be on the ferry terminal at 9am so left at 8am. The journey wasn’t that far but we had to contend with morning rush hour traffic. We were all up and ready at the required time and it was off into Dar es Salaam. We arrived without any trouble or fane fare and unloaded while Jacques organised our tickets. We all hid under the shade of a tree while we waited, being kept company by map and basket sellers. Jacques arrived back with a time when the tickets would be ready, so we kept ourselves entertained until the relevant time and made our way to the dock gate, collected our tickets from Jacques and went down to the boat landing.

Passing through the customs gate we queued for a while and then the people were slowly allowed on the boat. Our bags were stowed and we attempted as a group to find our allocated seats. Because of a bizarre seat numbering system and people being in the wrong places we all sat together and let other people figure out alternative seating. The trip was uneventful other than some bizarre programming on the boat televisions. A few hours after we started we could see the docks of Stone Town, Zanzibar and it was soon that we found ourselves queuing once more to disembark. Actually, using the word queuing would be a misuse, it was more like a disorganised scrum heaving it’s way to the dock through a group of unmoving people and piled cargo. We made it out eventually and followed the masses towards the exit of the docks.

The island contact was met and he sorted out the passport details while we waited in the provided minivan. Once he was back with the passports we were off heading for Ngungwe at the north of the island. I dosed for a lot of the trip so missed most of the villages and tropical looking vegetation, waking properly as we drove into the resort town that was to be home for the next three days. Accommodation was allocated (bungalows, no tents!) and we all got unpacked and settled in before heading off to a restaurant for lunch. Some of the rooms had a few problems, like leaking toilets, no hot water or copious amounts of ants but we all made do in the end. Today was Will’s birthday so we were having a celebratory lunch for him. A number of us set off for the beach and proceeded to take a wrong turning and end up at the wrong place. Once we realised the mistake we left the bar we were in, taking our drinks, and walked across to the correct venue. Lunch was very nice, good food and drink. Will had a large mixed seafood grill which he seemed to be very happy with. Once lunch was over we all proceeded to do our own things before meeting again for dinner.

First view of the Ngungwe beach

Keryn and I went for a walk down the beach heading in a direction that we hoped would take us to a local turtle sanctuary. The walk along the beach was very nice, we passed nice looking hotels, a local boat building and repair area on the beach itself and a large catamaran beached, we guessed for repairs. Playing around the catamaran were lots of local children and in the afternoon sunlight it all looked very good for a photograph. We took my camera out and were suddenly set upon by a number of kids waving their hands and saying “no photo, no photo”. Respecting their wishes we put the camera away, it’s actually nice to meet kids asking for a bit of privacy rather than money, sweets or pens.

While on a walk we found this scene

Not far past the catamaran we came upon the turtle sanctuary just by a lighthouse. The entry fee was $2 each so we paid and were led into a fenced off area that contained a large tidal pool with a wharf leading out into it’s centre. Our guide led us out and started telling us about the turtles and why they were here. Local fisherman bring them in when they accidentally catch them or if they find sick or injured individuals and the sanctuary look after then until they are well enough to be released back into the wild. There were two different kinds of turtles, Green Turtles and Hornbill Turtles. The green variety eat seaweed while the hornbill are carnivores and are feed fish guts and small fish (plus they eat some of the many fish also found in the pool). We watched the turtles swimming around and being fed by some other tourists. Keryn had a go at holding out seaweed for the turtles to come up and eat. We got to touch the turtles as they approached for food, they didn’t seem at all bothered by the attention. A larger group of people arrived so we retreated from the pool and had a look at some of the other younger turtles that were around the area. There were a number of buckets that held very young turtles, a couple of inches long. There were also turtles a few months older, maybe four to five inches long. Keryn got to hold one of these ones. We then were shown some local tortoises to show the differences between the two species (tortoises land, turtles water) and finally a native Zanzibar python. The guide was encouraging us to have a photo taken with the python around one of our necks, we and a couple of other tourists all declined. We settled for each holding a section of the python in our hands, I got the neck. The python was about three metres long and then were three of us holding a different section. The power in the body was quite amazing, as it slowly moved there was little we could all do other than move with it to support it.

A turtle at the sanctuary

Keryn and a baby turtle

Photo taken we left the sanctuary and made our way back to the bungalows to get ready for dinner. We all met at a different restaurant and had a nice-but-nothing-special meal. There was a DJ in residence and once he had figured out the local mood there were a number of people having a good time on the dance floor. A few people had a dance and then we were up and moving to a new bar. We ended up at a bar at the other end of the beach and had a few cocktails. The bar experience was quite bizarre, the staff being not quite with it and the person who took our order turned out to be a local who had no connection with the venue. It was a strange experience, Helen and Maria both having interesting talks with the bar staff in attempts to get some of the hanging bananas at the bar. There were four different varieties with the small red ones being the most tasty apparently. We stayed for a while, marvelled at the men’s loo (a bath for washing hands, buckets for urinals) and then made our way back towards the bungalows. A few people went back to the first restaurant which was now full of locals and a few tourists dancing the night away, and we went off to bed.

Dhow on the beach

September 29th – Day Five

We awoke to find our washing still very wet. Breakfast was had in a light drizzle and we had to rig up a line in the truck, Jacques coming up trumps with his knots. It was a long driving day as we made our way to Dar es Salaam. Events for the day included lots of sleep and resting, broken up by toilet stops and a backing lunch stop beside a busy road. Those at the back of the truck played Trivial Pursuit for a while, Jacques, Keryn and I losing to Maria, Will, Roger and Tina by one question. We got to Dar es Salaam just as rush hour started so it took us a while to get to the camp at the Silver Sands camp site. The Silver Sands, as it name implies, is on the beach and the sand is white and soft. We set up tents, completed chores and then sat on the beach eating popcorn (I don’t know where Joe gets all this food from) while waiting for dinner. Dinner was again very nice and was followed by desert of marshmallows and chocolate dip. Sated we sat around for a while before heading to our tents and falling asleep.

Trees through the morning mist and rain

September 28th – Day Four

The morning was spent driving back to the Snake Park. Once there we got organised and then visited the Maasai Museum on site. An interesting tour took us though many aspects of Maasai life and culture, explaining the processes and garb that accompany the different stages of a Maasai life progression; from child to man to warrior and elder for the men and from girl to woman to wife for the woman. The Maasai men can have many wives, the bride price for a wife is 14 cattle and circumcision is practiced on both sexes (it is illegal to circumcise girls in Tanzania but our guide assured us the Maasai still carry out the practice in secret as it is part of their tradition). It was an interesting tour with very informative displays and a good guide.

Once compete we went outside and gathered next to a group of tethered camel for our next trip, this being a guided tour through an actual Maasai village. Keryn and I declined the use of a camel (we’d done the camel thing in Egypt last year) so walked alongside the others as we were led towards the village. As we neared the village we were joined but some children who had been out getting water. Arriving at the village the camels were brought back down and everyone got off and started looking around. Our guide informed us that the head of this village had eight wives and the surrounding houses housed this extended family. There were over forty children in this family. As we listened to the guide a number of the children arrived, some stood and watched and a few of the younger ones approached us with a look of curiosity on their faces.

A Maasai child at the village

We started taking a few photos and while this was taking place Roger handed out some sweets (after asking if this was OK) and then brought out a bubble loop and some bubble blowing liquid. This device absolutely entranced the children; they obviously hadn’t seen bubbles created like this before. Helen took over the bubble duty and very quickly had a crowd of children surrounding her while she controlled the passing around of the loop so the children could attempt to blow the bubbles. Each stream of bubbles was greeted by a flurry of waving hands as the children attempted to catch and burst the floating spheres. Meanwhile some other children had come to pairs of us and had convinced us to swing them into the air, a person holding and swinging each arm. At one point Will, Stephen, Roger and I had three children on the go between us which no small amount of coordination.

The tour continued and we were taken around the village, meeting some of the wives and entering a hut. We came out to find a group of Maasai warriors’ singing and dancing, jumping up in the air as they are famous for. We gathered around as they continued, the girls of the tribe joining in once they were dressed in the traditional way with wide, flat hoops of beads placed around their necks. We watched and took photos, the session culminating in a number of people in the group joining in to be dressed in traditional garb and have their photos taken with the warriors. It was then back on the camels and back to the Snake Park.

Dressed up for dancing

Lunch was had at the camp and then we were back in the truck for the drive to the next camp near Moshi on the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. The drive was mainly noticeable for the changing landscape, the closer we got to Mosi the more vegetation and general greenness became evident. There was farmed land containing a number of different crops and as we neared the mountain there were a number of villages that seemed to exist only to farm bananas, banana plantations all over. The general vegetation became lusher and stream beds now started containing water rather than being dry. We passed through Moshi and continued around Mt Kilimanjaro before heading uphill to our camp. The landscape to either side of the road now became almost tropical. Kilimanjaro was capped with a mass of grey cloud so we never really got to see anything other than the foothills.

The camp site was completely different to the previous, green grass, luscious vegetation and even warm showers. It got dark soon after we arrived and I washed our clothes while Keryn got busy with her chores for the day. As we ate dinner there was the odd sound of thunder. Shortly after 10pm we had go get up out of our tent to get our washing in as the rain came down. Once the washing was re-hung it was back to the tent and off to sleep.