I met up with the Oasis Overland truck in Karen, Kenya on February 3rd to begin my journey south through Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The Overland truck is basically a big yellow truck that runs tours all over Africa and other parts of the world. The truck carries tents, cooking gear and food, so we stop to camp along the way! When I arrived, the where 8 people already on the truck (coming south from Uganda) and 5 other people that joined the tour with me. Mostly Aussie's and Brit's, 2 Dutch and 1 Canadian (ME)!
On February 4th, we headed south for the Tanzanian border. At first, Tanzania appeared to be quite similar to Kenya. But, as we drove, I noticed that Tanzania seemed much more flat (less hilly) than Kenya, and there was more open unpopulated/undeveloped space. Tanzanian people speak mostly Kiswahili, like in Kenya, but may also have different dialects depending on their tribal origins. The people are extremely friendly, even more so than Kenyans, and often greeted me on the street. Even though I was living and working in a Maasai area in Kenya, I have seen Maasai cattle herders EVERYWHERE in Tanzania!
Our first stop in Tanzania was Arusha town, just south of the Kenyan border. In Arusha, we stayed at Snake Park campsite. As soon as we arrived, we explored the site park where there were many African snakes, birds, turtles and even crocodiles. I actually was able to hold two snakes; a smaller sand snake and a pretty big grass snake. From Arusha, I split off from the tour group to head to Ngorongoro crater. Ngorongoro is a GIANT crater created where an active volcano use to lie. Now, it is a 20km wide bowl filled with wild animals! It is now a National Park, but since the land has been inhabited by Maasai people for a long time, they are still free to graze the area with their cattle. On my first day there, I took a local bus around the rim of the crater, stopped in a local Maasai village, and got a local Maasai man to take me down his cattle path to get an amazing view of the crater! From above, the greater looks giant but empty. On my second day at the crater, I joined a Safari group heading down to the crater floor. Their I saw buffalos, elephants, hippos, rhinos, gazelles, antelope and LOADS of zebras, flamingos and wildebeest. I think the wildebeest were starting to get ready for the big migration since there were so many of them. The highlight was 2 male lions resting in the shade of our safari vehicle, followed by a male and female lion mating only a few metres away from us!
From Arusha, our truck continued to Dar Es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania). On our way, we got a good glimpse of Mt. Kiliminjaro in the distance. Our campsite in Dar was right on the Ocean! Our second day in Dar, we took the bumpy 2 hour ferry ride to the island of Zanzibar off the coast. We spent the first night in Stone Town. Zanzibar has a very diverse cultural background, and Stone Town is very relfective of that. Tall beautiful brick buildings, narrow alley ways, all right along the Ocean. We visited the Old Fort (built by the Portuguese), the house of wonders (first house with electricity and other amenities), and the old Slave Market sites where a Cathedral now stands. Zanzibar is famous for it's spices, so the group decided to go on a spice tour, where we were taken to a spice plantation. We got to test many spices and fruits. There was a crazy man who climbed coconut trees and sang while doing it. Apparently, he is also somewhat famous! I tried to climb the tree, but it was a lot harder than it looked!
We spent 3 more days in Zanzibar up at the Northern Beaches. We spent most of the time relaxing along the beach and swimming in the beautiful blue water! We also went snorkelling at Mnemba Atoll Marine Reserve. We saw many colourful fish, jellyfish, starfish, sea slugs and a very small octopus hiding under a ledge. After Zanzibar, we spent one more day in Dar Es Salaam to explore a bit of the city. Unfortunately Dar is very busy and not a very safe place for wandering tourists.
From Dar, we headed south on the truck towards the Malawi border. We drove through Mikumi National Park along the way, where we saw zebras and warthogs along the roadside. Our last stop in Tanzania was at a bush camp in Soa Hills 100km south of Iringa town. The bush camp was in the hills in the middle of no where, but was great because we were able to build a big bon fire!
Overall, Tanzania was a beautiful country with amazing wildlife! I really enjoyed my time on Zanzibar, and the National Parks proved to be as spectacular as they are said to be!
