© Richard Randall

TANGA

We took Mega-Speed's MS Sepideh, a hydrofoil type boat, from Zanzibar to Tanga. The journey was very interesting, mainly due to the moaning and wailing of the local women passengers. We had bought a bottle of vodka and poured it into an empty water bottle as we didn't want to offend the locals with our drinking. The first part of the journey wasn't too bad, although I get sick on all forms of transport. We stopped off at Pemba on the way, a few passengers got off and some more came on. After this all of the locals were happily munching away on some hot snacks they had bought at the Pemba stop. Soon after the boat really began to roll. The water was now quite choppy, we had been warned this was quite normal. By now I was feeling very unwell, I just sat quietly with my head in my hands hoping we would arrive in Tanga soon. The women who, only minutes earlier, had been happily eating were now all sprawled out all over the floor, moaning and wailing. It was a seriously weird spectacle, they looked like beached whales groaning in child birth! I was so happy once we docked in Tanga, and I couldn't wait to get off of the boat. Once on dry land I began to feel better, which was just as well because we then went on a long walk to our accommodation. We had read about a nice sounding place, the Inn by the Sea, and headed there, along with several other backpackers. A couple of local guys at the dock tried to take us to a hotel in town, but we told them we knew where we were going. They said we were heading the wrong way, but we were certain we knew the correct direction. It was scorching hot and we were all wet through, and as there were quite a few of us, Richard and I walked extra fast, we didn't want to miss out on a room. Finally we arrived at the hotel, the location was gorgeous, right on the beach. Our room was nice, with a large contemporary concrete bathroom. We jumped straight into a much needed and appreciated shower. We didn't do much after that, just relaxed. By now we realized that we had actually arrived at a different hotel to the one we had thought we were going to! So the guy at the docks was right ... Oops! Oh well, after a good nights sleep Richard and I headed back into town, and found the other hotel. I don't know how that happened, us going completely in the wrong direction, Richard has an excellent sense of direction normally. I guess it must have been the exhaustion from the journey! Once we got to our new hotel, Marina Inn, we booked in for three nights, our room was large and had air conditioning, and there was a bar/restaurant downstairs, what more could we ask for. After leaving our bags in our room, we headed down to the bar for a drink. We saw the guy from the docks, he came over and chatted with us for a while. Obviously he found it amusing that we were now where he had wanted to take us the day before! The bar was always very busy with lots of local people enjoying food and drinks. After a while we wanted to explore the local area, so we went off for a walk round town. There wasn't much to do which was fine by us as we were happy milling about, walking along the dusty roads. We found a really nice little bar which was basically just a few old plastic chairs situated under a makeshift roof. There didn't seem to be anyone to serve us, so we sat there for a while happy to rest in the shade, whilst being watched and laughed at by some small children! After a while a young women came across from a small shop come hairdressers, and asked us what we would like. We asked for two beers, one Safari and one Kilimanjaro, which she brought over to us a few minutes later. Delicious, and surprisingly cold. By now the children had decided to come a little closer and have a good look at us, they seemed to find us extremely funny! I guess we did look strange to them, dressed in our great big hiking boots, and with very pale white skin! Everyone was so friendly in Tanga, and even at night it felt very safe. We mainly ate at our hotel as it seemed to be the main place to eat in town. We know that if the locals frequent a place, then it is usually for good reason. We did eat at another place in town once, and one night we bought something from a guy cooking on an oil drum on a street corner near to our hotel. I'm not exactly sure what he made us, but it was definitely meat, and it was very hot and spicy, served with some bread. We ate it as we walked back to our hotel, where we spent the rest of the evening in the bar. We had a great night drinking, chatting and playing darts with some local guys. I am not that quick at mental arithmetic, calculators were always used at my school, but one of the men we were playing with decided that he would do all of the scoring for us. Well, he had us in fits of laughter, as he just could not get any of the scores right, I don't know if it was the drink or if he just couldn't add up or subtract, but we didn't care we were just having fun. There were places to visit of interest around Tanga, such as the Amani Botanical Gardens, the Amboni Caves, the Galanos Sulphur Springs and the Mkomazi game Reserve, but we just didn't want to! It was so nice to relax, and not be bothered by anyone trying to sell us anything or arrange trips here and there. Feeling fully relaxed and ready to move on, we headed to Lushoto.

LUSHOTO

The bus journey to Lushoto was a really nice scenic trip, although some of the driving certainly made our hearts beat a little faster. The bus was a very old huge piece of metal that the driver seemed to drive with little attention, swinging this way and that around some tight narrow bends in the mountains. The view of the land was lovely though, and we arrived in Lushoto in one piece. Lushoto is a very pretty town, with lots of churches from when it was an important mission station during the German era, when it was called Wilhelmstal. It also produces much of Tanzania's pear and plum crops. Once the bus pulled up in town we lugged our heavy bags off of the bus and began to walk away, then we heard lots of shouting, we looked back to see an old man waving my mums walking stick out of one of the buses small top windows. I thought that was so nice of him to bother. I would have been sad to have lost it especially after carrying it around for so many journeys, as it was a bit of a pain being so heavy. Once I retrieved the walking stick we found somewhere for a cold drink. As we had read good things about most of the nearby hotels Richard went off to have a look at them all. It was pointless both of us going and lugging our heavy bags with us. I was more than happy to sit and wait at the bar, that was until I was approached by a young local guy who kept wanting to touch my skin! He was just being friendly, and I do have very fair skin. He was showing off his English skills too, and offering to buy my boots! Apparently lots of people who travel through Lushoto sell their boots once they know they are heading back home. There were lots of stalls in the town which bought and sold walking/hiking boots of all shapes and sizes. It felt like hours before Richard came back, and by now I had been joined by a couple more blokes, one local, one from Ireland. Richard said he had found a nice hotel, the Lushoto Sun Hotel, so we headed back there and checked in for three or four nights, I can't remember now but I know we didn't stay long. Our room was nice enough, but it didn't have a proper window so it was a bit dark, and there was a chicken coup right outside so we always had an early morning alarm! The family who ran the place were really lovely, and the food was pretty good too. The room rate included breakfast, and although we don't usually eat breakfast we did every morning during our stay. I think it was because it was so cold at night, our bodies must have used up a lot more energy than usual. By the the time we left we were both happy to see the back of the breakfasts though as they were always the same ... eggs eggs eggs! I love eggs, but I felt like I was beginning to look like one! I really enjoyed that with every meal we ordered, whether it was our eggy breakfast or spaghetti bolognaisse, or fruit salad, they were all served with lots of avocado. We had eaten a local dish called Nyama Ndizi whilst we were in Tanga which was really tasty. So when we saw it on a menu at one of the bars in town in Lushoto we ordered it again. Basically the dish consists of meat (not sure what) and plantain all in a thick gravy. The one we ordered in Lushoto was huge, it came in what looked like serving bowls, I thought it was to share, but we had one each. It was piping hot, which was great as it was such a cold day, and even more delicious than before. Unfortunately neither of us could finish it all, and it took a lot of persuasion to convince the chef that we did like it, but we were too full to eat it! As the main activity in Lushoto was hiking we thought we would get some exercise. I wouldn't say we actually hiked, but we certainly had a good walk round, mainly taking photographs, and being followed by groups of young school children who once again found us highly amusing! We both loved Lushoto, but we were very happy to be moving on to somewhere warmer. We headed to Moshi.

Caribbean

Sundries

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