NB. If our Kenyan visas hadn't run out, we would've taken a much easier route from Kenya to Pemba - Private boats go quite regulary from Shimoni to Manta Reef Lodge, North Pemba or of course if you have the cash, you can fly. We obviously just love the drama!
TRUCKLESS IN PEMBA
Having chosen the furthest lodge from Mkoani to dive from, we travelled a further 3 hours by 2 Dala Dalas (pick-up type bus kind of vehicles), which we shared with the world, his wife and their chickens, along bumpy, potholed, once tarred roads. This cost us 1000 shillings each (90p). The slightly more comfortable alternative is to pay through the nose for a taxi - usually initial charge is US $50 (£30)but if you have the patience you can beat them down to about $30. On reaching the Ngezi Forest, we knew that the few days palava to get here had been well worth it. Click here for diving info on Pemba.....
KENYA
TO PEMBA, TANZANIA
- A Schlep and a half
(To avoid wading through the long winded story of events below, go straight to dive sites and centres visited by clicking the map destinations opposite)
Well, Truck did her damn'dest to jeopardise our schedule (for a change). Getting through the Kenyan/Tanzanian border at Lunga Lunga was hassle enough without then breaking down and having to be towed (again!)270km to Dar Es Salaam. On entering Tanzania, we were stung for $50 visas(each), $25 Transport Import Permit and shocked to find that, strangely enough, the border office only accepted American Dollars in cash. After much waiting and pleading, not happy with the prospect of travelling back to Mombasa to change money, the 'I'm a government official - look here's my badge' attitude finally got bored with arguing and said we could drive through to Tanga and pay the immigration office with Tanzanian Shillings. Reached Tanga just as the bank was closing - more pleading, they hurried us in. Ran around to the immigration office just as the doors were closing - more pleading - they let us in.
Checked out availibility of dhows sailing across to Pemba - not one for the next 3 days - Bugger, what was that about our luck. After umming and ahhhing, we decided to drive to Dar and reach Pemba via Zanzibar - After all it made more sense to keep the Truck in Dar if we were heading further south afterwards. Half way to Dar, we hear a rattling in the engine... oh no not again, "wait till I get my hands on Gordon..." the Kenyan mechanic with the suddenly not so 'magical hands'. We stopped Truck on a stretch of road with no shade and stamped our feet. That didn't do any good, so we took decisive action and ended up getting 3 different tows to Dar taking about 9 hours to cover 270km. Thoroughly fed up, we decided to ignore Truck's forlorn pleas to get fixed, packed the bare essentials (camera + housing, computer and a couple of sarongs!), locked her up safe with the nuns in St Joseph's Cathedral, and buggered off, rucksacks on backs, by ferry to Zanzibar.
And we're not talking about the famous game park. We arrived Zanzibar on 1st February, spent a couple of nights in Stone Town to recover from the trip down and decided to head for Pemba island. The only travel option within our budget was the uncomfortable, cold and smelly night ferry, 'The Serengeti' which took 8 bumpy hours to get to Mkoani, South West Pemba. This, not so pleasant, journey costs about $20 per person whereas a 40 minute flight with ZanAir would cost a yes more expensive but oh so worth it, if you have it, $85. We have recently heard that the Super Sea Bus has started working again meaning a more comfortable and speedier crossing. This could of course be a vicious rumour.
BUNGED
UP AND RUNNY NOSED IN ZANZIBAR
After
spending a mind blowing couple of weeks diving
around the magical island of Pemba, we headed back to Zanzibar
for further underwater fun and games. Charlie unfortunately came down
with a heavy cold after the icy air-con blasting from the Serengeti 'first
class' seats and Mark had to dive buddy-less for several days. She tried
snorkelling on top of his bubbles for a while but it all seemed a bit
desperate so she thought she'd better sit out, sunbathe and get better
in time for our highlight trip searching for Hammerheads around South-East
Pemba early March. Click here for Zanzibar Diving....
MARK GETS RELIGION AND MEETS MAGUMBO THE MECHANIC
With
the intention of getting the Truck fixed, Mark set off to Dar Es Salaam
for a hopeful 3 days. Once truck was sorted, we would then meet up, do
a few dives from Dar and drive south 300km to Mtwara to see a man about
an Octopus and do some more diving. Did it go to plan? No of course not.
We're in Africa, how could it? Mark and Truck stationed themselves safely
with some more nuns in Mbagala Spiritual Centre who very kindly offered
Mark the use of their chapel during this, his time of need, Mr Magumbo
was the mechanic recommended to him by a 'very nice and 'trustworthy'
erm.. taxi driver!
Magumbo declared "Mr Gordon in Mombasa made very bad mistake with your engine". After taking the engine apart incredibly quickly, Mark idly wondered if he'd be able to put it back just as fast. It was only when Magumbo asked semi confidently, "this is a 2.5 TDI engine isn't it?!", that Mark really began to worry..... When Magumbo gave the initial time estimation of 2 days to fix Truck, we believed him. Charlie came over to Dar expecting Truck ready to rock. but Magumbo said 'another 2 days boss' so we went diving with DiveMaxx while we waited. After diving, expecting to see Truck as new, Magumbo was nowhere to be found. For the next 3 days saying he'd arrive early morning, he chugged in at 6pm, work for an hour and then stop because he had no light. We tried to persuade him that if he started nearer to when the sun rose in the morning, he might get a little more done but it didn't work.
COULDN'T RESIST ANOTHER CHANCE TO DIVE PEMBA
To be fair, Magumbo was a damn good mechanic and although he had no idea about time keeping, we ended up entrusting him to work on the Truck, under strict supervision of Sister Larenzia, while we headed off to meet Mark's mum and dad. They'd come over to check out how we were coping with life on the road, and we didn't particularly want them to be stuck with the nuns eating spam and gravy worrying about Truck's future......
...In any case, we'd made a date with some Hammerhead Sharks in South East Pemba. Manta Reef Lodge twisted our arms and invited us aboard SY Jambo for its first expedition around the South East Coast of Pemba in search of the elusive Hammerhead Shark. We couldn't possibly say no so on March 3rd, we headed back to Pemba, Mark's parents in tow, this time in comfort and style via ZanAir's charter flight from Zanzibar to Karume Airport, Pemba. Click here for info on our liveaboard trip.
AND FINALLY..... STRESSED DOLPHINS?
Back in Zanzibar for the last time en route to Dar Es Salaam, we drove over to Kizimkazi in the South of Zanzibar to meet Mama Dolphin, Anna Lee to find out about the dolphin research project.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BITS WE MISSED?
Well, we really wanted to visit Mafia Island as we'd heard wonderous things about the diving, but the simple truth is that we couldn't afford that last little luxury in East Africa. Our budget was completely blown by the long stay in a country where everything was about 3 times as expensive as we planned for. Although we didn't make it, we know a couple that did and they have kindly agreed to write a report for dive the dream on their experiences there:
Coming soon...Katrin Meyer and Ryby Stonehouse reporting for Dive The Dream on Mafia Island Diving.
Another part of Tanzania we missed was diving from Mtwara, southern Tanzania. We were due to dive with Martin Guard from Ten Degrees South, who swears that the diving there is suuuperb but the long rains arrived early and practically washed us off the road (well it was called a road anyway). Knowing that those rains were here to stay, we quickly made our way out of Tanzania.
The last thing in East Africa that we sorely regret not doing was a trip on a catamaran called 'Inula'. This we have promised to come back for as we've heard too much about it to miss out again.
Tanzania Underwater Photo Gallery ¦ Diving Zanzibar ¦ Diving Pemba ¦ Diving Dar Es Salaam ¦ Diving Mafia ¦ Return to Homepage