ZIMBABWE
Crossing into Zimbabwe was easy enough - efficient border officials and posh immigration offices. As you may expect, British had to pay for than most for visas: $55US as opposed to the standard $30US, although Canadians have to pay $65US. They must have upset Mugabe too. Within the offices there is a "National Reserve Bank" foreign exchange office, though noone was silly enough to change there, handing money right to the Zimbabwean government. The official bank rate is 100,000 Zim dollars to 1 US dollar but the black market offers much better than that. It is not possible to buy foreign currency in Zim. The country has serious economic problems right now. It has fallen from being an African shining star to a fraction of its former self. Since Mugabe's "reclaim" of farmland owned by white Zimbabweans, food production in the country has fallen by 60%. The farms have been taken by corrupt politicians or given to peasant black farmers who do not know how to farm at the commercial level. So Zim has to import much food now for which it needs a lot of foreign exchange! Mugabe offers poor rates when one wishes to purchase Zim dollars and Mugabe stockpiles forex for his priorities. Businesses wishing to settle foreign bills, people wishing to travel abroad, even to a neighbouring country, have to use the black market to purchase forex. Foreign companies don't buy so much from Zim these days either because the exchange rate makes everything so expensive for them!

We drove to Harare. First stop - change our money on the black market with ***** who works for ***** in Zim (they have a workshop there). From him, we got the going rate at the time: $210,000ZW to $1US. When changing perhaps $3000US between us, that's a lot of money and a real load of notes. The largest bank note at the time was $50,000 for which you can buy nothing (loaf of bread is $90,000; newspaper $80,000). Patrick could only get $20,000 notes. That meant a huge bundle for each of us. Paying for anything involves a lot of notes and means one has to carry around a lot when going anywhere. With an inflation rate of 1200% at the moment, people spend it fast too.

I spent a day in Harare with Thoby and Andreas and met a couple of guys called Simba and Luke. Luke is the President of the Zim UN youth society and works for the Zim National AIDS Council. Simba is the Treasurer of the society and works for the youth work department in the Ministry of Education. They are both attending the World Youth AIDS Conference in Toronto in August. In order to purchase forex, they have a special letter from the Government and can get the money from the National Reserve Bank.

Harare is a fairly commercialised city with modern shopping centres, fast food joints, wide streets, a good infrastructure, lots of green spaces and parks, however, it is getting tired. For the untrained eye, things look to be normal but apparently, the city centre is very quiet now because of fewer jobs there and people having less spending power to shop or go to bars, restaurants etc. There are hardly any cars compared to a few years ago.

We stayed at a camp site within the city. Next to the camp was the Cranleigh Park Club, similar to a working man's social club in the UK. In effect, it's a white people's club but these are actually allowed to exist so a few black members of high flying professions are enrolled as members but most of the time, the only black face is Mugabe's image looking at people as they enter. Thoby put this on a slant to show disrespect. Oh and then there's the barmen. The racist talk would only start when they left as when the bar closes, they would leave the place for the President to lock up. The Club was one of those places where I could spend time merely because of the chance to watch people and wonder what a psychologist would make of them. I know it's not the kind of place where you would find a good cross section of white Zimbabwean society but it was cool to talk to and observe them to learn a thing or two. They were mostly old (young white Zimbabweans tend to run to other countries, mainly South Africa and the UK, to find a future they like the sound of). The people generally seemed as if they were taken right out of the 1970s or 80s. Perms, mullets and stilettoes were very much in fashion still. Alcoholism was also normal. Most people then drive home. I heard about one guy drink driving a couple of years ago who was stopped by the police while having a bottle of beer between his legs. The policeman said "Sir, do you know it is illegal to drink and drive in Zimbabwe? Please go and finish your drink under the tree over there".

Next stop was Antelope Park. This is a private game park with various antelopes and giraffes but the main aim of the park is lion conservation. Lions now number just 15,000 in Africa. They are not on the endangered list but their numbers are falling so their aim is to prevent lions joining the list! The place is also set up for tourists (and there aren't so many of them in Zimbabwe these days!) really well with nice rooms, really organised and helpful staff, free tea and coffee all day, though no alcohol as they believe this changes the relaxed atmosphere they try to create. There are plenty of activities for people to do too within the park. The highlight is walking with lions. They allow groups of people to go on guided walks with lion cubs. While they are cubs, this does not mean that they are small! Some of them are pretty much the size of and have the strength of adult lions. I walked with lions 5 times - about 1.5 hours each time. In the mornings, the cubs are more frisky as it's cold (really cold high up in this part of Zimbabwe) and the younger the cubs, the more playful they tend to be). The cubs treat us as part of their pride but do like to play with us as part of their learning to hunt. Seeing lions in the wild on safari with 5 other Land Cruisers around them is quite cool but they tend to be just lying down, doing very little. Walking with lion cubs for hours is a lot cooler and you get to see some of their natural behaviour. Volunteers pay 1000 pounds per month to volunteer at the Park, although they tend to do very little - mainly just going on lion walks and ticking a sheet on a clip board to document the behaviour of the lions, e.g. if they start to hunt an animal in the park, the guide, lion trainer and volunteers stand back, allow them to stalk and monitor the development in their skills. Eventually, lions are sent to large game reserves where they fend for themselves. I also went horse riding in the park. When the horses are not being ridden, they are allowed to mingle with the animals in the park so that the antelopes etc don't run away when people go for horse rides, allowing you to get close to them. My horse, Khan, was not too obedient though, unfortunately. I think he knows there are new riders every day! Jamie went on the advanced horse riding, had a horse that is blind in one eye; it ran straight at a tree, wouldn't turn when Jamie tried to make it to, noticed at the last moment and threw Jamie off the back of the horse, breaking his wrist. Most of us went to the lion feeding too. This was less personal as there were so many people watching at once but it was funny to see that they were often distracted from their donkey meat by children who were watching from the outside of the enclosures. We were allowed inside, though the children had to wait outside (and were never allowed on lion walks!). Also at the park, you can go on elephant rides and see elephant training. For many, the Park was a highlight of their trip.

Great Zimbabwe ruins were next. dzimba dza mabwe means "great stones" in Shona language. It is also the origin of the name of the country once it became independent in 1980. Great Zim is the only major African ancient ruins south of Egypt. It also shows that Africa did reach civilisation in ancient times. It had been thought that Africa was largely uncivilised at the times that Europe had ancient empires but in reality, most buildings were probably made of mud and so don't last as long as stone. Great Zim was a city of 10,000 to 20,000 people andwas thought to have traded with the Middle East, India and the Far East. I won't go into any more details. This turns most people off ;-) Getting into Great Zim was interesting. It was $15US or 1.5million $ZW but noone wanted to pay the US price as this is twice what we would actually be paying as noone uses the bank rate. We couldn't pay in $ZW unless we had bank receipts proving that we changed money legally. Andi told them that we would not camp there unless we were allowed to pay in $ZW, which would mean they would lose a lot of money. The Manager fudged the paperwork, writing that we were 30 locals instead of 15 foreigners (Foreigners pay double for camping). The guide, *****, who took us around the ruins was saving forex to get to the UK. He has saved 600 pounds so far. He will go to South Africa, get a flight to the UK and enrol on a tourism course in Portsmouth where he has been accepted but he is deferring the place until he can get enough forex (which costs him a lot to buy) to leave. A flight from Zim to the UK would involve too much inquisition from the Zimbabwean security services who believe the UK is enemy no.1 (makes a change not to be George Bush!). Just outside the ruins site is a craft market. Zimbabwean crafts are mostly made of stone, setting them apart from most of the wooden giraffes other countries have on offer! The people there were desperate for business. They would accept a pen for a small craft though most didn't insult them so much by offering a pen. Exchanges were what they really wanted as Zim dollars are worthless before long. The vendors would beg for toothpaste, flip flops, jumpers, food and so on. While the people here are no poorer than others elsewhere in Africa, they used to enjoy a higher standard of living but they are not yet used to the lower standards, making it hard for them compared to people in Mali, say, who are poorer but used to it. Malians are less likely to brush their teeth for example but Zimbabweans want to still do that if they can. Who can blame them? (Malians are more likely to use a wooden stick!). It's surprising that the market is still there as Mugabe fears tourist markets are havens for the black market currency trade (and indeed this one is!). Mbare market in Harare was burned to the ground by Mugabe's cronies. The stall owners were given just 24 hours notice to clean up and move out. The market was a huge thriving place for food, clothes and crafts.

Next stop was Bulawayo, the 2nd city, pop. 1 million. We attempted to go to Natural History museum here as it has a good write-up and has the world's 2nd largest stuffed elephant(!). Only, we again had currency discussions at the entrance as $10US was just too steep. Zim dollars would have been OK. The museum looked as if it was once grand. Nowadays, I would say nearly noone goes. The building and park around it could do with some attention! Next stop then was the National Gallery. Full of student's artwork plus students' own studios and a dead cool coffee shop. Was just 6 pence to enter this place - quite a contrast to the price of the natural history museum. Apparently 20,000 $ZW is more than locals a willing to pay! Was nice to see that one student managed to get away with some political paintings. Freedom of speech is not as restricted as you may think in Zim. There are blatant anti-Mugabe newspapers. Also in Bulawayo, we went to the cinema, tempted by Western advantages. It was just 40 pence to see the movie but 60 pence for the popcorn. Was a Hollywood blockbuster movie quite recent. I forget the name :-S

Bulawayo itself has a nice atmosphere. It feels quite American with its wide streets arranged in a grid-like pattern and tall buildings. Other observations: a fair few very old cars; some colonial buildings; a struggling economy; very little available from the menus in the cafes (about 10% of all that is advertised on the menus); huge queues for ATMS (can't cope with all the notes needed to be distributed) and petrol stations (people don't know when fuel is going to run out again and know the price is forever increasing).

From Bulawayo, we all took the overnight sleeper train to Victoria Falls. The train was old (Rhodesian Railways was still written in a lot of places) and not too glamorous but still in good condition, although the doors didn't close and the odd light didn't work. It was just 2 pounds each for the whole journey. The train was fully booked but one carriage was missing due to a derailment a few nights previously so the people who were booked on that carriage were told to go to get a refund rather unsympathetically. Two of us were booked in that carriage but the Train Manager overlooked it as we were a large group. On boading the train, most of our beds were taken so we asked the Train Manager what we should go. He said that we white people were bound to cause a fuss and could tell as soon as we got on the train. Nevertheless, he was useful given that he did tell one guy that he had him "marked" as he had seen him night after night hanging around "white people's cabins".

Victoria Falls is a small town in North-Western Zimbabwe, funnily enough, right next to Victoria Falls of waterfall-fame. I mentioned the Falls in a previous email when I visited them on the Zambia side. By this time, they were at their highest in 10 years! The town almost entirely living on tourism - half of the town consists of tourist accommodation, tourist shops, travel agencies, cafes and the like, while the other half is where the workers live. These days, it's relatively quiet and shops are closing as tourists (needlessly) fear coming to Zim or purposely boycott the country. I poked around a couple of posh hotels, one of which Michael Jackson is rumoured to have a stake in. Would make sense given its Vegas-feel and some tacky aspects! Further along the gorge, Richard Branson owns a luxury lodge. I spent one day cycling around, mainly in Chinotimba where the workers live. Its consists of well-built homes - all stone, breeze block or concrete. Interestingly, a lot of people grow food in their gardens as food is so expensive and sometimes in short supply in Zim. I met a lot of men who were drinking scud, a home brew made from sorghum, costing just $100,000 ZW (about 30 pence). It's so filling and so cheap that some men drink this instead of eating. It's the same price as a loaf of bread and consists of carbohydrate, just the same as bread, although is 2% alcohol too....you can see the logic behind it, right? The bakeries in Vic Falls often have no flour due to the national shortage and therefore have no bread either. In the butchers' shops, as elsewhere in Zim, there was hardly any meat for sale - the display cabinets were almost entirely empty. People can only afford the cheapest "economy" meat.

I visited Vic Falls government hospital in Chinotimba. As expected, I asked if I could look around although unusually for Africa, there was no welcome. I first asked a nurse and then a receptionist - they both nervously deferred me to the next person. It was *****, who anxiously agreed to quickly show around me and Andreas. He did ask "Are you American?" before he said yes. I asked what that was supposed to mean later on but got no straight answer. Drugs are scarce in Zim and a lot of their well trained Doctors have emigrated. We met a Cuban Dr. Cuba has a huge number of quite well trained Drs and export many of them to Africa. One interesting poster was:
"Sex with albino adults does not cure HIV
Sex with albino children does not cure HIV". Hmmm!

Once we had finished our flying visit, ***** seemed to be a little less nervous and outside, volunteered a lot of his opinions to us. His negative opinions of the government are as you would expect, although he claims that Mugabe doesn't know everything that is going on in Zim as his advisors lie to him to keep him happy. He explained that it is hard to allow tours of the hospital these days because of government secrecy. In the past, Drs on holiday have wanted to visit the hospital but the secret service have had to check them out in advance and also have officers to go with them when the tour is being conducted! Jeremiah is a good guy and cares a lot about his profession but it hurts him to see the hospital suffer so much.

My main "activity" at Vic Falls was to go on the adrenaline day. Adrenaline is not a word that would normally attract me to do something but somehow I overlooked that. The day was spent on the Zambian side of Batoka Gorge, the gorge carved by Vic Falls over thousands of years. I did a couple of 54 metre abseils, a "flying fox" zipwire thing over the gorge and a rap jump (face down abseil), which were all really cool apart from the walk up the gorge after each activity. "Adrenaline" referred to the main activity: the gorge swing. Sounds innocent enough but that doesn't explain the 53 metre freefall lasting 3.5 seconds before you swing at all. You reach a speed of 140 km/h by the end of the fall - the rockface appears to move fast by the end! Jumping off a cliff attached to a rope is not something that I would normally relish doing but Cade, Nick and myself managed to work each other up so much that I did it anyway. And then I did it again!

Zimbabwe is a wonderful country with some lovely, warm-hearted people but I fear for them :-( Perhaps some Zimbabweans reading this think I am toeing the line of the West, a puppet of the West. I'm sorry but I came to all of these conclusions myself based on evidence from Zim. I spoke to people of different political beliefs.

MALAWI
Coming into Malawi, I had a fever. I was wearing all of my warm clothing and inside a sleeping bag - this is a tell tale sign of malaria! Zoe was suffering from malaria by this time too (person no. 15, case no. 17). Malawi is a strangely shaped country - elongated north to south and dominated by Lake Malawi. As we drove south into Malawi, we were driving on the narrow strip of flat land with the lake to one side and mountains to the other. It was densely populated as people are forced to live on the fertile flat lands. My fever broke during the night at Chitimba beach where we were staying.

I'll remember Chitimba for the banter with the curio sellers outside the camp. Most were about 18 and still at school, working as curio sellers to make money for school fees. They offered everything from curios to shoe repairs to washing laundry. They did unfortunately have bad relations with the Manager of the camp site. I got them to make me a Malawi chair (2 planks of wood, put together to make a chair) and a togalosh - a huge wooden spiritual figure with a long face and huge belly - something you love or hate. At Chitimba, I went to see the local Dr, a government Dr in the health centre. The government can't afford to do malaria tests routinely but he offered me a HIV test :-S I described my symptoms and diagnosed me with malaria. When asked how he had come to that conclusion he said it was because I had a fever the previous day! A fever is a symptom of so many illnesses! I ignored him and waited to see if the fever came back (as it normally does with malaria). It didn't. Turned out to be the flu! Incidently, the reason so many British holidaymakers die of malaria each year is because they believe their antimalarials protect them entirely and that when they get a fever back in the UK, they think they have the flu until it's too late!

Heading further south, we rose up into the mountains, which gave us fantastic views over the lake. We stopped in Mzuzu for Zoe to go on a drip (she had been vomiting for about 2 days so was weak). Here I met Ephraim, a school leaver who paints and sells his work to tourists passing through. Unfortunately, the Malawi government is very controlling in many ways. Recently, they cleared all street vendors off the streets, telling them to open shops to do their business but most are too poor to afford the rent and so are pushed into real unemployment, even more informal work, begging or crime (but this is rare) unless they are discrete about their work like Ephraim. Ephraim has since had his work confiscated by the police.

We took a pleasant late afternoon drive further south, passing a lot of friendly villagers and going through rubber plantations where children were selling rubber balls by the side of the road having illegally tapped rubber. We arrived at Kande beach, home no. 2 in Malawi. This was a gorgeous place wirth clear calm waters, a lovely sandy beach and an island to go out to. Myself and a few others went over there to do some fishing with a local guy. A memorable moment from Kande was buying a stick of sugar cane outside the camp from a young boy, perhaps 8 years old, using the translation of a curio seller. I gave him 10 kwatcha ( 2.5 pence), twice the going rate. His smile was enormous. Adding this to the 10 kwatcha he already had in his hands (African kids seem to like to ensure they don't lose money by forever holding it), he could nearly buy an exercise book. Thinking about it, I sound really mean by not paying more but giving money for nothing creates a dependency that cannot be sustained forever and is dehumanising in the long term. By doing business with the child, myself and the curio seller taught him a lesson.

Leaving Kande, we were stopped at the first police checkpoint. The policeman was acting tough and quite intimidating as he searched parts of our truck, hinting that he wants things that he found. This is rare behaviour for police in Eastern and Southern Africa but we'd had worse than this in Central Africa. He was quite proud of himself but got nowhere. The joke was on him.

Next stop was Blantyre, Malawi's biggest city and commercial capital, situated in the far south. We seemed to get a few middle fingers as we drove in (Tanzania was the only other place for this) but most were friendly. The city is modestly developed, though there was still plenty of poverty in the suburbs.

Ovens!
In the camp site/hostel where we stayed, there were some people from the German Overseas Development agency (glad to see they take budget accommodation!!). Their work was to set up businesses or approach existing businesses in Malawi and other countries in Africa to produce and sell fuel efficient ovens. Malawi, being densely populated, is one of the countries with a deforestation problem, which not only leaves the poor short of fuel and house building material but eventually leads to poor soils and hence less food! The fuel efficient ovens use 10% of the wood needed for an open fire, are affordable for the poor and provide new business for the locations they promote the product. In Zambia, I saw solar ovens being promoted, which use no fuel, can be bought cheaply or made easily. They need no fuel - just sun. Obviously, have to cook during the day.

We didn't stay for long in Blantyre as we had only come here to get Mozambique visas but now one can get them on the border so we left the next day.

History and Politics
Malawi used to be the British colony of Nyasaland (Nyasa is the local word for "lake"). After independence, it was ruled for 30 years by the totalitarian President Banda. He resigned in 1990, there has been democratic improvement since then but the situation is still not perfect. Malawi suffers from rapid population growth, bad governance, AIDS is endemic and the economy is performing poorly. Up until 1994, all tourists to Malawi had strict dress codes. Men had to have short hair (that meant shaving heads in airports and at borders) and near beards while women had to wear skirts.

TANZANIA
The first visit to Tanzania, we entered from Zambia and drove through pretty mountain scenery. Sunflowers and traditional huts are the things that stick in my mind about that area. Our first bush camp in Tanzania not so straightforward. We pulled up at a school with an extensive school field and asked the 2 security guards if it would be OK. Their English was broken but it was obvious what we were doing and they were delighted to have some company for the night. They helped collect firewood for us to help with the cooking and watched us put up our tents. We'd been there for about an hour when the Headteacher drove into the school. He was fuming. So angry. And extremely rude. He gave us almost no chance to speak. Our driver was very calm, reasonable and trying to talk to the man but noone could get a word in edgeways. He was extremely rude, perhaps one of the rudest I have ever met. He was happy to stand their mouthing off about how white people are abusing Tanzanians. Apparently, we were "trespassing on government land and abusing the fact the security guards don't speak English very well". We've used school lands for bush camps before. We've always asked for permission and the school staff have been very excited to have us.
We didn't have the warmest of welcomes to Tanzania. In general, I received a mixed welcome in Tanzania for all the time I spent there - some great people, some less friendly.

We drove through forests and Mikumi National Park (seeing many animals from the road, including a lionness) as well as through sisal plantations on the way to Arusha. One place we stopped was Chalinze, the busiest junction in Tanzania. It's the junction of the main roads between Dar es Salaam (Tanzanian capital) to the East, Malawi and Zambia in the West and Kenya to the North. Tanzanians love to travel about and their excellent roads allow for huge coaches to race around the country. At Chalinze junction, there are countless numbers of street vendors who run up to coach windows shouting the name of their products: bananas, pineapples, cashew nuts, Coke and so on. I spoke to one street cafe owner who served me a traditionally Tanzanian chips omelette. He said that due to the many travellers coming through Chalinze, there is a high HIV prevalence

Tanzanian roads are really dangerous. We would typically travel at around 80kph (50mph) but coaches would fly past us, overtaking on blind bends etc. One coach we saw went on to 2 wheels as it skid around the corner, going on to the other side of the road. Few things happen fast in Africa but for some reason, people want to get from A to B as fast as they possibly can, taking all risks necessary. There are also broken down trucks everywhere.

Arusha, in Northern Tanzania, was our first city. It's Tanzania's 3rd largest and perhaps most touristic town on the mainland. We stayed there one night and then stayed at a bush camp one night near to the Kenyan border with another Oasis truck.

Rwandan Genocide Criminal Tribunal
On our return to Arusha (2nd time in Tanzania, one month later), Martyn and I went to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), a UN court set up within the Arusha International Conference Centre to try the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide. There are 4 courtrooms inside with a viewing gallery, allowing guests to watch the proceedings. When witnesses testify, the curtains are drawn. We saw the Former Rwandan Minister for Women on trial. She didn't have the face of someone who could plot to kill a million fellow countrymen. It's mind boggling to think that someone who was responsible for fighting prejudice could be a killer of people who just happen to be of a different tribe. Up to now, 26 people have appeared before UNICTR in Arusha. 5 people have been acquitted, while 21 have been convicted. Mali, Swaziland, Benin, France, Italy and Sweden are the countries that have volunteered to imprison those convicted for the period dictated by UNICTR. The UNICTR hopes its work will be concluded by 2010. Some people feature on a wanted list within the building. A huge multimillion US dollar reward awaits any information leading to an arrest. In Rwanda, small trials have taken place for those who perpetrated crimes during the genocide.

From Arusha, we went on "safari" (now you really feel like a tourist) to the Ngorongoro Crater, a volcanic crater that is teeming with animals of almost every kind. Driving there was through the clouds but once you descend into the crater, there is no cloud as it remains at the crater's edge. Most people went on to the Serengeti but Martyn and I didn't bother - 200 US dollars for 2 days (that means about 3 hours per day of game driving) is a crazy price and I don't enjoy going from animal to animal to take a photo anyway. There's no time to learn much about the behaviour of the animals.

We went back to camp, Snake Park, just outside Arusha. It's run by a South African couple and is really popular. Locals take snakes found in the local area to the camp where they have enclosures for snakes and a vet to look after them. They also keep crocodiles, tortoises and owls that have problems ( i.e. would die in the wild). A couple of weeks ago, a local gave them a baby grey striped hyaena that was found near to its mother who had been killed by some other locals with poisoned meat. At this time of drought, the hyaena was going to farms and into a village to find food but at the same time, the locals' are struggling for food.

Snake Park works well with the community. They have built a Masaai museum and leave it up to local Masaai to maintain it and give guided tours. Masaai can sell souvenirs outside the museum too. Camel tours and village walks can also be conducted from Snake Park. Andreas, Thoby and myself walked around the village in which Snake Park is located. It didn't involve a long walk at all. Sadly, very few people who go to Snake Park ever bother to step foot out of the camp site, which is saddening. What's the point going all the way to Tanzania only to never speak to locals other than the woman who cleans the toilets?

Masaai
This area is near to the traditional lands of the Masaai people. Indeed, the name Serengeti comes from the Masaai word "siringit". The British then threw the Masaai off the land and created the Serengeti National Park. The Masaai are still not allowed to live in the Serengeti but they are allowed within the Ngorongoro Conservation area. They have set themselves up there but the government won't build schools, supply electricity etc. The government doesn't like the Masaai (who don't hunt animals) living in an area that brings in so much tourist revenue. The Masaai are allowed to take their cattle down to the crater floor for grazing during the dry season. There still remains battles between the governments of both Tanzania and Kenya with the Masaai people over land rights. The Masaai hold on to so many of their traditional practices in a world that is increasingly Westernised in Kenya and Tanzania. The colourful Masaai blankets, tools, huge earrings, ankle bracelets, bracelets, necklaces and enlarged ear lobes are characteristic of the Masaai. To see this combined with a mobile phone and a brief case is bizarre! Masaai children (boys and girls) are often put through circumcision. A cow is slaughtered in the name of the boy who drinks both the milk and the cow's blood. The warrior practices of men are still retained where they go to eat meat in the bush away from their family. Their continued commitment to their traditions has to be admired. In Kenya, President Kibaki downgraded Amboseli National Park to a National Reserve, thought to be a move to win the votes of Masaai in the 2005 Constitution referendum.

In Arusha, I got my hair cut. I chose the "numbers", which relate to the length of hair you would like (as most men will know) but the barber never actually put the clippers on my head but rather just skimmed my hair with them for around 1.5 hours. Bless! Patiently, I sat wondering what he was doing until he claimed to be finished and showed him how I'd like the clippers used afterwards!

Next, we went to Dar es Salaam, a city of 3 to 4 million people andf growing fast. The centre is commercial but less so than Nairobi. It has an Arabic quarter, which has tall buildings and feels a little Middle Eastern, which was cool. From the centre, we took a ferry over to the peninsula where we were staying, which consisted of a few cars being carried across and scores of foot passengers.

We said goodbye to an emotional Chris, the youngest person on the truck, before going over to Zanzibar island on the slow ferry. Paying the higher "foreigner" price, we got 1st class seating, which meant we were less cramped - we had sofas upstairs. We sat through the repetitive seeminly endless Arabic prayer to Allah that was to ensure that the ferry doesn't sink. Zanzibar is mostly Islamic. One passenger was carrying many chickens.

The ferry took us to a very rainy Stone Town (really called Zanzibar town), capital of Zanzibar island, the principal island of the groupd of islands called Zanzibar, which united with Tanganyika in the 1960s to form the United Republic of TanZANia. I stayed in a decent cheap hotel for 10 US dollars per night. For the first evening, we dried out in Mercury's bar, named after Freddy Mercury who was born on the island.

Zanzibar was once part of the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East. Later, it was colonised by Germany and later swapped with the British for the cold tiny island of Helgoland just off Germany. Nowadays, Zanzibar still retains many links with Oman and many people are of Omani race but the family has been Zanzibari or Tanzanian for many generations.

On the 1st full day, several of us went on a spice tour, which took us inland to see a spice area. We saw and tasted spices including lemongrass, cinammon, clove and vanilla pods among others as well as many fruits and perfume flours. At the end, we were given lemongrass tea with vanilla essence - divine :-) Biryani (traditional Swahili coastal food) and juice was for lunch. For the rest of the day, I spent time shopping for paintings (some good ones in Stone Town) and spent quite a lot of time sheltering under doorways, taking photos of people acting crazy in the rain. In the evening, I ate at the seafood market - stalls on the sea front cooking cheap fish and seafood meals. It's nice to chat to a lot of the chefs here, as well as to eat good food. I ate for free because one chef claimed that the reason some of my friends ate at his stall was because I recommended him (we had chatted the previous night). I did try to pay but he wouldn't accept the money. Nice, huh?

Most people had gone somewhere around the island after the first day or two in a hire care or on a motorbike. I did intend to get a bike but the hire people were trying to give me all sorts of dodgy licences from Switzerland or with other people's faces on. Hmmm!!! I didn't want to go to a rainy beach much anyway! I stayed in Stone Town, which I liked a lot. It has so many narow alleyways with densely packed tall buildings, reminding me of the Moroccan medinas. Great for artistic photos. I met a guy called Hassan, aged 22, still at school, who took me to the more modern part of Stone Town where there are long blocks of flats, forming government-owned social housing. This allowed for some great grafitti photos of shots of ladies cleaning or hanging out washing on their balconies...I was in my element here :-) One interesting thing I learnt from Hassan is that secondary school is free in Zanzibar - perhaps the 1st place I've been to since Morocco with free secondary school. Zanzibar is better off than the rest of Tanzania. It's no wonder that many people campaign for independence.

Back in Dar es Salaam, I met driver Grant who was suffering yet again from malaria (case. no 16 on the truck. He is case no. 1 of round 2!). Scott, Maree, Cheri and Helen (Kippy) all left us in Dar es Salaam. Kippy came down with malaria again once back home in Wales (case no. 2, round 2!!!).

I met a guy called Tommy who studies at the city's Institute of Financial Management, a good institution. He works for a Tanzanian youth group as well. I tried to meet him in the British Council but they wouldn't let me in as I was not a paid up member. Everywhere else, British get in for free. Tommy's Institute was impressive. I really felt it had a positive learning environment, it had accommodation on campus and the students seemed professional and hard working at all hours of the day. With Tommy, I visited a suburb where his Aunt lives. Here, he told me about how the ruling CCM party is corrupt and uses corruption money to buy the votes of poor Tanzanians at election time or buys their polling cards, returning them after the election. He hopes to be an Independent MP some day and in the meantime, to mobilise youth awareness of the unfair electoral practice. The result counted is the real result but the campaign is unfair.

Tanzanian history and poltiics
Tanzania's first President, Julius Nyerere, adopted socialist policies after independence by nationalising farms, industry etc. and promoting ujamaa meaning community or togetherness. The policies failed, Nyerere resigned (rare for African Presidents! He is still adored by Tanzanians) and the country turned towards capitalism. It has only achieved slow growth since the 1980s. Tanzania has been a peaceful country despite it being the country with the second largest number of tribes for any country in Africa (after DR Congo). Swahili was adopted as the national language, promoting the Tanzanian ujamaa and patriotism. Tanzania did nevertheless, invade Uganda in 1979 (or thereabouts) to overthrow the President Idi Amin who was a disaster for Uganda and its people.


Black market at border
Malawi doesn't tolerate a black market for foreign currency exchange so in order to get the best rates, we had to change on the Tanzanian side of the border. This is nothing uncommon for us but the money changers here were the most persistent and crafty of all we have used. They are constantly on the ball, trying to confuse by confusing rates for different currencies, giving huge quantities of small notes to make it too difficult to count, telling you a rate higher than they are willing to give and so on. Really challenging when there are 15 of us trying to change over the side of the truck and 30 of them shouting left, right and centre.