After an early, early start in Dar we caught a 14 hour coach to Mbeya in the South of Tanzania. While the ride wasn't exactly thrilling we did pass through a game reserve on the way. It was quite exciting seeing wild elephants, rhinos and assorted antelope for the first time, even if we were going past at 60mph! We arrived in Mbeya just after dark and climbed off the bus to a mob of taxi drivers. We refused to pay the extortionate fares they wanted and instead w...

After a long and hot bus journey shared with a group of middle aged Iranian men (random) we re-entered Tanzania and headed to Moshi, a small tourist town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. We dropped off our bags at a nearby hostel and slowly climbed the five flights of stairs to the only rooftop restaurant in the town. Our expectations of a view of the sunset over Kilimanjaro were somewhat dashed when it turned out that the sun set in the completely wrong directi...

The ferry across from Dar took about two hours, and we'd been approached on the way by a guy who said he could drive us to our hostel for 2000Ts (less than 1 pound), but we were understandably dubious. When we arrived at Stone Town, the capital, immigration advised us that it should cost 3000Ts - we'd got ourselves a bargain - but to go with a lisenced driver, many of whom were crowding around the dock. When our supposed 'friend' from the boat asked what we were ...

After a long overnight flight we stumbled out of Dar es Salaam airport to the sounds and sights of an African choir celebrating our arrival. Well, I admit it may have been for the president of Tanzania, but I prefer my interpretation of events! We had prepared ourselves mentally for the often arduous task of getting to the city centre, but in fact the only people who approached us were two official taxi drivers who quoted an official price illustrated at the rank...