Homeward Bound

All good things come to an end and now it's time to start our long flight home. We left Dar es Salaam at 5.45pm for our 5hr flight to Dubai. Arrived in Dubai to 38 deg at 12.45am. After a few holdups we finally made it to the airport Copthorne Hotel for a short sleep (not) before our checkin again at 7.30am.

Now on our last leg to Christchurch via Sydney.  

Dar esSalaam

A  4.15am start to take the bus back to the Port in Stone Town on the West of the Island where we catch the ferry to Dar es Salaam. It was a one and a half hour trip crossing the Indian Ocean in a Catamaran ferry. 

Arriving into the Dar es Salaam harbour with a view of our hotel on the cliff

A very overcrowded boat with their fishing nets

Coming into the ferry terminal looking across to a bustling fish market

Once we had jostled our way out of the crowded boat we were taken by bus to the Mkonde carvers. They were amazing 

The beginning of another carving in an Ebony log 

A finished carving which tells the story of their life

Sitting on their dirt floors in the heat under the rusty corrugated iron for shade.

Next stop was the Tinga Tinga artists. There was some great artwork and so much of it.

We had delicious pizzas on the seafront at the Slipway before settling into the Seacliff hotel on the cliff.

Sue has certainly left her mark here in Dar es Salaam after having held propagation workshops and encouraging them to go out and start their own nurseries. Now there are so many little roadside nurseries utilising the empty roadside land and earning a living for themselves.

Breezes Beach

Another relaxing day with an early morning walk along the beach. 

Late morning some of us travelled up the beach a few kms and snorkelled in the Blue Lagoon inside the reef with all it's pretty tropical coloured fish.

The afternoon was spent by the pool again with comfortable air temps of around 28 deg. 

Sadly this is our final night here at this peaceful Breezes Beach Club.

Breezes Beach

A lazy start to the day then a reef walk at low tide.

The afternoon was spent by the pool

Pre loading before dinner outside our room.

The smell of whiskey must have been the attraction. 

Breezes Beach

We departed from Stone Town and drove south through the centre of Zanzibar Island to the Jozani Forest the home of the Colobus monkeys. We took a walk through the forest and watched them swinging through the trees, feeding & mothering their wee ones. They are a problem to farmers as their diet is green fruit and leaves. The Colobus are the rarest monkey in Africa and are protected. Farmers are now subsidised by the government for their losses and use dogs to keep them away. 

Further down the road we stopped and took a walk through an Eco-system of mangroves where prawns crabs and fish spawn.

Micky our guide explaining how this Eco-system works

 We travelled south east and by early afternoon we arrived at The Breezes  for our next 3 nights. A beautiful place right on the beach.

Our room far right

Zanzibar

Today we took a Dhow trip to Nakupenda Isles. Our first stop was  Sand Atoll where we enjoyed some swimming and snorkelling in the beautiful clear water.

Looking back at our hotel.

Sand atoll in the distance 

Keeping cool in the beautiful clear water

We had a delicious BBQ lunch freshly caught that morning. The most tender octopus I've ever eaten.

The old Dhow we travelled in. The mast was just a nice straight limb off a tree with the bark removed and sanded down.

One more swim then across to Prison Island where there had been a Prison  built by the Arabs and never intended  as a prison but to secretly continue the slave trade after the abolition. Prison Island is also well known for its land turtles where they are keeping them from becoming extinct.

These slow old turtles average age is 100

Another great day out after a sun soaked day. A last minute wander through the ancient Stone Town with the call to prayer echoing through the streets then an end of the day refresher at a roof top bar to watch the sun set.

Zanzibar

This morning we used the local open transport and were taken to their huge fish & meat market that was buzzing.

After our market experience we drove into the countryside in our little open truck to visit a 6 acre spice farm owned and run by 2 families rich with vanilla, allspice,nutmeg,cocoa,ginger, peppervines, cloves and many more. We also got to taste local fruit.

They dug up ginger and turmeric roots and we tasted shavings of many spices or were given samples of leaves to crush and identify.

A quick run up the coconut tree to gather a few coconuts.

Delicious fresh coconut water and then we ate the coconut and many more tree ripened delicious fruit. The men were all given ties and hats woven from banana leaves and the women woven bags to collect the spices.

Banana flower.

Our guide had a great knowledge of these spices having had a grandfather as a herbalist.

We then returned to our hotel for a late lunch then at our own leisure the girls took a wander through the narrow cobbled streets to check out a few shops.

Taking a break to sample their delicious Stoney Tangawizi a ginger soda.

Later that evening a few of us met and tried a local restaurant down the street.

Zanzibar

After a 6am breakfast we transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for our morning flight to Zanzibar.

On arrival we're transferred to The Tembo House Hotel in the ancient Stone Town for the next 3 nights.

One of the many streets in Stone Town

Zanzibar is quite different from the mainland and predominantly Muslim. It's a very vibrant city famous for its slave trade. For the first time on our travels we are amongst many tourists and people trying to sell their wares.

 After lunch we began an historic tour of this fascinating former slave market town. We were led down into the underground chambers where the slaves were chained and held ready for sale in crammed conditions with some dying from suffocation. It was a sobering experience. This slave trade was dominated by Arab slave traders and remained legal here until 1897. 

The rest of the afternoon was free. Once the evening food market was set up we took a walk down the street and found ourselves some delicious BBQ food. 

Mt Lodge

We are now on the outskirts of Arusha. The owners here are great friends of Sues. It was good to relax for 2 nights at this magnificent forest Mt Lodge with its huge established trees. The indigenous trees are the home to families of the black and white Colobus and smaller Sykes monkeys. They had a beautiful spring with a huge pond, pool and croquet lawn.  The owner gave us a tour of the grounds and talked about the history, how they brought it back to life and what they do there now. 

Part of the lovely grounds

Rosemary David & Sue off for a trek.

There were 3 horses in the stable available for a horse trek through the village. The rest of us had a guided walk through the little country village. 

We meandered our way along the rough dusty tracks seeing the villagers out doing their daily chores. Women everywhere with their buckets of water hand washing, 

By 11.30am the little ones have finished their school day and walking home.

Others sitting outside their door on a treadle sewing machine making clothes for sale.

After lunch we had the afternoon to ourselves and did very little. We could get a tiny glimpse of Mt Kilimanjaro from the Lodge.

Cup of tea by the fire before retiring for the day.

Olkokola

We drove through the bustling morning market in the centre of Arusha where Sue bought her supplies when she lived here.

Market in Arusha

We stopped off at a very tiny shop that sold the Maasai Shakka cloaks all in their vivid colours. 

From there we travelled to Olkokola where we visited The Plaster House Project that Sue has had contact with over the years. A New Zealand/Australian physiotherapist established the Plaster House to help the African people especially children in need of operations etc. Initially she worked from old sheds in the dust until she raised enough money to build the Plaster House with a nice clean central grass courtyard and a Montessori classroom, 3 dormitories each with 20 beds. This is all run by volunteers with surgeons from the US carrying out the operations at the main Arusha hospital then they come back to the Plaster House to recover. These children brought tears to your eyes. A lot of clubfeet ops, bad burns, some with crumbling bones due to too much fluoride in their water. Spinal bifida & hydrocephalus some with both. Sad young mums rocking their precious wee babies in their arms. Others waiting for prosthetics. The whole place had a caring, safe and happy feel about it and depends solely on donations.

Our next stop was a visit to the Maasai community who are adapting from their nomadic ways. Sue has been involved with this group since 1998 and initially helped 3 of the local women get this project underway. This is not a tourist area but we received the most amazing welcome as we arrived at their gate. They're always happy to see Sue again

They allowed us to look into one of their homes and sang and danced for us. 

Outside there mud house 

Inside a Maasai house 2or3 rooms newspaper for the wallpaper. One couch and one homemade looking bed

These women have been rescued from very hard lives. 

We had our usual picnic lunch down the road at a Community Education Centre where anyone from the community was welcome into their training programs & had a variety of workshops. All linked with the Maasai Community. 

Next was our visit to a farm. We met up with a local vet that Sue knows and he took us to a clients farm where the farmer showed us how he made a living off 3 acres. He sold chickens, eggs and milked 3 cows along with 1 for beef. The cows were housed and fed in a smelly shed all day. He seemed reasonably well off.

Shed for the cows

Chicks

Sitting around after our farm tour chatting with the vet, farmer & his son

From here we drove out to our beautiful forest lodge accommodation previously an old German home Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge where we rest for the next 2 nights.