Arusha to Dodoma - Saturday 30th Jan

We were packed and ready to go by 7.30 and Ma came down to say goodbye and wish us well on the trip. The next few days we will be transiting through central Tanzania headed to the country of Malawi.

As usual we had our driving brief by Jan and we were headed for the capital of Tanzania- Dodoma which is about 440kms away. 

Jan reminded me to be aware and careful of the police as they will fine you for any infringement ( not driving in shoes, speeding, defects) to supplement their wages .

We pulled out of Snake Park Arusha through the police check point just outside but weren't stopped as BJ had built and donated the police check point area and building to the local police ( as this provides an extra level of security to the snake bite clinic and camping park) so we were never pulled up leaving or entering the park.

Nice drive through the country side whilst slowing down regularly for speed bumps on the highways and also 50km speed zone  areas with lots of deadly speed bumps in local village areas- police love this as lots of people speed through these districts. It's handy when these signs are around but lots of time they aren't so you need to keep alert for them, especially when your hooting down the highway and along comes one in an unlimited speed zone.

At the start of every village you are welcomed with the village sign and when you leave they give the same sign with a line through it. This sign means that you are now leaving the village of Himiti

And the speed limit of 50 Kms ends they also give the same sign with a line through it. They don't say how much the speed limit is now just its no longer 50.

The area has very bright red volcanic  soil which is great for their farming of crops plus used to make their homes and buildings.

We had travelled about 130kms on the main bitumen highway when we approached a mountain range and the road changed to a one lane dirt road which was very weird as this is the main road to the capital and you then had to share it with transport trucks, buses and cars.

We thought we had taken a wrong turn as surely this couldn't be the main highway however could see Jan and Amanda behind us in the distance so kept going.

We continued on for about another 80 kms when we encounted a brand new 10 metre wide highway that went for about 10 kms then back to dirt until we came across a 100 km new highway that the government is currently have built by a Chinese contractor. We still had the take the dirt road beside the road which was mostly a goat track with red slippery mud along most of it( at least the rain kept the dust at bay)

 Considering the state of the roads this was truly a civil engineering masterpiece with swathes of land excavated out to make way for the highway. They were mining the bluestone out of a local mountain and had several crushing plants and batching  yards- unbelievable given we were in the middle of a developing African country. 

The new president Mr Magufuli who was elected in 2015 is nick named Bulldozer due to his focus on nation building with  roads and their natural gas resources.

We then got off the side tracks onto the new road which was being prepared for surfacing just as we hit a mountain range after an afternoon shower and were met with a river of water coming down and eroding the civil works. Due to all the rain lately the Chinese had stopped construction waiting for a dry period to resume.

Started to see the odd baobab trees along the way as well. Besides  the cycads I was very keen to see these trees on the trip.

The name baobab is Arabic which means "father of many seeds" and can grow to between 5 and 25 metres as solitary individuals, and are large and distinctive elements of the Savannah. Some live to over 1000 years and lose their leaves for 9 months of the year in the dry season. The span of the roots actually exceeded the tree's height, a factor that enables it to survive in a dry climate.

We continued on for another couple of hundred kms of either dirt or bitumen roads until we finally got to Dodoma at 4 pm. It had taken 8 hours to travel 440kms due to the roads, continual stopping for animals, local villages and comfort stops! We would have done 900kms at home in that time.

Dodoma is smack bang in the middle of the country and was a nice idea at the time. Like all custom built capitals ( think Canberra) it never really caught on even through it was along the old caravan route connecting Central Africa to the sea and it was of little consequence until 1973 when it was named the capital. The original plan was to move the entire government from Dar es Salaam however even through the parliament meets in Dodoma all the economic and political centre remains in Dar es Salaam.

As we were arriving late and unable to set up for Amanda to cook we were booked into a local motel called Dear Mama Hotel  ( it also had onsite parking and security) so we quickly checked in and headed to the bar for afternoon refreshments of Kilimanjaro largies for the boys and the local gin Knoyagi  for the girls on the deck followed by a meal then off to bed.

Zanzibar to Arusha - Thursday 28th + Friday 29th Jan

Woke to an overcast and rainy day in Zanzibar  as we packed and departed for our 11.30am flight back to Snake Park. Very glad we had several days of beautiful weather whilst we were in Zanzibar .

Jan picked us up from the airport and headed to the shops for lunch and essential supplies then back home to relax. All of the big overlander trucks had departed and there was a 4WD overlander parked and about 25 German bike riders pulled into the park which the 4WD was support for. Felt strange having so many tourist around for a change.

Amanda made us scrumptious BBQ king pawns and salad for dinner washed down by a crisp South Africian White wine.

Friday 29th Jan 

Rest day today so we started late and then headed back into the Cultural Heritage Centre again to look around at the statutes  and have lunch , then back to camp for our last night in Arusha. We head off tomorrow to the capital of Tanzania - Dodoma

Zanzibar - Wednesday 27th Jan

After a leisurely brekkie we had arranged with Tim to do a beach safari today , so he picked us up at 9am and we were at the beach by 9.30 and into the dow boat for a 40 minute journey to our first stop at a sand island. There was 4 crew members and 1 other tourist from Denmark and ourselves so lots of space on the boat. Our guide for the day was Adam who was previously a fisherman but now a tourist guide for these safari's

The sand beach where we landed and went in for a refreshing swim.

Followed by a coconut drink on the beach

Next it was off to a nearby reef for about 60 minutes of snorkelling and fish feeding as we went along with some bread. Here's the mermaid finishing the snorkelling trip

Then it was off to lunch at a nearby island for a seafood smorgasbord of lobster, fish, squid, bugs, salad rice and breads- great lunch

Here's a view of our BBQ area and another with 2 boat full of tourists.. 

Plenty of space and room at our camp!

The tides can rise and fall by several metres in a space of hours so you where able to walk to the next Island when the tide went down. The tide mark was just above my head about 2 hours before this photo

After lunch at  3 pm it was rising back up again This was a shot from the other side

We walked to a local boab tree which had blown over and then started to grow again from the roots

Back onto the boat we made a stop at  a local lagoon for a afternoon swim as the tide started to fill up the lagoon again. It must have been over 30 degrees in the water and was like swimming in hot soup

We arrived back on Zanzibar about 5pm for a quick shower then sunset beers and cocktails before heading out for dinner again at Africa House to have the rare tuna steak  that I enjoyed the night before. Again very, very quite at most of the hotels and restaurants.

Zanzibar - Tuesday 26th Jan Australia Day

 After a leisurely brekkie we zipped up to the post office and sent off our Kenya SIM cards to Debs as they don't work in Tanzania even through it's the same phone company in both countries!!.
Imagine having to change your SIM card as you travelled through all the states and territories in Australia.

We made a quick face time to home to check in on the days activity and Dan was enjoying an Aussie Day beer fest with his mates whilst under supervision by Char and Nadine.

Tim picked us up at 9 sharp to travel about 40 minutes to local farm to conduct a spice tour. Besides tourism , spices are the main industry in Zanzibar with the main produce being cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper. The farm we visited is a community farm so Muhammad was our guide and proceeded to show us around the farm with his helper called 007.Muhammad can speak Spanish , English, Polish , French and of course Swahili . We saw about 12 spices and 10 fruits being produced where he explained how each one is grown and types of uses with touching and smelling being a main part of the experience. One of 007s mates climbed up the coconut tree so we could have a refreshing coconut drink.

They also grow a seed that they use for lipstick.. 007 and Jo are demonstrating the product

As we were travelling around the farm 007 had been making various woven palm items for each of us

Hat,tie and ring for me whilst Joey got hat,basket,frog necklace,ring and fan - nice photo of the 2 dorks with their local wear.

Next up was a taste test of the local fruit grown which was very Queensland  like ( banana,water melon, pineapple,mango, durian ) and then followed by a lunch of rice and dried fish with a final visit to their spice shop.

Tim dropped us back to the hotel for a quick rest before he meet us at again at 2pm for a tour of Stone Town.
Stone Town's acrchiture has a number of distinctive features , as a result of Arab,Persian,Indian,Eurpoean and Africian traditions mixing together. One of the main house features of the buildings are their doors, this one is Indian as it has a round top . Muslim ones have squares tops  - 95% of the population are Muslim.

We visited the tourist markets followed by the locals market then onto the meat,fish and spice markets

On the way back to the motel we dropped Joey off to the local spa house for a bit of r+r whilst I ran the gantlet walking back down the laneway of gift shop sellers trying to relive me of dollars.

Amanda , Jo and I all meet up again for happy hour at the roof top bar watching the sun set graciously in the background whilst the Muslim pray chant was echoing in the background.

We decided to head off to Africa House for dinner tonight which was very quiet on the tourist front. We enjoyed an excellent meal of lobster for Jo and tuna  for me accompanied by a nice little white sav blanc from South Africa .

Charlotte had been hassling me on many foreign trips to grow a goatie so after 2 weeks I decided  to relent and have a shave. Jo has been calling me Colonel Sanders all day.

Arusha to Zanzibar - Monday 25th Jan

We headed off today to fly to Zanzibar for 3 days so before flying out at 1.30 pm we visited the local Cultural  Heritage centre which contains a huge range of wooden carvings, paintings, metal sculptures and restaurant.

Jo managed to find 3 nice oil paintings of the Massai people  so after a bit of bargaining to settle on the price we all had a very nice lunch and then the short drive to the airport at 12.30 . We all piled into the light aircraft for the 90 minute flight to Zanzibar

The itinerary has only recently changed to flying as before they would drive from Arusha to Dar es Salaam then by ferry to Zanzibar however the traffic is horrendous and wastes a couple of days in this process so the flight is a far better speedier option( unfortunately Jan misses out and stays behind in Arusha)

We arrive mid afternoon and are met by Tim our local guide for the couple of days.The weather is fantastic with tempatures in the 30's and high humidity very much like Brisbane in summer time much to our delight.

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania and has been under the rule of Britain,Germany, Arabs and Portuguese over the centuries and between Zanzibar and Pemba Island their are approx 1.3m people. The island was a main port for slave trading and it only stopped in the late 1800's.

We are staying right in Stone Town which is  a world heritage site so we went up the main street which are all lined by souvenir shops mainly selling carvings and paintings. Jo also stopped to organise a local SIM card before going back to our motel which has a roof top bar so it was afternoon drinks at happy hour to watch the sun go down

View out from the bar at sunset

We then drifted off to a local seafood restaurant for a great meal and then a short walk back to the hotel to bed

Snake Park Arusha - Sunday 24th Jan

Snake Park as the name suggests contains a large display of snakes and is run by BJ and Ma who set up the camp ground as well as establishing the only snake bite clinic in Tanzania to treat snake bite victims. They also have a large mechanical workshop so Jan took Steph for a check whilst we headed off to local Massai village walk by a local guide called Ollie

We had a look through the local museum showcasing the life styles of the Massai then off for a couple of kilometre walk to a Massai village where we were greeted by some young kids who adopted us as we visited the various huts in the village. On the way came past the many agave they grow to/ use in their local brewed beers. Ollie was married with 2 kids and his father had 4 wife's with his mother being blessed with 8 and his Dad a total of 50 kids !!

We then entered the local Massai village and visited the cooking and sleeping houses with our adopted kids showing us the way. The one that hopped up on Joeys knee was fascinated with her iPhone and seemed very competent on swiping through her photos. 

Headed off back to snake park with Ollie showcasing how the local Massai guys walk with their stick. His shoes are made out of old tyres, which is a very sensible shoe in the terrain they walk in.

When we got back Ollie had arranged for the  local Massai guys to perform their dance for us again.  With me proving white men might not be able to dance but we can jump.

Post lunch we ventured went next door to see if we could get a SIM card however this proved to be difficult so went over the road to a local wood carving place to look around at the hundreds of local cravings for the next hour then returned for a cooling beer as it was very warm.We were then informed that the snake feeding was about to start so quickly finished our beers and watched the various snakes( pythons, cobra ) enjoy their weekly feed of baby chickens 

These two were fighting over one chicken

Heard some thunder in the background so left Jo to watch the feeding and hurry back to camp to gather out washing and close up the tent. It then proceeded to piss down for the next hour whilst some Overland  tours arrived

Poor buggers didn't know what hit them when they arrived to a mini camp ground flood .Had to take evasive action after the rain and retreat to the bar to recharge all our devices and allow me to catch up writing the blog from the last couple of days.

Each park has a group of Massai men who stand guard 24 hours per day.. These guys had bow and arrows as well

The driver from the overland crew new Jan so we joined them at dinner time and there were a couple of girls from Logan on the bus.  

After quite a few drinks they went off to the bar to play a drinking game so we joined them a bit later