31 March: We leave the lake of the stars and make our way across the border into Tanzania. The border crossings were fine and even though the Irish are meant to pay $100 for a Visa we got away with $50! There was a market at the border and I ventured in looking for a Malawi flag. Its amazing how they work - I asked in one shop for the flag and he said no but obviously called out to his friend and like a network of ants word spread that a white girl was looking for a flag. One minute later there was a guy standing there with a flag for me. Amazing! The first thing I noticed upon entering Tanzania was the change in wealth, not that Tanzania was rich, just richer than Malawi. There are upwards of 40 million residents in Tanzania and there were a lot more towns along the way, buildings more sturdy and modern and a lot more vehicles. The economy is based primarily on agriculture with a lot of subsistence farming. The tropical climate makes it a perfect growing ground for fruits. Their main exports are cashew nuts, tea and fruits. The countryside was spotted with tea plantations and banana trees. Over 50% of the population is under 18 years old with 96% of them making it through primary school which is state funded. Only 9% make it to secondary school (only partially state funded) with only 6% making it to third level. The problem with this is that there are no professionals in Tanzania to grow the economy and therefore is very dependent on tourism and agriculture.

We made our way to Iringa and stayed on a live working farm. We went to the restaurant for dinner where we had homemade spinach and cream soup, roast beef, farm vegetables and baby potatoes. After dinner we had homemade brownies and hot chocolate amarula for dessert. The bar and restaurant were lit by candle light which was lovely.

1 April. Up early for second long day of driving through the Tanzanian countryside to Dar es Salaam. The scenery was spectacular driving through the rift valley on the Tanzam highway (road built from Livingston to Dar es Salaam to provide a second exit port in addition to South Africa for exporting goods from Southern and Eastern Africa. The road was mainly funded by the Chinese. They send their convicts over here to help build the roads and leave them here!). All the buildings along the road are marked with either a red "X" or a green "X" - with the vast majority having a red X. The X represents whether the buildings have being built legally or illegally, green for legal, red for illegal. The illegal buildings are marked for demolition. We drove through the Mikumi National Park where we were able to see lots of wildlife including elephants and zebras.

It was late when we arrived at the camp site and as a treat instead of cooking dinner we had a bbq at the resort. The resort was nice with a pool but only had salt water showers and water which made everything very sticky! The resort was located on the beach which was lovely but there were signs everywhere telling us not to leave the resort as it was dangerous. They even had massai warriors with big sticks to escort you along the beach if necessary! Dar is primarily a Muslim city and we came across lots of women wearing the traditional Muslim dress covering their entire body including head. Gordon and I took a stroll down to the sea forgetting about the muslimness - I was the only woman on the beach in a bikini and Gordon was the only topless man. We returned to the resort fairly lively. We celebrated Evans birthday later that night making him do a number of tequila shots, one which he tried to drink while there was a flame on top!

2 April: was woken at 4.30 by what I thought was the DJ from the bar next door. It wasn't - It was the morning prayer call for the Muslims. This happens four times a day. Not so sure I could live in a muslim country! Anyway since I was up early I took advantage of watching the sunrise on the beach before our trip to Zanzibar. We took the local means of transport - tuk tuks to the port where we caught our two hour ferry to Zanzibar. The tuk tuks were an experience and our driver would give Senna a run for his money! We arrived in Stone town, Zanzibar and were met by an array of Muslim women and tribes people. Very different to home! Zanzibar do not like the fact they are part of Tanzania and would want to be independent if their economy allowed. As a result our passports were checked again on arrival and they found problems with the three Irish visas saying that we should have paid $100 and not $50. After a long argument we paid up! We arrived at our hotel and was lovely to have air conditioning and a hot but slightly broken shower. We spent the evening wandering around the cobbled streets of stone town stopping for spiced tea in a little tea shop and browsing all the market shops. Me and Gordon went for an Indian before meeting the others at a posh hotel - the Africa house for "sundowners" where we watched the sunset and met our new group members. G then took us to the famous night market where there was dinner, dessert, sugar cane juice and anything else you could want.

3 April: After breakfast we packed up and made our way to a spice plantation where we got a tour of the different plants, spices and fruits grown on the island. The plantation we went to was a public one used by the locals for their needs. We saw a wide variety of plants including the henna plant (the root of which can be used as a herbal treatment to cause abortions!), a fruit tree which " smells like s*** but tasted like heaven!", pineapple plant which grown in the ground, both red and tallow banana trees, pepper tree, lemon grass, lime tree, nutmeg(which can be converted into a mild alcoholic drink for the ladies), vanilla pods, fruits that are used as make up as it is a deep colour red, coffee tree, as well as a coconut tree. A guy demonstrated how he climbed the coconut tree singing his "Jambo" song at the top to warn people below about the potential falling coconuts. We then drank the coconut water and ate the coconut milk from real coconuts. They also made hats for us all out of banana leaves. We also saw how a traditional Tanzanian house was made from wooden sticks and cow dung and a reed thatch roof. To finish we tasted some of the exotic fruits we saw as well as purchasing some local spices and soaps and perfumes.

We then made our way to Nungwi beach where our resort was located on an idyllic white sand beach. We spent the evening relaxing on the beach before having a surprise beach wedding for Hannah and Dave. Brenda, Mairead and Anglie were brilliant and organised the whole do making a toilet roll vale for Hannah, and a bouquet of flowers made out of banana leaves. Two rings made out of banana leaves were also made and special vows were written! Was a beautiful service and we had a lovely beach BBQ after to celebrate!

4 April: Gordon spent the day snorkelling while I relaxed on the beach and wandered through the market. After Gordon played his obligatory game of soccer with the locals we went for a lovely rosemantic meal before joining the rest of the group to watch some football match in a local pub with all the locals. All the locals met in this pub/restaurant to watch the game, sitting on the ground when there were no more chairs. None of them bought a drink though!!

5 April: We made our way back to stone town where we visited the old slave market. Zanzibar was the largest African port where slaves were bought and sold, mostly travelling onwards to Asia. A cathedral is now located on the old slave market site but the slave dungeons where the slaves were kept prisoner are still available for inspection. We then wandered around the market before indulging in more spiced tea! More sundowners and an Indian to say good bye to those leaving the trip.

6 April: We make our way back to Dar es Salaam where we are met by Steve and make our way to the zebra camp where we hang for the night.