Five amazing weeks in Tanzania!

From the 4th of July until the 7th of August we traveled in Tanzania. This time not only with the two of us, but Erik's brother Martijn joined us for three weeks! It was so nice to see him again and to spend time together. 

But let us first start where we ended our previous blog, the border between Malawi and Tanzania. When we crossed the border, we immediately felt the difference between the two countries. We could clearly see that Tanzania was much more developed compared to Malawi. There was more choice in terms of products (radio's, solar panels, and even washing machines!). However, at the same time the level of English was way better in Malawi, which actually surprised us. Later we learned that the government of Tanzania introduced Swahili as the national language (while in Malawi the official language in English, next to Chichewa). What we liked in Tanzania was the mix of different religions, and how they live together (about 30% of the population is Muslim and 30% is Christian).

In total we traveled more than 4.000 km in Tanzania and we have been all over the country. We traveled both with public transportation and with our own rental car (Toyota Rav4). The map below shows the route.

The route we traveled in Tanzania

We started in the south (Ipinda), took the minibus from there to Mbeya. The minibus was very crowded, and I had no space to put my lags, because there were more than 10 chicken under my feet, haha. From Mbeya we took the bus to Dar es Salaam, where we picked up Martijn. We went one week to Zanzibar, after which we started our road trip to the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. On our way we visited the Usumbara Mountains, passed Moshi, the Kilimanjaro en Karatu. Afterwards, we drove all the way back to Dar es Salaam. We dropped Martijn at the airport, Erik and I enjoyed the beach of Dar es Salaam for a couple of days and then we continued our trip to Dodoma and Kahama. We crossed the border with Rwanda at Rusumo a couple of days ago.

Taking the minivan to the bus station

Our hotel room in Mbeya :-)

Nice coffee bar in Mbeya

The next morning we took the bus from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam. It was quite a long journey, more than 800 km. We booked the bus with Color Star, which was according to our hotel the most luxurious and safe bus to Dar. It was a little bit of a gamble, because the English of the guy who booked the ticket for us was very poor. Erik had to draw a bus on a piece of paper with two seats left and two seats right (yes, there are buses with more then 4 seats in one row, and we didn't want to spend 15 hours in these type of buses). In the end he managed to arrange the tickets for us. The bus was indeed quite comfy, but we felt quite some moments very unsafe (driving 130 km per hour on mountain roads, including getting speed tickets from the police, etc...). Therefore, we were happy when we arrived safely in Dar es Salaam in the night. Sometimes it's better that you don't know everything in advance... Of course we made sure that the next buses we took had more careful drivers. ;-)

Departing early morning

Our bus

In Dar es Salaam we stayed a couple of days at Mikadi Beach, a nice backpackers with little huts on the beach. Although the place was a bit run down and the management was poor, we enjoyed the atmosphere and it was great place to relax. It was so nice to be next to the ocean again!

Our hut

Mikadi Beach

Meditating on the beach

Nice atmosphere

Enjoying our breakfast early morning

Playing pool

During our stay at Mikadi Beach, I worked a couple of days on an assignment for my consultancy, while Erik went to the gym, played pool with other guests and enjoyed reading a book. We also explored the city center of Dar es Salaam, which proved to be a very nice city! We made a city walk, enjoyed excellent Lebanese food at Epi d'Or and visited the fish market with the Dutch family we met in Malawi and coincidentally met again at the ferry in Dar es Salaam.

Taking the Kigamboni ferry (skyline Dar in the background)

Taking the Tuktuk (or Bajaj)

Delicious humus in Epi d'Or!

Desert!

Askari Monument

Church

Mosque

Fish market

Fish market

The 10th of July Martijn arrived in Dar es Salaam. We picked him up from the airport and we were just in time at our hotel to see the last part of the European Championship finals!

Martijn arrived at Dar es Salaam Airport 

Watching France - Portugal

Breakfast at our hotel

Relaxing day on the beach

Mangrove

Brothers :-)

Going for a run on the beach in the afternoon

Sunset with the skyline of Dar es Salaam

Cheers!

After three days in Dar es Salaam, we took the Bajaj to the city center. From there, we took the speed boat (Kilimanjaro) to Zanzibar. It was a very luxurious boat, which brought us in 1.5 hour to Stone Town!

Just fitting in...

Our speed boat to Zanzibar

Very luxurious boat!

Arrival in Zanzibar 

When we arrived in Stone Town, we first enjoyed a very good cup of coffee (thank you Tripadvisor!) at the Zanzibar Coffee House. A taxi brought us an hour later to the fishing village Jambiani, at the other side of the island where our hotel (Blue Oyster) was located. We decided to treat ourselves and enjoyed four nights in paradise... As the pictures will show, the beaches were very white, the sea was crystal clear and light blue, and the weather was just perfect.

Zanzibar Coffee House

Such great coffee!

On our way to our taxi that brought us to Jambiani

Our room in the Blue Oyster Hotel

Bar

Breakfast

Such a tough life... 

Getting some nice tan

Brothers

Having lunch

Such a beautiful place

Reading a book

Mango juice

This picture would perfectly fit in a brochure, right?

Happy trio

:-)

Brothers in Zanzibar

Good morning

Nice breakfast!

After two days of total relaxation (enjoying the sun, reading a book, playing cards), we made a snorkel trip on a dhow (traditional fishing boat with a sail). It was nice to sail on a dhow again (we did this one time before in Kenya) and the fish/coral was absolutely beautiful.

Martijn on the dhow

Having fun

Check the water: it's so blue!

Martijn snorkeling

Star fish

Erik

Many fish!

Another strange fish

Beautiful clam

Our captain also enjoyed the view

He never wants to get out of the water

On our way back to the shore

Cheers! 

Brothers going for a run

Check their six-packs! 

Last swim before we leave this beautiful place

We really enjoyed our time in Jambiani and felt a little bit sad to leave the Blue Oyster Hotel. However, we didn't leave Zanzibar yet, because we also planned two days in Stone Town. We stayed at a nice guesthouse, right in the middle of town (although Stone Town is very small). We walked around in the small alleys of Stone Town, enjoyed a perfect lunch at the coffee house and we had dinner at the food market in the Forodhani Gardens.

Restaurant next to our guesthouse

Streets in Stone Town 

So many vespa's!

Exploring the streets

Hamman 

Nice shops and tiny streets

Evening food market at Forodhani Gardens

Of course negotiating the price for our goat and banana

Next day in Stone Town

Many paintings for sale in Stone Town

And even more vespa's (not for sale)

Old Dispensary

Typical Stone Town picture

Church

Walking around

The 19th of July we took the speedboat back to Dar es Salaam and we picked up our car that we rented from Roadtrip Tanzania. The driver waited for us at the ferry terminal, and the handover was quick and easy. After some shopping at the supermarket we drove to Bagamoyo, about 70 km from Dar es Salaam. We stayed at the Firefly, a nicely decorated backpackers place.

Firefly

Our car and tent!

Enjoying the nice atmosphere

With a beer ;-)

Nice, isn't it? 

Cooking our own dinner

First self-cooked dinner

The next day we continued our drive to the Usumbara Mountains. On our way we bought a pineapple and had lunch at the side of the road next to a typical African village, since there are no picnic spots. ;-)

On the road!

Pineapple stand

So happy with my pineapple

Picnic stop

Not bad, right?

Kids of the village

On the road again

On our way to the Usumbara Mountains

Beautiful views on the way up

And a nice sunset!

We stayed at Mambo View Point, a nice lodge owned by a Dutch couple. They build their house right on a cliff, very impressive, and also have some camping spots. We woke up in the morning with a beautiful view. After our breakfast, we made a nice walk with a guide on the edge of the plateau, visited villages, a school and the local market. Such a beautiful day! :-) The only thing which was a little bit shocking, was the school visit. Primary education in Tanzania is since a couple of years free for everyone, but there is an enormous shortage on teachers. Also in this school, there were only 4 teachers for at least 400 children... 

Good morning

Making breakfast

Start of our hike

Beautiful views (and beautiful weather!)

Check the house on the top right!

Amazing views on the way

We walked the path you see right in the background

Such a clear day :-)

Beautiful views

Three of us!

On our way with our guide Isaac 

Village

House in the village

Agriculture

Short break

Kids in the village 

Nice house in the village

School

Kids in class

So cute

They always like pictures

Selfie

A lot of agriculture in this area

Watering the crops

On our way back to our lodge

Kameleon!

And another one!

Women doing the laundry in the waterfall 

Local market

Buying some vegetables and chapati for our lunch

Butcher 

Making lunch

Nice place to read a book, right?

Enjoying each other's company

Making a fire at night

Cooking dinner

Beautiful sunrise

We stayed two nights at the Usumbara Mountains. The next day we left early morning to Mount Kilimanjaro. It was quite an adventurous route we took. The owner told us that it was the shortest - and steepest! :-) But our Rav4 did great and had no problem at all to reach the highway to Arusha again. We had lunch at the side of the road (which reminded us at our road trip in Australia and Namibia) and after a couple of hours we saw Kili above the clouds!

Passing through villages at Usumbara

Do you see me? :-)

Pikipiki

Beautiful views on our way down

Time for a picture

Going all the way down

On our way to the highway

Having lunch at the side of the road

We love chapati!

Kili (5.895m high)!!

We stayed on the Simba Farm, which was located at the western side of the Kilimanjaro. This place was owned by Dutch farmers, who had lived in Tanzania for a long time. Their guesthouse was beautiful and the food SUPER delicious. We could pitch our tent in their garden, next to the swimming pool. Although it was a short visit, we had a great time with them.

Pitching our tent

Nice sunset

Our camping spot

Dinner

With a Kilimanjaro beer 

Breakfast was also amazing

We continued our drive all the way to Karatu, where the next day our driver Edward picked us up to visit the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park. Our rental company didn't allow us to drive ourselves, therefore we arranged a driver/guide for these days. Edward was great company, a good driver and knew a lot about wildlife. All in all, a perfect solution. I think we were the only people with a Rav4, since most people travel with huge Toyota Landcuisers. But: our Rav4 did great! The roads in the Serengeti are very bad, but we managed to have no flat tire, we didn't lose any shocks and we didn't get stuck. 

Check at the garage before we start our trip with Edward

At the gate of Ngorongoro Crater 

Viewpoint

Group picture

Paparazzi

Our driver Edward

It was really special to drive inside the crater and to see all these animals living there all year round. After the game drive we camped at one of the public (still very expensive) camp sites on the edge of the crater. It was really cold, and went to bed straight after our dinner. The next morning we woke up inside the clouds, with zebra's grazing next to our tent. :-)

Our campsite

Early morning (zebra's in the back)

On the road again!

From the Ngorongoro, we drove to the Serengeti National Park (the worst road ever!). In total we spent two nights/three days in the Serengeti, and explored different parts of the NP.

Hihi, check our Rav 4 ;-)

Picnic

Check the leopard hiding his prey in the tree

Massai village

After four amazing days, we brought our driver Edward to the bus station in Karatu and continued the rest of our road trip with the three of us. When we arrived at our camp site in Karatu, we had a gin-tonic and crisps, to celebrate a very successful safari and a safe return.

Gin-tonic and crisps

Making dinner

The next day we drove from Karatu to Arusha, and visited my friend Marie Elske and her boyfriend Paul. She invited us for lunch, we made a beautiful hike to waterfalls of Mt Meru, had a delicious dinner at her place, and we could camp in their garden. After breakfast (pancakes!), we had a long driving day all the way back to the Firefly, for our last night camping. 

Having lunch

Mount Meru in the back

Hiking down to the waterfall

And down

Crossing some streams

Avoiding wet feet

Amazing waterfall!

Enjoying the cold breeze

Nice picture, right? :-)

How beautiful it was

Another group picture

On our way back 

Delicious dinner at Marie Elske's place

So nice!

Sarah Jane (another friend/colleague) also joined!

Making pancakes for breakfast!

Breakfast 

Pole Pole = slowly, slowly (applicable not only on the road)

Driving day = having lunch in the car

We drove about 500 km

Nice views on the way

Local transportation. :-)

Making dinner @ Firefly

Finally relaxing after long driving day

Enjoying life music

Packing our stuff for the last time

The 30rd of July we drove back to Dar es Salaam and returned our car. We spent one more day on the beach, playing cards, enjoying the sun and each other's company, before we brought Martijn back to the airport the 31st of July. It was very special to travel together for three weeks.

Playing cards at the beach

Bye bye Martijn!

We decided to stay a couple of days in Dar es Salaam, because we liked the city very much. We went to the hairdresser (yes, that was really needed ;-)) in a nice hotel and enjoyed dinner again at Epi d'Or. We stayed again at Mikadi Beach, this time we got an upgrade! 

Our hut at Mikadi Beach

Hairdresser at a five star hotel 

Waiting for the hairdresser

Chilling at Mikadi Beach

Erik going to the local gym

After a couple of days in Dar es Salaam, we took the bus to Dodoma (on of the two stops during our 1.500 km journey to Kigali). 

Taking the bus in Dar es Salaam to the bus station

Arrived safely in Dodoma

Bajaj driver

We stayed two nights in Dodoma, and we visited an organization called Women Wake Up (WOWAP). We spoke with the director (Fatma Hassan Toufiq) of the organization, who is also a Member of Parliament. She was such an inspiring lady! We spoke about Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Tanzania and exchanged knowledge on how to address the practice. 

Office of WOWAP in Dododma

The director and me

Staff of WOWAP

Lunch with one of the staff members

Coffee and a samosa

Watching the Olympics in our hotel

Booking our bus ticket to Kahama

Bus station at Dodoma 

In the bus to the border with Rwanda

At Rusumo border

We crossed the border with Rwanda the 7th of August. We were warmly welcomed by our friend Alphonse in Kigali and we stay at his lovely place at the moment. But more about our time in Rwanda in our next blog! 

Big hugs and kisses, 

Erik & Annemarie