Day 36 - 41, 6 - 11 March - Dar Es Salaam

The road from Mikumi town passes between the Mikumi and Selous Reserves and is the cheapest way of seeing the plains and animals of Tanzania, as the national road passes through the reserves. No fences etc. We saw herds of elephant, buffalo, impala etc, and even herds of Giraffe. Like the Baobabs in Baobab Valley, the usual sightings of giraffe may involve a few, or a small group. Here they hang around in a herd.

The route then passed through the large regional centre of Morogoro, beautifully set against a mountain range and a mountain peak of over 2400m. A very good road connects Morogoro to the junction town of Chalinze, where traffic from the north, west and south of Africa converge. Only 80km from Dar Es Salaam, the traffic and road condition here combine to reduce slow one down to less than 50km/hour. Dar traffic is very, very congested and slow on this major incoming route.

It was time to phone a friend, so Alvin Rajoo in Cape Town kindly sent the local numbers of Dylan Lennox and Francois Swart in Dar Es Salaam. Both previous colleagues of mine with Vodacom SA, these are some of the guys that hold the Vodacom fort in Dar. In no time they had arranged to meet us at a favored spot in Dar, the Sea Cliff Hotel, which I have been lucky to visit from my first trip to Vodacom Tanzania in 2004. Arriving in Dar is always a warming experience, like coming home.

Francois and Dylan have been very kind in offering us all manner of support, which we really appreciate. After a few beers and much chatting with them and Dylan's uncle Hans, it was getting dark. On their recommendation we headed north and booked in at the lovely White Sands hotel. A notch or four up on the budget travel guides, this was a great treat. On the beach, lovely pool/bar etc, it is the perfect spot close to Dar, and on the beach.

Day 37 - 41, 7-11 March Dar Es Salaam

Sunday 7th was just relaxation and a great lunch with Francois, Dylan and their families at Meditteraneo Restaurant on the beach.

On Monday, we set off for the city to arrange a round-trip to Rwanda. Coach routes are daily through Kenya and Uganda (3 day journey), flights from Rwanda Air three time weekly.

On Tuesday we returned to finalise coach bookings when we realized that we were stumped by the Ugandan visa which firstly is only active from the 13th, and secondly only allows single entry. We opted to fly rather. and booked our flights out to Kigali on the 12th and back on the 26th.

Bigfoot played up in the heat and traffic. The oil light lit ominously and did not go away (first step in any diagnostic - wait for it to go away!). The boys were still at the White Sands, where they got too much sun. We picked them up, and drove ever slowly to a backpackers lodge in the City (Jambo Inn). We decided this after the Bigfoot problem, to be close to Toyota service centre. The plan was really to go and try the camping on Dar's southern beaches. Jambo is nice enough, but we could not get room with aircon. A very large group of scandinavian youngsters beat us to it. We realized that they were Swedes when performing a (no doubt) viking happy birthday song and ceremony which can be alarming (we had witnessed this before at the Okavango). We spent the hottest, sweatiest night in the city centre. Noah got the Calamine treatment on top of that, so we had a grumpy lot in the morning!

Bigfoot went in early to have the oil-light problem seen to (another phone-a-friend to Ryan and George confirmed the Haines manual instructions to conduct a 'pressure' test). Bigfoot had to spend the day, so we took a taxi back to the city and checked in at the Safari-Inn (also in the city centre). City traffic is chaotic (in a nice way) and slow. Old towns weren't designed for this. Safari-Inn is great and cheap. We took a taxi out to Sunrise beach on the south coast, which included a short ferry trip. Sunrise beach is worth recommendation. Bungalows, bandas and camping, all affordably on a very shaded beach, with EXCELLENT food. The chicken curry was superb. Unfortunately we could not stay.

The evening in central Dar was interesting, and we discovered an Ice Cream parlour (Sno-Cream ) less than a block away that does the BEST milkshakes and old favourites like Banana splits and various Sundaes. We also found a very good Chinese restaurant. The boys are getting more adventurous with food, and were not disappointed here. City life here is busy, food is cooked and delivered with coffee on the streets.
On Thursday everyone took it easy in the city. Another round of milkshakes, and haircuts at super-efficient old-school Indian barber shop. Another Taxi trip to drop us off at Toyota to collect Bigfoot. Toyota established that the problem was the lesser of the two possibilities, but that a reliable replacement part (the oil pressure switch) was not available in Dar. It would need to come from SA through personal delivery (lead time is 6-8 weeks!). We may need to rely on Maintain-a-fleet, and Francois to deliver the part to Dar! Next, after Toyota, was to get Bigfoot to Dylan's house for safekeeping. Dar afternoon traffic is atrocious, more frustrating than Lagos (which is completely chaotic but mostly moving). Dar major intersections are unique. Traffic lights add a pretty, but quite distracting decorative element to these intersections where the real action is coordinated by a traffic officer, who seems to systematically build a fascinating gridlock by allowing each possible direction of traffic at least 15 minutes at a time. That being said, the city suffers from the 'peninsula' problem, with a few very large arteries converging in a peninsula city centre (like Cape Town). Without the benefot of alternative roads or fly-overs, the traffic density is just too high. So it took almost 2 hours to get to Seacliff (about 12 km's).

A Pizza later, Dylan arrived to meet us, and escort us to his home to park Bigfoot while we go to Rwanda.