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Sophie's Trip

December 2022 - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Sophie Read more
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  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 2

    Stone Town

    December 14, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    A week spent in the beautiful stone town mostly involved wandering the old streets, trying the street food, and generally taking it "pole pole" (slow in Swahili). It's a sleepy town for most of the day, with the waterfront coming to life just before sunset as the temperature drops and the locals gather on the waterfront and beach to eat and socialise. A highlight and a must for anyone coming here is to watch groups of boys doing dance routines, acrobatics, and cliff jumping.
    The locals are super friendly, and yes obviously half of them are trying to get something, but at least half of them just want to have a chat and welcome you to Zanzibar, especially those outside of the tourist areas. One of my favourite places to wander was Darajani Bazaar, a local market where people genuinely wanted to say hello and welcome (jambo/karibu), and I picked up some awesome climate appropriate Swahili dresses - those ladies really know what they're on about wearing these! One evening I sat and had a coffee for 200 shilling (7p) with some locals finishing up work for the day and discussed the football from the night before (no I didn't watch it - but I saw snippets as locals gathered in groups around TVs in the streets).
    And of course I had to do some proper tourist stuff too, so I went on a Spice tour and did a Swahili cooking class - damn the food was good! I also went to the Slavery Memorial and learnt about the history of slavery on the island - sobering stuff.    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 13

    Merry Christmas!

    December 25, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you're having a lovely time!

    I've been having a great day on a boat trip in Menai Bay. After an epic downpour that delayed the start, we went snorkeling where I saw loads of cool fish including a clown fish (aka Nemo) which was very cute, and giant clams bigger than your head. Then we went to Kwale island where we saw the oldest baobab tree in Zanzibar which was somewhere between 500 and 700 years old, depending on what guide you were talking to. Christmas lunch was an epic seafood platter and random selections of veg curry & chips, which was delicious!
    In the afternoon we went swimming amongst the mangroves, before docking at a sandbank that was rapidly disappearing below the tide for more swimming as sunset approached.

    Now I'm back in the hostel and am off for a pina colada! Merry Christmas xxxx    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    12
    Day 14

    Paje & Jambiani

    December 26, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    This week I have mostly been horizontal in Paje and Jambiani! I got there by dala dala, a local bus that in this case consisted of an open sided pick-up truck with benching and cost about a dollar for the journey.

    Both villages are on beautiful stretches of beach. Paje is famous for kite surfing, which I was too chicken to try but it was really fun watching them. Jambiani is a 6km stretch of beach along a series of villages that are fun to wander around. I also took a tour of the village where I was shown how they farm seaweed, make coconut milk, and rope from the coconut husk. A medicine woman also showed us her natural medicine kit consisting of various plants. Not sure I'll be replacing western medicine just yet!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    21
    Day 19

    Nungwi

    December 31, 2022 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Another week of disgustingly beautiful beach photos I'm afraid! For my final week in Zanzibar I was in Nungwi on the northern tip of the island, mostly swimming and attempting to hide from the sun. I visited a turtle sanctuary where I couldn't believe the size of some of them, or the colours of their shells. There was an option to swim with them but seeing the colour of the water I politely declined, I didn't fancy getting some rare turtle pathogen!

    Nungwi is also where I saw in the new year as I watched the final sunset and then went to a BBQ at the hostel. They perfectly cooked a whole tuna wrapped in banana leaf, as well as some other delicious Swahili dishes and some great cocktails. After that we went to the beach to watch an incredible fireworks display from probably way too close, especially when they started misfiring! Lots of fun though, there must have been thousands on the beach. Then we had to top it off with some fully clothed midnight swimming, a great start to 2023!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 25

    Dar es Salaam

    January 6, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After my nice "holiday" in Zanzibar it was time to move onto the mainland of Tanzania which is called Tanganyika. As expected the process for boarding the ferry was absolute chaos, and then the process for reclaiming your luggage was even worse, but I eventually made it into Dar es Salaam.

    If I could describe Dar es Salaam in one word it would be noisy! This city is large, loud, busy, hot, humid, and chaotic, and I just loved wandering the streets. There wasn't a whole lot of sightseeing to do so most of my time was spent running errands such as booking bus and train tickets, and buying essentials. Each task was a massive job as I had to tackle the local transport system with no route maps or timetable information available, but I had a lot of fun just winging it by asking around and just getting lost, often with a bus full of people laughing at the "mzungu" on the wrong bus. Luckily there were always a few people kind enough and with enough English to help me out and point me in the right direction.    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    1211
    Day 27

    Tarangire National Park

    January 8, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    This week I went on a safari, starting in Tarangire NP. Tarangire is famous for its elephants and baobab trees, and despite being told that there was no guarantee in seeing the elephants because it's the wet season and they'll be spread out, the park didn't disappoint and we saw a few good sized herds. We also were lucky enough to see both a lion and a cheetah, both of which are less common sightings in this park, in addition to the common sightings such as zebra, giraffe, warthog, buffalo, impalas, ostrich, baboons and monkeys - which were obviously hanging around the picnic area stealing people's lunch right out of their hands!Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
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    Day 29

    Serengeti

    January 10, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After Tarangire we were off to the Serengeti! Even with no animals this park is spectacularly beautiful, with the vivid greenery from it being the rainy season and the forever changing sky. After being warned that seeing certain animals in the park was far from a certainty, we had seen hyenas, lions, a leopard, and a huge herd of elephants within about an hour of arriving. We saw a massive male elephant that was in musth right on the side of the road we were on that the guide was careful to give a wide berth to and then keep in front of in case it decided to charge at us, then we saw a huge herd of elephants including a tiny 1 month old baby chilling and eating by the side of the road.
    As we arrived in the park late afternoon we soon headed to our campsite (basic campsite- no glamping for us!) That night we had our 2nd sighting of hyenas as they were circling the camp as we were preparing for bed. Ok they were only after the bins, but that didn't stop me from avoiding leaving the tent all night! We had also learnt the call they make by that point so hearing them just meters away is something you're never quite prepared for!
    The next morning we were up early to catch the sunset and then saw some giraffes enjoying their breakfast right by the road before going to a bustling hippo spot. While hippos are very cute, let me tell you that you can smell them well before you see them! That day we also saw more lions, monkeys, baboons, eagles, buffalo, another leopard (or possibly the same leopard in another tree) and herds of zebra and wildebeest as far as the eye could see.
    I don't think anything can quite beat the Serengeti!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 30

    Ngorongoro Crater

    January 11, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    The final part of my safari was to visit the Ngorongoro Crater, a 20km wide caldera formed by a collapsed volcano. Inside the crater is a sheltered habitat that appears to be a sort of garden of Eden. We saw most of the animals that we had already seen again, plus lions and lion cubs at an incredibly close range, a hyena with a kill, a cat playing with a snake, a baby wildebeest take it's 1st steps about 20 minutes after being born, and a rhino! All within the most beautiful scenery. We also visited a maasai village were we got to see and join in with some traditional dancing, see inside their huts and visit the school.Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 32

    Arusha & Moshi

    January 13, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    While in Northern Tanzania I took the opportunity to see Arusha, walking around the town and checking out the Natural History Museum which has some amusing taxidermy. It also houses a giant tortoise that was so large that I thought it was a statue. But I think my favourite bit was the giant bats living in the trees outside of the museum!

    Then I went off to Moshi for a chance to glimpse Mount Kilimanjaro, which hides behind the clouds for most of the day but is usually visible early morning and late afternoon. You never get bored of seeing it. I took a short hike at the base of the mountain to see a waterfall and visit a coffee farm where we made coffee from the raw bean to the cup, by far the best coffee I'd had in Africa (which to be fair isn't saying much!)    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    31
    Day 40

    The Tazara Railway!

    January 21, 2023 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    So after Tanzania I headed to Zambia, and do I get there by plane like a normal person? No of course not, far better to take a 55 hour train journey 1860 km to the middle of nowhere in Zambia! I purchased a 1st class ticket for $40 which bought me a bed in a 4 person cabin, but this was far from luxury! I wouldn't have changed it for the world though, the train took us through some incredible scenery, including the largest National Park in Tanzania. There was a dining car where we could get simple meals for about £2, and a bar where the beers were around £1. The many stops and unexpected delays also gave us opportunity to buy freshly cooked food and drinks through the windows or from the platform which helped to break up the monotony of the dining car food!
    The best part of the train was the social part, it was a great way to meet both local people on the move and other travelers. I spent most of my time in the bar watching the view and chatting to people or playing cards. One day I spent ages talking to a woman who ran a scheme to educate young mothers and prevent teen pregnancies, as well as teaching young unemployed people agribusiness. I met travellers from all over including Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Holland, Korea, Japan, and Sweden, some of who I continued to travel with and hope to remain friends with long after this. As much as I could have stayed on the train for a bit longer I was very pleased for a shower and a motionless toilet by the end!    Read more

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