Kilwa Seaview Resort, Kilwa Masoko, Tanzania. Tuesday 24th August.

Went to Chole Bay Marine Park on Saturday and went snorkelling. The sea was amazing, really clear and so many different fish and coral to see. Martin was squealing like a girl for the first 10 minutes which scared most of the fish away but he finally managed to use his snorkel without ingesting half the Indian Ocean and really enjoyed it!

We left Mafia at 6am on Sunday but couldn’t get to Kilwa in one day so stayed overnight in a small town; Ikwiriri. At a stop over in a place called Bungu, there was the public flogging of a local man taking place which was awful, we think he’d been caught stealing and this was the local way of dealing with criminals. When we arrived in Ikwiriri there was only one place to stay; which turned out to be a brothel and had Sean Paul and other fake reggae music banging out til 4am!

Finally after an horrific journey yesterday we arrived in Kilwa with bumped heads (from flying out of our seats along the road filled with huge potholes) and stiff necks. We are camping by the beach and woke up to the sound of the ocean this morning and enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and wieners (the owners are German) which was a welcome meal after eating biscuits for breakfast the past two mornings! Ah, Africa.

Whale Shark Lodge, Kilindoni, Mafia, Tanzania. Friday 20th August 2010

We spent Tuesday evening at the restaurant downstairs at the hostel, playing cards with a couple from London (Social Worker and English Teacher) and a guy from New York who already knew everything so why he bothered to talk to us I don’t know. He really annoyed Helen, but for some reason she insisted on joining him from breakfast the following morning, and regretted it straight away!

We left the hostel early Wednesday morning and got a dalla-dalla (small crazy bus) towards a place called Mbagala, south of Dar. From there we got off at a manic interchange and eventually negotiated to get into a smaller dalla-dalla (which usually have a driver and at least 1 or 2 conductors who tout for passengers and collect money, etc). We set off towards Nyamisati to get a boat to Mafia (a small island off the coast of Tanzania). Along the way we picked up and dropped off lots of passengers, ran out of petrol and picked up a couple of guys with a huge pile of some kind of root vegetable (we later found out these were cassavas). When we arrived I was expecting a a medium sized town but Nyamisati was tiny, pretty much the boat was the only thing there. A Tanzanian man helped us buy tickets and in return we bought his dinner before we set off on the 4 hour journey to Mafia. It was pretty uncomfortable the whole journey, but we stayed dry and Helen had a few naps.
The Lodge we are staying at is beautiful, we are camping and having dinner at the cliff top shack.

We spent all Thursday by the beach, very lazy - makes a nice change from working everyday. Had rough night in tent which was very hot and humid, Helen slept outside for a time, she is braver than me!

Jambo Inn, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Tuesday 17th August

On Sunday we said our goodbyes to the Bull's at Manchester airport, then realised we had no travel insurance. A quick panic and fiddle on the netbook later - we were sorted.
The flights were really smooth, both of us slept a little and watched a couple of films. I tried to watch Rocky but it sent me to sleep before the best bits.
4 Hour Stop over in Dubai was quick - getting off the plane to 40oC heat was a bit of a shocker at 6am, then a few hours of interrupted sleep on some reclining chairs in the airport then onto the second flight to Dar.

Dar seems like a friendly city, with a mix of African, Indian and Arabic cultures. The food at Jambo Inn is mostly Indian, no sign of ugali yet (East African staple food made by mixing cornflour and water)… I’m sure it won’t be long though!