I had a long day ahead of me, and left Malaika early. Arusha is a sizable city and traffic wouldn’t let go until I was about 10-15 kilometers out of the city. While in Arusha, I had admired Mount Meru, with a hight of 4562 meters, the fifth highest mountain in Africa. Today I didn’t get much of a view, with the weather being overcast and a light drizzle. Later in the morning I would be skirting the famous Mount Kilimanjaro, at 5985 meters Africa’s highest mountain, and hoped to get a good view of the peak. Sadly, that was not to be. The cloud cover hadn’t lifted and obscured the mountain.

It was a long but pleasant trip from Arusha to Tanga, driving past lush green fields with rows and rows of pineapple plants, and farmers tending their fields. Late afternoon I reached Tanga at the Indian Ocean on Tanzania’s east coast. Tanga was once the sisal production center of the world. The invention of synthetic fibers, and the nationalization of the factories caused a serious decline in production, and Tanga is today a somewhat sleepy town at the sea, with about 250.000 inhabitants. 

I found a nice resort right next to the sea, where I was allowed to pitch my tent, and use all the facilities of the resort. My plan was to drive to Dar es Salaam the following day to catch a ferry to Zanzibar. I wondered whether it wouldn’t be possible to catch a ferry to the island of Pemba, not far from Tanga and onwards to Zanzibar. The hotel manager confirmed that indeed it was possible, and the once a week ferry was leaving the following day in the evening. Great. I made arrangements to have my bike and luggage stored at the hotel, which they agreed to do at no cost. On the morning of departure the manager went to buy my ticket, but came back with some bad news. The ticket cost was about 3 times higher than first indicated, but it would take 3 days to reach Zanzibar, requiring 2 nights in hotels. Far too time consuming, and I decided to leave for Dar es Salaam the following morning.

Dar es Salaam (Dar) is supposedly the worlds fastest growing city, with roughly 5,0 million people. It was formerly the capital of Tanzania, until much smaller Dodoma took over that role.  Already 50 kilometers before reaching Dar, you start seeing an increase in activity, and from 30 kilometers it is “full on” action, with buildings going up everywhere, roads being built, lots of traffic and people. I was really surprised though, how well everything flowed with hardly any traffic jams, which continued right into Dar on perfect roads. I wanted to find a camping site just outside Dar called Mikadi, which had been recommended by Wayne when I stayed at the Jungle Junction. I had to take a ferry across the harbour to reach Mikadi, just south of Dar. Everyone wanted to be helpful and guided me along a small path for motorcycles going on the ferry, and soon I was on my way with hundreds of Tanzanians, motorcycles, cars and bags of coconuts, corn and many other things. The ferry trip was only 10 minutes, but within seconds there were a dozen curious onlookers around the bike, asking all sorts of questions. 

After the ferry it was only a five minute ride to Mikadi Beach Resort, which turned out to be a fantastic choice, right on the beach and with a pool. Incredible to think that massive Dar was only a couple of kilometers away. Great place with a bar area, hammocks all over the place strung out between the many palm trees. The waves crashing loudly within meters from the camp. Most of the accommodation were huts, built on stilts 20 meters from the Indian Ocean. I took a camp site and pitched my tent on hard sand, listening to the sound of the ocean. Setting up camp, I noticed a sign reading: Beware of falling coconuts! Doesn’t get much better than that. The following day, I made a deal with the guys at Mikadi to store my bike and luggage for a small fee, for the 4-5 days I would be on Zanzibar. I am so glad I brought along the cover for my bike, which in some way renders the bike “inconspicuous”. When the cover is on, no one seems to show any interest.

I left Mikadi Beach in the morning by tuktuk, and a few minutes later I was on the short ferry ride across the bay, to central Dar - this time without my bike. A ten minute walk to the Zanzibar ferries, where I bought a one way ticket for $ 20,00 from one of the two vendors, and an hour later I was on my way to the famous Spice Islands, a 3 hour journey. Stepping on to the ferry, one of the officers pointed me upstairs to the VIP lounge. I have no idea why, but wasn’t going to complain.

Zanzibar, here we come.