Dar

We got off to a real early start today, around 5:00 a.m.  Drove for a couple of hours and stopped for breakfast, then back on the road again.  We skirted along the edge of Udzungwa Mountains National Park and passed through the north end of Selous Game Reserve, this area also known as Mikumi National Park.  Both these parks are fairly unique due to their higher elevations and abundant rainfall from the easterly, moisture-laden trade winds from the Indian Ocean.  We didn’t have much time to spend here as we had to make Dar es Salaam by nightfall.

As we traveled towards Dar, it was obvious that the Muslim faith was becoming more dominant as many of the villages we passed through had only Mosques and many women were wearing the traditional Muslim Hijab.

We made Dar es Salaam in the late afternoon, but got tied up in the ferry traffic for a couple of hours as we had to make our way to the campsite which was located on an island adjacent to Dar.  Once we got to the campsite, Janet made arrangements with the camp restaurant for our supper.

I was looking forward to having a refreshing shower after such a long day on the bus, but found out that the shower water was in fact sea water so I passed on the shower and would wait until we got to Zanzibar the next day.  It turns out that the shower water was salty due to the recent dry weather in Dar which caused the well to run out of fresh water which, in turn, due to the island being only centimeters above sea level, allowed sea water to flow in.

Not much else to report on for today.  Stay tuned for our four nights on Zanzibar.

Dar Slum

Dar Traffic