Leg 3 - Tanga to Dar-es-Salam

Richard goes too far in the quest for food!

I don’t know how this one slipped through without being mentioned and dates back to the beginning of the second leg when we were still in Mombasa. As you may recall we had a day to kill when the weather turned bad and we decided not to paddle and to take a trip into the heart of Mombasa instead. En route we had to negotiate the swarms of people, donkeys and other cars that usually accumulate near the ferry. Richard was driving and had had enough of the “dodgem cars” that always has to be played to avoid colliding with people, and narrowly missed (or so we thought) an elderly lady who had strayed into the middle of the road. Traffic had backed up and we were waiting for our turn to get onto the ferry when suddenly a pointing finger, followed by a shouting face, appeared through the passenger window where Shayne was sitting. “Why you drive into me?!! You not even apologise! You no say sorry!!” We were all taken aback and had forgotten the incident, which we thought had not even happened a hundred meters back. “I am sorry. I didn’t know that I had hit you” replied Richard as diplomatically as he could while he tried to figure out what had happened. “You think I am animal? Why you treat me like animal?!” screamed the lady, but directed at Shayne this time. She was after answers and did not seem to care who was going to provide them. By this stage Mark and I were sniggering in the back finding the situation most amusing, but would probably not have had she seen us and unleashed her questions in our direction. Shayne had started trying to explain that it was not him that she should be interrogating as he had no steering wheel and that she had the wrong man! Despite all his attempts the questions and accusations kept coming “Who you think you are?! I old woman! You no look were you drive! You treat me like animal!” The next ferry could not have had better timing, providing us with an escape route and we sped off, taking care not to hit anybody else in the process!

Mark heads north from Dar to join K2K Team

"In God we trust" is the motto of Scandinavia Coach service from Dar to Tanga. Well there were no chickens on the roof and the BO (body odor) was only slightly worse than my garlic breath from the night before's indulgence in a restaurant on the beaches of Dar es Salam.
I (Mark Cowley) was the armature for the 3rd leg. It was not my first trip to East Africa, but my first to Dar. What a pleasant surprise compared to Mombasa to which I had visited many a time over the past 20 years to visit my grandparents. The streets were cleaner but the driving just as chaotic.

I had flown into Dar the day before from Johannesburg. Tanga is some 240km north of Dar by road and 60km short of the Kenyan border. My friends Nick and Carol, put me up for the evening and had taken me out for dinner with Dino and Quindon whom I had last seen in 2003 on our Kenya safaris.

Scandinavia express is the "semi-luxury" coach service which costs $10 at peak hrs (8am) and $7 at 3pm for off peak. It is $17 if you pay for both, after missing the morning one with misunderstood directions.

The 3rd leg begins!

I was collected from the bustop in Tanga in Mlevi. What an awesome site she was! Then it was off to the camp spot for the night where dinner in the restaurant was superb. It was kind of a hello dinner for myself and farewell to Mark and Kyle who were heading back to Nairobi the following day.

After a short squall in the night we were up at first light getting the kayaks ready for the day. Graham had recovered from his sunburn. Richard and Shane saw Mark and Kyle off at the bus stop. They were headed back to Mombasa for their flight to Nairobi, then Johannesburg and finally home to Cape Town.

The water was flat and calm as we were shielded by a chain of islands about 5km from the coast. 15 km and almost 3 hrs later it was time for lunch on our own private beach 200m long and with only a Fish Eagle for company. Lunch consisted of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, an energy bar and peanuts. I was soon to find out that that was standard for a day’s paddle.
Then we were off and another 8 or so km in total we bumped into some of the local muzungu (white) farmers from Arusha (tea or flower growing farmers from close to Kilomanjaro), down for a bachelor’s weekend, before setting off again.

By the end of the 29.7km for the day I was taking serious strain and could not have gone an inch further.

Enough fish to feed Graham?!

The team is a little concerned about one of its members! Any K2K member will tell you that meal times are a very special time of the day. Doing as much exercise as we seem to be doing, energy is burnt up faster than it is being replenished, our metabolisms have kicked into over drive, none more so than Graham who is quickly earning a reputation for being the teams “bottomless pit”!

Just before turning into Peponi Resort we encountered one of the strangest scenes on tour to date! A local delivering the biggest fish we have set our eyes on, by bicycle! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, a huge fish strapped over the back of this guys bicycle was surreal! Mlevi screeched to a holt and we both jumped out – one armed with the Canon XM2 video camera and the other the Canon 350D, like the paparazzi flashes went off in all directions, trying to capture the unusual situation!

Peponi Resort, rustic Africa at its best

We stayed at a beautiful place called Peponi Resort (http://www.pepnoiresort.com/) where we were supposed to be camping for the night. Denis kindly moved us from our tents into a banda (chalet) on the understanding that if paying guests arrived that we would move back to our tents.

For anyone thinking of traveling up into this part of the world we strongly recommend this charming place. We immediately felt at home, they have put their minds and souls into this beautiful spot, creating a tranquil, peaceful and carefree atmosphere. Under the shade of the palm trees your worries seem to drift far away!

Saturday morning, 17 September, another %$#& Day in Africa. The sun was shining brightly, there was a gentle breeze rustling the palm tree leaves and the distant sound of the tiny waves.
Peponi was so good and the atmosphere so peaceful we decided to spend another day. After breakfast it was back in the kayaks following the Peponi dhow with its 3 Spaniards, a Canadian and one English guest. First stop was 3 km off shore for some snorkeling, then off to "Sand Island" another 3km off shore. This was literally a sand bar in the middle of the reef. What a postcard picture that would have made with the dhow coming in against a clear blue sky and a turquoise sea.

It was time for Mark to learn some kayak exiting maneuvers and for Graham to practice his Eskimo rolls. Then it was on the sand bar for some Frisbee throwing and beach soccer with the dhow passengers.

Two of the Spanish guys went off to the side of the island and took their kit off and frolicked around like excited puppies! People are strange (it turned out that they were just a little bent)!
It was back to Peponi for Octopus lunch. The food may be a little slow coming out the kitchen, but wow it sure tastes good.

2nd day on the water

Sunday, 18 September and we had 18km to Pangani. We bid farewell to the Irish and the Spanish and did a ball handover to Roehna, an English volunteer worker with the street children in Moshi.

Graham and I took the double. There was no where for lunch so it was off with the splash covers and some R&R in the swell (at first the idea was not appealing, but it turned out to be OK). Lunch was bacon and banana toasted sandwiches, followed by peanuts and raisins and an energy bar.

We dragged a line behind us for the entire day with no luck until we arrived at the entrance to Pangani. When we started to reel the line in we thought we had caught the reef, but the reef kept on moving! Thwa! Our supper was free. The disappointment! At the last minute it was off and K2K’s first real fish was not to be!

Swiss Dairy in Africa?!

It was then through the surf and on to Leo and Beatrice's guest cottage. Leo, a very kind Swiss gentleman has been living in the area for 40 years and was currently producing creamy milk, cheese and ice cream from his dairy, the only thing missing was some Swiss chocolate! A very pleasant and yes, extremely together Swiss couple who made us feel right at home, there spacious airy guest cottage was the perfect place to relax and catch up on our reading!

After cleaning up and having a few glasses of limejuice with Leo and Beatrice, Graham and Shane went fishing with no success, so it was off to the Duka (shop on the side of the road) for some tomato and onion to add to our rice for supper. It was my first experience of driving around in the countryside, the roads seem to run at random, nothing is sign posted, there is rubbish and totos (children) everywhere. As usual we were the center of attention in the huge Landrover with our red Perception kayaks on the roof.

Pechie (the cook) Shane bought some milk and cheese from Leo and we had custard and canned fruit for dessert after the tomato and onion mix!

The Tides, another secret hide away!

We were off for a short 18km to "The Tides" (http://www.thetideslodge.com/) where James entertained us with stories from the Tsunami. What a beautiful spot with a stunning bar/restaurant literally on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean. At high tide the swell crashes onto the beach meters from where one can relax, martini or G&T in hand.
Set away from all the big cities this little hide away is the perfect beach escape, offering all the usual water sports. The 10 banda’s all positioned on the beach have stunning sea views with nothing more than a couple of coconut palms between them and an idyllic white sand beach stretching a couple of km either way. This is the perfect spot for swimming, unlike most of the other spots along the coast which are effected by a wide tidal shelf, this sandy beach drops off to a decent depth and therefore you can swim whenever.

3rd time lucky!The rumours that there are in fact fish out there we finally put to rest! Shayne and I were itching to stretch our muscles and get some time on the water. Our current fishing success rate was pretty dismal and we were determined to put the record straight!

Line in tow we began cris-crossing the bay, back and forth, checking to see if we had hooked anything? We were out there for about 20 min when Shayne exclaimed: “I think we have something!” not wanting to get too excited and having heard it all before I hesitantly took the line and gave it a tug! We had indeed managed to lure something into taking our hook! It didn’t seem to resist much and before we knew it we were trying to grab hold of a snapping Barracuda and avoid being bitten by its razor sharp teeth! We had finally caught our first fish, one and half months into the trip! To be fair we haven’t trawled too much and therefore could really expect to catch with our line sitting in Mlevi!!

K2K covers some serious distance!

The next day was a big one on the water, 38km. We had an early breakfast at 7am. The muesli at the Tides had to be tasted to be believed, with the secret ingredient being coconut! By the time we had finished getting ready, brushed our teeth put contact lenses in it was 8am.

We had been taking the double the past few days and had been making some good time so we kept to our winning formula. I came in with no training and found the first 3 days very hard going, mainly on the shoulders and lower back. The biggest problem with these long paddles initially is the lack of stamina. I kept on wanting to stop and 'look around and enjoy the scenery.' The kayak’s maximum speed is some 9km an hour, but we soon found that about 6km per hour is the optimum speed when one has to keep the same speed for very long distances. We found that for each doubling of effort one only gets a third more speed.

We cut straight across some very big bays and at one time were some 5km from the shore. There was also the disappearing island. Graham decided that lunch on a coral island a km or 2 off shore would be nice. The only problem was that as we got closer and closer the island became a part of the main land as a part of the main land through an exposed reef at what was now low tide and we were left to bob up and down and eat our lunch out at sea.

Distance in a kayak is very deceptive. If you can just see it above the horizon and you know it is only a meter or two high it is probably 10 or so km away. If it is higher then like our island it is some 14km away. At 6.5km/hour this a good 2 hours plus paddling before one finds whether any island is in fact an island or not!

We trawled 2 lines for the entire day. Just as we were stopping for lunch Graham snared a 6kg fish. It was impossible to get the triple barbed lure out of the fish’s mouth so we put him out of his misery and dumped him in the rear hatch before he did to much damage to Graham with his spines (or escaped).

Tent with a view – What a view!

The next night's stop was just after the next village or so, James had said to us the night before. A place was called “Tent with a View.” http://www.saadani.com/. We heaved ho 3 or so km after the village with an enormous stretch of white beach to the left and right and not a sole in sight. It was very shallow here. We stretched our legs before getting back in the boats slowly heading south and looking for the first sign of civilisation. We found it a few km down the beach. Where we could see an elderly musungu Memsa (white lady) wondering around on the beach.

As we landed, she greeted us with "your colleagues have arrived." This was quite a relief as after the long paddle we were pretty tired and the cell phone coverage stopped just past The Tides Lodge, the batteries in the two way radio’s were also dead so that would not work either.
Up until this point we had been able to send the vehicle off after the kayakers. The drivers would find the next spot for the night and sms the GPS co-ordinates to the paddlers, who would then hone straight in on the exact point. The only difficulty as we found out when trying to land at Peponi was that one of the GPS’s was out by 1km! This may not sound like a long way, but in a kayak it takes at least 10min to do 1km.

The Memsa took the kayakers to find Shane and Richard, who had Mlevi unpacked. What a mess! It had turned out that the fridge was not working and the day before's catch of Barracuda was starting to stink and the back right tyre had punctured! Mlevi was due for a repack and this looked like a good spot!

We soon discovered that the tyre wrench had been left in Johannesburg! Thank goodness there had been no punctures in the last 7,500km! The Pieche (chef, not Shane this time but the real thing) and one of the repair men from Tent with a View helped with the tyre change. The lodge had a Landrover as well so they had all the tools. They even repaired the tube for us. We repaid them with a soccer ball which they seemed very happy with.

Tent with a view has 10 tents all positioned on stilts under Makuti (thatch) roof’s each with their own uninterrupted view over the ocean! The unique beautifully fitted bathrooms are slightly lower at the back. Pure luxury in the middle of Tanzania bushveld! They bake their own bread, buy fish from the village but everything else has to be trucked in from Dar. Jackie, the manager very kindly let us stay for the night in the luxury tents! Once again K2K had found a truly amazing spot on the coast of East Africa! Toescapeto (http://www.tpescapeto.com/) we sure have some special places for the future!

The chef cooked Graham’s fish and boy was it exquisite. Flavoured with basil and crumbs, we have yet to have a bad meal on the leg!Sadaani Safari Camp - Bush + Beach
After a good night's rest it was a mere 25km to the next stop inside the Saadani Park at the Saadani Safari Lodge. The psychology of being in a kayak is weird. If you get yourself psyched up into doing a long stretch then it feels easy to achieve the distance, this short distance around a point proved a little harder than expected.


Saadani Safari Camp (http://www.safarinow.com/go/saadanisafarilodge/) it yet another Tanzanian beach treasure. It is the same concept as Tent with a View except that the wooden platforms were not raised. The manager, Conrad from Pretoria was pleased to see us and kindly only charged us for drinks and the park fees of US$20 each. This US$80 plus the cost of meals and drinks at Tent with a View of US$100 had blown a week's budget in two days! Ouch, but it was great not to be camping! Staying in such luxury was something the team really appreciated and never took for granted!

This unique setup is one of a kind, the boarder of park running along the coastline makes it the only park in East Africa to offer such a diverse range of eco-systems! The camp’s ingenious setup makes the most of it, one minute you can be quietly overlooking a watering hole waiting patiently for anything to come and drink and the next you can be running along a beautiful open sandy beach trying not to step on scurrying ghost crabs!

Most of Africa's tourist attractions have their prices listed in US$. It was quite interesting to read that Zambia was going for what they called Low impact Tourism which involves charging a premium for visitors. Tanzania has a US$50 visa entry cost. We heard that the Tanzanian's had just doubled the day fee in Serengeti to $60! Local is becoming very lekker as Tanzania seems to want to bill their tourists out of site!

Sadaani has a pool table and a swimming pool which provided the team with great enjoyment! Conrad was telling us that the place has been built in such a way that it can be moved, literally picked up and moved back, built in the dunes which have a habit of shifting! The pool is thus a giant rubber bag that has been placed in the sand, another well thought out concept, along with their Star house! (A raised platform over looking the beautiful bush covered only by a huge umbrella, which is obviously retractable during the evenings

The roads in the area are sand roads. Black Cotton sand used to grow cotton and turns black when water is added. Not only does the sand turn black with water, but it turns slimy as well. The lodge once sent a tractor to pull a vehicle out of a road in the park and itself got stuck for 2 weeks.

Conrad sympathised with the paddlers hunger pains and gave us extra pasta for a treat. This was after the BDO Team of Graham and Mark whipped Richard and Shane on the wobbly pool table, 2 to1.

Conrad was also telling us about the AIDS problem in the local fishing village, 80 volunteers were tested and 17 found to be positive. When one considers that probably only those that thought that they were HIV negitive volunteered the rate is perhaps closer to 50% infected. The African way of having numerous relationships seems to stretch all the way up through sub-Saharan Africa. One can only wonder and speculate at how the demographics in this part of the world will evolve over the next few years.

It was off to bed to ponder Africa's problems with the sound of the ocean 7m from our beds at high tide and 10m at low tide, this was quite a steep beach for a change.
Tides are extremely important as the less steep the beach, the less further you have to walk at low tide carrying 50kgs of kayak, paddles, etc the better. One often has to walk across a coral reef with slippery sea weed and sea urchins to await an errant step.

Paddlers head off for a night in the African bush!

The next morning saw us packing the Kayak with a tent, water and numerous other provisions. Mark and Graham had a stretch of 55km to cover, too much for one day. The Saadani River could not be crossed by vehicle so the drivers had to drive a big loop around the game park and could not track back to get close to the paddlers for the night.

After 28 km of paddling through the muddy waters coming out of the Saadani river into the sea the Kyakers found a spot to camp for the night. What a perfect spot! The fire was sheltered from the wind behind vegetation and the tent was slightly exposed to ensure that it was nice and cool. The Kyakers managed to pull everything off the beach so that nothing was visible from the sea or beach. The beach was called baobab beach for the 2 baobabs that were situated on the beach overhanging the campsite.

Mark was amazed at what came out of the dry bags for the 5 star camping. Portable stools to avoid having to sit in the sand. A large ground sheet get out of the sand. 3 pots and a kettle for the all important food cooking.

Dinner had to be cooked before it got too dark. Dinner consisted of Rice (for a change), Soya mince and sweet and sour sauce. Then it was up onto the beach to enjoy the view and sit in the stiff breeze to get away from the flys. We had been trying to avoid the odd fisherman walking along the beach, but we were surprised by Chipa, the local commodity trader as he called himself who was almost speechless when he came across two crazy Musungu’s sitting on stools on the beach under a Baobab tree having supper! Chipa’s English was excellent. He explained that he was off to Zanzibar that evening by dowh to buy goods to sell from his beach duka.
What a life!

It was then an early bed as there is little to do once it gets dark. The little two man tents are remarkably comfortable provided it does not rain. Once the rain cover is off one is basically sleeping in the open with a mosquito net to protect from the marauding mosquitoes.

The Kyakers were then up early to pack up and head off for another 25km or so paddle to a camp site in Bagomoya. Bagomoya started out as the first landing spot for a lot of the explorations of East Africa. It was away from the Arab strongholds of Mombasa and Dar es Salam and both the Germans and the British found it a good place to colonise from. It was also an important slave post.

Piechie Shane earned his name again, welcoming the Kayakers with a home cooked loaf of bread cooked over a coal fire. This coupled with pancakes on the scottle was a very welcome homecoming indeed!

The camp site was pretty basic and the wind came up really strong in the afternoon. To the point where the awning on the side of Mlevi had to be weighted down with a 3l wine box. Otherwise it was very pleasant. It was a 1km walk along the beach to the fisherman where we bought 2 Coral eating fish for the equivalent of $4. Richard and Mark wondered around the Dukas in town on foot for fresh vegetables. This method of shopping attracts far less attention than driving a great big landrover around.

Dinner was fresh fish with tomatoe and onions and rice desert was pancakes with syrup and sugar on them. We even cut up a kg or so of sweet potato, but this proved to bee to much and was kept for breakfast. The K2K like and army runs on its stomach. Spare time is consumed by cooking. Cooking has become an entertainment and so has eating it. We are all convinced that Graham has worms. He will eat and eat and eat until everything in sight is finished and he still looks as trim as can be although says that he has put on 7kg. This must all be muscle.

The next morning we are all unsure about where to spend the night. The is apparently a stunning spot 15 or so km down the coast.

Paddlers get stretched!

The place which was meant to be 15 or so km down the coast turned out to be 7.5km, hardly enough to be able to stop paddling with a straight face! Richard was obviously of the same opinion and phoned me to tell me that they had reached Lazy Lagoon (apparently an awesome spot!) and wanted to know where we were and whether they should continue to the next spot.

Shayne and I had just finished packing up camp from the night before so told them to keep going and we would find a nice spot for the night. We really excelled at this task and found White Sands Hotel & Resort (http://www.hotelwhitesands.com/). The only flaw of the spot was confirmed when I sent the co-ordinates to Richard and asked whether it was too far for them to paddle. The reply was “16 km gone, 32km to go!” ie. too far! The place was too good to turn down and we had arranged 2 rooms for the night, had a swimming pool, hot showers and Dstv! “We’ll make a plan and get back to you. Keep going for now” was the sms sent back to the paddlers.

Shayne and I jumped into Mlevi and headed off to find a place further up the coast where we could possibly collect the paddlers, still stay the night in the hotel and then drop them back at the same place in the morning to carry on paddling. We tried all the tarred roads that we could find that went along the coast as well as a good couple which turned out not to go anywhere near the coast. No luck. We only had 2 options left. 1) sms the guys to find a beach, spend the night (with no food, tents or sleeping bags) and ruin the friendship or 2) go offroad!. We chose option 2, after all, we were driving a 4x4! With diff-lock and low range engaged we ventured down each and every dirt road and track, finally finding a good spot to collect the guys. Co-ordinates were sent and were duly approved.

We headed back to the hotel for a good lunch and an afternoon by the pool. With 4km to go we received an sms and set off to pick them up, but only after finishing watching an interesting movie on Dstv. 4km usually takes about 40 minutes to paddle but it took the poor guys a bit longer than that on this occasion. It turned out that they had paddled 42km in the day and therefore had every reason to take it slow (30km is what we would usually call a tough day)! White Sands Hotel & Resort was just the reward that they deserved. This hotel is really worth staying at if any of you are ever in Dar.

Leg 3 comes to an end!

Richard and I dropped Mark and Shayne off at the place where we had picked Richard and Mark up the day before. There are some great islands just off the coast before you get to Dar and the plan was for us to go to the yacht club, drop the car off and paddle out to meet them on the island. After some trouble both finding the club and being allowed in by the guards (due to us not being members) we set off to join the 2 who were by that stage getting ants in their pants on the island, wondering where we had got to. We spent a bit of time on the island (Mark and Shayne had been to all 3 while they waited!) and then left together for the yacht club. It was the first leg that all 3 boats and 4 paddlers paddled the last stretch together and was great to come is as a full team. Another record was also set with Mark becomming our first guest paddler to complete the entire leg, from beginning to end. What happened Mark Hibbert and Kyle? He is at least 10 years older than you!!

We were met at the yacht club by some of Mark’s mates (Nick and Carol Mathews), who took us to their house for a hot shower and to change clothes before heading back to the yacht club for the weekly fish braai. They Mathews’s have been very good to us and have let us stay for the last 2 days. We have totally taken over and their garden looks like a bomb has been dropped on it with all our stuff scattered around while we try to do what has now become almost a weekly repack of the Land Rover (the sad thing is that I don’t think that we are getting any better at it!) We would really like to thank them for being so hospitable, every night that we spend in a bed makes the world of difference to us and we always leave nicely recharged and ready for the next leg…Zanzibar this time!!