DAY 154. SAT 07/07. Arusha. 0 kms. Total 29985 kms. Masai Camp. S3 23.111 E36 43.205

A bit reluctantly we decided to spend another day here - only because we had been driving every day since Lake Naivasha about 10 days ago and needed a bit of rest as well as having a few things to do. Chatted to some more of Hans's group during the day as well as being roped into taking some group photos of their whole group. Quite an entertaining lot! Also plugged our fridge into one of their extension leads, thus saving ourselves the 5$ mains connection fee. Inga went into town to do a bit of shopping and draw some more money (to buy some left over Zambian Kwacha off of one of Hans's group) while Rob stayed behind doing some work on Cathey, mainly topping up transfer box oil and replacing the plastic hub end cap again that we had put on in northern Kenya that had split again. Also swapped the rear shock (same one we had previously changed in Khartoum) back to the original as it gone on the bad roads through Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Without going into too much detail and alarming friends and family, Inga survived an attempted "slash and grab" robbery of her handbag on the way back, just a few metres from the campsite gate in broad daylight. Luckily no damage was done (except for some crushed eggs) and she somehow managed to hold on to her bag until help arrived but she was a bit shook up, understandably. Rob felt quite guilty about letting her go off on her own but we had both obviously become quite blasé about security after having traveled in Africa for so long without any incidents. The word about town is that it IS safe to walk around on your own in Arusha during the day only, but not at night, when tourists are advised to take taxis. But we just want to warn people, especially women, not to venture out alone at all - not even during the day - as it is NOT safe. (Apparently someone else also lost her bag a short while previously) Enough about that though. Rest of the day was spent helping Hans sort out some laptop problems as well as teaching his wife how to use GPS waypoints over a few beers. Later some of the group came back after watching the Springboks run out of steam and loose to the Wallabies. (If Rob had known they were going to watch the game at a pub he surely would have gone along too) Later just wrote a bit of blog before dinner and bed. Again a big party underway at the campsite bar; again much loud music until around 3am, cars leaving and drunk girls singing terribly after the music was finally turned off to keep us awake again!

DAY 155. SUN 08/07. Arusha to Pangani. 450 kms. Total 30436 kms. Peponi Beach Resort. S5 17.235 E39 03.939

Did a bit of internet in the morning, just to check a few messages on our website, before leaving for some R&R on the coast. Wasn't too sad to be leaving Arusha. Masai Camp not too bad in all honesty (decent hot shower if you get in early enough/before the trucks arrive), good bar, restaurant, internet etc - just try not to stay there over a weekend like we did if you want any sleep. Did drive out without paying for our 2nd night's camping though - 1st time we have done that at any campsite - mainly due to the noise! Passed through Moshi but unfortunately due to heavy cloud no sign of Kilamanjaro at all - completely covered. Longish day on the road but thanks to good tar roads most of the way we managed to reach Peponi Beach around 7.30 pm even after leaving quite late. There are a few routes you can take to reach here: we took the tar road to Tanga as far as Muheza Town (S5 10.600 E38 47.529) where we took the junction south to Pangani about 40km along passable unsealed earth road until you hit the coast where you turn north for about another 15kms along a gravel road until you reach Peponi, where we guarantee you will stay for longer than you had planned. As it was quite late, after getting a quick run down from the owner, Dennis Roberts, we erected a hasty camp, listened to the end of the Wimbledon men's tennis final as well as catching the F1 GP results while making dinner. Weather was a bit windy so we climbed into the tent fairly early and later during the night we had some rain.

DAY 156-DAY 159. MON 09/07-THURS 12/07. Pangani. 0 kms. Total 30436 kms. Peponi Beach Resort. S5 17.235 E39 03.939

1st thing we did was move camp (due to someone else leaving) to next to one of the camping bandas right next to the beach and pool, under numerous palm trees. Covered palm leaf roofed shelters with light and electricity (for an extra 1$ per day) so we could plug in the fridge! Sorted! And then we didn't move much for the next 4 days. Had only planned on staying about 3 nights but ended up staying 5. Great place - one of our favorites in all of Africa and the 2nd longest we have stayed in one place (2nd only to Dahab: 6 nights) which was also on the beach so not surprising we loved it here too. Could basically step out of our tent onto the beach to swim (better at high tide) or swim in the pool when low tide - tough decisions, hey? Lots of lying in the sun, although the weather was a bit unsettled sometimes with a few clouds but on the whole it was good beach weather. Did lots of reading, some laundry and blog writing when tired of the beach. They also have a dhow, Pepe, which does sailing and snorkeling trips out to Sand Island, if you need some activity, but we were fine without. Ate at the affordable restaurant one night, which does excellent seafood and meat dishes. Unfortunately our steaks were a bit overdone but the prawns were excellent. Met a Dutch student nurse who had been working in Tanzania and was now backpacking around before going back home and had dinner with her and invited her for prawns at our camp the following day. Bought 1 kilo of huge prawns the next day from one of the locals and did them on the braai. (only 10 000 TSh/approx 8$ and easily enough to feed 3 people) Lovely. Also met a German farming in Tanzania for many years who was holidaying in Tanzania with his family and friends from Germany. Had a similar Land Rover to ours and borrowed some tools and we chatted to him quite a lot after that. On our 3rd day here the Eastern Cape farmers arrived: The Porters (Ewan and Margie) from Tarkastad and the Browns (Gerald and Maryanne) from Cathcart on their 4 month trip around Africa up to Uganda and back. Had briefly seen them previously at Fisherman's Camp in Kenya but not met them. But now we chatted to them a bit and discovered they were on a similar route and schedule to us down into northern Mozambique and we discussed joining up for the ferry crossing. Also on our 2nd last night fellow London to Cape Town overlanders, Andrew and Jay arrived (South African and Australian) whom we had been in email contact with through Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya but were generally a week behind us traveling sometimes with the Dutch. Hadn't expected to run into them but they had hauled ass through southern Kenya and Tanzania for some beach time. Nice to finally meet them and swap a few stories over a couple of beers. Rob got to try some more Tanzanian beers from the bar which were not too expensive: Ndovu (only in bottles) which quickly became his favorite and Safari a close 2nd! Also great hot showers at this camp so all in all an excellent stay!

DAY 160. FRI 13/07. Pangani to Dar es Salaam. 340 kms. Total 30776 kms. Bahari Beach Hotel, North Beaches. S6 38.875 E39 12.359

Finally got around to leaving Peponi Beach - 2 days later than planned! The EC farmers had left much earlier than us also on their way to Dar so we just had to say cheers to Andrew and Jay on the way out. Drove back to the main road a different route to the way we came in; headed north from Peponi Beach along the gravel coast road for about 12kms until a junction at S5 13.592 E39 02.257 where we turned left along a narrow earth road that took us to the village of Pongwe, back on the tar road, just before Tanga. In hindsight we probably should have gone into Tanga to change money but we decided to put in fuel in Pongwe Village but only having 35 000TSh on us, we were only able to get 25l, not quite enough to reach Dar. On the way down to Dar passed a horrific road accident with a few dead bodies lying in the road. Decided to go via Bagamoyo to try and get money and more fuel. Don't know if it was a good decision or bad, as the road was quite rough for the 60 odd kays from Msata to Bagamoyo, but it worked out in the end. Managed to change 20$ at a hotel (at a very bad rate: only 1000TSh to the dollar, but we had not choice) and get enough fuel to comfortably reach Dar. Had been planning on camping on the south beaches in Dar but with it being quite late we decided to camp on the northern beaches for one night. With lots to do in town tomorrow too, this also suited us better than taking the ferry over to the south beaches tonight only to have to come back over the ferry tomorrow into town. Only 40 kays too from Bagamoyo. Went to Silversands (S6 39.277 E39 12.673) 1st but the camp site was booked out for a church function so went to Bahari Beach Resort next door and camped with one or 2 other overland trucks about. Rather large, run down dilapidated resort well past its prime which is now for sale, not surprisingly. Bathrooms a bit of a mess but OK for one night only. Rob got around to trying the last Tanzanian beer from the bar before dinner, Serengeti, which was definitely the worst of the whole lot!