Where Are Ron and Ellen?
Portugal (Ron and Ellen), Southeastern Africa (Ron), 19 September 2013 - 13 January 2014
Ron and Ellen in Porto, Portugal, October 2013
Lounging on the beach
9 January 2014
Afton, Virginia, USADear family and friends,
While Ron has been lounging on the beach in hot and sunny Zanzibar, we in Virginia (with much of the US) have had several days of record-breaking cold. It was zero Fahrenheit at our house when I got up on Tuesday morning, and yesterday it was 6. However, it did get above freezing yesterday, and today is supposed to be in the 40s. A good thing, since I have no water. The water pipe comes underground to the house from our well out in the field, but when they put the well in 15 or so years ago they made an error (or, more likely, took a shortcut) and we didn't know enough to insist they do it right. Instead of digging under the footer and putting the pipe through to the crawl space, they brought it up to the surface, made a little hole in the concrete block, and put the pipe through the footer. So there is a small elbow joint, maybe three inches total in length, that is in the open, although wrapped with some insulating cover. I'm sure that is the spot where it has frozen. It hasn't been a problem until now, but this is the coldest weather we've had since the pipe was put in. So my task for today is to try and thaw that out so we have water again. We routinely keep about 25 gallons of water on hand, since we lose our water whenever the power goes out, and I've thus had lots of practice with the no-water routine. The geothermal heat is working beautifully, so I have heat, and have the wood stoves as backup. If I have to do without either heat or water, I'd much rather do without water!
Ron is on his way to Moshi, the town in Tanzania near Mt. Kilimanjaro, and he hopes to at least see the mountain, although he won't have time for any kind of trek. Then on to Nairobi, Kenya, where next Monday, 13 January, he flies overnight from Nairobi to Amsterdam, and on Tuesday 14 January he flies from Amsterdam back home. I'm not sure he is ready to leave the beach, but I'm ready to have him home!
Love to all,
Ellen
Lounging on the beach
8 January 2014
Zanzibar, TanzaniaHello, my dear,
I can understand you would like me to write about more than fresh tuna fish dinners, lounging/walking on the beach, talking and making friends out of strangers who are mostly European or locals. I suppose you would rather me write about the string of long bus rides from Victoria Falls to Zanzibar. But the two combined topics account for most my activities since leaving Victoria Falls.
I guess I can find some interesting bits of associated sights and experiences to at least write a couple of more paragraphs, but for those with better things to do, the first paragraph should be sufficient.
I opted to take buses over the train for several reasons including schedule: buses were faster, I could break the trip, and I did not want to arrive in Dar es Salaam at night. It was a long bus ride from Victoria Falls to Lusaka, Zambia, and arriving late I took a taxi to the same hostel I had stayed in before. The next day, Christmas Eve, I got up early and walked to the bus station and bought a ticket to Mbeya, Tanzania. While waiting several hours for the departure, I returned as I did before to the hotel near the mall and had their breakfast buffet while I used their Wifi and restrooms. Since my last visit I had met the guy who built the steel structure for the hotel which gave it a different feeling.
Returning to Mbeya after the overnight bus and crossing the Zambia-Tanzania border in the very early morning on Christmas Day I checked into the comfortable place I had stayed before between the safari in Selous and the trip to Malawi, and where I met the French movie maker. It was nice staying a couple of nights in a city where I knew my way around. For Christmas night I went to a club and danced where there was a pit that looked like what Steve described as a mosh pit. Well, maybe not as rough. A good experience and change of pace where people were quite friendly to me, being the only white person present. The music was loud and very disco. My white shirt and black vest drew several positive comments.
From Mbeya I found a bus that left from outside of the city that departed in late afternoon and arrived in Dar es Salaam in the very early morning very near the docks for the ferry to Zanzibar, thus avoiding arriving at the Dar bus station at night and having to spend a night in Dar. On arrival the bus driver walked me to the main road where he put me in a dalla-dallie, a little cart with a motorcycle, who dropped me at the ferry docks. I was too late for the 7 am ferry, the 9:30 was full so I got a noon ferry. I heard about the guys selling fake and overpriced ferry tickets and just went to the large blue glass ferry office and waited in the tourist line.
Arriving in Stonetown on Zanzibar, I walked around asking until I found the bus to Nungwi which is a beach town on the western side of the northern tip of Zanzibar Island. I talked to some others who took a taxi for $25 while the bus cost around $1.34 and didn't take that much longer. I sat in the front seat of the bus next to a Massai in his red dress-like outfit and had a wonderful conversation. While tracking our progress on my phone maps app, when we got within 20K of Nungwi I started explaining to him where I was going and at which road I wanted to get off the bus. There had been several people listening to our conversation and this assured several people telling the bus driver where I wanted to get off the bus and him saying he knew the road.
In Kisumu, Kenya, I had met a couple of Japanese ladies who were coming to Nungwi for New Year's and I had agreed too meet them. They said there would be other Japanese backpackers also. I met many Germans, Finns, and Swedes as well. It is a small place, back from the beach with a few thatched roof bungalows with common showers and toilets for men and women for $25-30. They also had a very large second story area with a roof that served as a camping site. This was a new concept to me where you bring your tent, put it up on the floor and they provide a foam mattress, showers and toilets. I guess it could be called a tent-hostel. I think they may also provide some of the tents.
At the other extreme I wandered into the Royal Zanzibar on the southern end of my beach walks and checked out their accommodations and rates which were running at this season $420 for a double and the bargain rate of $315 for a single. Nice digs but not my style. Here the cliffs stopped my beach walking and I was told there was only "bush" on the other side.
I guess that means undeveloped beaches because for New Year's Eve we went to a place maybe 3K more south that also had a very nice beach: Kendal Rocks I think was the name. It was a wild place to celebrate the New Year with several hundred people from who knows how many different countries, good and very loud disco type music, dancing and drinking beer until sunrise. I lasted until between 4 and 5 and had a fine time.
Next to the Royal Zanzibar, going north, was a place called Vera Club where I was told only Italians stayed. Maybe so since they had a hard time finding anyone to speak English. They told me to go online to check rates. The next one going north was My Blue Hotel and I was given a card with an email address and a url: www.mybluehotel.com.
Going much further north there was a place called Zanzibar Paradise Bungalows with a restaurant called Mama Mia which served pizzas. They had a two story motel type accommodations parallel to the beach with good beach views for $60 doubles/twins. More our style if we were here together but not for me alone.
The beach was spectacular with a very fine white sand and I could walk a long ways. At the northern end of my walk there was a light house and a turtle aquarium where they raised the turtles from either the eggs or the young turtles they find on the beach nearby. On the other side I was told the beach continues to some other resorts.
I also checked out some other places as I walked the beach but finally gave up. Most of the reception offices were way back from the beach where people would enter from the road.
There were different routes from where I stayed to the beach that took me through different parts of the small town set back from the beach where all the locals lived. Quite a contrast to walk through their neighborhoods. I found the small concrete block, tin roof houses with no color or plants or grass oppressive in the heat of the day but pleasant exploring after the sun set. Soccer games, foot races, people sitting around outside.
On the beach at night there was often a central place that seemed to shift, that provided the party place, with loud disco type music, dancing, beer, and socializing.
(I am writing this just after the sun has set, on the beach at a little table on the sand next to Paradise Beach Bungalows eating a fresh tuna fish pizza by candlelight while listening to several different unknown languages at other tables around me. First time I ever had a fish bone in my pizza.)
A couple of nights the guys where I stayed organized a BBQ and cooked some large fresh tuna fish which I enjoyed very much. But usually I went down to the beach with my Japanese friends and we tried different restaurants where we could watch the sun set and the activity on the beach. When they left I would go earlier and talk a long walk on the beach before finding a place to eat.
The weather was dry, with only a bit of rain the morning I left early for the ferry to Dar es Salaam. However the heat in the middle of the day was quite strong and I preferred to find some shady area to sit, read, write, surf, and nap.
(I don't know if there is a size limit for saving drafts but I keep losing my drafts and am writing this for the third time.)
I made some trips to Stone Town which is located in the center of the long Island on the West coast where the ferries dock. The old narrow streets are pleasant to walk and have many vendors selling tourist type items. I visited the central market and spent time in the spice market. Zanzibar is one of the Spice Islands.
One guy tried explaining the governmental structure saying there were three parts. One for Zanzibar and one for Tanzania and one for both, a higher level I guess over both. He was complaining that all the visa money goes to Tanzania and none comes to Zanzibar. Coming into and leaving Zanzibar I had to go through immigration but the money and my phone was still Tanzania and there was no charge for entry.
I had hoped to get from Nungwi to Moshi in one day thereby avoiding Dar es Salaam. I made it to Stone Town, caught the ferry to Dar, took a dalla-dalli from the central post office to the main bus station, Ubungo, to catch the hourly bus to Moshi to discover the buses only go in the morning between 5 and 9. So much for plans and research. So I am finishing this in a hotel near Ubungo, waiting for the morning.
In Tanzania I bought an unlimited Internet plan for my phone and then turn on my phone's hot spot which my touch pad can access by Wifi. This makes me into a traveling Wifi which I can share with my friends. Neat.
I am now on my way home with bus stops in Moshi and Nairobi. I am looking forward to coming home and hope your record cold weather will have gone away and your water pipes have thawed. How will my system adjust from the African heat to Virginia winter?
Love you but not the cold and hope for running water. See you soon.
Ron
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Last updated: 10 January 2014
