Justice's Travel Adventures: Tanzania... Lions, white sands and beautiful water

Tanzania…

We are currently driving to the Kenyan border and I don’t think I have done so much stuff in such a short amount of time. I had no idea the East side of Africa will be this intense. Driving on the West side I never thought I would ever get to Kenya, now I have 16 days left on my trip. I don’t feel ready to leave, I feel like I could keep on traveling forever. That being said, I hope I can recall everything we experienced in this last two weeks.

The border crossing into Tanzania was a cake walk minus the fact that they charged the Americans $100 for a visa instead of $50 like their website. After crossing the border we drove all day and found a free camp. It was a pretty good spot on a dirt road, which must have been used for a logging road at one time. We didn’t get bothered at all which was a good thing. We pretty much just ate and went to bed. The next day was the longest driving day we had experienced yet. We left the free camp at 5:45 am and drove until 2200hrs on the noise. It wasn’t much distance, but we had to get to Dar’ Es’ Salaam which had insane traffic. Suse mentioned how it could take 5 hours to get to the campground and she was correct. That night cook group (Cecilie and Sarah) gave us an apple for dinner and we hit the sack.

By 0600 in the morning we had 3 people crammed into a tuk tuk driving to the ferry to take us to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is an optional 4 day and night excursion. We could do what we wanted but most everyone stayed together except Cecilie and I. Everyone stayed at Stone town one night then Nungwi beach for 2 nights then Stone own again. We figured that was way too much moving around so we stayed 2 nights at the beach and then 2 nights at Stone town. Everyone needed to stay at Stone town the last night because of the ferry leaving to Dar the next morning early.

The ferry took two hours and the waves were relatively smooth compared to the ferry crossing from Gibraltar. We were stuck outside and we got rained on a little bit but it dried in ten minutes or so. Once at Zanzibar we met with a guy named Dan (who is Suse guide who she used for years). Dan helped us out with customs and was going to take everyone minus us on a spice tour. He told CC and I he got us a taxi for $20 bucks to Kendra Rocks and we said our goodbyes and left the group. We were feeling giddy and really look forward to the swimming pool colored ocean. After 45min taxi we arrived at Kendra Rocks paid the taxi driver and went inside to get our room… No room, no reservations. There was no one under the name Cecilie, Justice, Dan or African Trails. Suse told us early that morning that Dan had made all the reservations. The people at Kendra rocks told us to try Sunset Bungalows. We grabbed our gear and walked ten minutes to a nicer hotel. Checked with reception and they informed us that there was no rooms available except a $100 night room and there was no reservations under any of the names. They did say African trails had a reservation but was canceled by Dan… WTF? At this time our energy and mood was really low. Luckily my sim card from Malawi was working and I texted Sarah who was the only number I had. Within 5 minutes she texted me back and told me that Dan changed everyone hotel to Nungwi inn (at Nungwi beach 15 minutes away) because we had one extra day at Livingstone which caused us to lose our reservations. Why oh why did he not tell us this when he arranged our taxis? We got into a taxi paid $10 bucks and drove to Nungwi inn where low and behold no reservations. At this time we took a look at the room and said fuck it we will take it. The place was nice, it had A/C, hot showers and only $5 more than we had originally planned. They also had a dive center. So what should have taken us 45 minutes took us 3 hours, and we were both in a very foul mood. The weather was overcast so we decided to eat lunch; I booked two dives at the Dive center Spanish Dancer Diving for the next morning at 0800. We then curled up to watch Blood Diamond and we passed out for two hours. We woke up rested and less aggravated. The weather was beautiful, so we took an hour walk around local town. Ate fresh coconuts, and had a really great afternoon. We took a swim in the beautiful ocean and felt really good. It was a great ending to a shitty day.

Next day Cecilie and I woke up early and had an amazing breakfast on the beach which was included in our room. I then went over to Spanish Dancer divers and got into my wetsuit and got my gear all set up for a double dive. 45 minutes later I 14 meters deep enjoying the beautiful blue waters of the Indian ocean. I saw so many tropical fish, coral, and everything tropical imaginable. I dove with a Belgium guy, a Korean girl and the dive master. It was small and spectacular. After 43 minutes we got back on the boat changed gear drove 45 minutes and went back down looking for seahorses. We were unsuccessful but I had another great dive. The dive master was teamed up with the Korean girl and she was having trouble equalizing so he went back up with her. The Belgium guy and I were teamed up and ended up getting caught in the current. For ten minutes we were by ourselves. It was a little eerie, but eventually our dive master caught up to us and we finished the dive. Afterwards he told me he couldn’t believe I was only recently certified. He said I looked like I have 100 dives under me. I thought that was a great complement and decided that I am going to go back to school to be a commercial diver. When I finished with the dives I ran into the rest of the group. They told us that the wedding will be at 1600hrs. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Talbot and Maria are getting a fake wedding. Originally it was just a joke but they decided to actual have one. At 1600 hrs. Fred conducted the fake wedding, Kevin was the best man and I was a groomsman. Denise was the maid of honor, Brit and Cecilie was the bridesmaids. Alexis the flower girl and Sarah was the professional photographer. Originally I thought the idea was fucking retarded, but eventually I opened up to it. It actually was fun; we had half the beach watching it. Afterwards we hit happy hour up and decided to get a good buzz on.

The next morning Cecilie and I took off to Stone town stopping on the way at the spice plantation. We got a personalized tour of the spices. I learned what pepper vine was, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, coriander, nutmeg and the weirdest fruit I have ever seen, Jack Fruit. We watched a guy climb the coconut tree. He sang a song and CC and I ate fresh coconut. Afterwards we checked into the Kalibu Inn in stone town. This place had an unbelievable location, in the center of everything. The only thing was the place looked like and mental institution. We pretty much chilled for the rest of the day then headed off to dinner. We found a Belgium restaurant with fresh crab linguini. It was superb and one of the best meals I have eaten yet.

The next day Cecilie and I took off to Prison Island. There we snorkeled and then afterwards headed to a giant tortoise sanctuary where the oldest tortoise was 180 years old. The place was awesome, they started off with 30 and now they have 210 of them. One of the few places the tortoise live. That evening we went to the outdoor food market where we ate fish kebabs and samosas. It was a great meal, I had the lobster kebab which I would pretty much bet there was no lobster but tofu in it.

Next day we left early 0700m on the ferry and the ferry was twice as bad as on the way there. What should have taken two hours took 45 minutes longer and about half the passengers where puking their guts out. I have never been effective by sea sickness but today I thought I was going to hurl for a second. Of course it was because I was reading my kindle. After we arrived we met Suse and Rosie out of town and we drove all day until 2000hrs until we got to Zebra campground. I pretty much ate and passed out.

The next day we drove most of the day and arrived in Arusha, the hub for the Serengeti. I had a few beers and played darts with everyone. It reminded me of Monday night darts with the boys. The next day two land cruisers picked us up. I was fortunately enough to picked the best truck ever. Our truck drivers name was Copper and he was the shit. It was Alexis, Fred, Keving, Maria, Sarah, Cecilie and I. We drove all day. It took us about 8 hours to get to the Serengeti; we had to drive through Ngorongoro crater to get there. Once there we started a night drive that was fun, not what I was expecting. My whole life I have wanted to go here and I can’t help but be a little disappointed. We saw a leopard in the tree with a kill, and a few lions sleeping. All the animals have migrated to the Masa Mora in Kenya so that may be why it wasn’t that impressive.

The next day we left camp at 0630 and went on a 5 hours game drive. It was better; we saw cheetah’s lions, lions and more lions… After the game drive we drove to the top of the Ngorongoro crater where we spent the night.

The next day morning we once again took off at 0630 and it was the beginning of an epic day. Ngorongoro cater didn’t have nearly as many animals as we had dreamed from the stories we heard. That was because of the migration. What did happen was we stopped and watched two male lions and one female lion while a heard of wildebeest approached them. We wanted to see a kill but that didn’t happen. What happened was the two male lions got up and took off walking. We thought that was a tactic to distract the wildebeest but no it wasn’t. Cooper drove and parked where he thought the lions would intersect us. Cooper guest right and the lions walked right past our vehicle and one lion peed on our land cruiser. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Cooper had to let all the other guides what happen. The lions walked by us and took off into the plains. Cooper then drove a few minutes to intersect the lions again. The lions were walking away from us until one of them changed directions and headed straight for us (he smelt the pee)… The lion came right up to our vehicle and started sniffing it. This is where me being me stuck my head out of the vehicle and had Sarah take a picture of me while the male lion was two feet from my head smelling the back of the truck. Cooper told me to shut the window and put my head in. He said he never lost anyone and didn’t want to lose me. I shut the window a little too hard and the lion jumped… My heart was through my throat… It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever witnessed or done. After that we spent the rest of the day and drove back to Arusha. We spent the night there and the next day headed to Kenya.

Going from Arusha to Nairobi was one of the longest days ever. We didn’t leave that early but Suse ended up changing a part and after a very easy border crossing we drove until the outskirts of Nairobi. We got into some serious traffic. It took us 8 hours to get from the outskirts of Nairobi to the campground 20 km from Nairobi. They were doing construction and 4 lanes went into one lane. It was a nightmare. Around 11pm Kevin, Denise and I waked about 2 km to a pizza place and ordered 5 large pizzas for us to share. The traffic was insane, and going nowhere. When we got back from getting the Pizzas Rosie must have driven 100 meters in an hour. After we chowed down the pizzas everyone but Jareb and Cecilie passed out in the truck. We finally arrived at Karen campground at 0130 in the morning. That has been the longest day yet on the trip. Suse upgraded us to dorms and by 0200hrs we were all passed out in the dorm.

Next morning we left at 0900 and took off toward Uganda.