🇹🇿 Tanzania 🇹🇿

You guessed it – our first mode of transport in Tanzania was yet another bus. We counted and on our journey to Mbeya – around 100km from the border – the bus stopped over fifty times. As the bus stopped to let people on and off, sticks of freshly charred corn on the cob on spears, crisps and fruit would pop through the open windows. This was “at seat” service to a new level in amongst the slightly chaotic happenings inside the bus. We learnt some Swahili from a fellow passenger next to us – a fitting welcome to a new country. We also watched as a woman bought a stack of bananas from a seller to later in the journey trade with another seller for two bags of freshly cooked chips, wrapped in newspaper. The bus erupted in laughter, we think, like us, marvelling at the ingenuity.

Arriving at Mbeya, we hailed a Tuk Tuk to take us to our homestay for the night – Tesha Home. We checked with the driver that he knew where this was “yes..yes…Tesha I know it well.” As we arrived into the town however it became abundantly clear the driver had no idea where Tesha was and we spent half an hour knocking on big houses in a neighbourhood. We were eventually greeted at Tesha by Asha who kindly settled us in and even took us to City Pub for dinner – a local Mbeya nightclub where we had chicken, rice and beans – the Tanzanian equivalent of British Fish and Chips.

The following morning we set off with another misguided Tuk Tuk driver to find some cafes we had recommended to us. There we met some Peace Corps Volunteers embarking on their journey home for Christmas. We picked up some more recommendations for our next 10 days, scribbling down notes which soon turned into an essay. We flew to Dar Es Salaam, Africa’s fastest growing city, with a connection planned to the island of Zanzibar.

Things turned a little messy in Dar. With a five hour layover, we thought we’d check out the city and it’s food by taking an Uber into town from the airport. This was all fine until we hit gridlock and our five hours dwindled rapidly. Things were moving nowhere as more cars piled onto the highway. We reached the point where we had to turn back to the airport, never reaching our destination. Effectively, we spent 3 hours in an Uber exploring Dar in the dark, as shown by our location map on Polarsteps

We returned to the airport, settled for a plate of chips for Dinner #1 and boarded our flight to Zanzibar. After fifteen minutes in the air and after all the traffic, this felt like a breeze. We arrived at Antonio Garden Hotel late at night, but still with time to have Dinner #2 at Lukmann Restaurant which became a firm favourite of ours over the coming days with an array of curries, rich pilau and fresh chipati.

We spent our first day in Stonetown simply wandering the narrow streets and alleyways, becoming hooked pretty quickly on the aromas of Swahili cooking, the sounds of the call to prayer and the vibrancy of the shops. Although small, it’s like a giant maze. This is a big part of its charm however. On the first day, Tom found a T-Shirt that he liked but didn’t buy it. A few days later, we’d spend nearly two hours trying to retrace our steps to buy the T-Shirt in the Stonetown heat. We were close to admitting defeat but on the very final alley we tried, we found what we’d been looking for.

We had only planned for Stonetown to be a two night stop before the beaches of Jambiani. We decided however there was more to explore and so we made plans to return a few days later. We moved (very slowly) east on a Dalla Dalla across the island for our next stop – Jambiani Beach. The bumpy journey was worth it and we arrived at Uhuru Beach – our home for the next few days – to the bluest waters we had ever seen. We finished another travel day with a tasty BBQ and Masaai dancing.

Our time in Jambiani was spent beach walking and swimming in hot waters. Tom found that the water in the Indian Ocean was hotter than some properties he had rented over the years in London (particularly Allison Road, c.2011). The tides at Jambiani were impressive – at night, you would be metres from the edge of the water. The following morning, you’d need to walk out across little pools of bright blue water for 15 minutes to find the first crash of waves.

Leaving the blue of Jambiani behind, we returned to Stonetown for more dinners at Lukkman, Nutella pizzas at the Forodhani Food Market, Coconut breads at Stonetown Cafe, rooftop chilling and travel planning. We also took a Spice Tour, heading to a plantation to learn about local spices and fruits. To round things off we were presented with some new headwear made from some of the plants. The following day, it was time for some practicalities including a haircut for Tom – a momentous occasion.

We waved goodbye to Stonetown, bound for Dar (again). We hoped this time to have a relatively traffic free experience. We didn’t, but it was certainly more interesting than previous. Our first stop was to the Ubungo Bus Terminal to buy tickets to our next destination, Lushoto. After a few failed conversations over WhatsApp with various people to purchase a ticket, we eventually asked our taxi driver to help us navigate the complexity of Ubungo – a bus terminal not famed for its convenience or ease. We arrived late at night – in the dark again – to a bus station teeming with people, cargo, hundreds of coaches and a series of huts selling tickets. Think London Victoria Coach Station x 1000. The most confusing thing was that it was really difficult to work out who did what in this very convoluted process. Most of the buses we were told were full and we’d need to come back at 5am the following morning. Miraculously, a man who had latched onto us – very unclear of role – had found us a conductor for one of the bus companies we had in mind and within minutes we were the proud owners of paper tickets to Lushoto. It was all about finding the right person.

After a quick sleep in Slow Leopard Hostel, we came back to the bus terminal the following morning. Our mission was to find the red coach we needed amongst all of the other hundreds of coaches, lots of them red. After a bit of hassle with a man attempting to charge us unnecessarily for our luggage, we settled into our seats on the coach, with cookies for breakfast. One by one, each coach left the terminal after what we think was some sort of protest. We left just after 7am, with music videos in the background for company and a constant beeping from the dashboard which seemed to come on when the coach went over 50kph. The beeping and the 78 music videos accompanied us all the way to Lushoto. We were even lucky enough to see some of the music videos twice we were on the bus that long.

We arrived in a lush, green and leafy Lushoto in the afternoon, hiking our way to Lawns Hotel. Lawns is one of the oldest hotels in the region and reminded us of a cosy alpine ski lodge. It was the perfect base for hiking up and down the Usambara Mountains which had some spectacular viewpoints. We guided ourselves to Irente Viewpoint, stopping for lunch at Irente Farmhouse for some much needed lunch. We were happy that it included lots of cheese! Cheese aside, Irente had amazing views of the valley below and we were lucky to have such a great view all to ourselves. We could even see the feint outline of Kilimanjaro in the distance.

The following day, we took a hike with a guide, Sam, to Kasese waterfall. Sam explained to us all about the history of Lushoto, it’s German influences and diversity of people and religions. We quickly learn that Sam was a tremendous spotter of Chameleons, often far in the distance. We had a little hold of the creatures who were surprisingly content to climb on us.

We found a local friendly pizzeria for “Muzungu” food at Mamma Mia Pizzeria. We ate there for each of our three nights. After Kelsey enquired about cookies on nights one and two, no cookies were available. Mamma Mia baked some especially for us for our final night.

The final portion of our Tanzania trip (of course!) involved another bus. This one started promising, with a hum of reggae inspired Christmas carols to start the journey, spreading some festive cheer. The six hour journey however was stop-start-stop-start and we arrived in Tanga with numb body parts and a little bleary eyed. After some strong sales pitches by Tuk Tuk drivers as we arrived into Tanga bus station, we eventually arrived at our stopover for the night – Safehouse. Safehouse was an odd little green house sitting at the top of a tree, propped up by scaffolding, complete with fish tank and live tree on the inside. The whole area around it was a little under construction and so it certainly proved one of the more unique places we had stayed. Still, it was comfortable for a one night stop over and our hosts were remarkably helpful, booking our onward bus tickets, helping us navigate the complicated task of topping up a Tanzanian mobile phone and making us a giant tasty breakfast the following morning, preparing us well for another bus ride and border crossing…