Alex & Danika's 2010 Adventures: Dar es Salem to Johannesburg

Since we last wrote we have made our way to the coast of Tanzania to a city called Dar es Salem. We spent a night in a bungalow that opened right out onto the water. The next day we caught a taxi and two ferries to the island of Zanzibar... What a great place!
96% of the people are Muslim and other religions make up the other 4%. We spent one night in a hotel in Stone Town (first hotel room in about a month). We had a yummy lunch in a local restaurant, and then went exploring. That night after watching the sun set over the ocean over a few beers we went to the night market which is one of my favourite experiences so far (oh how I love food!). There were over 50 stalls in a small square all selling different types of food, and heaps of seafood. We tried Zanzibar pizzas, which aren't really pizzas but a mix of ingredients covered in dough and fried. We had a couple of savory ones and a banana and chocolate one.... YUM!!! Tried lots of different foods and drinks and then went to a pub for soccer and a glass of wine.

The next day we went on a “spice tour”. First our guide showed us around Stone Town and told us a lot of history, especially about the site of the first Angilcan Church, where the huge slave market used to be situated. It was the last slave market to be abolished in the world. He took us to holding cells where they would keep up to 70 slaves, and the 15 of us in there couldn't believe that it was possible.
We then went to the government spice farm where we walked around for a few hours trying different spices from the plants and seeing that spices don't come from small plastic packages in Coles. It was interesting to see the plants that they come from and try to guess all the flavours and smells.
We then had a traditional lunch to end the tour and headed up to the northern beaches, said to be some of the best in the world. They were lovely, although nothing much can beat Aussie surf. They were white sand and turquoise water and the weather was lovely.
We did not a lot for three days, ate, lay on the beach, snorkeled, went for walks on the beach, did gymnastics with the locals, watched soccer, drank beers, ate more, played beach soccer, bought some amazing paintings and Alex had a cooking class with a real character of a chef.
Needless to say it was a lovely relaxing time. I would love to spend a nice long holiday there!
We made lots of good friends on our Africa tour, so it was very sad to have to leave them.

We caught a ferry back to Dar es Salem and explored for the afternoon. The next morning we flew out at 5.30am to Johannesburg. Ans, a CMS missionary worker from Joburg picked us up from the airport and graciously let us stay with her for 4 nights. It was lovely to spend some time in a home and Ans was like a mother. We went to church and helped at a kids club and saw some of the city. The main event was the World Cup. Sunday the 27th we headed off to Soccer City, arrived about 3 hours early and watched Argentina and Mexico go head to head. The atmosphere was amazing and it was wonderful, even though it was very, very cold! We never felt unsafe, contrary to many warnings and can't wait until Brazil 2014 :-)

Now we are in Namibia staying with the Greeff's and Nicky Brown. It took us a very long 30 hour bus trip to get here from Joburg but its lovely to be here. Nice weather, bike rides, cafe's and walks, and lots of unpacking as they moved here the day after we arrived. Hopefully onto Capetown next but we will tell you all about it in our next post.

Much love.
Danika