Shopping in Zanzibar

We spent our final day in Stonetown Zanzibar shopping.  After visiting a shop called Memories, just around the corner from our hotel, we decided to visit the narrow alley ways and smaller shops. The narrow streets are busy with vendors trying to catch your eye, and motor bikes and scooters travelling at pace. I saw a European dressed like Tintin, and Tintin tee shirts were everywhere. After much haggling over price Rosie bought a Boabab board for a quarter of the price listed in the Memories shop.

On our final morning before flying out we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast - with these views from our hotel roof top.

Day 25 and 26 Zanzibar East Coast

The photos tell the story; enjoyed the sea and sun. Lovely snorkeling, with clear waters and a huge variety of colors and shapes of tropical fish.  Rosina took every opportunity to maximize her exposure to the sun, before heading back to NZ.

Day 13 Journey to Ngara, Rosie's placement

After another drive with amazing scenery we arrived at Ngara where Rosie had been teaching. The locals were also enjoying road trips, 30 in a mini van and 50 on a truck. Rosina cooked us nsima and the principal's wife cooked a tomato sauce.

Day 12 Nkhata Bay

Nhkata Bay was all Rosie said it would be. We stayed at Myoka Lodge, a popular spot with volunteers that had a charming and convivial atmosphere.  The luxuries included great food and the occasional brief flirt with the internet. For the environmentally conscious there was a composting toilet. See the photos of the sheltered spot on the lake where we swam and basked in the sun.

Day 11 Senga Bay

After missing dinner the previous night we tucked into a cooked breakfast. Rosina negotiated with the local vendors on the front lawn of the hotel and eventually came away with a painting.

Travelling north, we passed through sugar cane and rubber plantations and enjoyed sweeping views of lake Malawi.

Day 10 North to Senga Bay

We left Mt Mulunje early in the knowledge that we had a seven hour/ 350 km journey.

One hour into our trip we stopped at Blantyre, to drop Grace off with Alvie, a fellow volunteer, whom Grace was going to spend the next few days with, and then proceeded on to an early lunch. Afterward we went to the bank to obtain kwacha for general living expenses and US  dollars for our border crossing into Tanzania. After endless queues and  visiting three banks we were on our way at about 4 pm.

Fortunately we had learnt from our first full day of driving that we needed to be able to navigate at night and had down loaded maps so that we could find our way after dark. Malawi and Africa in general are not into street names or road signs so the GPS proved invaluable. Of course the threat of falling down a pot hole kept our speed down.

We arrived at Senga Bay, on lake Malawi and no are we asked knew of the villas that we had booked. By 10 pm we were looking for any accomodation available but on the third attempt our prayers were answered.

Day 15, 16, 17 Train ride abandoned . relaxing at Utengule

We were meant to catch the Tazara train at Mbeya around 2 pm and had been instructed to pick up our tickets in the morning.  Arrived around 11am and were advised that the train was not pulling a first class carriage and we would have to travel second class.   But they could not sell a second class cabin to us until the train arrived.

Drove the rental into Mbeya to transfer to the rental company at the TRA, and get Robin's passport stamped - took 2 hours.

Arrived back at the coffee lodge a bit worn out and decided to hole up at the coffee lodge and take either a bus or plane to Dar.

In the end decided on the aeroplane as this would maximise our relaxation and recovery from diarrhoea.

While Robin was flat on his back dying, Jane and Rosie enjoyed strolling amongst the coffee plants.

Day 14 Ngara

We meet with the teachers at Rosie's school and handed over form 2 and form 4 text books to some very happy teachers.  Up until this point they only had one text book per subject that the teacher used.  Chalk is still the means to communicate ideas. They have received American texts in the past but they did not match the Malawian cirriculum so have not been used.

Even though it was school holidays there was a fairly good tun out of local children to sing and dance and say thank you.

We drove north to the disputed Tanzanian border crossing over the Songwe River, enroute we stopped at Karonga so that Rosie could buy some more  dyed cloth and run out our kwacha's.

On arrival at the border it turn out that the customs officials were not happy with the documentation that we had for taking the rental car across the border. Initially they stated that we must drive back to Mzuzu to obtain an Interpol document.  This was just the beginning of a fun time crossing the border. Some 4 hours, 5 documents and 20 stamps later we made it into Tanzania. Again we arrived late at our destination but to our amazement and relief the lodge was prepared to serve food at 10 pm at night.

Days 18 -24 Safari

Tarangire and Serengeti - Wow. Lots of cats and other big animals that you should not feed or pat. Highlights: Seeing the Cheetahs hunting and gorging themselves on a gazelle. Mr elephant chasing Mrs elephant on heat.  Happy Baboon family.

On our first night our driver advised that we should not walk more then a few metres from our tent if we wanted to relieve ourselves, as wild animals often crossed  our tent site at night.  Robin had already checked with the night guard that he was up to watching over us. Then Rosie said that they don't stay awake through the night. Roger also helped identify the lions call, which we heard only about thirty minutes later.