Diving the Indian ocean with Big Blu

Started at 5 30 am had to catch a motorbike or tuk tuk to utende for the dive. Arranged a ride with a nice local I had me the day before. 10000 tsh. Another 30000 for the park entry fee and made it well on time. I was greeted by the dive master. Mattia a 28 year old dive instructor who works there with Mario. Both from italy. We geared up then relaxed as the team stocked the boats. 2 dives $70 is a good deal to. The water was calm and clear. My other diving companions were three Italians traveling together. Good thing the Italians speak with their hands I pretty much understood what mattia was saying to them. Our dive started with a positive event. The skipper spotted a sea turtle caught in a net. We turned the boat around and Mattia grabbed his knife and tried to free it from the net.





Cutting the turtle out of the net





Mattia Saves the turtle.

It was slack tide so the dive was a breeze. The water was warm and bright blue. We could see well over 80 feet. The coral was bright and full of life. On both dives we saw parrot fish, lion fish, and I guess we saw some large groupers but I did not see them. On the 2nd dive we were joined by a nice dutch guy who it turns out speaks a fair bit of Italian. We chatted about diving and because of him I did not miss seeing a lovely and large manta ray to our right by a coral shelf.

It was cautious but interested in us as we were of it. After a short time it started to drift away into the deep blue.

All around a successful dive trip.

The people on this island are wonderful. The price is the price. No haggling, just a fair price. People like to practice there English and are happy to help me with my Swahili when I ask.





All geared up for a wonderful dive


Last day on the island. Glad for the change of pace.

Location:Utende beach , mafia island Tanzania

Dalla days

This is all Dalla Dalla
The driver and proud owner is Mr Fortunatus, Kajuna. His name is perfect to suit the Dalla Dalla "fortune"
About to find a ride for the main village and there in front of me stood the one and only great Dalla Dalla of Mafia island.

I sat in the very back. the seat in front was broken and rocking back and forth. The tires were bald with some tread actually coming away from the tire itself. The sliding doors did not shut, nore did the passenger door. Not one panel was still intact. You can see beside my feet the hole in the floor. The frame was fractured in at least three places. The man beside me spoke English and being a Tanzanian this one even had him smiling. It was a wreck.

Then a voice from the driver Mr Kajuna. " this is africa if it runs it's good" we all smiled. Having being in many third world countries this was not a new thing but the level of disrepair was almost alarming. Now once the 5 young men push started the van, we we were off. Surprisingly the suspension was pretty good.
Once we stopped I politely asked Mr Kajuna if it was possible to photograph the Dalla. He happily agreed. Even posed for me.


At least there was head room


Seriously. And there was a bigger hole.


The proud owner to the right


The broken seat


Wiring issues


Nothing a hammer and tape can,t fix

Location:Mafia island, Tanzania

Preparing to swim with the fishes

Day started with the fruit toast and tea. Carlos was moving me to a smaller room today. Beds for 6 seemed a little much for one guy. Decided to go to Utende to see about my dive tomorrow. Walked to the village in the morning heat about 2 KM. There was a Dalla almost loaded and ready to go. 1000 tsh to the village. It did not take long and we arrived at the gate for the marine park. For a tourist to use the park it is 20 usd a day regardless is you use the water. If you keep the park clean great happy to contribute. Made it to the village and their was big blue dive shop owned by an Italian named Mario. We arranged for the trip the following day. The beach was small the sand heating up under my feet.

Location:Utende village and marine park , mafia island , Tanzania

Opting for a road less travelled

GPS
S 07 54.382
E 039 40.023


When choosing the road less travelled remember to read the fine print. The morning in Dar was hot. The hotel manager told me the correct instructions catch a Dalla Dallas to the town of Bungui. I hoped a small Korean made bus with about 30 seats plus the extra 4 seats that are welded on where possible. My bus pal was great and gave me all the instructions on where to get off and where to go. The map showed the island a short morning trip be in by 1pm at the latest. That was a slight oversight. The Dalla Dalla that took me the remainder was jammed with up to 26 people at the most. At one point they stopped to let on three women with little babies strapped to their backs . The two men hung out the side while the Bus bounced and banged down a gravel road. Some hills were so steep it looked like it was a roller coaster.

This little trip turned out to be a all day event. My pack was on my lap for 4 plus hours the sour smell of sweat filled the bus with the heat it was becoming a little unbearable. Closing my eyes clicking my heals anything to make the ride end. After hours and hours we came to our destination. A very small port , we all piled out as if it was a shriners show and walked with wobbly legs to the dock.

Ok the dock was 7 concrete steps down to the murky water. The boat about 60 feet long with a upper and lower deck. It was painted a bright blue and the age was undefined. It did look sea worthy. Being aware the trip could take 3 to 4 hours so braced myself for another adventure.

After an hour we departed. It was slow and steady then we reached the open ocean. The waves grew in size smashing against the boat. The trip was nice, and then it was exhausting. Wave after wave. I placed my head between knees my hands to balance myself the seats were wood benches and people were all over the deck sleeping. On the way back I will play the local card and find a place to lay my head. The boat arrived just before sun set. It was a 11 hour travel day. The boat was to large to come to shore so another smaller boat came to collect us and drop us off to the beach.

I sat to catch my breath . I caught a tuk tuk to whale shark bungalows to the west of the town. Was greeted by the owner Carlos. He quickly checked me in and showed me around. It is a lovely property only 6 bungalows and you could easily fit 4 to 5 more without crowding it

The restaurant is open and sits on a cliff overlooking the blue ocean. The sun had just set and the sky was pink. I did not take pictures on the boat trip. I was the only tourist on board and looked like they do not see to many Muzungu. So wiping out the big camera may not have been so cool.

Had a lovely dinner of prawns and rice retired to my room at 830 to read. Tomorrow is another day.

Diving is booked for the day after tomorrow. $70 for two dives. Hoping for whale sharks.







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Location:Mafia island, Tanzania

Planning the next adventure

Mafia is 80KM south to Nyamisati where there is a simple ferry that runs on rubber time that will make the 30 KM sail to the island. It is known to wait till its full. So not unusual for you to board at 4 pm and sail at 1am.

As I sit here in Dar ES Salaam I have only the one regret. Due to being so sick not being able to dive in Zanzibar. Was going to head off to get on a safari trip. Then in the book was MAFIA island a marine sanctuary and WHALE SHARKS, where do I sign up. Will leave early tomorrow and wing it. The island does not have the push or the touts like in other destinations. Getting off on the ferry those morning was the repeated taxi taxi taxi. There are so many taxis here. I can imagine why that all fight for the business.

The city is hard to shoot as the people do not like to have there picture taken. A woman who was crippled was asking for money on the street about an hour ago. She was maybe 28-30 hard to tell life can be hard here when you cannot walk or work. She looked up at me with a large smile her hands clasped together like she was praying for me. I returned the smile stopped leaned down reaching into my pocket and pulled out about 800 shillings. I gently placed it in her hand the whole time she looked into my eyes. And for a moment she held my hand. And for that moment in time I just felt better. Better about the trip , better about being sick, better about everything. I smiled till I arrived back at the hotel. She was not angry she had no use of her legs, she did not seem spiteful at all. She was just happy for the kindness of strangers. For the record there is no social system here to help the sick or unemployed. Every time you see a person at home asking for money , or spare some change. Look at there legs. The only people I have ever seen ask for money here are people who have lost the ability to walk and are forced to ask for money or food to survive. So when you look at them again at home. They get the cheque from the government they have access to free health care. Take the money you may have given them and go buy an ice-cream for a senior citizen instead.

I had a man approach me with a sheet asking for me to donate to an orphanage. Yes he really did. It had a bunch of random stamps on it. I smiled and asked for his papers to do this. He said it was a good Christian company. I told him that he should be ashamed of himself. He shrugged his shoulders and went off and tried to find someone who would fall for it. See it happens everywhere. There is the good the bad and the ugly. I have mostly seen the good.

Here are a few pics of the days wandering the streets.






Well this was in Zanzibar. Thinking bc ferries should try this.





Thriftys the street version. The price depends on what you have.



This was lunch. Plantains , with I think they were cocktail wieners , and a simple salad. With water it went to a grand total of $1.60 cdn. Not a pretty picture but finding a local place to eat was not easy. When asking the hotel manager he said most people make food eating out is to expensive. The toothpick was my fork. Worked pretty well quite environmental really.

Location:En route to Mafia island

Full circle

Over one hour on hold with delta air and 50 thousand shillings in pre paid phone cards. I managed to get my flight changed from Madagascar to my arrival point of Nairobi.

After taking the time to enjoy and love theses two fine countries it would be a waste to rush through just to meet the goal of leaving from anther country. Every city town and village have so much to show you. Now I cam make plans to adventure to the middle and possibly explore mt kilimanjero and a safari in Massi Mara.

Tomorrow I will leave this wonderful island. it will be missed.





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Location:Zanzibar island

Sights and sounds of spice town

Laying on my bed relaxing. outside in the square sounds are everywhere. Closing my eyes, hearing bells from a bicycle , scooters chattering up and down the slim ally's , horns beeping at every corner. The oddest sound was the sound of a cars boot slamming shut again again and again. It turns out to be one of the sounds most detest. Still keeping my eyes closed I hear the sound of street sellers clanging there change to let the people they walk by know their open for business. The evening call to prayer will start soon. Getting closer to dinner the streets calm down for at least one hour. Then it is bustling again. People smile as you walk, they chat and gossip like people at home. They spend time with family and friends. Just like home.
They live by cash only and only very very few people accept credit cards. If they do there is a 5 to 10% charge on the balance. Now this is nothing like home.

Laughter the one thing you will hear most of all.. The call to prayer has just started all over the city. They call for all the men to pray. For this 30 minutes the streets go quiet.

Having experienced Islam in many Islamic republics they are all vaguely different. In Jordan they kneel wherever they are and face mecca which can be a challenge to navigate on the street if you are walking. In east africa people are devout but more at ease with the times they may pray.

The call to prayer here is in swahilli.

Trying to explain all the differences between our two homes would take Far to long.
For my strong female friends this would be a place you would need to accept. You do see women but many are at home with the children. The men do the cooking run the market stalls and drive the cars. Women do work. In banks and administrative jobs only. Men are the head of the home but from what I have seen also very committed fathers.

Dinner is mangos and water till I get back my appetite back. Can you believe debating the price of three mangos when the asking price was $1. Sometimes just say Asante and take the mangos. Hell it's a dollar.




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Location:Zanzibar , Tanzania.

Motorcycle around zanzabar

This island has turns and twists. Before you know it you started south and end up east and then managed to take yourself right back to where you started. They say you are never truly lost on Zanzibar. I must concur. Drove down dirt tracks, roads that went to know where, and still I found my way back. Getting lost is part of the fun but here on Zanzibar you always end up in stone town.



Local boys passing away the day. Or junior pirates practicing





No it not a guy starting his boat on fire. They cover the hull on this toxic mixture and then use fire to seal the hull.

The more rural I would drive the more the children would wave and smile. The one village had theses low thatched huts on the shoreline. Not even high enough to stand in. Can assume they are the homes of the fisherman. Zanzibar has been a very hospitable island. The people here are very kind.


If you look close the outrigger canoe is held together with red twine.


They look like they would sink the moment water touches the hull but actually they are quite sea worthy and are used daily for fishing. Can you see the post on the side of the boat? It is essentially in dry dock.

Location:Zanzabar island Tanzania.

Mohammed's, heat stroke and paradise

GPS
S 05 51.458
E 039 21.322

The day started early as usual. Had a lovely breakfast mangoes, bananas and eggs at pearl guest house.
Having arranged the motorbike the day before was all set to explore the island. The more I read the more I wanted to see all parts of this exotic place. Is like time has stood still. Many buildings are far newer than you would think. Many larger buildings were built in the 50's but you look a them and would think they were two hundred years old.

Ran into the man who runs the motorcycle shop and we had lunch together. Ok one complaint still the lack of vegetables. All they had was fish fried bread and hmmm fish. The fruit is great so that helps a lot.


At noon packed up my gear and drove out on the direction of the blue bay resort. Jami is staying there with his friend Bado. It is a incredible resort on the water swimming pools two bars, restaurants. The only thing wrong with it was it could have been the tropics anywhere the world. It was full of Europeans. We had a beer together 6000 shillings per beer. The beer had in Dar was 1500 tzs

It was very hot and the middle of the day I had been driving about one hour before arriving. Then off to find Mohammed's restaurant and bungalows .


Mohammed his son Hussein and his wife. They have 4 children.

It is located in the furthest north east section of the island in a small fishing village. The ocean was dotted with Ngalawas (outrigger canoes) The water was shallow the tide was just coming up. The reef is 500 meters off shore. Wind was high and the local kids playing in the sea were covered in the white sand that sticks to everything.


Now finding this bungalow was a treat. The road went from paved to hard sand to deep loose sand. Navigating the Honda was no easy task. After asking 4 locals in broken Swahili they were happy to offer directions regardless if they actually know where it was . Grabbed my cell phone and called Mohammed. He drove out to meet me. Turns out there are no signs.


Once arriving I was hot and tired. My body started to ache head was starting to pound. Drank 2 liters of water. Decided to walk on the beach and meet the local kids. they wanted my pen or anything. If i wanted pictures that would cost me. So I had an idea. One more soccer ball was hanging off my bag. Speaking to mohammed we discussed the possible issues with this. 8 kids who thinks that the ball is theirs So he made a deal with them. They had to return it to him every day after playing. This after 15 minutes of discussion and many cheeky grins was acceptable.


Well after an hour the heat stroke set in. Heavy flu like symptoms Driving the motorcycle was like driving straight at a hair dryer. Sucking the moisture out of my body bit by bit. Breathing was labored and everything ached. Retiring to my room at 4:30 pm waking a few times wanting to take pictures of the full moon over the beach but not having enough energy to stand.

Sometimes forcing yourself to stop moving may not be a bad thing. As hot as it was I had chills all night. The plan is to drive around the island today. This may not happen.

It's now late day on the 20th
Over 36 hours in bed. Have no appetite and my bed soaked with sweat. Am starting to think this was a bug not heat stroke. It did have all the symptoms of malaria but having only encountered very few Mosquitos and taking the pills. The odds it is a nasty flu bug are pretty high. Anyhow if it was malaria after 24 hours I would go into a coma. It has been way more hours plus and no coma. Everything still hurts but I have now managed to sit out front of my bungalow. Have ordered pileu and fruit for dinner. Need food to get my energy back.




If you get sick this is the place.

Location:Matemwe Village, north east Zanzibar island

Spice town. Mohammed's birthday was on the 17 th pretty popular guy.

Walked the great city old town. Up and down alleys , through markets dodging scooters and bicycles as they ride down the alleys ringing there bell. European tourists are evident but only in the higher priced hotels and shopping areas.




Parking, anywhere is parking


Car carriers that drop there ramps on the beach at high tide and try to get the truck on. Quite a sight.


Sun setting ofer the port


A average alley. Or street in old town. Always people and always busy


Full moon over Zanzibar., taken from the roof of the guest house. Feb 18

Location:Zanzabar , Tanzania

Did I say small. I meant minuscule. Really

After being taken for 15 thousand shillings at a ticket office. I went to the main terminal. For me it was not the money but the fact they were dishonest. The manager at the ferry was Mr Hussain. He was wonderful. I said the overcharge was not at his office but at a private ticket seller. He was on his phone and within 5 minutes the money was in my hand. He was very apologetic. To be clear the ferry company was not at all dishonest it was the ticket seller that was not at the terminal.

The ship was like the victoria clipper very clean and fast. But the small world part.

As I walk down the gang plank who would be there beside his motorcycle but Jami
from Finland


What a great site. We greeted each other with a laugh and a hug. I last saw him at the mansion backpackers in Mombasa a week before. He made a deal and managed to load the bike on the ferry and the return price is 250 US. It was actually a good deal. Talked about his trip starting in finland and ending in southafrica. We sat outside for the whole 2 hour trip using my backpack to support his bike from falling over all the way to Zanzibar. As we entered the port the water was the color of turquoise and the air was hot and wet.

After getting his cell number. head off to find a place to sleep for the night. Was being followed buy a man as I left the terminal. He wanted to direct me to a hotel. The rate goes up and so the man makes a commission. After about 200 meters I turned and asked him politely to allow me to wander the city on my own. After a short chat he wished me well and off I went. Almost walked in the hotel. It was not in the lonely planet and for that I was happy. Sometime you need to make your own way. It is the pearl guest house. Lovely high ceilings and the rate with breakfast is $15000 tzs per night $10 US. Nice deal. After went off with the hotels owners son to rent a motorcycle for three days. We haggled as they always quote in US $. Then when they convert to shillings it is some creative accounting. Thank you for the iPhone app currency converter. After haggling for only a moment we agreed to 115000 tzs for three days.

I gave them 30 thousand shillings in good faith.
Tomorrow will be a big day. Discovering Zanzibar. Will actually drive and find a beach property to stay for two or three nights and then return to the old city on the 22nd. will try for some diving to.

Look out for the blog to come.


From my room into the courtyard.



Location S 06 09.620
w 039 11.605
Zanzibar.

Location:The ferry post at Dar ES Salaam

Fish market foul but amazing at the same time

Well the sun is up. Doxycycline is a nasty pill without food this is the malaria pill of choice when traveling in this part of the world. Without food keep close to a toilet.

Well , went to the fish market with the boys. I may have to burn my boots. The pictures speak for themselves.


Ready for a dinner table. Suggesting you do not buy any fish after noon.


He was the prettiest dish at the ball


He wanted to have his picture taken and there was no charge.


Really he was just waiting for the tide. Or catching a rest not to sure yet.


In the back is the swimming club. If you saw the beach you to would find this picture funny


Fish delivery. It looks like chaos but works all the same.

Location:Dar ES Salaam, Tanzania.

It's a small world after all

After riding the bus for 9 hours from Mombasa was more like a roller coaster. Opting for the real experience. I sat in the suicide seat the very front with the view of all oncoming traffic.
2 hours before arriving the rain started to fall. The first rain since arriving 17 days ago. The bus arrived and now off to find a hotel. After withdrawing some funds 4000000 tzs equivalent to 300 US. Crossing a street I a tall see a man with Blonde hair. Well it turns out to be my new friend Bernd From holland who was staying at stilts .He was with his friend mike from Portsmouth England. Bit of luck they were kind enough to walk me back to there hotel and I got a room. I had not eaten since 7 am. we went to an authentic Tanzanian BBQ.


Fair to mention that they do grow loads of veggies here but they do not seem to serve them in restaurants . Now what goes best with a BBQ. Yes beer. Well this is a city with over 70 percent Muslims so beer was a challenge. Thank you for the chinese. Every country has them and they are the happy souls that supply the lovely brews. Actually we had 3 Tanzanian beers and the Kenyan tusker.


The night was complete. 11 pm and off to bed.
On a side note the lonely planet book states of touts and con artists ar all over Dar even says be careful. Well this was the one City I have truly had no worries at all. People were very polite and welcoming. Do not always believe what you hear. It's still only one person opinion.
But always keep on your toes.




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Location:Dar ES Salaam , Tanzania