Sea Cliff Hotel Dar es Salaam

Dar es salaam, Tanzania's capital means heaven of peace. Many of its buildings display Arabian influences and the port area is fascinating to visit with its ocean "dhows" and inshore "ngalawas" (outrigger fishing canoes). We camped on a palm fringed beach on the penisula.

After an early start (about 4am) to avoid road works we made it to Dar later in the afternoon. I was able to change some of my travellers cheques which I needed to do since I'd lost my debit card and hadn't worked out that my credit card would give me cash just fine.<br>At the campsite we met Laura ...

The mission for the day was to make it right across Tanzania to the coast. The south west part of Tanzania where we entered was very lush and green and covered in tea plantations. The main road across Tanzania also passed through a national park so we got to do a bit of game spotting too. Technically, vehicles are not allowed to stop to view the game (given that it's the main road). Our driver Mutie didn't take ...

... convent with me and he was happy because I was there to look after him! We both shared a room with each other!   13/12 - Surprisingly, John got up SO early, 5am, because he wanted to feed the chickens! So we went to school and fed the chickens and played some games of draughts! It was good!   14/12 - John, Praygod and I went swimming with James, Alex didn't come as he was really tired! We went to Water World because the other park I normally go to was closed! But it was good and I ...

... hid beneath the railing and he got so scared of the railing he wouldn't go near it because he thought he'd disappear. That in and of itself was wonderful, but the fact that mama was explaining this to me entirely in kiswahili and I UNDERSTOOD everything made me SO happy!! It was very exciting. I feel like I'm really getting a grasp on the language, though I do tend to slip into spanish at times still.

... very excited about the safari the following day.  We stayed in Genesis Motel which was really nice and it was better than I expected. 23/09 - Woke up at 6 and met the safari guy. We headed out on a road like a motorway to the game park.  Before we got into the park we saw a female lion with a zebra which was split in half.  It was sad because the lion had lost one of her legs!  She was suffering so badly!  We saw lots of different animals.  We went to the hippo pool and ...

... painted the music notes. It was really good and the kids began to understand what is going to be in that room! We mucked about with the kids and played some games, it was so fun! 08/09 &amp; 09/09 - A lot of the teachers weren't at school so Laura, Hannah, Caroline and I were helping and it was tough because class 1B couldn't speak English and they decided to muck about and it was really tiring! Afterwards, we went to class 7 because they were going to have ...

Hoped to go diving this morning and got up at 6.30 am to be picked up. We are staying near one the best dive sites in Zanzibar. Unfortunately we have to fly back to Dar in the afternoon and it would be to dangerous for me to dive if the flying is less than 12 hours. A pity. Had a swim in the sea and loafed around the resort with Pat until we were picked up in the early afternoon. Arrived at the airport a bit early early and looked at the shops before ...