Zanzibar - The Perfect Place to Say Goodbye to Africa.

The trip is coming to an end, but we're too busy having fun to pay attention!

We head on the last bumpy bus from Stone Town to the beautiful destination of Nungwi, the North point of Zanzibar. We take the first and last group photo on the steps of the hotel in Stone Town...

A lovely bunch wouldn't you agree?

The drive to Nungwi takes around an hour or so and the plastic seats on the bus makes things so much more comfortable (read - sweaty and very uncomfortable, very pleased to have been wearing dark clothes or it would look like I'd had an accident) but the drive was so scenic, passing through small villages with huge palm trees and trucks piled high with mattresses and bicycles loaded with huge banana bunches, car horns beeping, children yelling, music playing - man, I love Africa...

We arrive at the accommodation in Nungwi and I see what Exodus have done, they've saved the best for last. This is what Nungwi looks like:

Not too shabby hey? Quite a change from the campsite in the Serengeti that's for sure...

We got settled at the bar whilst waiting for our room to be ready and were quickly approached by a rep at the hotel who was selling booze cruise tickets. We didn't even listen to her pitch, as soon as we heard booze cruise, we were on board. Literally. Five hours later, we boarded a tiny boat to take us out to sea to board a bigger boat packed to the rafters with all you can drink boooooze - party on a boat time!

Little boat to big boat to the bar! Salute!

There's not much to report from the boat trip, easily drank 10+ gin and bitter lemons, jumped off the boat in to the sea only to be surrounded by piano fish, freak out, drink more gin, jump off again, get back on, drink more gin, dance to loud music, watch sun set, attempt to pole dance, attempt to head stand against pole, slip, drink more gin, dance more, attempt to disembark on to tiny boat, freak out, enlist help of every single crew member to get self on tiny boat, swim back to hotel along shore, attempt Dirty Dancing lift in sea, swim out to different boat in attempt to be Somalian Pirate, shower, eat pizza, fall in to drunken slumber. Bliss. Am not missing camping one tiny bit.

Here's the boat best bits:

The next morning, we drag ourselves to breakfast at 9.58am as they stop serving at 10am - made it! Gimme the nutella pancakes! Take selves back to bed to have a sharp word with ourselves, then complete the hard task of finding somewhere to sunbathe.

Sunbathing complete for the morning, we head to lunch, absolutely shattered from the morning we've had so far and sweating gin out of my system! Eat another pizza and flop back down on the sand, ready to be hassled by the beach boys selling booze cruises - no thanks just did one, why do you think we stink of GIN...even this dog is wary...

It's going to be very hard to leave this place...

 It's not going to be so hard to leave this guy...

The last night was fun filled once more, one more for the road princesses! We had dinner altogether as a group one last time and then hit the beach party at Kendwa Rocks for one last night of fun, drinking and dancing to African tunes.

Needless to say we took it too far for our last night and once again got dragged out at 3am...lame. Well Honor and I rebelled against this lameness of going home early by jumping in to the sea once again and going for a swim. And why not? I'm on my holiday.

Rough and sandpaper I awoke in the morning and my first thought was that someone must have spiked my drink, there's no way I drank that much...but I remember demanding cocktails at the bar and admitted guilt. Yes your Honour it was me that drank too much - why do we always go for it hard on the last night of holiday?

Anyway, it was a very long day indeed ahead of us with a flight from Zanzibar airport to Nairobi then on to Heathrow...I loved Zanzibar airport with it's relaxed attitude towards airport daily business.

No sign of a conveyor belt, our luggage was carried off on a parcel trolley, I was convinced we'd never see it again...particularly as the man with the trollet called out 'say goodbye to your luggage' as he wheeled it away...ermmm, not funny.

The plane was supposed to depart at 6.30pm, at 7.15pm we were standing cooling down on the runway (it's allowed at Zanzibar airport) with no sign of any plane, so we asked someone in the airport when it was due to arrive, to which he responded 'the plane should be here anytime from now'...can you imagine that in Heathrow?? Too funny. Love Africa.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, we slept on every flight, only waking up for food or drinks and eventually made it to London:

Where we then began the long journey back to Leeds and to a nice hot shower and a flushing toilet!

Trip of a lifetime, I'm forever in Honor Baldry's debt which unsettles me slightly...

Kwa heri, lala salama and Asante Sana!

Zanzibar Ho!

Well, we made it to Zanzibar! We didn't think we'd make it at some points and it was a long road getting there, with over 40 hours spent on a truck in total we reckon (we had time to work it out whilst sitting on the truck)...

Talking of the truck though (whose name was Rafiki, which means friend in Swahili) we sadly parted ways and said goodbye before boarding the ferry to the magical island of Zanzibar - even the name sounds facinating, I think.

Well we'd only been away from the truck ten minutes before I remembered that I'd left my sleeping bag in the luggage compartment! Oh well, I wouldn't be needing it in Zanzibar anyway! My sleeping bag, and camping, days were behind me!

We waved goodbye to Tanzania as we headed across the sea, then I started feeling sea sick, so I fell asleep in a seat and woke up to find us docking. Goodbye Tanzania:

Hello Zanzibaaaaaaar!

We're home, this is where we belong! What a waste of time all that camping was :) I'm kidding of course, we loved it really, but what a way to relax now!

Here we are getting ferried over to Zanzibar:

So we rock up in Stone Town on the island for two nights. Stone Town is the Muslim part of the island, which means plenty of covering up in crazy high temperatures. I've never been anywhere like it before, and totally packed the wrong type of clothes! Within minutes I was sweating and carrying my heavy rucksack in desperate need of a beer in a Muslim quarter...hmmm.

Rucksack dumped at the hotel, we hit the shops for some girl time! Most of the others went on a spice tour, but we wanted our own time to do our own thing...buying pretty things! I purchased this marvellous dress:

Not sure when I'll be airing it in the UK though but who cares?

Stone Town was hot but beautiful, all the buildings were stained and shabby, just how I like them. It had a really laid back vibe to it and it was a great place to just wander and get lost in, in fact all the guide books tell you to get lost, so we did.

Later that day we all reconvened at the Africa House Hotel - the best place in Stone Town to watch the sun set:

Beautiful! Playing cards, drinking cold beer, sunset and good company...

We had dinner on the beach that night and treated ourselves to a fairly early night.

The next morning most of the group went on a scuba dive trip, but Nayani and I decided to hang back and do our own thing as we're not big divers. We laid in bed watching MTV until 9am - amazing! We had a TV and air con, we weren't moving anywhere!

After a lazy breakfast, we went for a wander around Stone Town again and bought more presents we didn't need, but we liked to think we were helping the local economy.

We got totally lost in the maze of tiny streets in Stone Town, just wandering aimlessly and taking everything in, and trying to stay in the shade! After a lazy lunch (spotting a pattern?) we headed back to the fan in the hotel reception to play cards, the only thing you can do when it's hot and there's no beach to lay on.

Once again we headed to the Africa House Hotel for another beautiful sunset and game of cards:

Then we went off to dinner at a restaurant where you sat on cushions on the floor, we'd probably had too much beer to fully appreciate it, but it was fun to experience it and I realised that I'm quite fond of chairs and tables when eating!

Later that night we played drinking games from around the world and went off to a traditional nightclub! We danced, we drank, we danced some more and we drank some more. At 3am we were dragged out of there as we had to get up at 8am for another bus journey to another part of Zanzibar. We'd regret this in the morning, but right then, we were having the time of our lives!

Stunning hey?

We're getting nearer to the coast!

We're nearing the end of the posts about the amazing trip to Africa...I promise!

From the crater we headed to Moshi and the trip gets blurry from here to be honest! The amount of alcohol units consumed increased as the need for concentrating on animals out of a bumpy truck window went away.

In Moshi we stayed in a lovely campsite but I can't tell you anything about the campsite facilities because we upgraded baby! That's more than enough camping for us thank you :)

We stayed at this hotel/campsite for two nights which meant I could unpack once again and see what that moneky had been doing in my bag, messing it all up again. tut tut. I could hang things up! I didn't hang anything up but I could have if I wanted to.

Anyway, we had the choice of either trekking up Mt. Kili or going on a coffee plantation tour. I just didn't fancy a nine hour trek as I still tell myself that I'm going to climb the whole mountain one day, so I chose the plantation tour and it was probably one of the highlights of the trip! We made our own batch of coffee from start to finish, even from picking the beans from the tree:

It was a great experience, but I was buzzing from the amount of caffeine they gave us to sample!

The rest of the day was spent lazing by the pool in the hotel/campsite - bliss. Then I really felt like I was on holiday, beers were consumed, food was eaten, more alcohol, drinking games, dancing, dancing on the bar, someone (not me guv) suggesting jumping in the pool, staff members firmly saying no to jumping in the pool, 1am bedtime and a horrible 5am rise ready for an 11hr truck journey to the capital, Dar es Salaam.

I think, if ever there was a bad ideas list of mine, drinking a whiskey shot and a glass of port that night would top the list. I was awful on that truck journey the next day, I'm quite surprised I still have friends after my mood swings that day. I'd go from laughing about the night's events to crying about how awful I felt and howling at them to stop the truck I want to get off...I never wanted to drink again...

So we get to the next campsite and go straight to the bar for a hair of the dog and a game of pool.

We have a romantic banda on the beach which is so cute!

Wicked hey? Yours for a mere £12 per night! Amazing!

That night we celebrated Naomi's birthday with a cake! Beach, beer and cake, what's not to love?

Tomorrow we're off to ZANZIBAR!!!!

Sawa! Sawa!

Once we'd been bumped along from the Serengeti to the Ngorogoro Crater, we pitched our tent right next to a pile of elephant dung - great!

As darkness fell we were enjoying a beer around the campfire and Sammy one of the tour leaders asked us if we wanted to meet his friend, we said yes. We followed Sammy around the truck and right there stood a fully grown elephant! GAH! I've never been so scared and excited at the same time - it was literally in front of us! The reason I loved this moment so much is because it was dark and a flash on a camera would have caused chaos and a probable stampede, no one could take a photo, we just stood and watched this elephant right there chomping away.

That was probably my wildlife highlight of this trip, there was so many highlights, but they all fall in to different categories as it was such a varied trip!

So the next day was Crater Day (I've given it capitals as I was so excited about this!) I was excited about it for so many reasons:

1. We were leaving the truck behind for the morning and piling into jeeps where the roof popped up so we could hang out the top!
2. The itinerary described us 'descending in to the crater in our jeeps' which sounds very exciting
3. We were going in to a crater baby! A crater!

Well that's enough reason surely? First impression of the crater...amazing.

Photos don't really do it justice, but heck I'll post them anyway!

I'm getting good at this jumping lark! Anyway, it was FREEZING at the crater; I had so many layers on it was crazy! Who knew a woolly hat would be necessary in Tanzania?? I think it was warmer in the UK that day :) but who cares WE were at the crater hanging out the top of a jeep looking at a cheetah!

We saw:

Cheetah, warthog, zebra, hyena, wildebeest, buffalo, hippo, birds :), impalaaaaa, elephant skull (huge!) flamingo, ostrich, elephant, brown kite birds stealing other people's lunches and........LIONS!!!!!!

Amazing!

The crater was the end of the wildlife element of our trip, which is why we probably gave the jeep driver such a bad impression of us...every time he slowed the jeep down for a bird or an antelope we'd yell "sawa!" which means ok! Or in our case, "We're not bothered if it doesn't eat another animal! Only stop the jeep if it's a predator!" But do remember that we'd been to a few different national parks by now, gazelles were akin to pigeons for us now! We meant business in the crater and Samson, our driver sensed that we were in no mood to look at wildebeest, we wanted lions.

Samson even called himself the Lion Man, so we were confident that we were with the right guy. Although he kept stopping to wait for the other group members and their jeeps to catch up with us, but we yelled something about snoozing and losing at him, and he put the pedal to the metal.

We saw three different male lion sightings that day and they were all incredible, but Lion Man, I mean Samson, saved the best until last for sure. Just as we were about the take the road up and out of the crater, our jeep pulled up and there sat at the roadside was the lion in the last photo above - incredible. We just sat there watching him, he sat there watching us - although he was probably sat there thinking 'why on earth is that mazungu wearing a pink wollen hat in Tanzania...it's supposed to be hot here'

I would highly recommend the crater to anyone for wildlife watching and in general if you want to experience a crater!

Safari...so goody!

Ha ha ing at my own titles of these posts...tee hee.
I don't even think we're halfway through this trip yet dear reader...sorry. I'll try to whittle it down a little but I'm not sure I'll be successful.

So, we're heading to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, did I mention that we're camping there for the night? No? Did I also mention that there's no fence or protection from any kind of wild animal there? You betcha I was reaching for the whiskey that night; here's the campsite and me standing in front guarding my tent:

The princesses were terrified...signs like these above did NOT help morale...

Darkness fell...animal noises could be heard and we were told 'if you need a number one in the night, get out of your tent, do your business and get straight back in...if you need a number two...make a plan' gulp.

Suffice to say, that night I popped some sleeping pills and put my ear plugs in, and I'm happy to say I slept straight through the night! Didn't hear a thing, didn't need a wee! Katie - 2 African Wildlife - 0!

Next morning we got up early for a game drive and were lucky enough to see three leopards, sorry three ELUSIVE leopards...not so elusive though were you? huh? Us along with twenty other safari vehicles anyway...

We saw pretty much the entire Big 5 that day - so happy!

On our way out of the Serengeti, we had a chance to stretch our legs and check out a viewpoint. After a few days on the truck we knew better than to turn down any toilet breaks and leg stretching opps so out we climbed out and posed for a few pics:

The next part of the journey was one that I've just about banished to the back of my memory. We drove from the Serengeti to the Ngorogoro Crater along the bumpiest road for a few hours, it was awful! You couldn't read as the book would be bouncing around in front of your face, the truck was so loud that playing your music would be pointless too!

The only respite came from looking out for giraffes and Masai tribesman out in the bush in their distinctive red clothes. We stopped off at a Masai village for a tour and an opportunity to buy hand crafted, hideously overpriced souvenirs...

The tour was interesting and I'd never been in to a tribal village before, Nayani was almost welcomed in to the tribe which was too funny.

Onwards from here to spend the night at the edge of the Ngorogoro crater...what will we have seen there I wonder???

The long and bumpy road...to Tanzania

I loved Kenya, I think in Swahili you'd say 'Napenda Kenya'. I've got a soft spot for Kenya and will go back as soon as I can. Everyone we met was so friendly and although it was cold at times and we were camping, we saw a lot of it in the three days we spent there.

I didn't realise just how far away Kenya was from Tanzania especially when on a bumpy rickety truck...our first attempt to cross the border didn't go so well. The truck broke down just outside of Kericho, where they grow the tea. Tea? I love tea! Well we couldn't have chosen a better spot to break down in my opinion!

Anyone got a kettle?

Funny story behind this picture (apart from the fact I've made a T shape in front of a tea plantation) - as we climbed out of the truck to see the plantations, I didn't realise that we were parked on a sloping valley, so as I climbed down the steps to get out I jumped out of the truck, totally misread the landing, tumbled over and tried to jump up the valley and ended up flat in front of everyone, but then the next three people to climb out after me did the same thing - tumble town, total lolz. I'd recovered for the photo.

Anyway, the truck stops and we sit and wait to be told what to do, like every other part of the trip. JJ, our tour guide opens the door and says 'OK guys, keep youselves busy for ten minutes whilst we check out under the truck'...five hours later, we're keeping busy sunbathing, eating and reading Glamour magazine when we're told we're going to have to stay in a hotel for the night...result! Tents away guys! Woo hoo! I've never been so happy to see a hotel before in my life.

We stayed at the Tea Hotel in Kericho which was great, wanna know why? The beer was cheap and I could unpack my child sized rucksack and work out what the hell was going on in there! As far as I was concerned, a monkey kept going in there and messing it all up.

We were on holiday now alright, the beer started flowing at 4pm and we played cards right up until dinner time, a buffet that we did well on, the rounded off the meal not with a cup of tea, but with a cup of Milo malted hot milk! Even though we were in the Tea Hotel...well...you can't buy Milo over here!

So after a refreshing overnight stay, we hit the lumpy tarmac once more! Only to break down again two hours later...after we'd literally just been joking that we'd break down again today...oops.

Ahh yes I see what the problem is here...
Anyway, it was fine, we had a roadside lunch and a bush toilet trip (actually getting quite used to bush toilets, better than smelly public toilets) and whole lot of interest from the locals driving past and seeing 17 mazungus (Swahili for white person) eating lunch at the roadside, we were off again! Tanzania bound!

I have nothing of interest to say about the Kenya - Tanzania border crossing, apart from the fact the toilets smelled so bad I had to put suncream up my nostrils to stop the smell permeating my nez.

We hit the shores of Lake Victoria at sunset and were lucky enough to see the beautiful sunset...whilst growling at our tents we were putting up at the same time. Grrrrrrrr flaming tents.

We had beers by the shore and when the sun went down we sat under a blanket of stars talking about a range of topics with the rest of the group. We all seemed to have a favourite topic - toilets! Everyone has a toilet story!

That night Nayani and I fell in to blissful slumber, only to be awoken a few hours later by thunder and lightning...we'd all forgotten to throw the rain covers on our tent the previous evening...gaaaah! Rain in Africa is literally like turning a tap on, it starts falling so heavily that you have about ten seconds before you're drenched. Anyway, we got the cover on and fell back to sleep...only to be awoken by the mosque next door calling to prayer at 5am...gaaaaaaah! Call to prayer is terrifying when you have NO idea what on earth is happening! Nayani and I were convinced someone was coming for us!

So...not the best night of sleep I've ever had. But it was fine, it's fun to put a tent down in the rain; character building and that. Besides, we had sausages for breakfast, so I'm happy!

Next stop...the Serengeti...here's a hint of what's to come...