Safari njema—“good safari.” After my Kilimanjaro climb, Nicola and I set out on the second big adventure of our trip: a four-day, three-night safari with African Scenic Safaris, based out of Moshi. For $750 USD each, we got a private guide, a cook, camping inside the parks, and a route that would take us through Tarangire National Park, the Serengeti, and the...
We came to Tanzania for two main reasons: to go on safari and—more ambitiously—for me to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Nicola had already been here before, so this one was my dream. Ever since I climbed Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo (at 4,200m), I’ve wanted to test myself on something higher. Kili, at nearly 5,900m, felt like the next challenge. They call it a “trekking climb,”...
“Why you hurry, hurry? You should polle polle…” (slowly, slowly), the Masai beach vendors remind us as they try to sell necklaces and bracelets. Looking is free, touching is free… buying, not so much. We’re in Paje, a small community on Zanzibar’s southeast coast, staying in a beach hut at Jambo Beach Bungalows. Tomorrow we fly to Kilimanjaro, but for now, life has...
A quick update as we cross over to Zanzibar on the ferry from Dar es Salaam. Getting here was no small journey. Our route was Toronto → Rome → Addis Ababa → Dar es Salaam. The first leg, Toronto to Rome, was surprisingly comfortable — we had three seats to ourselves after a young guy from Fort McMurray, en route to Rwanda, kindly moved. Things changed in Rome...