The next chapter begins

Back at the hotel, we were met by Dullah, who had guided us when we were first in Stone Town two and a half weeks ago. There were five of us joining the tour here, along with seven who had come up from Cape Town. So, only 12 on the truck!! This was going to be luxury after being in a group of 20 for so long!!

Dullah walked with us down to the ferry terminal, where we met up with Nash and the rest of the group. They seem like a nice bunch. We waited in the lounge until it was time to board. I was sneezing and spluttering all over the place. I was sweating and generally felt very uncomfortable! I’m taking lots of cold relief medication, so I hope I’ll feel better soon.

Once on board, we went to sit up on the top deck and spent the 90-minute crossing chatting to Luke from Australia. We found we had lots in common. When we arrived in Dar-es-Salaam, we had a wait and then a scramble to retrieve our luggage. Having got it, we were shown to a very rickety old bus for the journey to meet up with our truck. We were stuck in traffic for a while, so the short trip took well over an hour. We met the truck in the car park of the same shopping mall we had stopped in before we went to Zanzibar. We had 20 minutes to use the loos and grab something for lunch. It was already 3.30pm, so we were well ready for something to eat!

On the truck, we briefly met John, our driver, and Ibrahim, our chef, before setting off to our campsite for the night. The crew had stowed our bags on the back of the truck, so we just had to grab a seat and sort everything out later.

It took just over two hours to reach Firefly Campsite, arriving there just after 6pm. We put our tents up as it was getting dark, and then at 7pm, the five newbies had an orientation meeting with Nash. Obviously, we knew most things, but there are differences in the way the crew do things compared to Laban, Henry, and Patrick.

We ate at 8pm – pumpkin soup followed by beef stew and rice. The quantities seemed rather less generous than Henry’s were! By the time we’d cleared away, it was nearly 10pm. We retired for the night.Læs mere