Flight from Zurich via Nairobi to Dar Es Salaam with Swissair.
29.01.98Arrival in the morning in Dar Es Salaam. We found a room at hotel Continental. The afternoon programe was buy a new camera because ours was broken. We decided for a disposable camera. There's not much for sight seeing in the city. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant as we were told that the city center, where we were was quite unsafe at night.
30.01.98We went to the bus station where we were hassled by touts who tried to convince us to board their vehicles. What we were looking for was the bus to Arusha. Finally we got aboard of the express to Arusha via Moshi the town at the bottom of Kilimanjaro. Its peak was covered with clouds. The bus arrived after sunset in Arusha. We stayed at Arusha By Night hotel. On the way there we met a German lady who tried to convince us to book a Safari at her agency. We had dinner at a restaurant some squares away from the hotel. There were no other tourists to be seen on the streets at night so we felt a bit unsafe when walking back to the hotel.
31.01.98This was the safari organization day. Everybody in Arusha seemed to be informed about our intentions. We were surrounded by touts. There was a black list of agents which were not trustable. Apparently the German lady was on that list, so we forgot her offer. What we didn't want was handing out 1000 USD to any person on the street expecting this person would appear the other day and take us to the bush. Our requirement was that the person who was going to sell us a trip had a proper travel agency where we could go back and complain in case of trouble. Some agents were located in class rooms of schools because there were no lessons that day, so called mobile offices. Other agents guided us through four star hotels just to end up in a shed in the backyard. Most trustworthy was a French lady, but her 4 day safari cost about 600 USD per person. Finally we took a decision and payed something less than 500 USD per person.
01.02.98The jeep was on time. We were 6 people: driver, cook and 4 tourists. One of the guests, a young lady booked a tent safari, therefore a cook was on board. The rest of us were booked in safari lodges. The jeep has probably about 20 years safari experience. The roof could be opened but we had to fix it with ropes otherwise it would not stay open. Thinking in untieing the ropes before closing the roof in case of a geopard attack..... The first part of the trip was driving through muddy slopes. About two hours later one of the tyres of our car broke. Put the spare wheel on. Went to the next village and got the bad one fixed. All that took time. But finally we arrived at the Lake Manyara national park. A hord of monkeys was at the entrance gate. We saw lions, a giraffe and other animals before arriving at our first safari lodge, a luxury resort on a table mountain overlooking Lake Manyara. Other travellers arrived, some in vans and 4wd, others even in busses. We had a delicious dinner, springbock meet, followed by dance performances by the local people (Masai).
02.02.98The next destination was Ngorongoro. After about 4hrs drive we arrived on top of the crater. The lodge was another posh place overlooking the immense caldron of the volcano. We were driving down inside the cone and saw elefants, hippos and a rhino. Back in the hotel we could observe the animals by telescopes.
03.02.98We left the huge crater and drove down towards the flat veldt called Serengeti. We saw flocks of zebras, gnus, vultures fighting for the best pieces of meat of a dead buffalo. Jackals were surrounding the grazers and a few hundred meters away lions and geopards lying in the grass. Hundreds of animals together, something you cannot see in a zoo, that is Serengeti. The wildlife lodge where we stayed over night was another jewel. We had a drink in a bar which was built on a rock, watching the sun go down behind a family of giraffes.
04.02.98Five o clock in the morning. Some crys of fear in the upper floor. What happened? A group of Japanese getting prepared for the sunrise balloon ride. It was 6:30 am when we woke up again. Two monkeys attacked our room and snatched the fruits which were in a bowl. That explained the screems early in the morning. They escaped realizing that we were awake. On the way back to Arusha we did some more animal watching. We arrived late and stayed in the same hotel again.
05.02.98We went to the airport and flew to Sansibar for an extra day at the beach. We decided to stay in Stonetown, hotel Shagani which cost about 80 USD. From the rooftop restaurant we could overlook the harbour. Stonetown is a maze of small alleys. We had a drink at Africa House to watch the sunset. We felt quite safe walking around in Stonetown at night.
06.02.98We went for an excursion to prison island where we stayed at the beach during the whole day. Back in Stonetown we went for boat tickets to Dar es Salaam. In the travel agencies they were not actually eager in selling us tickets giving the excuse that one of the boats was damaged. Touts on the street instead wanted to sell us vouchers for about half the price. Finally we got some tickets in our hands.
07.02.98Arriving at the pier we showed our tickets. The guy asked us to go back to the ticket counter in order to get them stamped. It turned out that our boat was cancelled because of damage. A guy turned up and wanted to change our tickets with others valid for another boat. He escorted us to the boat. The ticket inspector took our vouchers and the ones of the guy and let us in but not the guy. Latter was shouting for his tickets but we had nothing anymore to hand out. The boat had not left yet as the guy was suddenly in front of me and was about to get rough when the bluejackets threw him out of the boat. Arriving in Dar es Salaam we took a taxi and went to Palm Beach hotel which was outside of the city but stuffed with a nice beergarden where we had a peaceful evening.
08.02.98We went by taxi to the airport and had a flight back to Zurich where we arrived in the evening of the same day.