A taste of Swahili culture on Zanzibar

We spent our last few days in Tanzania on the coast, after a quick stop in the Usambara mountains, near Lushoto.

We stayed at Peponi campsite on the coast, a few kilometres south of Tanga. It felt like a holiday within the holiday (if there was any need for it!). We walked in the mangroves, strolled to the nearby village buy fresh vegetables, sailed “Pepi” (Peponi’s dhow) to a nearby reef and went snorkelling on a coral reef. We also spotted a palm-nut vulture, which got Steve really excited.

Even more exciting was that we met our first “overlanders”. Mike and Sarah have been driving south from London for the past four months. They are on their way home to South Africa, with their Land Rover, Mapenzi. We chatted and exchanged impressions and ideas. Together we decided to hire Wahid’s dhow and motor across from Pangani to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar: Legends of sultans; Swahili, Chinese, Indian and European traders; gold, ivory and spices, mysterious women silently sailing along narrow streets; and sadly, reality of the slave trade. Nowadays, visitors enjoy the white-sand beaches, and the buzzing narrow streets of Stone Town. We did just that, walking the streets of the old medieval city at dawn and sunset everyday, and travelling on crowded “matatus” (the local buses), immersing ourselves in the island’s unique blend of past and present.

Of course, we didn’t take enough pictures.

We left with the sound of the muezzin, the smell of cloves and a few images:
beautifully carved wooden doors, children diving off dhows in the harbour, haggling merchants calling to passers-by, women silently sailing along narrow streets...

Kilimanjaro

It is often hidden in the clouds, but we were fortunate enough to have a few glimpses of its, now less snowy, cap during our stay in Moshi.

We were hoping to do more than admire it from the bottom and take a few days to actually climb it, but it wasn’t to be.

As we expected, access to the mountain is tightly controlled: all climbers have to have a guide and pay an entrance fee to the park. However, we found out that the total cost of such an exercise, for the 5 or 6 day trip would be around USD 2000 per person - far more than our budget would allow.

Our main mountain goal remains the “Mountains of the Moon”: that is, the Ruwenzoris, in Uganda. Probably around mid April 2009, for any of you keen to join…?