Zanzibar is beautiful, well that is what people tell us

Well we eventually stayed 3 nights at Selous. One day was spent emptying all
the boxes from Mufasa and sweeping out the accumulated dust and debris as
well as trying to invent new ways of keeping it out to start with! Our only
safari was on the river as Sue and myself chose not to drive into the park
ourselves, partly due to the cost but we also just fancied doing sommit
different. So instead Kaz Rich and Rebecca joined us on the river and we
spent a very pleasant 2.5hrs cruising with our guide. We saw some great
sights, plenty of birds, hippo, crocs, and some interesting monkey sightings
too, not to mention a fantastic sunset over the distant mountains with
hippos wallowing in the water just in front of us.
On return to camp we had company. A group of several people had turned up
and were setting up camp next door to us. As normally happens you think
'well that is our perfect private camp gone!'. They were however a very
pleasant American family with some friends and their Aunt (who lives in
Tanzania) as their tour guides. The bushcats departed the next day heading
for Dar-es-Salam and we just chilled out around camp. The American's went on
a game drive and had a long and eventful day in the park. Some were sitting
on top of the Uncle's Land Rover and a few got stung by bees at one point.
Later that evening we joined them around their campfire to toast
marshmallows. The elephants returned again that night much to the delight of
two of the party next door, but this time we had not made it to the relative
safety of our tent. We had to sit it out near the campfire listening and
hoping of a glimpse in the dark, but after a while of hearing the breaking
of branches the elephants moved off into the night not venturing in our
direction.
Early the next day we upped sticks and headed to Dar ourselves, our base to
visit exotic Zanzibar, and apart from the long slow bumpy 80km from the park
to the turning north the drive was easy and uneventful. Our new camp was at
the delightful and cheap Sunrise Beach Resort in the South Beach area south
of Dar. We were pointed in this direction by a couple of Scottish lads who
Sue and I had bumped into on the drive up from Kilwa Masoko a few days ago.
They had been on the road for only 3 months from Scotland and were already
70% of the way down Tanzania. A bit of a quick trip. Anyway, Sunrise is just
fabulous. There is camping just off the beach under the palm trees for only
Tsh4000 per person and a restaurant and bar just next to us. Food and beer
is cheap and very nice too! Sue and I enjoyed a superb curry with a few
beers the first evening. It is a bit like a budget Mauritius here. Beautiful
white sandy beach, bright blue sea, and the bar and restaurant with
excellent service. They also have secure parking for the vehicles that you
can use when you pop over to Zanzibar. Some people even use it to leave
their overland vehicles here when they pop home to Europe or wherever for a
few months before returning to continue on their adventures. The only down
side is the loud music on Saturday evening, and the not quite Pavarotti
voice of the man and his keyboard.
To get to Dar from the camp you have a 8km drive and then a ferry across the
water that separates Dar from the south beach area. The ferry is an
outrageous Tsh1100 (£0.48) for the truck and the two of us, and only takes a
few minutes. We popped over on Monday to check out Toyota for servicing the
trucks. You would not believe what they want to charge for the privilege!
Needless to say as we only need an oil change we have decided to use an
alternative garage recommended to us by a German who is staying at the camp.
We also paid homage to two of the supermarkets which are mainly used by
ex-pats and stock quite a wide range of goods at prices that range from
moderately expensive and very expensive to insanely expensive as they are
imported from the UK and South Africa! We bought some staples like rice and
pasta which were normal prices and also treated ourselves to one or two
luxuries from the moderately expensive range, like chocolate Hob-Nobs.
Although we managed to buy one packet of biscuits from the very expensive
range by mistake. We also managed to bump into the American family from
Selous, small world. They had another tale to tell from their time at the
park. The night we had left they were robbed in the camp. In the middle of
the night 4 locals appeared with pangas (large blades) and proceeded to
slice open tents and demand money from the occupants. Thankfully they made a
hasty exit after the Uncle had woken and shouted whatever in Swahili, and at
least no-one was hurt, just a couple of damaged tents and a few Tsh stolen.
Glad we left that day!!
Anyway, Sunrise Beach Resort seems to be a stopover for overlanders, with
the obvious draw of the beach sun and sea, and the secure parking. Andy,
Sarah, and their 2 young boys who are doing a 10 week trip from SA in their
old Landy left yesterday heading back south towards SA. Chris and Janet in
their little 4WD Toyota camper are doing a monster tour from the UK via
northern Scandinavia-Russia-other Russian states-Iran-Syria-Jordan-east
Africa down to Cape Town-west Africa back to UK; amazing!! Thomas, the
German, is his old Mercedes based fire engine and trailer, making his way to
Matema on the northern shores of Lake Malawi to start a new campsite,
www.crazy-crocodile.com, and another German couple arrived yesterday in
their large old Mercedes overland truck.
It is tough staying here. It will be hard to leave, but tomorrow we must
make the trip over to Zanzibar otherwise we never will!! We can always park
off again when we get back, but the clock is ticking and we still have many
a KM to travel yet.
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