Trip Report: Tanzania

I arrived back in Senegal yesterday, exactly one month after leaving my village, and I have to say it feels good to be back. After a month of adventure in Tanzania I feel rested and refreshed and ready to go home to my village and get back to work. I had an amazing time on vacation. I arrived in Moshi on the 13th after two days, three flights and a fourteen hour layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I spent a couple of nights at Twiga Home, exploring the city and resting up for my climb of Kilimanjaro.

View of the summit of Kilimanjaro from our first camp

On the 17th I left Moshi and traveled north, one kilometer from the Kenyan border, to the start of the Rongai route at the base of the mountain. At 5,895 meters, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the fourth highest of the Seven Summits. Its also the world's highest free standing mountain. We left Horombo camp at midnight on the first day and reached the summit at 6:47am after watching the sun rise at Gilman's point. Over the next two days we descended the Marangu route on the opposite side of the mountain, and I spent the night of the 22nd recovering at the Babylon Lodge in Marangu and two more days relaxing in Moshi and planning the next stage of my adventure.

Uhuru Peak, summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

At 6am on the 25th I boarded a bus for the 15 hour journey to Mwanza to meet up with Dr. Koesler, a former professor of mine from college, and a group of students from Longwood University. I got a window seat so I could enjoy the scenery, but spent most of the ride crushed against the glass by an enormous woman, although other than that it wasn't a bad ride. 8 hours later the bus stopped in Singida for our first (and only) bathroom break, and at 8:45 we arrived in Mwanza, a small city on the shore of Lake Victoria. I spent the night in the type of hotel where you barricade your door before going to sleep and met up with the Longwood crew the next day at a hotel a couple of kilometers out of town.

A cheetah just feet from our safari vehicles

On the 27th the 10 of us piled into two safari vehicles bound for Serengeti National Park. For three days we traversed the grasslands with our guides Henry and Mr. Sweaty (I'm aware that's probably not how his name was spelled, but I swear thats how it was pronounced). We crossed paths with the great wildebeest migration on our first day, spotted a rare leopard and a cheetah with cubs on our second day, and were treated to a fresh lion kill first thing in the morning on the third. In between we saw everything from zebras in their striped pajamas to 30 hippos wallowing in their own filth, to an elephant with only half a trunk. On the fourth day we drove into the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area where we visited a tradition Maasai village and watched a cheetah stalking her dinner before spending the night at a beautiful lodge on the North rim of the crater.

Sunset over Ngorongoro crater, viewed from the North rim

The next morning we drove to Arusha where we spent the day bargaining at the market before I started planning my next move. I knew I was going to Zanzibar, but I wasn't yet sure how I was getting there. After some failed attempts at contacting local airlines I stopped by the Dar Express office and bought yet another bus ticket. At 5am on the 1st I parted ways with the Longwood crew and boarded yet another bus bound for Dar es Salaam, with plans to take the ferry to Zanzibar that evening. Unfortunately what was supposed to be a 9 hour bus ride turned into 11 and so I missed the last boat of the day and had to spend the night at the YWCA. 

A fishing dhow off the coast of Zanzibar

The next day I took the noon ferry, which was the cheapest, and arrived in Zanzibar at 4:30. I took a dala dala to the North end of the island, which was much farther than I realized, and arrived after dark. I was staying the night at the Zanzibari thanks to the generosity of my climbing partner on Kilimanjaro, but I had no idea where it was and there wasn't a taxi in sight. I spent about an hour wandering down scary dark streets with my luggage on my head hoping for a miracle, when finally a man led me to my hotel. The upside is the people at the hotel felt so bad for me they gave me free drinks with dinner. For the rest of the week I rented a room in Stone Town for $10 a night and stayed fairly close to home. I spent the days wandering the maze-like streets of the old neighborhood, eating street food (chicken and chips!), snorkeling, and eating freshly caught seafood at the night market. It was an excellent way to relax and wind down at the end of a long trip, and by the end of my time in Zanzibar I felt ready to go home. I spent the night of the 7th sleeping in the airport waiting for my 3:30am flight to Addis, where I spent another couple of hours sleeping in the airport waiting for my 9am flight to Dakar.

It has certainly been an action packed month. I'm staying in Dakar for a few days for my mid-service medical exam, so I'll work on individual posts for the three big portions of my trip; Kilimanjaro, Safari and Zanzibar. Stay tuned for more pictures and stories!

A view from the road in Moshi, Kilimanjaro is obscured behind the clouds