Tanzania - Dar es Salaam & Zanzibar (3 - 9 October)

After a final stop in Malawi at Chitimba Beach on Friday 3 October, we cross into Tanzania on the 4th. Going through immigration is pretty painless as most of us have pre-arranged visas, and we're soon on our way heading north-east from the Malawi/Tanzania border. The lanscape in Tanzania is incredibly diverse - we drive through tea and banana plantations, then arid scrubby desert, then through plantations of pine and eucalyptus trees.
After an overnight stop at Iringa in central Tanzania, we get up about usual time (6:00am) and drive throughout the day to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city (but not its capital - for the trivia buffs, Dodoma holds that honour). It is a huge, hectic, bustling mess of a city, and is a very interesting place. Traffic is terrible, but we eventually reach our campsite by the Indian Ocean.

The next day (6/10) our truck dives into the city, where we spend some time wandering the rambling collection of concrete, dirt, rubbish and traffic that is central Dar es Salaam. At midday we make our way to the ferry for Zanzibar, on which we are shownto the 'VIP' section. The term is used loosely, but we find some old armchairs and a few honeymooners, and settle in for the three hour trip.

At Zanzibar Town we have to pass through immigration, as Zanzibar remains somewhat independent from the mainland (Zanzibar and Tanganyika having joined in the 1960s to form Tanzania), and then our group winds its way through narrow streets to our hotel. The two of us decide there's no time to lose in exploring this amazing place, so we head out into Stone Town, the old part of the city.
Stone Town is really an amazing place; a maze of narrow alleys, with tall old buildings on every side, with an equally confusing maze of culture. Africans, Arabs and Indians live side by side here, seemingly in harmony, and it's a fantastic experience wandering through the streets and markets. There are no street signs here, and no cars in the old alleys of Stone Town. Every so often a motor-scooter comes hurtling through the alleyway, sending locals and tourists scurrying. The blend of cultures, architecture, and people in this place is intoxicating, and we hope to come back when we return to Tanzania in a couple weeks.
Next stop is the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Stone Town, built on the site of a former slave market. After paying the entrance fee we make our way to the basement of a building where we find two of the original cells where slaves were kept before being sold. One cannot describe the emotion of being in a place where hundreds of slaves were crammed in barbaric conditions. We sit on the low platform where they would have squatted with no space to stand or sit, and touch the wooden beams above - perhaps touched by unfortunate hands over 100 years ago. It is devastating, and hard to fathom the evil of mankind that he could treat his brothers and sisters in such a way. Just as devastating is the knowledge that slavery continues today in many places.

The next two days (7-8 October) we split from the group, and the two of us go to Kendwa, in the north of Zanzibar. It's a beautiful quiet place with a beach of amazing white sand and sparkling turquoise water, and we spend time relaxing on the beach, swimming and snorkelling. Hopefully the photos will do the place justice. The time passes, and soon it's back to Zanzibar Town, on to the ferry and back to Dar es Salaam, where we spend another night before our trip to the interior begins.