By the seaside

Sunday October 21^st

I am afraid this is very very late but a combination of a broken computer screen, a long journey home and little if any electricity or Internet prevented me completing this section of the blog.

We continued my rest away from it all in grand style when we spent three hours at one of the high class hotels that command the sands to the north of Dar.  We got a Bajaj to the door and then had to pay Tsh 6000 each to actually enter the hotel and use their private beach.  After a long discussion  over a pint, ‘putting the world to rights’, Cliff decided to take possibly his last chance for a paddle, but the sea looked very similar to the one I am used to, so I passed on that experience and instead took a couple of snaps of the joint.

A view from the beach of the dance floor shower. 

One of the pools 

The Beach

Having sampled the delights of Indian and Ethiopian cuisine, Cliff decided that it was time for me to sample the Caribbean and for my final night we went to a Jamaican restaurant on the edge of the beach where the owner enveloped Cliff like the prodigal son as he had left the country without her knowledge.  I had goat which is a meat I have never eaten before but having tried it I will certainly look at the little kids that graze outside my classroom in a new light when I return to Boza.  As I had a 500 metre walk in the dark again to reach the main road where I was to be picked up, I elected to leave my camera at the hotel, so I am unable to show you this restaurant, but I did take a couple of shots of the aptly named bar owned by the hotel where I stayed.

Aptly named with me there

The bar and big screen stretched bed sheet

My Swahili was really put to the test at the hotel where English is not spoken at all.  I am leaving tomorrow morning at 7:00 and the kitchen staff do not start work until 7:30, so I suggested that if they boiled a couple of eggs and made some toast before they went off duty tonight, I’d wrap these up well and with the help of a flask of hot water and some Blue Bandi, I could cater from myself at 6:30.  I must have got the message over as, on returning after the meal, a bag awaited me, when I collected my key, containing the very things I need to break my fast tomorrow morning early.

I must admit I’ve had enough of the big city and the tourist life and am looking forward to getting back to ‘the sticks’.

Baadaye