the blue horizon

Surprisingly was the most stunning and modern city i had seen since Cape Town. If it weren't for the roads i would compare it to any other western capital. The roads .... the roads are an experience in themselves. Imagine a single lane road, the main road no less between a city of over 2 million and the south, covered in potholes and everyone trying to get to where there are going faster than light it self. Four trucks overtaking another truck going one way with 2 buses, a truck (us) and a learner driver (I pity the fool) going the other. Then theres the pedestrians tempting fate in between. This was the end of our tour. I spent the next 4 days in Nairobi trying my best not to get mugged or hit by traffic.

The 13 hour drive from Dar to Arusha was fairly boring. Only when we passed Mt Kilimanjaro did it get exciting. Half covered in cloud it is still inspiring. In Arusha we camped in a snake park / maasi cultural centre. The snake park made me think long and hard about how stupid i had been walking around Africa in bare feet. Black Mambas are fucking scary things. The maasi village was a bit of an eye opener and will make me think twice about donating to charties that support the maasi; 1. One bloke will have multiple wives and up to 50 kids. 2. Female circumcision is still practiced without question with no other reason than 'its always been the way'. From our campsite in Arusha we changed to 4x4s for a 3 day Serengeti - Ngorongoro safari. Considering the size of the Serengeti I count myself that lucky that within 2 hours of driving i saw no less than 18 lions, 1 lepoard, 3 hyenas and 1000's of wilderbeest, zebra and giraffe all from the main road. That night we camped know

From Dar we caught the ferry across to Zanzibar. Stonetown is not like any other town i'd been to in Africa. Kind of stating the obvious considering the middle eastern influences. The town wasn't built for cars but this doesn't seem to matter. Surprisingly it has the cheapest and fastest interent access i have come across yet. However the mainland sometimes plays funny buggers and shuts of the electricity for a few seconds deleting epic emails to my forever worried parents. Even though it is the wet season the weather on the island has been rather good. It has allowed some time to do some snorkelling and 4 of us hired a car day for 3 (only US$25 a day) days to drive around the island. Driving here is an experience not to be missed with cars driving three abreast down single lane roads with people, goats, cyclists and mopeds to deal with. I returned the car in one piece, however you feel sooner rather than later your going to come into grief. The seafood here is amazing. Las