Wow. Well first things first, I am now all the way back in Cape Town, South Africa. At the southern tip of the African Continent. Where I began this trip nearly four months ago. With the original idea when I came to Africa being a cross-continental Cape-to-Cairo trip I guess you could say this puts me back at square one. That said, I am thrilled to be back in Cape Town and I see many good things in my future. Let me tell how I got back here first though:
When I left off last I was just
returning from our amazing safari and back in Moshi, Tanzania I had a
lot to think about. After all, in less than two weeks I'd be flying
back to South Africa for the AfrikaBurn festival and then I'd be on
my own, flying solo with no plans what so ever.
With this in mind, I stayed up until
about 3am reading the guidebooks overview of every single country in
Africa. That is not to say I necessarily follow the guidebooks like
a bible as some do, but when you read that one country requires a
'letter of recommendation' from someone inside the country, is
currently at war and only gives a 7-day visa, while another is
peaceful, friendly and gives a 90-day free of charge, it tends to
affect your plans. So what are my plans? Right now they involve
Botswana and a bicycle, but it is still in the idea phase and I'll
reveal more about it as the time comes.
I was sitting on the internet taking
care of some business, when I walked outside and saw a police truck
blocking the main road and a large crowd gathered. Naturally I ran
up to see what was going on, after all this is Africa and it could be
anything: a wild animal,
'street justice', a performance, I just didn't know. What I found,
was a rally car race! While I'm not a huge motor sport fan, I do
like cars and knowing that the rules of rally fandom say 'thou must
get as close to the action as possible without being killed' I stood
at the apex of the corner with my camera on high speed burst, close
enough to touch the passing cars.
I followed where
the cars were coming from and eventually found the pit/starting area.
Being white the guards assumed I belonged, or at least that I wasn't
there to cause trouble (sad but true facts) and I was able to wander
freely. There was even a VW Beetle in the race (I have a 1970 Beetle
myself) but it was embarrassingly slow... As the race wound down,
hooligans took over the crowded streets and I expected mass carnage.
Luckily the locals are good at dodging speeding cars and motorcycles
but for a little while it was a very exiting place to be.
Oh look, Mt
Kilimanjaro again!
The
next day Weon and I were off to a small town 40km east called Marangu
where one of the entrances to the Mt Kilimanjaro Park is. Those of
you with sharp eyes might have noticed someone new in the truck, and
that would be Jenna, a girl from Scotland. She was staying at the
same place as us and because she was headed in the same direction we
were, Weon invited her to join us.
Marangu is a very
small town, that in itself has absolutely nothing to offer. That is
not the reason to come however. The reason is that it has an
interesting cave, a series of waterfalls, nice views of Kili and a
cool, green climate.
We ended up staying
at a place called Bismark and the old man who ran the place happened
to also be the village chief. Also, his grandson was being baptized
so a celebration was setup and he was in his finest cloths. Here he
is blowing the traditional antler-horn to call the village people
together.
See? I told you the
place was green and beautiful.
Later
that afternoon the festivities began and we were shuffled into the
food line, in front of many people who I can only assume actually
knew the child and the
family and thus we were the only non Tanzanian Chaga-Tribe people in
attendance. It was a bit awkward, but the food was delicious and the
beer was free so who am I to complain.
The Chaga people
are known for bananas. It is a key export for the region, a staple
of their diet and a source of alcohol as well. Thus, it was time for
me to try what they called 'banana beer'. Let me just begin by
saying I love trying local food and drink and that when someone
offers me something I will do everything I can do either enjoy it or
at least to suffer my way through it and finish it.
With this stuff it
simply wasn't possible. Imagine an oil drum (and they had a
40-gallon drum of the stuff) full of peeled bananas left in the sun
to rot and ferment for a week. Then it's all stirred together, then
the biggest bits are strained out. Then you drink it. I'm not
exactly sure how they make it, but it's probably not far off from
that. It is served in the traditional way, in a 'sausage tree' seed
pod with a handle. I managed to drink half of the seed pod worth,
having to chase every gulp with another gulp of western beer to
cleanse my mouth so I wouldn't puke. Meanwhile, the 60 year old
women in front of me are drinking it non-stop out of a little plastic
bucket. I guess it is an acquired taste.
The next day it was
off on a little walk to one of the waterfalls in the area and that
meant a nice peaceful walk through the village. We intended on doing
it on our own, but we were sort of coerced into having someone act as
a guide and paying him...
The
Ndoro waterfall was beautiful though, even if we did have to pay
5,000 shillings to go see it. We stayed their for over an hour just
relaxing, watching and listening before heading back towards town.
We'd planned on
skipping it, but as we walked back towards town we saw the sign for
the caves in the area and decided to check them out. They wanted
10,000 shillings each which is frankly way too much, but we managed
to get all three of us in for 10,000. I was expecting natural caves,
but what we ended up seeing was man-made caves, around 300 years old,
that were dug to protect locals from attacks by other tribes. Some
parts you crawled on hands and knees almost, some parts had spots for
defenders to hide and ambush possible invaders and some parts had
cooking areas and once held cows. While the 'tour' only lasted about
5 minutes, they claim the system was 4km long.
Making a stir-fry
for dinner after buying some veggies at the local market.
The next morning it
was time to set off towards the coast. We passed the Usambara
Mountains again which gave some time to reflect on our visit their
two weeks before. As we drove, Weon happened to get caught in a
speed trap (we saw a few that day in the towns, which often consist
of just a dozen buildings; the speed limit drops suddenly from
100km/hour to 40km/hour or something). The fine was for 30,000
shillings, but Weon ended up simply bribing the officer for 10,000
off the books (about $6.30).
We got to the city
of Tanga on the east coast of Tanzania and checked into the Ocean
Breeze Inn, a cheap but perfectly functional place to spend a few
nights. While the car was parked there, someone happened to see it
and left a note for us. It was some other South Africans, and they
wrote that they were heading south on a Cairo-to-Cape trip and that
we ought to meet them at the Tanga Yacht Club that evening if we
wanted to chat. We did en up meeting them and while we told them our
Cape-to-Cairo trip had fallen apart it was very interesting to talk
to them about what north Africa has in stock and it defiantly kept me
interested in heading that direction at some point while I am out
here.
After breakfast I
went for a walk around Tanga, which while there isn't really much of
anything to do, it is a pleasant little place that has some public
green space and while they are all a bit run down, I can't say I've
seen parks in any other cities/towns I've been in so I appreciated it
a great deal.
I was
walking around town looking for an internet cafe when a car pulled up
next to me and asked where I was going. I told him I was just
wandering around and he offered to show me around town. I hopped in
the car and he told me his name was Shabbir. He grew up in Tanga,
born to Pakistani parents and runs a bed and breakfast in town. We
had a nice time driving around town while he showed me around,
including driving past the school he went to as a child. He told the
same story as all the other locals I've met, about how everything has
gone down hill so quickly since nationalization and how sad it is to
see what Tanzania has become as a result. On the bright side, we got
drinks and sat in the park while I showed him photos of my travels,
home and family. A truly friendly person I feel glad to have met.
Oh, also on the
subject of public parks, this is another of them. In the evenings
tables and chairs are put out and you can eat dinner there, which is
very nice.
The thee of us
played a lo of cards together.
We had intended on
going to the Amboni Caves which are just outside of Tanga, but when
we asked how much it cost now and was told 20,000 shillings we simply
said no. They used to be 3,000 and we simply were not willing to pay
what they now wanted. Sorry, but I have to rant for a minute.
The
problem is that this is happening all over Tanzania, the government
is jacking up the price of EVERYTHING tourist/foreigner related. The
government is corrupt, incompetent and short sighted according to
literally everyone I've talked to and what I've seen seems to support
that belief. Let me give some examples: The tourist visa for the
country is $100 for a one year multiple entry. Last year they raised
the price of a volunteer visa
to $500!! To volunteer, aka, to work for free in Tanzania, they
charge you an extra $400! The thing is, many of these volunteers end
up paying the organization to volunteer as well, then do tourist
activities in the country after their project ends. Volunteers do a
lot of work and bring a lot of money into the country, and the
government is simply going to push them away. There are dozens of
other countries in Africa with an equal or even bigger need for
volunteers that will be happy to take you, and you can do it for
free, without throwing an extra $400 into a corrupt bureaucrats
pocket. Another example: the government wants to turn the coast
around Tanga into a 'protected marine reserve'. It sounds good in
practice, but the real reason they want to do it is to charge foreign
visitors more money. As part of this 'marine reserve' that could
reach from the northern border south to Pangani or more, and go
inland as well, they
want to impose a $20 a night fee on all visitors who sleep in the
area! To put this in perspective, we were paying $5 a night to camp.
If the government has it's way, that will suddenly become $25 and NO
ONE will come. The government is doing the same thing with nearly
every tourist attraction, no matter how small and uninteresting.
Ok, and here is one last example Chris just posted on his facebook, I'll let him tell it: "Today my blood was really boiling.... We saw how fisherman were catching dolphins in the Mnemba marine reserve, during this the Marine park rangers came up to us and asked for our passes. Hearing this we asked them what they are doing about the fisherman. They had no reply. We replied by giving them the finger. A sad day on Zanzibar ...."
The next morning we
headed back towards Peponi. Between Peponi and Tanga however is the
Tongoni Ruins. I was curious to see these because there isn't a lot
of 'built history' in Africa in the form of ancient buildings and
whatnot so I was curious to see the place. We decided to check that
out but when we got there and the price had been raised from 1,000
shillings to 10,000, we simply turned around. I need to give them
credit for the fact they actually improved the infrastructure at the
site, having built a new bathroom and ticket office which is a step
in the right direction, but the price was just too high, especially
when you could see it all from the road as you drove past.
In the
early afternoon the three of us arrived back at Peponi and Jenna and
I set up camp. Weon on the other hand moved into one of these bandas
because he was settling in to work at the resort for the next two
months. Back when Chris and I were still on Zanzibar, Weon had
returned to the mainland and ended up staying at Peponi for about two
weeks, befriending the owners in the process. They happened to be
going on vacation shortly after and offered him a job as supervisor
at the resort while they were away. With Chris having gotten a job
on Zanzibar and then my heading back to South Africa, the timing
couldn't have been better and Weon accepted the job.
In the early
afternoon the next day Weon, Jenna and I set out on the resorts dhow
boat for a snorkeling trip. I knew it would be my last time in a
warm ocean for a long time, so I was excited to get some water time.
It turned out to be
a windy day and the visibility underwater wasn't very good but the
aquatic life was fairly good and I saw a few nice things including
this nice lion fish.
Clown fish and a
few others around a sea anemone.
The sailing dhow
was really cool to be on. These traditional boats are hundreds of
years old and are still built and widely used today. To get to be on
one and see how the rigging works, how the sail is hoisted and
adjusted and just how the whole thing works was very interesting.
A while back I met
someone who said they'd run into two travelers that had actually
bought one of these boats in Tanzania. Obviously they had never
sailed one before had a lot to learn, but were going to attempt to
sail down the east coast of Africa. This sounded like an awesome
adventure to me and had I not already bought tickets to AfrikaBurn
and plane tickets back to South Africa I would have gotten their
contact information and tried to join up on that trip!
Oh look, another
group of Norwegian nursing students! (I wasn't kidding when I said
they were everywhere). On the left is Gregory, a Swiss guy who has
been working here in Tanzania as an architect. Greg and I had a lot
of interesting conversations late into the night, it's too bad our
schedules didn't match up, he would have been a cool guy to travel
with.
The next morning it
was time for me to head off to Dar es Salaam to catch my flight, so
it was time to part ways with Weon. As you know the original idea
for this tip was for the three of us (Chris, Weon and I) to do the
full Cape-to-Cairo trip in the 4x4 over as much as a year. Well, it
lasted three months and while it hasn't always gone perfectly it's
been quite a rewarding experience. We had a lot of good times
together (and some bad ones of course) and I have to say that this
last part with just Weon and I in the north of Tanzania has been one
of the most enjoyable sections of the trip. Weon, it was good to
meet you and I bet we will cross paths again at some point.
I caught a bus that
picked me up just outside Peponi, and while the ride wasn't too bad,
it took nine hours.
I arrived in Dar
around 5pm and tried to get a taxi into the city center to find a
place to sleep. The taxi far was pretty expensive, 20,000 shillings,
so I sat down for something to eat and make a better plan. I
happened to see two other foreigners, a newly wed couple from Brazil,
and we shared a cab into town.
I am sharing this
particular photo because one thing I noticed right away about Dar is
that it has new construction everywhere. It is said to be the
fastest growing city in East Africa, and I certainly believe it.
We ended up going
to the YWCA, which had single rooms for 10,000 shillings which wasn't
too bad, then headed out together to get dinner. It turned out a
group had reserved all the rooms in the YWCA for the next night and
we'd have to move, so we walked a block away to the YMCA to check it
out. As we were walking towards the door I saw a familiar face, it
was Esther (on the left of this photo) who I'd met in Moshi! She was
heading out to dinner with Mary (on the right) who is from Ohio and
has been in Tanzania for about three years with the Peace Corps. So
we all joined forces and went out to dinner together at an Indian
place that was quite good.
The
next morning I had to move into the YMCA, and was rather displeased
it cost a a full 25,000 shillings for a room that is no
better than the room at the YWCA
that only cost 10,000. I sucked it up and paid, since I didn't feel
like wandering all over looking for another place (and I knew there
were not many choices anyways) and it was only for one night. While
there I ran into Mary again and we spent the morning walking around
Dar running errands and chatting.
Interesting
architecture in the city. On a side note, people told me Dar was a
big nasty dangerous city. Maybe I am missing something, but it
didn't feel that way to me at all. In fact, I wish I'd had a few
more days in the city to walk around and explore...
At the internet
cafe, I met Todd, an Aussie guy and we hung out that evening. Once
again, I ended up at an Indian place (there is a big Indian community
in Dar, the previous night I seriously felt like I was back in India
walking down one of the streets) for dinner and after dinner I was
going to help him out by burning some DVDs of his photos as a backup
for him to mail home. One of the disks he bought on the street was
empty as it was supposed to be, but somehow the other was full of
Indian pop music videos, which made us both crack up when I put it in
my computer and it started playing.
I grabbed a taxi to
the airport, another 20,000 shillings, and sat down to read my book
for a good while.
Reflecting on my time in Tanzania, it really has been wonderful. I've done great scuba diving, gone on an amazing safari, hiked up an active volcano, sat in the mountains surrounded in forest and trees, met tons of good people (locals AND foreigners) and had a wonderful time overall. Tanzania is definitely a country I could recommend to almost anyone.
As I checked in for
my flight back to South Africa, they asked me if I had an onward
ticket. Of course I didn't, because I didn't know my plans/schedule
for my time in South Africa. They were not pleased with this answer,
and I had to explain a few times what I was doing (uhh, being a
tourist without a set schedule???) and wait a while for them to
decide what to do with me. They ended up letting me through but said
once I land in SA I may have to buy an onward ticket on the spot.
When I landed in Johannesburg, I was again questioned by the
immigration officer about why I didn't have an onward ticket (I was
never asked any questions when I first came to SA from the USA...)
but he ended up letting me through without further incident.
I landed in Cape
Town around 11pm, and JC, the husband of Chris' sister was there to
pick me up. Thanks JC!
When I arrived at
the apartment of Chris' parents (who are not around right now,
meaning I have the place to myself!), I found his sister Maresna had
bought some groceries to get me by until I made it to the stores,
once again wonderful hospitality! With this, I had a wonderful place
to stay, (Running hot water! A clean bed! A TV! A laundry machine!
It's been a while!), wonderful people to help me out and a place to
simply decompress for a while until AfrikaBurn.
Cape Town and Table
Mountain in the background, round two!
Naturally
after a good shower and sleep, it was time to sort through my things
again to decide what I
will sell, what I will keep, what I will ditch and what I will send
home. My things exploded all over the floor and it was time to get
to work.
Maresna, JC and
their kid, who also live in Woodbrige where I am staying. Thanks
again you two!
So as
part of going to AfrikaBurn, I had to find a group to camp with. It
is 300km out of Cape Town in the desert, with no shops or anything so
you have to be totally self sufficient. The result of that is I
couldn’t just show up with a backpack and be taken care of, I
needed to join a camp. Through the AfrikaBurn forum, I was invited
by Paul Pickup to join his group Camp Nowhere, and through that group
I was put in contact with other members of the group including Wim.
Wim lives in Cape Town, and we set up a time to meet up and hang out.
He picked me up on his scooter, and we set off to his place.
Wim and Hanlie
are nomads themselves, but for now are here in
Cape Town with a nice apartment and a beautiful view of the city and
Table Mountain.
They were
originally planning on going to AfrikaBurn, but with a three-week old
baby Eland decided it was no longer feasible. Too bad they won't be
coming now, but we had a nice evening together over pizza and beer,
and I got a bit of advice about what to do and expect from the event.
Thanks you two!
Clean laundry!
These couple of days here in Cape Town have been pretty low key, just
taking care of business and relaxing which you need every once in a
while.
Sometimes I can
connect to an open wifi connection from the apartment, but usually I
can't. However there are two networks that I always see, and I
wanted to find the owners so I could ask if I could get the password
and use their connection for a few days so I can check email,
facebook, do research, etc. I set about knocking on doors of the
nearby units and was met with friendly faces but a bunch of 'no,
that's not my network' or 'I don't know anything about computers.' I
got that same answer from Hugo and Birdie who are directly across the
street, but Hugo invited me in and we began to chat. We ended up
drinking tea together and I grabbed my laptop and gave them and their
son who happened to show up a slide-show of my trip up Africa so far.
We had a great time chatting and I'll defiantly drop in again to see
them.
I didn't manage to
find where the wifi signals were coming from, but in talking to one
neighbor I found out that the cafe near buy has wifi, so that will be
good enough for now. With that (somewhat) solved, I set out via
bicycle to swing by the local scuba shop to chat about selling my
gear rather than shipping it back home. It was closed, but it was
fun to get out on a bike again and I stopped by the grocery store to
stock up for the next few days.
Looking
back at this post, I'm amazed how many people I've met in the last
two weeks! I haven't had any big 'events' during this time like a
safari, or scuba diving, or crossing into a new country or anything
like that but the time has been just as interesting and enjoyable.
So next of course is AfrikaBurn that starts April 25th
and goes to the 30th,
and after that I have no idea. I'm leaving it open because I'm sure
I will be meeting a ton more interesting people at the Burn and that
it will probably lead to some new opportunities for me to choose
from.
Stay tuned, the
next post is going to be really good ;)
