I spend a sleepless night wondering if I have been incredibly stupid handing over $300 to a stranger that I've met in the street. Next morning to my relief and surprise it seems like it is "game on" as I am introduced to a safari/trekking company and we set off to conquer Mount Meru. The mountain is relatively high and has 4 separate environments depending on altitude. There are evergreen forests, floral meadows, giant lobelia and alpine desert. There are fi...

All good things must come to an end and I was very sorry to have to leave Zanzibar for my next destination of Arusha, Tanzania's safari capital. I have a week or so in Arusha and had already arranged a three day safari trip whilst I was in the UK. I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of the time. The ferry from Stone Town to Dar Es Salaam was much quicker this time around, but Arusha is still an exhausting 11 hour coach journey away. I was luck...

After Stone Town I moved to the east coast of Unguja island to the small, intimate fishing village of Matemwe. I am staying here for a week to relax and to do four days of scuba diving. The scenery here is picture perfect, a beautiful palm-fringed beach made up of fine white sand and crystal clear water. Imagine the beach on the TV show Lost and you won't be too far wrong. The area is still rural, goats and cows roam parts of the beach for anything edible tha...

Today I moved on from Dar to Zanzibar (or technically the island of Unguja) with the first stop being Stone Town. The journey involved a 4 hour ferry from Dar and is accomplished by negotiating the very busy ferry terminal, which is packed with touts, hustlers and the odd genuine passenger. Well prepared, I was able to stride confidently through the throng, almost unhindered, to purchase my ticket. The trip itself was uneventful save for a group of Israeli tr...

So here is my first blog entry! Apparently is has been long-awaited judging from some of the comments so far. Let's start at the start; Heathrow departures. I arrived in plenty of time for the flight which, in retrospect, was probably a mistake. It was whilst sitting in the hall waiting for the flight that the personal magnitude of my decision began to hit home. I've been to lots of airports over the last few years and consequently they hold little fascinati...