Back to the North - October 2017

Almost a year to the day... we returned to Northern Tanzania for another safari adventure with good friends. Photo album here (takes a moment to load). I've included both colour and black and white versions of each shot. Couldn't decide which to use, and I like seeing both:

Monday 16th October

Departed Dar es Salaam and flew with Precision Air to Arusha. Short flight - just over one hour.

Baggage reclaim area in Arusha Airport.

We were collected from the airport and driven to our hotel, Venus Hotel. Every now and again, along the streets of Arusha, we would spot the beautiful jacaranda trees with their gorgeous purple blooms.

We had some 'chill time' before an early, delicious, dinner at a local restaurant... then bed!

Tuesday 17th October

Left Arusha and drove to our next hotel in Karatu - the Ngorongoro Oldeani Mountain Lodge. The journey took about three hours (143km). One thing I absolutely LOVE about travelling in Tanzania is the sights that you just happen upon when driving out in the wilderness. Sometimes I just have to pinch myself to make sure it's all real. On long journeys like this I just cannot snooze the hours away as there is so much to see out of the window!

• Vast areas of dryness, where people travel miles on foot for water. If they are lucky they might have a donkey, or bicycle, to help carry the load.
• STRONG women carrying heavy loads. On their heads. Buckets, baskets, wood, sacks of potatoes. You name it, they can carry it.
• Maasai men, and boys, herding livestock. Goats, cows, donkeys... the larger your herd, the richer you are. I love spotting the flash of a red or blue shuka. Interesting article here about the shuka.
• Traditional Maasai bomas - a group of mud huts surrounded by a 'fence' of sorts made from thick and thorny bushes to keep out the lions and other predators... keeping livestock safe at night is imperative.
• Local kids being kids - climbing trees and playing games.
• Trucks (yes, trucks, not buses) full of coffee plantation workers. A dangerous ride on the way to earn their keep.
• Older ladies sitting on upturned water buckets having a morning 'meeting'.
• Lots of people wearing woolly (winter) hats and jackets... even though it's just a wee bit cooler in the mornings and rarely under 20 degrees.
• Overturned trucks or buses that have careered off the road.
• Driving through a military zone - no photos allowed.

Arrived safely at the hotel and had a lovely afternoon in the hotel reading, playing games, swimming in the pool, and just generally relaxing - something we rarely get to do!

Hotel pool

Wednesday 18th October

Whole day game drive in the Ngorongoro Crater. Incredible scenery and great views, albeit a bit hazy, from high up on the crater rim.

Some additional info about the Crater that was in the hotel paraphernalia.

Once you are down inside the crater, the land is relatively flat and open... so it is quite easy to spot the abundant wildlife. We came very close to seeing a rhino, but she had moved on by the time we arrived at the spot where she had been sighted. Rangers are always close by the rhino. Men with guns, armed and ready, risking their own lives to protect the endangered creatures from poachers. The rangers work on a 'shoot to kill' regime - if a poacher is caught in the crater it's pretty certain he won't make it out. We learnt that there are now less that twenty rhinos living in the crater. We also learnt that there are seven lion prides living in the crater. Both rhinos and big cats are not easy to spot here as their numbers have diminished greatly in recent years.

We were VERY lucky with our driver... he was extremely knowledgeable about the area and had been working on the Northern Tanzania safari circuit for over twenty years! He was also a bit of a 'bird' man and was able to name every single bird we saw - amazing. Loved the way he could spot things that I would have totally just driven past. Who knew that there were at least five sleeping lions on these rocks?!

We saw multiple numbers of: hyena, jackal, zebra, buffalo, warthog, brown snake eagle, crowned crane, ostrich, Thomson gazelle, Grants gazelle, secretary bird, kori bustard, bat-eared fox, black headed heron, hartebeest, wildebeest, Egyptian geese, cheetah, elephant, blacksmith plover, yellow billed stork, hippo, sacred ibis, lion (male and female), white pelican... and more!

Highlights:

• Cheetah up CLOSE.
• Hyena kill - one hyena stalked and then ran down one of the weaker wildebeest. Once on the ground four additional hyenas joined for the feast! Incredible to see the pack tearing apart the poor creature!
• Hippo fight (possibly play?) in the hippo pool! Big teeth, enormous jaws.

Thursday 19th October

Whole day game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. This was our second visit to this park. Although we travelled here at the same time last year, the lake was much, much lower and the land was very dry and dusty... in desperate need of rain!

We were really hoping to see the 'famous' tree-climbing lions here as we had not seen them on our previous visit. Alas, it was not meant to be! However, it's hard to be disappointed when you see so much flora and fauna in such a beautiful setting. A completely different terrain to the crater. Animals are harder to see here as there is less open space, more trees and bushes. You could be a couple of metres from a lion and never know it!

We did manage to spot these though: blue monkey, crested guinea fowl, silver cheeked hornbill, elephant, bushbuck, vulture, warthog, Egyptian duck, African spoonbill, avocet, flamingo (lesser and greater), African jacana, African snipe, three banded plover, ibis, sadle-billed stork, hippo, little bee-eater, zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, waterbuck, buffalo...and... we smelt rotting flesh a couple of times, and saw vultures nearby... but no actual sighting of the carcasses!

Highlight:

• Sadle-billed stork - elegant, and HUGE, bird with vibrant colourings.

Friday 20th October

Drove back to Arusha Airport, and then flew back to Dar via Zanzibar.
Turbulence was BAD from take off in Arusha. The first 15-20 minutes of the flight were very bumpy. I think my son could sense that I was definitely NOT comfortable. We landed safely, twice, and made it back to Dar a little earlier than originally planned. Home, home, joggety jog.

Here's a compilation of the video footage I took... a little wobbly as there is no space for a tripod in a safari jeep!

I didn't manage to tick off any more of the 'Big Five'. On previous safaris we have seen lion, elephant, and buffalo. We have yet to spot the remaining two - leopard and rhinoceros. Maybe next time...
Having said that I did see a huge amount of wildlife that I have never seen before, so it was still an amazing experience!

That's the thing about safaris - "you never know what you're gonna get". Last year in Lake Manyara we saw copious amounts of elephants and giraffes, this year we saw much more bird life. You are pretty much guaranteed to see SOMETHING... and if you are really lucky, that something can be a very big surprise!

All in all another amazing adventure was had. Lovely to experience this with my son and long time friends... it made the trip even more special. I do wonder how much my son will remember of trips like this. He is ten years old, and has seen so much!

I got to spend time in a very special place on this planet. So grateful.

Roald Dahl's Tree

Dar Microadventure

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about an 'adventurer', Alastair Humphreys, who recommends 'microadventures':

A microadventure is an adventure that is short, simple, local, cheap – yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding.

So today I decided to have one! Here's what happened...

9am

Dropped off my son at his friend's home for the day. Scheduled pick-up was 2pm. So no guilt about me having some fun of my own!

Stop 1 - Vipaji Art Gallery

Conveniently right next door to where I'd just dropped my son. I remembered a colleague mentioning this place to me so I decided to take a look. Walked around the back and found their nice outdoor coffee shop area, called Makuti.

I asked about the Art Gallery opening times - they said it was open so I went back to the front. It wasn't! Headed back to Makuti and ordered a latte. I came prepared - I had brought a book with me to read (The Last Maasai). I sat and read for about half an hour, then headed back to the front when the waitress told me the gallery was open.

Lovely little gallery, full of paintings and sculptures by local artists. I started talking to the man in charge, Yusuph. He explained to me that some of the artists originate from the south of Tanzania, a place called Mtwara. He talked about some of the artists, namely Chilonga, Kambi, Evarist Chikawe, and Ludovick. There were also some works by the apparently 'upcoming' artist Mika. There were definitely a few works I could have purchased and lived with!

One, in particular, I could have just stared at for a very long time... thankfully they didn't accept credit cards! But I will be going back.

What I loved was just having TIME to appreciate art. I could have stayed there for hours. Maybe next time I will! I did buy an interesting book they had there:

Stop 2 - Side of the road

We've lived in Dar for over 8 months now. The weather is starting to cool. I love sitting and eating outdoors... so I decided it was time to buy some furniture for our balcony. All I really wanted was a couple of chairs and a table. A colleague recommended a roadside place (there are many roadside 'stores' here!), so I headed in that direction. Pulled over, hopped out and within 5 minutes I'd made a deal with the owner! I managed to haggle a little bit, with a smile of course, and realised he wouldn't go down by much. We agreed on a price and he asked me to return in an hour as the table I wanted wasn't actually there. I paid a tiny deposit and off I went.

Stop 3 - Slipway

Touted as a 'shopping centre'... it's a small quaint array of shops, mainly for expats and tourists... an English-language bookshop, a LOVELY shop called The Green Room, a 'souk' (marketplace/bazaar) and more. A couple of reasons why I added this to my microadventure itinerary...

• need to start thinking about gifts to take back to UK in June
• I like the Waterfront restaurant there.

I wandered around, grateful to just have time to look at all the lovely things available. I was mainly window shopping, but couldn't resist buying a new book to read (as I'm nearly done with The Last Maasai!).

Saw some great ideas for gifts - I'll look in other places and come back another day if I need to...

Then I headed to the Waterfront. I ordered a soda water and a 'Lonely Planet for One'. YUM.

Lovely, slow lunch. No rushing required. As I was finishing the sky grew darker and I knew it was time to leave. The heavens opened as I approached my car... and thankfully I didn't get too wet!

Stop 4 - back to the side of the road

Picked up the two chairs and table. Paid the guy. In the POURING rain. Now I was drenched.

Decision - it was now about 1pm. I could go home, drop off the furniture, then head back in the same direction to collect my son... NAH - let the adventure continue - even if it meant more rain!

Stop 5 - Oyster Bay

Was hoping for a coffee at my all-time favourite restaurant in Dar, Salt. Unfortunately, they were closed for the public holiday. So instead I went next door to the Black Tomato... and continued to read.

As I sat there the rain continued. And got harder.

And harder.

In the end, I gave up and decided to collect my son from nearby a few minutes earlier than planned!

Stop 6 - driving home

Just plain everyday driving in Dar es Salaam can be an adventure in itself. Today was no different. Roads had started to flood due to the crazy rainfall.

The most we have seen since arriving last July. When we were almost home we hit DEEP water.

Stop 7 - the end of the adventure

Once back at home, my son and friends had a ball playing on the flooded field! Soooo much fun!

After the boys had finished, I noticed dozens of dragonflies skimming on the water. Then crows flocked in! Amazing to see so much nature so close by. Such a different world to the one we were in before, Hong Kong. Great to sit in my new chair, feel the breeze, and watch the world happen.

All in all, a great microadventure - it definitely ticked most of the boxes!

Short? Yes.
Simple? Yes.
Local? Yes.
Cheap? Kinda (if I hadn't bought the chairs and table... but could have been worse - art!)
Fun? YES.
Exciting? Not overly.
Challenging? Not really, apart from driving through the flood!
Refreshing? Absolutely. I adore rain. Must be the Brit in me.
Rewarding? You betcha!

Can't wait until the next one...

Full photo album from the day here.

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.

A Lesson in Banking

I've been to my local bank a fair few times since we arrived here... mostly not by choice. I've always stayed calm and the assistant manager and his colleague now know me by name and smile when I go in (I'm the crazy mzungu lady). It took 8 weeks (and three application forms) to get a cheque book... but it finally arrived, with a smile...and even an apology for making me wait so long.

Today, for the first time in my life, I haggled in a BANK! Haha! 

I needed to transfer a substantial amount of money from my US$ account into a Tanzanian shillings account. I wasn't happy with the exchange rate they were giving me so cheekily asked if they could do better. 

The assistant manager said "let me try". Was not expecting that! 

So he called head office and spoke to someone there, and got a better exchange rate. I pretended to be horrified that it was still so low so he tried again and came back with a better number. I smiled sweetly and said "I think you can do better than that" (soooo not me!)... so he ended up giving ME the phone and I spoke to the nice lady on the other end. 

I'm learning how things work here. Greetings are an extremely important part of Tanzanian culture. Community and people are number ONE. So I dove in... in my best Kiswahili.... good afternoon, how are you? etc etc... and then...

"PLEASE can you give me the best rate today?"
I did that bit in English!

She gave me a number, I kept asking for more, she gave me a better number, I kept asking.... and then eventually she stopped changing the number and I realised that was as far as she was going to go. I was on the phone for a good ten minutes!

The most shocking thing of all? The difference between the first rate and the final rate meant that I walked out $560 US DOLLARS better off!!!!! Insane. Imagine... I could have just walked in, none the wiser, and agreed to the first rate they gave me. I would not have known any different. Definitely keeping the staff at this bank on my side.

Getting more confident in my bartering skills here! Reminds me of the good old China days!! 

Just need to learn a few more numbers in Kiswahili.... getting there slowly but surely!

Settling

We landed in Dar nine weeks ago today. So much has happened since then. What an adventure we have had so far!

This week I finally feel like I am starting to settle and establish some routines (of sorts).

Things I'm getting used to:

Always having extra snacks on hand! The kids who live on campus tend to gravitate from one house to another, so sometimes I might have 6 or 7 kids here, other times it will be just me! They live very happy, free lives within the compound. Huge football field, swimming pool, basketball courts, climbing frames... they have a complete ball. Friday or Saturday nights they sometimes go to one of the homes for a movie! They haven't been here yet as we have no TV! Seriously considering buying a projector at Christmas as we have a HUGE blank wall that would be GREAT for movies! It can get a bit lonely... in HK it was always just me and Oli. Now, most of the time, it's just me! An adjustment to be sure, but I have enough work to keep me busy for now. Hope to find some kind of project to get into, like a balcony garden or something... Or maybe I will now have time to READ!!!! :)

Having my kitchen back. The best thing about our shipment arriving was unpacking all my kitchen stuff. FINALLY, I can cook again. Just last night I made my own tomato ketchup, a lovely pineapple salsa, and some chocolate chia pudding! I know this is all going to help me to get my health back on track. Need to discover where to buy bigger garlic! Look at these tiny cloves! The alternative is the carcinogenic bleached white stuff imported from China...erm, no thanks... I'll stick to spending hours squinting to peel these little cherubs!

Beautiful, clean, fresh air and blue skies. EVERY day. Seriously never considered how much this would mean to me. I really do not miss the pollution of Hong Kong. I feel like we are breathing properly now. Oli's panda eyes, that were a permanent fixture in HK, are virtually GONE. He is out in fresh air and sunshine EVERY day and he is much, much, much happier for it. That alone makes everything else a hundred times easier to deal with.

Slow, intermittent, or non-existent internet! I had been warned about this before we came, so it was eyes wide open... and I think I have adapted easier than I thought I would. Yes, it can be frustrating... but there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, so why worry? I use the Wi-fi when I can, and when I can't it's OK. We have regular power outages... I'm guessing about 5 or 6 per day. Not for long as the generators kick in, but I am extremely grateful of my surge protectors or my electricals would have been FRIED by now.

Being a mzungu! This actually reminds me of my very early days in China. I remember travelling (alone) in rural China in the 90s, walking down a road in a village in the middle of nowhere (about 3 hours from Xi'an) and the whole street just stopping and staring at me because they had never seen a guilo (white person/mzungu) before. Nothing quite that noticeable here, but I obviously stick out like a sore thumb. It's hard to live like a local (for an expat... as I am so obviously NOT a local). I will never be able to pay local prices in a market. Prices double (or triple, or more) as soon as they see me coming!! I definitely want to integrate more than I am right now... it's very easy to stay in the bubble of the school campus. So I'm working on two things that will hopefully help with that:

• Learning the lingo - Kiswahili is a gorgeous language and I'm trying hard to use it whenever I can. I pick up things from taxi drivers, staff at school, and anyone I meet on the streets! It definitely helps relations when people see that I am least trying! I laugh at me, they laugh at me... it's all good!
• Buying a car - hopefully soon. Very, very soon! I need to feel more independent. I hate relying on Uber, taxi drivers, and very kind, generous colleagues to get to places. I want to be able to drive out of Dar for mini adventures at the weekends. Funds are coming within the next week or two and then my first stop will be WHEELS!

Definitely making the most of our time in Africa. Our first trip is BOOKED! We have a week's holiday in October. So we are heading up north to Arusha for 4 days/3 nights for some game drives! Can't wait! Watch this space.