We took a morning walk along the beach and drove around town a bit later and found Bagamoyo to be an interesting, off-the-map place. It is now a fishing village with a very vibrant market and an attempt to make it an arty, touristy cultural experience especially with its proximity to Dar es Salaam. It has a strong Arab influence from its history as a slave-trade port similar but not as famous as Zanzibar, then taken over by the Germans and finally the British before independence. It is an incredibly sad history when you realise that Bagamoyo means "I leave my heart behind". Traders would march slaves from Mwanza for 16 days to bring them to this port where locals and Arabs partnered in ruining their lives.

After stocking up on local produce in the market and trying to work out what some things were (especially the meat hanging in the "butcheries") we headed onto the main road again. We were trying to see how far we could get towards Arusha, unfortunately we had to start by travelling the terrible road we'd done the night before.

It was an uneventful trip and we were tired in the middle of the afternoon so decided to travel into the Lushoto mountains to investigate. The road up into the mountains is incredibly beautiful: huge, age old trees, steep cliffs and waterfalls abound. Lushoto is in fact a village in the moutnains, sprawled in between hills with the standard market at the major road intersection. It's very covered in the forest landscape and seems to be a constant misty rain, making it quite a cold place to camp - such a contrast from the heat and mozzies at Bagamoyo!

The Lawns Hotel, where we camped for the night, was a bit sad in a way. Run by a Greek Cyprian, it seems to have been a dream of the 60's that never worked in the end and has managed to survive all these years with limited patronage. However, the setting is pretty and the staff friendly which made the stay pleasant but by far not the best camping experience (Irene is much better on the cliff edge). We didn't have the chance to do the interesting hikes that others we met have done in Lushoto - one of the many "next time" things to go on our list.