Destination Africa: Tanzania

[Birdjaguar]

I just got back from Tanzania where I spent time on Zanzibar and on a safari in Northern Tanzania. The trip breaks down into these parts:

• Four days on Zanzibar
• Two days at Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater
• Two+ days in the Central Serengeti
• Three+ days in the Northern Serengeti

I had a wonderful time. I will post some of the many pictures and videos I took over the coming days as I sort through them. Getting there and back was long.

I left Albuquerque just before midnight on July 3 via Jet Blue and landed at JFK in NY at 6:00 AM (all times are local) July 4
Changed terminals and flew Air France to Paris at 6:30 PM
Arrived Paris (CDG) at 8:00 AM July 5
Left Paris at 10:30 AM for Zanzibar
Arrive Zanzibar at 8:15 PM July 5

I had 5 nights booked at the Zanzibar Coffee House (ZCH) in Stone Town.

Fying over the Sahara
Zanzibar Airport

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[Zardnaar]

Jealous sounds awesome.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania. It was an independent entity until it merged with Tanganyikia in the early 1960s to become part of Tanzania. Prior to that it was ruled by assorted Indian Ocean merchants, Portugal, Oman, then Britain. Trade has been its life's blood for most of its history: goods from central Africa, slaves and spices. It is heavily Muslim with both Swahili and English as important languages. Its only city is Stone Town. The old city is a chaotic mess of alleyways connecting mostly old or restored buildings. Finding my way around was a difficult challenge. No straight lines or street signs. Lots of cats and no dogs at all (a Muslim thing).

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[Birdjaguar]

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Lots of street cats

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Zanzibar Coffee House Street

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Zanzibar Coffee House entrance

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Zanzibar Coffee House Courtyard: up and down views

 

[Birdjaguar]

Zanzibar has several attractions for tourists, which are one of its main sources of income: snorkeling and diving around its reefs; beaches; and its history as a trading center. I planned a snorkeling trip to one of its several reefs for my second day on the island. It was a terrible day. The 30 minute small boat trip to the reef was terribly rough and made me seasick. Nonetheless, I donned the gear (fins, snorkel and wetsuit) and entered the water. Well, the swim to the reef was a quarter mile in cold water and when we (the group) got to it, it was not a great reef with almost no fish. In addition, the water murky and hardly clear. After 90 minutes, I had had enough. Perhaps other reefs are better, but I did not find out. Pretty awful day. The lunch wasn't very good either. Lesson learned: long boat rides to unknown reefs should be suspect. At least it wasn't very expensive.

 

[lymond]

Keep it coming, Bird!

Freddie Mercury is from there as well. Well, born and spent a good bit there.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Keep it coming, Bird!

Freddie Mercury is from there as well. Well, born and spent a good bit there.

I saw the house where he was born.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Stone Town from the roof of my hotel (ZCH)

 

[Birdjaguar]

Mosques are common and some very old. 4-5 times a day the calls to prayer filled the city. I was not allowed inside any. This one dates back to 1890.

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[Birdjaguar]

Typical Stone Town street

 

[Birdjaguar]

The slave trade was a big part of Zanzibar history. Remnants of that trade have been preserved. These pictures show the "pens" in which slaves were kept prior to sale. The windows provided the only light (I used a flash) and they were generally packed wall to wall without food or water until sold. There are two rooms off a central entrance. One side was for men the other for women. Low ceilings over the benches meant no standing.

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[Birdjaguar]

Around the edges of the casbah like interior of Stone Town you do find streets with cars. When I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel I had a 5-10 minute walk down narrow, twisting streets in the dark. The driver carried my suitcase and led the way. Bicycles and motorbikes often made full use of the narrow alleyways. Many streets were filled with vendors whose doors opened on to the streets.

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In this picture the scaffolding is holding up a wall

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[Birdjaguar]

Typical vendor set ups, but most sell souvenirs and clothing, as well as, staples for local residents like, water, household products, fresh food, shoes etc.

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[Birdjaguar]

Off to the beach! Zanzibar is an "ovalish shaped" island running north to south. Stone town is on the western side about halfway down. The island is about 55 miles north to south and 20 miles east to west. the eastern side of the island, facing Australia, is mostly nice sandy beach along its entire length. It is filled with resorts and rentals. One odd feature is that the high tide line is right up close to all these resorts. But the low tide line is a kilometer or more to the east. So at low tide, walking the the water's edge is a trek. The tide differential disappears at the northern end of the island and high and low tide lines are pretty close. I hired a car to take me to Nungwi Beach at the northern tip. The day was partly cloudy but warm (80s). I had a delightful day swimming in the Indian Ocean and walking the beach. All beaches have public access, even if some resorts don't let the public get near their lounge chairs or umbrellas. I entered the beach through a public access point at a resort.

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Nungwi Beach resort

Bar and outdoor restaurant

Beach front

 

[Birdjaguar]

More beach. Lots and lots of starfish.

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[tjs282]

I did a few dives up at Nungwi in 1998, about 3 months after finishing my Rescue and Divemaster certs in Dahab (Egyptian Red Sea). Must have not had my temp-cards and/or logbook with me for some reason, so they made me do a refresher-dive -- with a DM who I remember seemed even more freshly qualified than I was (my skillz were better than hers!). Don't remember the dives themselves being anything spectacular (similar life and scenery to Dahab, water was a bit greener), but the waves were new!

 

[Birdjaguar]

Beach video

 

[Birdjaguar]

I did a few dives up at Nungwi in 1998, about 3 months after finishing my Rescue and Divemaster certs in Dahab (Egyptian Red Sea). Must have not had my temp-cards and/or logbook with me for some reason, so they made me do a refresher-dive -- with a DM who I remember seemed even more freshly qualified than I was (my skillz were better than hers!). Don't remember the dives themselves being anything spectacular (similar life and scenery to Dahab, water was a bit greener), but the waves were new!

Nice. Most of the dive trips go to Mnemba reef off the east coast. It is supposed to be top notch. The island is private, but the reef public. I bet 1998 Zanzibar was pretty different than it is today.

 

[Birdjaguar]

On the 10th of July I flew from Zanzibar to Lake Manyara. It has its own small airport. On this map it is on the white road below the Ngorongoro Crater black dot. There are many more very small, dirt airstrips throughout the region. The map shows the relative locations of key places. For scale, it is 100 air miles from Kilimanjaro Airport to Ngorongoro Crater and another 70 air miles from the crater to Seronera in the heart of the Central Serengeti. Driving miles are much more and all the roads west of the Crater are dirt.

• Zanzibar
• Kilimanjaro
• Ngorongoro Crater
• The Serengeti

 

[Birdjaguar]

My plane to Lake Manyara, inside and out.

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Pilots

My companions