Mon. 24th June 2013
It is good to be woken by the sun coming in through the window rather than the alarm going off at silly o’clock. We had a lazy start to the day and headed for breakfast in the bar area where chilled out music was playing. We sat overlooking the ocean listening to some Rory Gallagher and it felt good to stop being on the move so much. Unfortunately, we do now have the epic task of getting the blog written up as we are now five days behind.
Our peace is shattered by a debriefing session of about twenty local and international youngsters (i.e. twenty-somethings!) who have been doing some sort of volunteer programme. They were also sat around in the comfy seats overlooking the ocean and the discussions did get quite heated at times and there were clearly some issues to be ironed out. We headed off for a walk on the beach but were unable to go far as the tide was in and there are big signs saying in camp – safe, outside camp – not safe. After hearing of a chap being apprehended breaking into one of the rooms last evening we are extra vigilant of our belongings. It is such a pity as the camp itself and the views are great.
We spend all day just sitting around with computer/laptop in hand either blogging or catching up with home and our plans of re-entry into life in the UK. There is no chance of sitting in our room/banda as it is only just bigger than the two mattresses on the ground and I reckon the floor area is smaller than our tent was! It is quite a squeeze getting us both in the room along with our two backpacks to get them sorted. It was also a squash to get everything in the backpacks now that we have to pack in them the two quite bulky sleeping bags we bought in Livingstone. We cannot ditch them as I need mine for camping in Serengeti and we have promised Chris the other one. It took us a while to get ready for us to carry all our belongings again tomorrow as we head into Dar city.
On Sabie, we had spread into three lockers (a sign of having too much stuff) and as it was we donated our cheap blanket to those left on the truck as there was no way that would fit into our backpacks. We do have to keep below the weight limit to fly to Nairobi in a few days time and our bags have been creeping up in weight as we have bought a few bits and pieces on our way around such as a mossie machine and a small cold bag for drinks.
The weather is still warm in the evening so we remained in the bar area for dinner and beyond. It was so tranquil we just did not want to move on. We watched the moon cast a reflection on the water but finally all the early mornings caught up with us so another fairly early evening and we were soon asleep dreaming of our now confirmed few days on safari in Kenya including our promised balloon trip.
[PS – Dar Es Salaam is Arabic for ‘Haven of Peace’]