Tanzania & Kenya

Benefits: Combination of safaris, beaches & trecking

Concerns: Paying with credit cards

Number of Days: 26 - from 10 Mar till 4th Apr

Places visited (& days): Dar Es Salaam (2), Zanzibar (5), Moshi (4), Kilimandjaro (6), Lake Manyara (1), Crater Ngorongoro (1), Serengeti (1), Mombasa (4), Nairobi (1+ 1 at the airport)

Transport (time or distances): Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar by ferry (1h45 min; 71 km); Zanzibar to Moshi ( Kilimandjaro Airport - 1h); Safari - Moshi/Arusha /Lake Manyara / Ngorongoro / Serengeti ( 600km); Moshi to Mombasa by bus (9h): Mombasa to Nairobi by bus (7h; 521 km)

Currency:
Tsh (Tanzania Shilling) - 1 Euros = 1666 Tsh; Taxi 2000 tsh; beer 1500 tsh; average meal 10.000 tsh
Kes (Kenya Shilling) - 1 Euro = 90 Kes: Taxi 300 kes (normally expensive); beer 200 kes

Some funny experiences:
6 days without taking a shower while climbing the Kilimandjaro; Trying not to be arrested by a policeman (the company that I booked for the Kili made a mistake calculating the rate and wanted some money back. Instead of assuming the error, they told me that I owed them money - Of course I didn't accept it); Camping in the Serengeti with some animals around (I was really scared!); Flat tire in Serengeti; Buying a ticket at 2.00 am at the Nairobi airport (the Galileo system was down and therefore I missed the flight and passed my visa due date);


I arrived to Dar es Salam where I spent two nights. One mainly to finish writing my blogue (yes, to updatef for you). Nothing was really happening in town, specially because it was weekend. I did some sightseeing (National Museum) and of course during the night I went to one of the famous discos - The Club bilicanas! What really surprised me was that everyone started to dance alone and 5 min later it was the chaos. Everyone had already one couple and were changing constantly. Tanzanians as other africans are crazy about soccer. They all support one of the premier league' s team (Liverpool, Arsenal Manchester or Chelsea) and never missed one match. Everywhere (restaurants, bars, discos), there is always a TV and lot of people arround watching it. On that night, at the disco Barcelona and Real Madrid were playing and during that time the match was the hot spot of the night. I enjoyed it as well.

Sunrise at Dar es Salam (taking the ferry to Zanzibar)

From Dar, I went to Zanzibar. That was one of the places that I was looking forward to since it was very hot at that time and I was excited abou the idea of lying on the beach. I took a ferry and went to the north of the Island to Nungwi which is the right place to go if you want a good balance between relaxing at the beach and having some.
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View from Mnarani Beach Cottages (my resort) - Zanzibar

Here I met a very nice group of Irish people. We went snorkeling together at Mnemba and having some fun Irish people like to drink as we do so as you can imagine the dinner and dancing was great.

Irish group, myself and South African couple

Party at Nungwi's Beach - Zanzibar

After 3 days at Nungwi I decided to leave because I also wanted to visit Stone Town where I stayed 2 nights. The hot spots for me were the market and the labyrinth of the narrow streets. Before leaving the island, I took a cab to visit the southeast part of the island mainly Paje (between Janbiani & Bwejuu)

My next stop was at Moshi for climbing the Kilimandjaro. To avoid going back to Dar es salam and taking a bus from there, I took a flight directly to Kimandjaro Aiport at Moshi which was my base town for the coming days in between my activities (Kilimandjaro and Safaris).

Sunset at Shira camp (3840 m)

I climbed the Kilimandjaro 5895 metres but suffered a lot to make it. We were 6 (2 Dutch girls, Hanah and Ingrid, , 2 Dutch boys Jon and Dennis, one Canadian Kieran, myself and a huge Tanzanians team (18! - 2 guides, 1 cook and 15 porters to carry all our stuff, tents... ).

We took the Machame route which comparing to the standard one - the Marangu route (so called the the coca-cola route since it is the easiest one). I decided for the Machame because we had one extra day for acclimatization, the vegetation and lanscape were more interesting and we were sleeping in tents.

After 4days, on the 22nd March at 6.00 am in the morning I finally reached the Uhuru peack

 

Uhuru Peack - 5895 metres Kilimandjaro

I was exausted (that night we had to wake up at 11.pm to start climbing at 00am for 6 hours). At the summit, I would have loved to take more pictures & movies but I had just one thing on my mind and it was to come back as soon as possible since I was so tired and it was freezing (between -15 to -20 degrees celcius!!!). I was wearing 6! layers of clothes

Starting the descent with a splendid sunrise

Just to give an idea of how tired I was (the descent which should have taken me 2 hours, took me 4! to the last camp. Here we had a quick break and after lunch 4 hours more to reach the last camp before the final descent. It was an incredible experience and I really pushed my capabilities to the maximum.

All the team who climbed the Kili

Great experience a lot of moments to remember for the rest of my life but also some bad news. All our group made it to the peak (normally the success rate is above 90%) but we heard while we were clibing that some people of other groups didn't make it. Some days later, we got an e-mail from Kieran informing us that one of the Canadians had died (he was 65) . I was really schocked with this news. How can it be possible? A lot of time during my ascent I was thinking about the rescue conditions. Since it is so cold on the top, the rescue camp is 2 hours away from the peak which can sometimes be critical for an emergency situation. I hope this was not the problem.

After 6 days climbing I went for a 4 days safari in Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti Park. This time I did the safaris with 2 Irish guys.

Colin, Steve and Pedro

We met in Arusha, they were coming from Uganda where they had been teaching English for 6 weeks. They were now also travelling for the next months and are planning to end their trip in Australia to work for one year. As I mentioned with my Irish friends from Zanzibar, Irish people love to drink. So it was funny because before starting our safari we went to a supermarket to buy some wine (just 5 litres for the 3 nights!). We really had a good time, at the end of the safari day, around the table having nice food and good wine.

Elephants at Lake Manyara

Flat tire Serengeti (hopfully no animals around)

Ngorongoro Crater

10 days in a row (6 days Kilimandjaro and 4 days safari) I thought that it was time to spend some days at the beach again and I decided to go to Mombasa. I went by bus but instead of 5/6 hours it took me 9 because of the traffic jam going to Mombasa. I've never seen so many trucks together.

Traffic jam on my way from Moshi to Mombasa

I stayed at the Royal Castle Hotel and my journey was so nice that instead of going to a beach resort I spent some more time in the city. I visited Fort Jesus, built by the portuguese in 1593. I also had a very good dinner at an Indian restaurant. For dancing, I went to Casablanca disco which was really amazing despite the number of prostitutes around (as a friend told me once, you can consider them all prostitutes because whatever their intentions at the end of the day all of them are looking for some money)

I then went to Diani beach (south of Mombasa) and stayed at The Sands of Nomads resort. Great hotel, with splendid view, the food of the restaurant was also very good and I got a special discount (thanks to Rasaria Cavadini - the manager).

Sands at Nomads Resort - Diani Beach (Mombasa)

One of the reasons to book this hotel here was for kitesurfing. Since I had not my equipment with me, this kind of activity is very expensive even so I decided to go for it. Thanks Goodluck and Yan the team of H20 Extrem who gave me a lot of tips. After that I'm really looking forward to kitesurfing during my world travel for some more days.

Diani Beach - Mombasa

From Mombasa, I took a bus to Nairobi. Comparing to what I had heard, it is not at all a dangerous city (at least during day time and around the centre). I visited the Kenyatta conference centre where from the top I could have a view over the city.

During the night, I went to the Carnivore restaurants (considered one of the best restaurants in the world).

I did not manage to buy the ticket to Cairo during the day and decided to go to the airport to buy it during the night. I didn´t sleep at all that night. When I arrived at the airport, the Galileo system was down and therefore I could not buy the ticket. Apart from loosing the flight I was scared since it was my last day issue for my visa. I was lucky that at that time I met Cornels Onyango from the immigration office and Marolyne Ojwang from the travel agency. Thanks to them I had no problems with the authorities and could by a ticket to get the flight 24 h later. Therefore I remained approximately 28 hours at the Nairobi airport!

Marolyne, Pedro & Onyango

From here, I' m travelling to Cairo. I wish all of you a nice easter. See you there