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 fascination. Shopping is dull and having a few beers before a flight when travelling alone seems just plain wrong. Sitting there watching all the people coming and going, it struck me that (a) I wasn't going to be seeing my family and friends for some considerable period; (b) the steady flow of cash into my bank account had been turned off; and (c) I had sold my house and wouldn't be going back to the safety of leafy Bovingdon. There was a mild wobble as I considered requesting my bags be taken off the plane and returning to Hertfordshire to get on with "normal" life. Much to the relief of the other 554 passengers on the Airbus A380 the wobble was short-lived and I arrived in Dar Es Salaam a mere 18 hours later.

Having never been to Africa proper (I have been advised that Cairo doesn't count for some inexplicable reason) I was a little nervous about arriving on the continent. Determined not to start my backpacking adventure with a taxi journey I wandered out of the airport complex in search of the daladala (local minibus) stand. The sight of grown men climbing into the minibus through its windows and there being approximately 50 people in a 10 seat minibus convinced me to compromise my principles and take a local taxi to the hostel - the Jambo Inn.

The first night of any trip alone is usually a difficult one in my experience as the jetlagged, tired and often confused traveller can hardly be expected to be a sparkling wit brimming with life. On cue I climbed into bed and tried to get some sleep. Well, it wasn't quite as simple as that. Malaria is a problem in sub-Saharan Africa and the main vector for malaria is of course the mosquito. The presence of mosquitoes means mosquito nets which I had of course heard about, but never physically encountered, I mean come on, how many mosquitoes do you think we get in Cumbria?? Heat is another "problem" in Dar, the temperature whilst I have been here has hardly dipped below 30c. Thoughtfully the hostel had made provision for the heat (a rickety old ceiling fan) and mosquitoes (by way of a ceiling mounted mosquito net). Taken aback by the heat in my hostel room I immediately switched on the ceiling fan to cool me down and then set about trying to work out how the net worked. What I discovered very quickly is that ceiling fans and mozzy nets do not mix very well, in the fact the combination of fan + net = ripped net on floor. I had had the foresight (granted not for this particular incident) of packing a sewing kit and spent the next 30 minutes patching up the mozzy net. Eventually I slept, although the heat is unbearable.

The next two days were spent exploring Dar Es Salaam. I have visited the rather fascinating fish market, the local market at Kariakoo, spent some time in the botanical gardens and visited the national museum. There are very distinct areas in the city characterised in very broad terms by the nature of the inhabitants. These seem to fall into the African areas, Asian areas and European areas. Life in Dar seems quite difficult for the great majority. There is some begging (although a lot less than I expected) and there are a number of hustlers around who see you as walking dollars, but overall it seems like a city where a lot of the inhabitants are trying to do as much as they can to work hard and make a living, sometimes in very inventive ways.

The hostel has a strict no alcohol policy and had been taken over by a large group of 18 year old German students. Consequently I didn't really meet too many people whilst here in Dar, but I was not deterred and was sure that that would all change on the next leg of my trip in Zanzibar.