Under African Skies, pt9

ARUSHA, DAR ES SALAAM AND HOME
Our airline connections called for a road trip back to Arusha and a night at a hotel, a flight to Dar es Salaam and a night there, then a flight to Doha and another to Auckland.  Somewhere in the region of 18,000 km all up which is about as long as it gets to anywhere!

Like all the road trips so far, there was plenty of activity to keep the interest up.  One stop to mark territory, grab refreshment and buy some gifts was at a small but classy shopping complex on the roadside.

Cool stuff in here

There was a mix of reasonably-priced goods, plus some spectacular high end items.  Jennie bought a few bits and pieces, including a nice bracelet with silver fittings and a piece of Tanzanite set in it, similar in colour to a sapphire.  My eyes were firmly set on some magnificent stylised wooden animal figurines over 2 metres high which were apparently carved by a local tribe renowned for their work.  Unsurprisingly, they were deservedly expensive and besides, how would I carry them?  Here they are:

Sensational workmanship

The room where these masterpieces were located was beautifully laid out with other superb examples of the carver's art:

All way out of my league!

Not only were there animal carvings, but African masks, spears and so on.  However, it was the item in the next photograph which I would have cheerfully taken home and exhibited in our lounge.  Not at all what you'd expect to find in a place like this!

Isn't this just superb?

Contemporary African art

Back on the road again, it was time to shoot more photos of everyday life in Tanzania.

Downtown superette

Tuk-tuks are really popular as taxis in some places

These 3 wheeled bikes are popular general purpose carriers too

Local women selling green bananas

Maasai herdsman moving stock - a common sight

Coming into the city of Arusha, the women all wore brightly coloured clothing which really added something to the vibe of the place.  I noticed the woman below walking up the road and she walked with such grace and elegance that I just had to take a photo.

Grace and elegance

After a night of chilling and saying goodbye to our friends who were all in the process of working their way back to Australia by various routes, Jennie and I left for nearby Arusha airport.  Our driver was a delightful young man called Alex Kenga who had worked as a computer engineer in various parts of the world.  He had returned to Arusha with his wife to start a family and was in partnership with his brother running a tour company with the great name of Mama Savana!  Again, we were so impressed with the positive, "go get 'em" attitude of the young people we met and really enjoyed their company.  I guess that in an environment where social support is minimal, there's no room for snowflakes with a well-developed air of entitlement.

I must say that we had some severe reservations on the approach to Arusha "airport".  All we could see was a collection of tin sheds and thought that Aeroflot could well be regarded the world's best airline by comparison, especially after the drama with Kenya Air.  However, whilst the facilities were a bit limited, the ground crew were on their game and the aircraft belonging to Precision Air were perfectly modern.

The airport (a loose description) consisted of a main runway and a parallel taxiway.  This taxiway doubled as a loading area, a spot for giving aircraft a wash and lord knows what else.  Whilst waiting for our flight, we thoroughly enjoyed all the activity and watching taxiing aircraft weaving in and out of other stationary aircraft and people wandering about.  Perfectly safe I suppose but it's simply something you don't see in the west - all part of the fun of being somewhere else!

Aircraft and people everywhere

Our plane (green and orange tail) taxiing in

It would seem that in this part of Africa, planes are more like buses.  Our flight left Arusha, landed on the holiday island of Zanzibar first and was only on the ground for a few minutes - we didn't even have to get off the plane.  When it departed for Dar es Salaam, there were only a handful of us left on it.

Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's most populous city at around 4.5 million (over some 1600 sq km!) and temperatures were in the mid 30's C when we arrived and humid as heck. Africans are crazy about soccer and with a big game due to start downtown in a couple of hours, the traffic was absolutely nuts. Adding to the chaos were people wandering between the vehicles, trying to sell fresh fruit, newspapers, toys and anything in between - great people-watching!

Our hotel down on the harbour was seriously impressive.  Our room was the biggest we've ever stayed in and beautifully appointed - you could have held a conference in it!  It also had a large private deck outside with great views of the harbour.

Big, or what???

A big deck outside too!

Views from the deck aren't too shabby

We're tired and a bit disoriented after being constantly on the move so decide to stay in the hotel, eat well and get some decent shuteye in readiness for the long trip home tomorrow.  As mentioned earlier, we'll be covering a total of around 18,000 km...... starting with a 3 hour wait at Dar airport, 6 hours to Doha, a 4 hour wait, then 17 hours non-stop to Auckland finishing with a 2.5 hour drive home.  A real test of stamina and sanity for anyone.

The trip went smoothly although with the waiting around and time zone changes, sleep didn't come quite as easily as the outbound trip.  The lovely Qatar flight attendants knew that the trip was to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary and about an hour out of Auckland, they all came out of the galley and presented us with a cake with Happy Anniversary written on the plate in raspberry coulis and took selfies.  What a lovely touch to end what was undoubtedly the best holiday in a series of truly great holidays we've had over the years.

Qatar, Kenya and Tanzania are truly magnificent destinations for their wildlife and breathtaking scenery but as always, the holiday was made complete by the wonderful people we met.  In what seems like increasingly troubled times throughout the world, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that most of the planet's population are great people, trying to get by and caring about their fellow man.

Goodbye Africa, asante sana na mungu akubariki

Under African Skies, pt 1

I'd better start with an apology for pinching the title of Paul Simon's wonderful song but it's an accurate reflection of what Jennie and I have just been up to.

We always head off somewhere to celebrate our wedding anniversaries and celebrating 45 years of marriage required something a bit special, as does our forthcoming 70th birthdays!  Cruising the north west coast of Australia and exploring the inland wilderness of that region was an early possibility, as was self-driving the magnificent national parks in Utah and Arizona.  However, we managed to find something which fitted the bill perfectly - a safari for just 6 people through Tanzania and Kenya in a 4x4 - pure magic!!  Errr.... I did initially suggest a new bike (a 765 Street Triple) as my half of the celebrations but it was suggested that my health could suddenly take a turn for the worse.

However, getting there from NZ is a bit of a nightmare.  The options were several plane changes and waiting around at various airports, or face the world's longest non-stop commercial flight at 18-odd hours from Auckland to Doha in Qatar, then a 6 hour hop to Nairobi.  Facing a solid 18 hours in cattle class would be a killer so we decided that as part of the special celebrations, it would be business class, decent shuteye and hit the ground running (well almost).  Haven't travelled business class since retiring so being pampered is a rare treat!  Fortunately, we have a terrific travel agent who makes the whole organising business a totally painless process.

OFF TO DOHA
Well, travelling business class on long haul was definitely the way to go.  Apart from the excellent food and all the pampering, converting the seats to full beds meant that we were able to get around 7 hours good shuteye and not feel like zombies when we arrived.

Boeing 777-200 LR business cabin. Room to stretch out - could get used to this!

Adding to the experience was the express processing for business class passengers - out of the airport in about 20 minutes from landing.  We were met by a hotel chauffeur with a top of the range Lexus saloon.  As soon as Jennie saw the flash car, she whispered, "We're not going to have a repeat of Thailand, are we?" Regular readers may remember that incident but for those who don't, it's HERE .
Having received the warning shot across the bows, I behaved like we did this sort of stuff all the time and received approving looks from the CEO.

Whilst still in NZ, we had booked a desert trip in a 4x4 but weren't really sure what to expect.  The first surprise was when our driver arrived at the hotel to pick us up.  Close to 7ft tall, he was an imposing character but softly spoken with an excellent sense of humour.

Seriously tall timber!

The 4x4 was a fully-spec'd Toyota Land Cruiser with a 5.3 litre V8 and an impressive amount of grunt.  On the drive out to the desert which took close to an hour, it was a good opportunity to find out a bit about Qatar from a local.  Like many Middle Eastern countries, it's run by a royal family and is seriously rich based on an oil economy and its spin-offs. However, what impressed us was that the rulers are clearly aware that reliance on oil is a strictly temporary arrangement in the scale of time.  They've embarked on a project called National Vision 2030 to develop an integrated approach to economic, social, technological and environmental harmony.  Progress is already evident with massive spending on getting the infrastructure right to support long term growth.  There are world-class roads and support networks being built everywhere to cope with sustained growth although it seems weird at present with very little traffic on them.

Rush hour in Qatar

Roads to nowhere, but all part of a long term plan

There were signs of the oil and gas industry everywhere with flare stacks sticking out of the desert. The sky was a strange colour in a lot of places but we reckon it was caused by the wind picking up fine sand from the desert and partially blocking out the sun.

Sand, oil and gas everywhere!

Eventually, we reached the seriously big dunes and joined up with 3 other vehicles from the tour company.  Whilst they were dropping tyre pressures to cope with the sand, Jennie and I hopped outside to take in the views.  Crikey, that was a shock!  45 degrees C (113F) and windy.  Very easy to see how short survival time would be without proper measures.

White robes make a lot of sense in these temperatures!

The 4x4 drivers are extremely experienced and skilled which is just as well as this was no granny tour! Absolutely exhilarating would be an understatement as we were really flying and sliding all over the place.  On one flat stretch, I saw the speedo touching what might be termed rather a lot which was pretty good on sand!

And off we go at speed......

Stopping at the crest of one massive dune, I thought we were stopping to admire the view but we were merely lining up to plunge down a frighteningly steep angle for several hundred feet - talk about an adrenaline rush!!!

Oh shiiiit.......

Making it down safely - our turn next!

We also stopped at what they called the Inland Sea where marching dunes had completely cut off the sea, forming a huge saltwater lake.  It looked surreal with the sand going straight into the water.

Part of the inland sea

Wilting tourists blocking the view

Fair screaming along - watch out for the dropoff!

A quick break at a desert camp - pretty opulent tents!

Heading back in a different direction, we came across several people hang gliding the dunes which provided perfect lift.  Guess they were used to the heat and wind!

Hang gliders launching off the dunes

A really great start to our holiday.  Apart from the dune-bashing thrill, it's always a wonderful experience to see other countries and cultures for the first time.  Qatar was a delightful surprise and we were really impressed with their plans for the future when oil revenue starts to dry up.

Right, into Africa in the next instalment!