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Day thirty one (continued)
Mount Kilimanjaro (Kili) looked spectacular at dusk with the snow capped peak changing into a pink hue as the sun went down. Rob made up an alcoholic fruit punch and then delivered a similar speech to his first night spiel.
Day thirty two
Today we carried onto Arusha where we got stocked up on provisions. Rob found that prices in Arusha for staple items were much more reasonable than in Nairobi. After we had all had a look around Arusha and had lunch, three jeeps arrived to take the newbies up to Ngorongoro Crater for the next couple of days.
The rest of us went onto Lake Dulluti, about 20 minutes from Arusha. It was a quiet and serene place and would be a good place to relax while the others enjoyed their wee excursion.
Day thirty three
Everybody spent the day around the lake chilling out. Corey and me were on cooking duty and Rob had arranged for two pigs to be put on a spit for us to cook. We spent most of the afternoon cooking the pig, basting etc. We cooked some roast potatoes in the hot coals below the pig by having them wrapped up in tin foil and did the same with some homemade garlic bread. There was rice and salad, and it made for a great feast.
The others came back from their visit to the Crater and said they had seen lion, elephant and rhino, so had had a good time. We had a good meal and a singsong around the campfire so it was a good night.
Day thirty four
Today we were off to Dar Es Salaam, a large port city on the coast of Tanzania. We were supposed to go very near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro but today "Kili was covered in cloud and we saw zip. Apparently the peak is covered in cloud most days, and we had been fortunate to see it at all on this trip.
It was a 12 hour drive to Dar and we had to negotiate one of the most dangerous roads in Tanzania along the way. Road quality is not considered a high priority in most African countries ( due probably to the cost and extreme weather conditions ). There were not many times when we could actually drive along the road in a straight line and not have to swerve around huge potholes.
However, we arrived in Dar without incident after what was a marathon drive and camped at a site within throwing distance of the Indian Ocean. That's three oceans I've swum in now.
Day thirty five
We drove to the marketplace where there was supposed to be a lot of good quality carvings and you can see the local carvers at work. I wandered around for a while looking at what was on offer and decided on a Giraffe and foal carving made out of Mahogany which looked like it had quite a few manhours put into it. After looking at a lot of carvings, you can see quite easily who has put some time and energy into their work and who is churning them out like they are on a production line.
The next trick is to haggle with some competence. All of the African merchants (especially carvers) see haggling as one of the necessary processes in selling their wares. The carvers will respect you more if you prove adept at knowing how to haggle. Some people seem to be naturally gifted at haggling and some people learn how to haggle over a bit of time. I would place myself in the latter category. I had been stung in Kenya by the taxi drivers (being a novice and all) and was now determined to perform creditably in my negotiations with this Tanzanian carver. He started high, and I replied very low. He spluttered, shook his head and waved me away. We had set the benchmarks and had to meet somewhere in the middle. We haggled for a bit and then I explained to him that I was not a Japanese tourist with money to burn, that I was a poor backpacker on a limited budget, and I did not want to be told Japanese prices. He seemed to understand this and came in with a lower offer. Not low enough for me and I countered with another low offer. This was rejected, so I explained to him that I had seen another carving in the marketplace and had been offered a good price for it which I would probably take. I was bluffing of course, but it seemed to have the desired effect, as he came back with another offer. He had now halved his original price which was better but not quite good enough. The rule of thumb was that you should be able to get the carving at 25-30% of the original offer if you are any good at haggling. I put in another offer which was around 25% of the original price but he got angry, saying he had a family to feed and that he had been more than fair with his last offer. I walked away saying that I was going to see the other carver. He hesitated, then chased after me and further haggling brought the price down to 30% of the original price. If I possessed a killer instinct I probably could have got him lower but I agreed to his offer. The carving now sits on my mantlepiece.
After everybody returned from their shopping, we went to the harbour and arranged tickets for the Zanzibar ferry. Rob would stay in Dar with the truck and we would get a plane back to Dar after about five days in Zanzibar.
The ferry swayed a bit and I got a bit nauseous.Click here for Zanzibar Island.
