Africa was always
my biggest dream.
I had the feeling, that it is a magic place, where only
experienced travelers can go. It is not only extremely expensive but also very
challanging from planning point of view. Long time ago, somewhere in my dream
sphere, I wrote down: reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. Than I thought: surely I will do
it one day. Just need a perfect timing, THE sign.
And i got a very
clear one :) my
beloved friend Benoit informed me, that he is moving to Tanzania. Holy Crap.
Great, awesome! When can i come to visit you Benoit??? Am i sitting on the
plane already? Hahahaha It was this sign!! Taking into account the weather conditions and best
timings for climbing Kilimanjaro i decided to go in Septemberish/Octoberish
period.
There were only 2
things i wanted to do in Tanzania. Meet Benoit and reach the summit. I am
normally doing a lot of sports, but for this challange I needed to add some extra
trainings. But come on, with clear objective is easy to define the
strategy to reach it.
So i flew to Dar
es Salaam with extramely heavy backpack full of trekking gears. Benoit
picked me up in the middle of the night and said hakuna matata my FriendJ :) but the feeling was strange. Rich houses
were sourrounded by high walls and addidionally protected by few Masai.This was a bit like a white getto.
I had couple of
days to relax with Benoit and to enjoy a wonderful view on Pacific Ocean from his
house however laziness aside came very quickly.
Kili will not wait. In Tanzania the long distance buses are operating only during the day due
to the safty reason. So when I finally reached Moshi late evening I had a very
short night to organize myself. I will describe climbing Kilimanjaro in a
separate post, so lets only focus on Tanzania.
After Moshi I
went to Arusha to meet Benoit`s friend and managed to do a short safari in
Tarangire National Park. It was an outstanding experience for me, as it was my
first safari ever. Instead of visiting more national parks i decided to go to
Zanzibar and do some diving and relaxing on the beach. You can easily see a
huge difference between a continental Tanzania which is a catholic country and
muslim Zanzibar. On a ferry I met Ariel and his friend from Israel and decided
to join them in their travel through Zanzibar. Ariel is also born on May 15th so
we are like twins :) We are
still in touch and even managed to meet in Germany couple of times.
Zanzibar will be
always remembered by those funny rastas saying: „hey sister from another mister“
and „I am your brother from another father“. On the way back I spent terryfing
night in Stone Town, where Freddie Mercury was born. Nothing special happened,
just the wibe was really negative and my hostel probably the worst in my life.
Yes, even worst than Riohacha one hahahaha.
Besides Kili and
Zanzibar i had some nice relaxing days visiting Bagamoyo and talking to Masai
James, who worked at Benoit`s house.
Tanzania is fully
recommended by me and is simply incredible to see those opposites, where a
family is living in a small hut in the middle of nowhere with no access to
the fresh water and still have Mobile phones. And/or a nice Masai talking to you
and playing Bule with you, but in case of danger can kill in few seconds.
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