Zanzibar, Stonetown. Old stone houses, the whole place a world heritage. A very special atmosphere. Mosques, Hindue temples, churches. Narrow alleys. we had two nights here and today we move on towards the beaches. But before coming here, we sure did travel...

Leaving Pemba on Wednesday morning at 4.40 am on an old Volvo bus which actually was reasonably comfortable, compared to what we came to experience later. The door had to be secured with a seatbelt, but otherwise everything functioned well during the twelve hours we travelled. We had to take a detour to cover another route, because the bus for that route had broken down. Otherwise we would have reached our destination Mocimboa da Praia three hours earlier. But we had a good time. after delivering people, mail, goats and other goods, the ticketman of the bus helped us arrange a chapa = a private transport to the border and a place in a pension to rest for a few hours before departing. The departure with the chapa was atmidnight in order to get to the border at the time they opened the immigration ofice. So we managed to get a shower and a dinner and 3 hours of sleep. We were picked up by a pick up. Togethewr with about 8 other passengers, most of us sitting in the back in open air, looking at the stars while travelling as fast as the road conditions admitted. A very special experience.
At the border, after having passports stamped etc, we were put in an open boat to cross over the river Rovuma and in to tanzania. The boat was about 8 meters long and I think we were around 20 people + lots of luggage. Being near the coast, the water was influenced by the tide and it was really low water wen we came, so we stranded 3 or 4 times on sandbanks, but the boat guis worked for their money and wading in the water, pulled and pushed until we finally ended up on the other shore.
Then there was a rat race towards new chapas, when getting there we understood why, because all seats taken we had to share the loading compartment with 4 or 5 guis and all the luggage. alltogethewr we were 15 people in a Landrover and this ride of about 1 hour was a true horror ride. Not only extremely uncomfortable, but also the most dangerous ride I had taken. (SO FAR that is.) The driver drove in a furious speed on a road that could surely compete with the worst ones we travelled in mozambique. Anyway, we got safe throgh Tanzanian immigrations and all the way to Mtwara, the town nearest the border. After searching for rooms in a couple of upscale beach hotels, which were full, we gave up and took a very low budget pension in town. It turned out to be such a nice place and we were very well looked after by the staff.
We had sort of planned to stay a bit along the Tanzanian coast, but now we felt thet all we wanted was to get to Dar es Salaam and from there to Zanzibar as soon as possible. so we bought bus tickets for the next day to go for a 12 hours drive to Dar. Buying the ticket was a challenge, because outside the ticket office there were a bunch of guis who tried to persuade us that their buses were better. All buses looked more or less run down and we decided to go for the one that actually had a ticket office. The bus was to start at 6.00 am the next day and we were to report at 5.00 am. We had numbered seats in the rear part of the bus, no seats available to towards the front.
Well, this journey I could write a book about, but to make a very long story short I tell you it is amazing how man can adapt to the situation without complaining. It is an experience we are grateful to have made and definitely very grateful to have made without injuries. The road was so bad and the bus in total lack of any suspension, we literally had to hold on with hands and feet in order to stay on or near the seats. Actually the guys in the very back had to get up and stand in the aisle for the loast few hours of the trip. The journey took 14,5 hours, due to different delays such as police interference for overweight, for trying to get a woman out of the bus to go back to her husband, and we also had a breakdown of the engine, which was miraculously fixed with some metal parts that they fished out of a trunk.
Well, when we finally came to Dar we were so dirty, tired and hungry, all we wanted was a really good hotel, which we found and the very professional staff discretely took us into a room with BIG beds a wonderful bathroom, TV and air conditioning.
It was like coming to paradise.
I would say this journey was like an endless ride in a Six flags theme park or Liseberg ( you know the kind of ride where you have a picture screen in front of you and your seat is tumbling and tossing you up and down and to the sides), if you look on the bright side of it the advantages of this one: it is cheaper, it lasts longer and, God willing, (or insha Allah as some say)it gets you somewhwere..
Well we have some memories to share the three of us.
Now I will probaly not write until I'm back in Liverpool next week and then I'll also post more pictures. Now I'm off to the beach!