Zanzibar

Well, I was really skeptical whether I would like Zanzibar or not. I think it is wonderful. For sure, it is quite touristy with all the things coming with it like fake guides, underemployed taxi drivers, impertinent suitcase porters, irritating shop owners and children who are accustomed to candy distributing tourists. Apart from that, it is simply great to walk around in the old small lanes, to get lost there, to land in a point which one knows again and so slowly discover the old town. As there was Ramadan (the fasting month of the Muslims), many stores were closed during daytime, and unfortunately, also many of the restaurants and cafes. This affects for sure also tourists, who are mostly not Muslim. However, it also has quite some advantages. According to the locals it was rather quiet at that time in Stonetown, because many tourists avoid the time of Ramadan. I would not necessarily want to know how busy Zanzibaris, if there is even more tourists than now…. On the whole trip I did not see as many (package) tourists as here. Another thing is that locals have to be very economical with her energy in Ramadan. So tourists can stroll through the old town without getting too much unwanted attention.

Stonetown

However, there are great museums here, the houses in the old town are mostly really nice and I live in Stonetown at a hotel which is accommodated in one several hundred year-old house. Quite traditionally with a so-called Pilipilibed, a gigantic bed which is very high, it has got a frame and carvings. Super comfy!
Of course there are also great beaches in Zanzibar. In the northern part there are very nice, almost white sandy beaches, which are nearly not influenced by the tides, so one can swim there the whole day. For sure, you are not here by yourself, but anyone expecting this, should better not come to Zanzibar anyway. Here the lodgings are expensive with starting at the budget edge with around 30 dollars for a single, but as it is very quiet at the moment, it is very easy to get the price down to less than half. Yes, am already very native….

Stonetown

Some days in the northern part of Zanzibar I spent with Paul from UK, who lives always half a year in Tanzania, the other half in the UK. He is living in southern Tanzania in a small village, giving people there a lot f support and leading a project there. Especially, he is into education, no wonder, as he used to be a teacher himself. Also, he is into tourism, guiding once a while clients through his second home country. However, I had a beautiful time with Paul exploring northern Zanzibar and I really hope to met again anywhere in the world. Possibly in Tanzania as his project sounds very interesting. Thanks a lot for everything, Paul!

In Zanzibar I have also spent more time than initially intended, because I wanted to experience the end of Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, and here. The Zanzibaris are known for the fact that they celebrate religious parties especially intensely, colorfully and loudly, and this I did not want to miss! Well, it was definitely worth staying the extra days.

In and around Stonetown there was on four days 2 parties in the evening. One party was directly by the sea where there is every evening a night market with great food. On these days after the end of the Ramadan it was much bigger, more authentic, more colorful, a lot more people and of course also much more interesting food. Above all of course sea food, but also chicken, pizza, soup, fruit and this very tasty sugarcane juice with lemon and ginger and ice cubes guaranteed made of tap water. I have missed this sugarcane juice since my departure from Mombasa painfully and my sugar cane seller here with the best juice because particularly a lot of ginger and lime, was glad every evening about my visit. No wonder, as I was one of his best customers with at least two gigantic mugs in the evening (1 liter of juice)….
The other party was exactly on the other side of the town and was much more of an authentic local party. Here, they had stalls with loads of plastic toys, photo studios, plenty of food stalls and an even disco with a DJ. This one was extremely loud. Though there was light, it was still very dark just a few meters from the stalls, so people constantly fell over other people sitting
on the ground consuming here their fish kebab, soup or chicken. A unique mess, simply fantastic!

After a few other days on the beach to chill out from all these festivities I continued travelling towards Malawi. Because there were so many interesting things to see and to do in between Kenya and here, I was rather delayed. So I decided to skip Mozambique  on this trip and travel directly to Malawi.

Banana beer or sugarcane beer?

After the safari I spent another night in Arusha, before I went to Moshi. Moshi is a little bit sleepy provincial town at the foot of the Kilimanjaro. The town and her inhabitants live above all on trekking tourism. There are various streets which are nearly as bad as the part of town in Arusha with the safari enterprises. The only difference is, that here it is all about trekking or souvenirs instead of safaris.

Benson

On the roof of my hotel in Moshi I got to know a man from Holland, who runs a travel agency in Moshi together with his wife. Due to the economic crisis many porters and guides who have worked earlier at Mt Kilimanjaro have apparently lost their work. This year 60 percent less tourists are about to climb the biggest mountain of Africa than normal. Logically, less tourists means, they need fewer porters and fewer guides. Poverty and desperation rise and with it also the risk to be attacked somewhere as a tourist. However, they advised me to take a guide for my trip to Marangu to avoid the risk of being mugged on the road. So I got to know Benson, a guide which comes from a village close to Marangu. These 15 dollars per day were well invested money, as I had a great time and I felt in very good hands.

Marangu

Unfortunately, the Kilimanjaro did not show up these 2 days, but the area around Marangu is very beautiful by itself, very green and there are some waterfalls to see and hills to climb. I also tried one of the local specialties – banana beer. I do know quite a few people, who would get an immediate outbreak of herpes already at the sight of the mug…. Not to speak from the contents inside the mug! The taste of that one, well, I would say, it is a quite nasty mixture of old banana and fermented chopped up muesli… Sounds about as fantastic as it was! However, once a while you come across things you just have to try, and I know, that my stomach was never weak with things like that!
As Mt Kilimanjaro did not want to appear at all, I just took the advice of Benson and added one more day in Moshi. This day was quite rainy in the morning, and then we had a nice walk in the forest close Moshi and tasty lunch with the aunt. But still no mountain.

Irente View Point, Lushoto

I had already given up, when the following day a phone call from Yusuf at the early hour of 6.30 got me out of bed (in Ramadan watches and timings go somewhat different). In a kind of reflex, I was peering out of the window and there was the mountain! Mt Kilimanjaro was complete and was visible without clouds! Only for one hour, but this was enough. This was the cooperation of a good advice of Benson and the early phone call of Yusuf! Thanks a lot to both of you making me see Kili!!!

Lushoto

From Moshi, I travelled to Lushoto, which is in the Usambara Mountains. Lushoto is a rather small place with a few thousand habitants and is situated at about 1200 metres altitude. Here, I found the ultimate guesthouse. More an oasis of quietness and peace, the hostel more like a home stay, a charming owner and very good food. All that in the middle of a nice mountain world with a lot of banana plantations, fruit trees, cabbage patches and other vegetables. At this point thanks to Julius, the owner of Karibuni Lodge. I had a great time in Lushoto! The walk to Irente Viewpoint was especially great. Here, you are really in the first row, without any fence you can see very far and 1200 metres down! Exactly that day, there were final school exams, so many students showed up at the view point as well to celebrate themselves and their 4-week vacation time starting now. For sure, they wanted the Mzungu (the white tourist) to be in the mid of things!
On this tour we came once more across a bar with local specialties. This time sugarcane beer. Well, why not. One thing is for sure – that stuff was definitely better than the banana one. A bottle is 200 Tanzanian shillings, which is about 0,18 Dollar. On the 500 shilling note, the bar owner could not give change, so the rest of the money went to a local round for the other two customers. For sure, they were rather happy about this idea.

Lushoto

Now, I am in Dar es Salaam, the biggest town of Tanzania with approx. 4 million people. As it is week-end and, besides, Ramadan, it is rather quiet in spite of the size of the town. Today, I went by bus for a day trip to Bagamoyo. In the past, this was one of the most important harbors of the African coast and the terminus of the trading route from Lake Tanganyika to the sea. Mostly, slaves and ivory was traded here and many of the European Africa travellers of the 18th and 19th century began and ended their trips here, e.g. Livingston, Burton and Stanley. At the end of the 19th century Bagamoyo was for a short time the capital of Deutschostafrika. Therefore, there are many German colonial buildings, most in an advanced stage of decay, but the government now puts in some money for restoration. The town itself has a sleepy charm. About 5 kilometers from town, there are the ruins of Kaole, which date from 13th to 15th century. This was an absolutely nice and relaxed daytrip with only friendly people round me.
Tomorrow, I  will leave for Zanzibar. Apparently, there are only two possibilities, either you like Zanzibar a lot or you hate it, there is nothing in between. Am already curious, what my feelings will be. It is definitely very touristy, with a lot of touts, fake guides, and other dubious characters, but it must be very beautiful also. We will see! This is going to be part of a new story.

Safaris in Tanzania

From Mwanza it is not really far to Arusha. The problem is that on the short route, one would have to cross two national parks, Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. This means for tourists, that one must pay the national park fee of 50 dollars per park whether you spot animals from the bus or not… This makes little sense! So, I decided to take a bus around all these parks and go south of them towards Arusha.

Road to Arusha

Well, I spent 14 hours in the coach, 5 of it on a very bad piste. When we reached Arusha finally in the evening, we were completely covered by fine reddish dust, even inside the backpack, which was stored in the belly of the coach, the dust had spread…. Well, the next day, I had to give a big laundry to the backpack from in- and outside.
In Arusha I was lucky once more in finding a group of 4 people, who were about to go on safari and had one more seat in their jeep available! We went to Lake Manyara, to Ngorongoro Crater and to Tarangire National Park. Our team was international: a young woman from Finland, a couple from France and one Japanese. Besides, there was a local driver-guide and a cook. We spent the two nights near the Manyara National Parks on a rim overlooking the park.

The first day we drove to Manyara National Park. The specific features here are the lions climbing trees. Unfortunately, we did not see one of them, climbing or not. But there were a lot of antelopes, monkeys, giraffes, elephants and hippos. Beside the salt lake there are some freshwater lakes, which the animals share for drinking. The water comes from the slopes of Ngorongoro Crater.
In the evening our cook presented really great food and from the close village an acrobat's group came for a visit. Quite a bit touristy, but that’s what the villagers are living on.

The following day, we visited the highlight of the area, Ngorongoro Crater. Millions of years ago, this must have been a gigantic volcano, which broke down sometime. Today there is only the edge of the volcano which is 2200 metres high. The crater is 600 metres down! Also the weather is different every kilometer. While driving up it becomes colder and colder and above all foggy! As foggy as Regensburg on a really bad november day…. Also as cold!
However, once you enter the crater, the wind almost stops. The fog disappears and makes room for the sun with a few clouds.

As there is water the whole year around in the crater, the animals stay here in contrast to Masai Mara / Serengeti. There is a lot of zebras, gnus, buffalo, various antelopes, cheetahs, lions, flamingos….. And all that in a spectacular, very dry scenery, salt lakes, freshwater pools with hippos, marshlands and brush land. Magnificent scenery and a really great day!

Baobab

The last day of our safari we spent in Tarangire National Park. It is above all known for its big elephant herds. However, besides there are also zebras, gnus, giraffes, antelopes, lions and cheetahs. This national park is well known for its many baobab trees. These trees look really funny, because they have a very big trunk and extremely lots of branches. There is a legend in Africa, after which of the baobab wanted to look absolutely different from the other trees. So he complained after his creation with God because looked quite just as all the other trees. As a result God was furious, tore out the baobab and put him back to front in the earth…..

Nafisa from Mwanza

Well, I already spent quite some time in Tanzania. According to Lonely Planet guide book, the road from the border with Rwanda towards Kahama was in very bad shape. Actually, it was a lot better than the guide meant. Well, things like these happen, when traveling with a 3 years old guide book. In the late afternoon I arrived in Kahama, the coach to Mwanza coming from somewhere else was delayed and it was not foreseeable, when this one would arrive. So I decided to spend the night in Kahama. I had a very charming coach driver who drove me by big bus to the hotel (a private transfer in the gigantic coach). Presumably I was in Kahama the only Mzungu, so in the hotel the receptionist and the guests were astonished about the new entry. Then the coach driver drove off again to organize my bus ticket for the next day, saying, the bus station is no place for an unaccompanied woman… Tanzania seems to be a very pleasant country, at least for single women…

Then a young man walked me to the Internet cafe, which was at least 30 minutes of a walk – once there, I found out, that he did not have anything to do there himself. Well, it was already dark, so this poor fellow even waited for me and brought me back to the hotel an hour later. The next morning he took me very early to the bus station, as this is no place for a single woman… Well, in any case, a great start for Tanzania!
On the next day I went by a very slow but safe bus to Mwanza. Mwanza is situated south of Lake Victoria and is the biggest town in this area. Here I visited Nafisa, a sister of Yusuf from Mombasa. She is married in Mwanza and lives here with husband Murtaza and granddaughter Khadija. In spite of the restrictions at the moment of the holy month of Ramadan they decided, that I should stay with them in their house. This must have been rather difficult time for them, as religious Muslims do not eat or drink at Ramadan during daytime. Besides, there are many restrictions on travelling and there are many set times for prayers in the mosque. Usually, there is dinner in the mosque and at 4.00 o'clock in the morning people get up for having breakfast to make it through the day. After that, most people go to bed again and follow, nevertheless, during the day their normal business. Nafisa insisted on preparing breakfast and lunch for me. I can imagine, it is not really funny to cook for other people great Indian dishes, if you are not allowed to eat yourself…
As the granddaughter Khadija is only 3 years old, she is also not feasting for sure, but it is somewhat different, whether one does some food for the granddaughter, or for a guest. Anyway, I felt like at home with the three of them and would like to thank her over again for the hospitality, their help and their friendship towards me!

In Mwanza I also met Jose again on the street. I got to know Jose about 2 months ago in Nairobi in the hostel I was staying. He comes from South America and is travelling in East Africa for 3 months. For the next day we agreed to visit an island. As it turned out, that this would cost us 52 dollars per person, we changed our plans and went by normal ferry to the next town and spent some time and then went back again. Thus we also got to journey on the lake for about a dollar for going and coming back…