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I’m not going to dwell on our six nights in Zanzibar. They were amazing – one of the highlights so far – but there’s only so much that can be said about slowly baking yourself on pristine beaches. Besides, a combination of woeful disorganisation and a dearth of internet access has seen me fall behind on my postings, and it’s high time I caught up.

Other than being a welcome rest stop and a break from the camping – which is becoming an increasing chore - our stay in Zanzibar was significant since it was here we agreed not to head west, then up through Rwanda and Uganda.

It was a difficult decision to come by, especially since all three of us wanted to see both countries, but in terms of logistics and finance, it made sense. Not only would travelling north via Uganda and Rwanda mean purchasing two more visas, it would ultimately mean more days on the road; ergo more money spent on fuel and less time to actually stop and see places.

We instead resolved to content ourselves with Tanzania’s epic landscapes, through which we’d travel to reach Kenya. And so, after six sun-soaked days, we three gentleman explorers returned to the mainland in search of new adventure.


We negotiated the choppy stretch between Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, and were soon reunited with our steed, which had been left with a colleague of Giles’s in Dar.

After a night holed up in a stained shoebox of a hostel in the Tanzanian capital, we set course for Moshi, a small town at the foot Kilimanjaro and the launch pad for expeditions up the world’s fifth tallest mountain. Moshi proved to be wholly pleasant place, our only regret being that we hadn’t enough capital to climb Kili (USD 1,500). Having it as a backdrop as we took morning coffee proved a suitable, less tiring substitute.

Next stop: Arusha, officially the halfway point between Cape and Cairo (our halfway point is in fact Addis) and also, in our humble opinion, officially the worst place we’ve visited thus far. The fact we arrived just after midday on a Saturday didn’t help – the tourist information centre was closed until Monday – and thus our every attempt to find affordable access to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro was effectively dashed. Proceedings were further hindered by the touts and salesman who shadowed and swarmed until we lost our resolve, bundled into a taxi, and retreated back to the camp.

Even the hotels offering their own safari packages proved to be of little help:

‘It says you do safaris. How much?’

‘This is the toilet.’

‘Yes, thank you, but we were wondering about SAFARI.’

‘Kitchen?’

‘Never mind.’

Shuttered shops and tireless touts aside, we lost faith in Arusha ‘The Gateway to the Serengeti’ simply because entrance fees to the nearby national parks far exceeded our modest means. To drive our car into the Ngorongoro crater, for example, cost USD 300, plus USD 50 per person, plus a further USD 30 for camping.

Thank you, but we’ll try our luck in Kenya. And so we did...