12th October 08

Date: 12th October 08
Location: Masai Camp, Arusha
Weather: A real mixed bag….
Status: Back by the ocean so very happy, although sore!

After a hard night dancing and saying goodbye to the pleasures of the awful chicken freight Overlanders retreat that is Masai Camp (don’t bother with it unless you love an ocean of identical tents and idiots!) we left and started the long trek back down to the coast and the delights of the Indian Ocean.

We took an hour to get down to Moshi, the Kili climb base camp, but in that hour didn’t get to see the mountain once due to the cloud which hovered all around it, no classic photos this time then! Stopped at Chez Deli for a bite of lunch and then took the road south east towards the capital Dar Es Salaam.

The road followed a mountain range for the first 100kms which threw up some interesting weather; dust devils, scorching sunshine and then a wall of rain which darkened the sky and turned the day into night momentarily. As we hit it we were sat behind a large fuel truck which threw up a load of spray, then all of a sudden a small car-sized bush flew out from the side of the road passing just in front of us and hitting an oncoming car head on resulting in them slamming on their brakes and nearly crashing into us!

The weather front quickly passed and gave us clear skies again as we dropped in altitude the landscape became greener and more fertile with mango trees, pineapples and banana plantations. The road was superb, in fact the best since South Africa with un-pot-holed tarmac…..awesome!

We eventually arrived in the outskirts of Dar around 6pm as the sun was setting, the traffic became heavier and then we were standing still, going nowhere! I did the classic commentators curse…”the roads really good here isn’t it?” and within 200m we’d lost the tarmac and had dusty bumpy crap to deal with!

The drive out to the south of Dar and our destination of Kigamboni took another hour from the capital and we arrived at Sunrise Beach Lodge, an idyllic resort with no-one at all staying here, white sands, parasols and the warm waters of the ocean….stunning!

Bed as we were all knackered…

End of day location: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Distance covered: 676kms