We awoke today just before our 7am alarm, desperate to enjoy every second left in our beds. Today we check out of the hotel, leave Zanzibar island & head back to the coast of Tanzania & Dar Es Salaam. Before breakfast Tom has done another workout, I'm less enthusiastic about our new healthy aspirations & choose to stay in bed.
Sadly today is the day we say goodbye to Phil & Nathalie who aren't continuing on with us. We also loose the 5 kiwi's that had started 2 weeks before us, but gain 2 Aussies. We all pile into a little mini bus owned by a local taxi service at 9am & drive back to Stone Town.
Were given an hour for lunch before we need to meet at the ferry terminal. Tom & I eat a thali at a vegetarian restaurant, aka Indian, that is close by & has fast service. It is delicious, we only wish it was $3 like the thali in India.
Going through customs & immigration is quicker this time & the ferry is running on time. We are on board by 12.20pm though it initially is hard to find seats. Some people feel the need to take up 2 seats & spread out. Tom finds a row of 5 seats with 3 African people spread out across them all. He asks them to move over and unflinchingly endures the looks of disgust they cast his way, realising he isn't backing down they move over. The women gives me a particularly filthy look as I take my seat. The ferry doesn't quite leave on time & we have been warned the way back is against the current & therefore rougher & quite often taking longer. I am not lucky enough to sleep this time & instead I stare at the TV which is showing the black panther movie with no sound. Sadly I will always remember the 2 African men sitting in front of me who absolutely stink. It's mostly just the smells of body odour, pungent sweat & bad oral hygiene I think are the culprits. After the first 30 minutes the waves got a bit rough, which resulted in about 6 people around us vomiting.
I'm not a person who gets sea sick, but the combination of the smelly guy's in front & the visual effects of multiple vomits definitely made me nauseous! I was so excited to get off the ferry & walk the 20 minutes in the fresh air to the next ferry terminal.
Once we got there it was a 30 minute delay which caused a lot of crowding & pushing. There was at least a thousand people jostling around to get on the ferry. Definitely way over the legal capacity, it was quite scary how many hot, frustrated & impatient people were in such a small space. There are signs everywhere about the severe penalties if we are caught taking any photos on any of the ferries or anywhere near them. A photo speaks a million words... or shows a million people overloaded onto a ferry.
We were herded on & off like cattle, which we definitely sympathized with a lot in this moment.
After the ferry we walked back to the truck & shortly after arrived back at the same campsite from 4 night's ago in Dar Es Salaam. The night was quiet & an early one. We were in bed by 7.40am in preparation for the next day.
- Alli
Sadly today is the day we say goodbye to Phil & Nathalie who aren't continuing on with us. We also loose the 5 kiwi's that had started 2 weeks before us, but gain 2 Aussies. We all pile into a little mini bus owned by a local taxi service at 9am & drive back to Stone Town.
Were given an hour for lunch before we need to meet at the ferry terminal. Tom & I eat a thali at a vegetarian restaurant, aka Indian, that is close by & has fast service. It is delicious, we only wish it was $3 like the thali in India.
Going through customs & immigration is quicker this time & the ferry is running on time. We are on board by 12.20pm though it initially is hard to find seats. Some people feel the need to take up 2 seats & spread out. Tom finds a row of 5 seats with 3 African people spread out across them all. He asks them to move over and unflinchingly endures the looks of disgust they cast his way, realising he isn't backing down they move over. The women gives me a particularly filthy look as I take my seat. The ferry doesn't quite leave on time & we have been warned the way back is against the current & therefore rougher & quite often taking longer. I am not lucky enough to sleep this time & instead I stare at the TV which is showing the black panther movie with no sound. Sadly I will always remember the 2 African men sitting in front of me who absolutely stink. It's mostly just the smells of body odour, pungent sweat & bad oral hygiene I think are the culprits. After the first 30 minutes the waves got a bit rough, which resulted in about 6 people around us vomiting.
I'm not a person who gets sea sick, but the combination of the smelly guy's in front & the visual effects of multiple vomits definitely made me nauseous! I was so excited to get off the ferry & walk the 20 minutes in the fresh air to the next ferry terminal.
Once we got there it was a 30 minute delay which caused a lot of crowding & pushing. There was at least a thousand people jostling around to get on the ferry. Definitely way over the legal capacity, it was quite scary how many hot, frustrated & impatient people were in such a small space. There are signs everywhere about the severe penalties if we are caught taking any photos on any of the ferries or anywhere near them. A photo speaks a million words... or shows a million people overloaded onto a ferry.
We were herded on & off like cattle, which we definitely sympathized with a lot in this moment.
After the ferry we walked back to the truck & shortly after arrived back at the same campsite from 4 night's ago in Dar Es Salaam. The night was quiet & an early one. We were in bed by 7.40am in preparation for the next day.
- Alli
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