We drove the 300k or so to Dar Es Salaam getting stopped by the police for speeding once which we disputed and he left us off but we were stopped several more times during the journey for routine document checks which does get a bit tedious after a while. They ask for your driving licence, check if you have a fire extinguisher and warning triangle which is a complete joke because every broken down vehicle you see, of which there are many, just use branches cut off trees set along the road behind the vehicle as a warning triangle. Peter has been tempted to get out his machete when they ask for the warning triangle and when they query it he will say he thought that's what they meant to cut his warning triangle off the tree!!!!

When we reached Dar it was 4 p.m. and they had obviously head some heavy rain. We went for a quick coffee break and headed off for the camp site on the other side of the city just as the heavens opened once again. In seconds there was a torrential downpour which was to last most of the night and virtually brought Dar to a standstill. The route we had to take was a main road from North to South which was undergoing major re-construction work. It was a dual carriageway but only one carriageway was being used with vehicles travelling along it in single file in both directions. It was just a gravel road with mounds of rubble and massive 3ft holes full of water. The construction company hadn't taken into consideration any drainage issues and during the deluge rivers of water ran everywhere flooding smal shops along the road. Typical of African drivers they won't wait and have no idea how to drive so instead of keeping in single file going slowly down the road and allowing two lines of traffic to flow they have to overtake, undertake and everything they can to get 'in front' so eventually it is complete gridlock. They then proceed to drive over mounds of earth, getting stuck on top, breaking down, going round roundabouts the wrong way in order to jump into the line further up!! It was total chaos with no police in sight and still the rains came down. The worst case we saw was a 4x4 picku up whose driver had decided to try an alternative route on the closed carriageway. What he thought was a water filledhole turned out to be a 3ft deep drop and he ended up waist deep in water trying to push his vehicle out. It took us 2 hours to travel 6 miles and during this journey I did question why the hell we were doing this trip and Peter even said that at that moment, if he was driving a hire car he would dump it, tell them where they could find it and get a flight home!!!!

However, next day the sun was shining again, we were once more on the shores of the Indian Ocean and planning our trip to Zanzibar. This is not an easy task as no vehicles are allowed to be taken across you can only get there as a foot passenger on a ferry which takes 2 hours. Booking the ticket involves dealing with agents at the port who all want to make a few extra shillings on the price of your ticket so you need to know what you are doing. We ended up in the office of one guy who clearly thought he could make money out of us and then got most disgruntled when he realised he couldn't. There was an argument over the ticket which Peter went to sort out leaving me with the guy. He ranted on and on effing and geffing about George Bush and the Dollar and how he was Black and could do what he wanted and we were just moaning tourists so in the end I told him in no uncertain terms and a few choice words that I could also do what I wanted and I could buy a ticket from anyone I wanted and would do so and promptly left him sitting there with his mouth wide open!!!