Kilwa - April 2017

5 kids. 5 adults. 2 cars. 4 days. 3 nights. First serious drive in Africa.

Thursday 13th April 2017

Left at the crack of dawn (5am) and began the drive to Kilwa Masoko, a small town located some 322km from Dar. Once out of the city, it's a simple route taking the B2 road all the way there. No real chance of getting lost!

As we left before sunrise, the first hour or so of the journey was a little hairy... lots of roundabouts on the roads heading out of Dar and no street lights. Some vehicles had lights on, some didn't. At one point it felt as if we were driving on the edge of a cliff... when we drove back in daylight we realised there had been a sheer drop! 

I have never been so relieved to experience a sunrise!! I love driving, but I felt much more comfortable once I could actually see the road and vehicles on it. Then we had a fair bit of fog - not what I was expecting at all. Fog?! 

By about 7am the roads were clear and it was a smooth run. It's a decent, newish, road so none of the usual Tanzanian bumpiness... but there were a fair few potholes that needed dodging! At one point I felt like I was inside a video game, swerving to miss the holes as they were hard to spot until you were almost on top of them.

We passed through so much beautiful green African countryside. Miles and miles of greenery - grass, trees, bushes... this is the rainy season, so I wonder whether it is so green in drier times. 

Photo credit: Lynn Kogelmann

Along the way, we drove through small villages, including one that had a massive cassava market. It's a major carbohydrate staple here, primarily due to it being one of the most drought-tolerant crops.

We arrived at our hotel, the Kilwa Pakaya hotel, after about 5 and a half hours non-stop driving. A quaint little place on the beach. We'd paid for half board so chose four courses from a set menu each night. Decent food - considering we were miles from anywhere!

Friday 14th April 2017

Earlyish breakfast (7am), then took a boat over to Kilwa Kisiwani. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of boats... while I LOVE being on the ocean, I'm nowhere near as brave as I used to be (before my son was born). So being in a small wooden boat, that holds about 20 people, with no life jackets was not doing my stress levels any good. 

Obviously we made it safely to the other side... I wouldn't be writing this otherwise! 

It was well worth the trip though... despite some heavy rain... the ruins were stunning. Historical info here for those who are interested. We had a great tour guide who was very knowledgeable about the area. He walked us through the ruins and across the island through a small village. 

I swear that sometimes, here in Tanzania, I feel like I am on a movie set, or part of a TV series. On a daily and weekly basis, I see things that are quintessentially AFRICA. Women carrying huge loads on their heads. Maasai warriors with sticks and daggers. Barefooted and nearly naked children wandering or working. 

In this village, we saw all that, except the Maasai. We saw two young women fetching water from a well. There are no taps here. This is where they have to come, on a daily basis, to survive. Interestingly, our guide pointed out another well just a few metres away that had been built by the well-meaning (excuse the pun) UNESCO... yet the locals refuse to use it, saying the water from it is too salty. Or perhaps they just don't trust the mzungu. Perhaps they just prefer to stick with what they know.

Unused UNESCO well with local well being used in the background

There were also lots of homes with plastic buckets lining the walls... collecting the rainwater as it fell off the roof. I wondered if this water would supplement their drinking water from the well... used for cooking... I have so many questions. 

We stopped for a few minutes to buy bottled water (not from said well) at the only 'shop' on the island. There were locals, kids and adults watching us. I guess they get a fair few tourists through here. Our guide said they appreciate it when visitors buy refreshments from their shop as it gives them some extra income.

As we started to leave an old lady grabbed my arm and stopped me. She shook my hand. Held it fast. And didn't let go! She spoke to me in Kiswahili and I responded as best I could:

Welcome.
Thank you.
How are you?
Fine, thank you. You?
I'm good. Be safe.

Thank you. Be safe.

Goodbye.
Goodbye.

I've experienced this longer-than-normal hand holding before, so wasn't too uncomfortable. Incredible to make a connection with an elder. Unreal. According to the WHO, life expectancy of females in Tanzania is under 63.8 years of age. This lady looked much older than that... I'm guessing 75-80. Very rare to see elders in these parts, let alone hold their hands!

We saw some lovely baobab trees. These are becoming my firm favourite. In China, I could never get enough pictures of the mu mian hua trees. Here, it's the baobab. Ancient. Strong. Incredible. Apparently, you can tell the age of a baobab by measuring its circumference - one metre is equal to one hundred years of its life. I touched a baobab on the walk this day that, by this reckoning, was about 800 years old. Incredible.

Lots of ruins.
Lots of rain. 'Tis the season. It certainly didn't spoil our fun!

Here is an album of the photographs I took of the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani: the Great Mosque, the Palace of Husuni Kubwa, and Husuni Ndogo (Little Fort). The album also includes two baobab tree images I took en route to Kilwa:

We headed back to the mainland, and were back at the hotel just after 1pm. The kids spent the rest of the day frolicking in the sand and sea while the adults sat under the shade of the nearby palms reading and relaxing. Perfect!

Saturday 15th April 2017

Another 7am breakfast. I slept so well on this trip. Asleep by 9pm, up at 6am.

The plan was to visit a second island, Songo Mnara. Something inside of me just didn't want to go.
Maybe it was the thought of a longer boat trip with no life jackets.
Maybe it was the thought of more climbing - I'm nowhere near as fit as I want to be.
Maybe it was just that I was exhausted and just really wanted a day of rest.

I talked to my son about it... he wasn't bothered about going. I promised myself a while back that I would always do what is best for me... sounds mad, but for so long I have NOT been doing that. So we didn't join the others. I felt bad for not going, but everything inside of me said "don't go". For once, I listened.

The two of us stayed in the hotel for the morning. We played games. We napped. We talked.
Much needed quality mother and son time. Zero screen time.

The others returned and the kids got back to the beach! All good.

One of the best things about this trip was disconnecting and just being with good people. I only took my phone. No iPad, no computer. And the wi-fi was not great at the hotel. So I spent roughly 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening doing a quick email/social media check. A LOT less that usual! I spent much of my downtime just watching the ocean, looking at the sky, breathing in the sea air. So good for the soul.

Sunday 16th April 2017

We left the hotel in Kilwa Masoko shortly after 10am, filled up the petrol tanks, and began our drive back to Dar. Easy roads. A few crazy drivers - mostly the bus drivers were the ones to watch!

On the drive home I realised that I have lots of 'WOW' moments here in Tanzania... and on a regular basis. I'll have to remember to keep posting them here.

Somehow the sky seems so BIG here. Maybe it's just the vastness of the open land, the open sea... but the sky seems bigger than any place I have seen on Earth. The clouds are stunning. And always changing. It's rainy season, so rain comes and goes. One minute you are driving in blazing hot sunshine with clear blue skies. The next minute the sky becomes dark and the heavens open. It's incredible. I know I use that word a lot here, but it is truly amazing.

Another eye-opening sight was seeing how the hedges along the road were cut back. It's all done by hand. Men with scythes, kids with knives. How long before someone imports a hedge trimmer?

Photo credit: Lynn Kogelmann

We made it back to Dar safely and almost avoided any police stops. Getting stopped by police is a frequent occurance... on-the-spot 'fines' are common. Sometimes the officers blatantly ask for money for their lunch. Not kidding. We saw a few dalalas (public buses) get pulled over, but we managed to escape them... until we were literally one minute from home. 

Just before the final corner... a police lady pulled me over for not waiting at a junction with no traffic lights. She smiled. I smiled. I said "Good afternoon" in my best Kiswahili. She replied, still smiling. Then told me I would need to pay a 30,000 shilling fine (about 10 GBP, or 13 USD). I kept smiling, and said "OK, give me the ticket - can I pay at the bank?". She asked to see my driver's licence, I gave it to her. She walked away for a moment, then returned. "OK, today I will give you a warning"... I kept being nice... and a couple of minutes later, after listening to her instructions about how to approach the junction properly, I drove off with no fine. Yee haaaaaaa!! That's RARE! Considering the mileage we had driven, we were VERY fortunate not to have encountered more.

Back home in under 5 and a half hours.

Great trip with good people. 

Feeling very, very grateful right now.

Now to get back to my list-making - future Africa trips!

Kwaheri kwa sasa. Farewell for now.