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Travelling 2020

July - November 2020
  • Gemma Craig H
Our travelling plans collide with the global pandemic Covid 19 and take some unexpected turns. Quite literally making it up as we go and travelling to any countries that will take us! Read more
  • Gemma Craig H

List of countries

  • Tanzania Tanzania
  • United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
  • Maldives Maldives
  • Qatar Qatar
  • Greece Greece
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  • 26.9kkilometers traveled
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  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Dubai Days 8-10

    September 3, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    Last last few days in Dubai were a bit of a waiting game for our Tanzania visas to be approved. We were also trying to go easy on the spending as we were feeling the pinch from Greece, the Maldives & Dubai (not backpacking hotspots for a reason!!)

    We spent our time catching up on Netflix, going to the hotel gym and relaxing by the pool. It only took us a week to realise we actually had a pretty decent view of the Burj from our pool.

    Lucky for us the food options close to us were amazing. We made the most of cheap lunches / dinners (usually between £10-£20)!

    Raju Omlet - already mentioned but we visited 4 times in total, it was that good! We loved the spicey potato and egg rolls and sag aloo style dish.

    Mama'esh - Palestinian bread based restaurant with middle eastern style pizzas, humus, stuffed vine leaves and pomegranate salad

    Kamat - veggie Indian restaurant which also had delicious Vada Pavs!

    The highlight of the last few days was discovering that the world's tallest hotel was a five minute walk away which had a stunning top floor bar called Vault! The views of the city were so incredible that we went two nights in a row!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 1 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 4, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our flight to Tanzania was with Fly Dubai, the budget carrier for the UAE. It took 5 hours to get to Zanzibar and a further 20 minutes to Dar Es Salaam. The funny part was that the connection in Zanzibar wasn't actually a connection - we stayed on the plane, a few people got off and the plane took off again (as if it was a train stop haha).

    We picked up a sim card at the air port and hopped in a taxi to our hostel 'The Slow Leopard'. The terrace outside was lovely and the rooms were nice too.

    We spent the afternoon sorting out some washing and getting accustomed to the local beers, aptly named Serengeti and Kilimanjaro and cost less than £1 - a welclme contrast to the £10 beers in Dubai!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 2 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 5, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Our second day started with exploring the local area. We headed to slipway mall which had a traditional market, boutique shops and a beach front promenade with restaurants. We haggled (badly) for some beach trousers and a Tanzania football shirt and had a lovely lunch at a beach front Thai restaurant.

    We headed to Coco beach for a walk in the afternoon. It was absolutely heaving with locals and was lovely to see everyone having so much fun. We had a drink in a shack and Craig had some interesting looking meat skewers.

    Whilst waiting for our taxi we started chatting with one of the guys working on the beach and 3 minutes later there were about 20 people chatting to us saying hello and welcome (caribou).

    We settled on a lovely Mexican dinner which was right around the corner and about £10 for food and a few Margaritas ☺️    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 3 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 6, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    This morning we were up and out of the hostel early and on our way to Village Museum before 9am. The museum had all the different kinds of tribal huts and our tour guide explained how each was built and also how each tribe had their own sets of rules. Some looked after the cheifs senior wife better and others looked after his Junior wives better, but one constant was that the cheifs had numerous wife's and also that boys have to be out in their own house at 13!

    We were then treated to a song and dance by the local tribe who were amazing!! They finished up their dance and then dragged us up to embarrass ourselves.... We were only dancing (if you can call it that..) for about 3 minutes but with the headress and clothes they wear on it was properly hard work in that heat. Great fun though and the people were lovely!

    We lunched back in our hostel and spent the time contemplating whether we could send the video of our dancing to anyone or if we should destroy it!!

    And that evening we headed to Lukas bar for a game of pool and to Samaki Samaki for an amazing dinner!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 4 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 7, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We set off this morning for Bongoyo Island which was around an hours boat ride from Dar Es Salaam. There were only 5 of us on the boat so we had the island to ourselves. The food options were lobster or fish with chips as that was had been caught that morning - we relaxed most of the day and dipped in the sea before heading back to land around 5pm.

    The journey back was lively and the boat more than wobbled a few times, but by the time we'd debated the plans of whether to swim or stay by the wreckage we were safely ashore. I also saw a 'Kingfish' which lept up out of the sea like a massive firework and seemed to go 20ft+ before diving down which was a shock!

    That night we headed to a vegan restaurant called 'Kind Earth Eatery' which was really nice, it was like a garden terrace and had a live music. Gemma enjoyed the food...

    After we went back to our hotel and had a game of cards with our Argentinian friend Florencia before getting an early night!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 5 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 8, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our final day in Dar (as the locals call it) started with some boring admin (washing) so we went to the laundromat to get everything sorted.

    We decided to find a golf course whilst we waited. Having only recently started playing I decided to do a few holes too and actually beat Craig on one of them. The fairways we pretty rough so it was a challenging 9 holes!

    By the time we'd golf'd and laundry'd we were starving so had some lunch at a harbour front restaurant on Slipway which was a little disappointing - typical of a good view restaurant.

    In the evening we had a few drinks at the George and Dragon which had a great courtyard and pool tables. I actually beat Craig 3-1 which has never happened so I won't be letting that go anytime soon.

    The picture of Craig and the lion has an interesting back story! It's made out of scrap metal on a yard employing disabled workers. We visited it and actually requested they make us a C&G sign out of metal for the flat. We paid 10,000 TSH (about £3) up front but unfortunately they forgot about it but of course we let them keep the £3!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020
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    Tanzania Day 6 - Arusha

    September 9, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Straight to the airport this morning for a quick 1 hour flight to Kilimanjaro! The smoothest airport transtition yet with no queues for anything and walking straight through security onto the plane! Although we were pushing our luck with the timings, arriving 40 minutes before the flight due to Dar morning traffic!

    Our hostel owner Anthony met us at the airport like long lost family! We learned all about his story in the car. He started working as a Kilimanjaro porter and has climbed it hundreds of times. He was sponsored by a German couple to attend university and study tourism. He also worked as a safari guide and a hotel manager and saved up to open his own guest house Savannah House. He has big plans for the future too and is planning on opening his next guest house. We're so glad that our money is going back to the local people.

    After dropping us back, Anthony also walked us around the local area and suggested places for us to lunch. Theres a small shopping centre with an outdoor bar/restaurant and also a Nightclub which we've already been promised dancing lessons on Friday night... Not that we need them!!

    After lunch we walked on further to explore and passed a school with hundreds of kids playing outside, some of them waved, some came over to say hello and Sadiq (8) even walked with us telling us where the shops were and to mind the road!! All so happy and all seemingly so intrigued to see a different race in their town.

    For dinner we headed to a local area about 10 minutes drive away which has all different restaurants, we have already been recommended Chinese and Etheopian but we settled on Tandoor Village and it was lovely! The menu was so big we had to eventually just pick anything but we all ended up happy! I had a Laal Dhal which was a spicy goat curry. We had a couple of beers and headed home for an early night ready for our trip to Mount Kilimanjaro in the morning!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 7 - Kilimanjaro Base Camp

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We booked a day tour with Toni and his friend Penwell and the first stop was the Kilimanjaro base camp.

    We had a guided tour and learned that the mountain was over 5,800m high and that there were seven different routes (from an easy tourist hiking route to a difficult mountain climber route). We learned about the first two people to climb the mountain - a Dutch explorer and a Chaggu tribesman. We also learned about the different terrain and how the landscape of the mountain changes from lush rainforest to an alpine desert.

    We took lots of pictures and a watched as groups begin their trip up into the mountain.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020
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    Tanzania Day 7 - Ngoro Waterfall

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Second stop of the day trip to Ngoro Waterfall.

    We hiked down what seemed like thousands of steps to the beautiful waterfall with Tony and a local guide. We were given bamboo sticks for walking which were absolutely necessary given how steep the steps were.

    Once we made it to the bottom we were amazed by the waterfall, the best we've seen so far! We went for a dip and the water was FREEZING!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HGemma Craig HTravelling 2020

    Tanzania Day 7 - Coffee Making and Caves

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    After the waterfalls we stopped off at a coffee making place which also had old caves used by the Chagga tribes to hide from the Massai hundreds of years ago!

    The story of the discovery of coffee was an interesting one, dating back to an old tribe leader who requested the trees and beans be burnt/destroyed as they were seen as a nuisance, only for the smell of the burning beans to swarm the whole camp and prompt ideas for what could be made from the previously redundant tree!

    The process involved stripped the outer layer of the beans by smashing them with a giant pestle & mortar before browning them off in a pan - once booked theyre smashed again until completely powder'd - the whole process is accompanied by a song and dance as well obviously!

    We drank our fresh coffee with a nice buffet lunch and afterwards headed down the Chagga Caves! They were a tight squeeze for us and we were told that these were spacious caves for cheifs and important people, the general ones were accessible by crawling through tiny holes! The caves snaked with regular 90degree turns to block out sound and light and also to provide ambush points to attack any Massai that discovered the caves. They had chimney systems, ventalation holes and even access to river that was used to wash away the bodies of Massai killed in the caves.    Read more

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