Travelling Hopefully - The Soggy Road to Zanzibar

At obscene o'clock the next morning with the night stars still glittering in an inky sky we set off on the road to Zanzibar.  Actually we set off on the road to a ferry terminal as Zanzibar is somewhat inconveniently located on an island.  We weren't actually going to the ferry terminal that would take us to Zanzibar.  We were going to the ferry terminal that would take us to the ferry terminal that would take us to Zanzibar.  Taking a ferry there would alleviate the necessity of having to drive to the ferry terminal.  This was good as to get there on time by vehicle we would have to have started a week ago.

Despite the earliness of the hour the streets were packed with traffic although some of it may have been yesterdays commuters still making their way home.  Prominent among the traffic was a wacking great army truck which had absolute right of way based on the fact that it was painted green and outweighed everything else on the road by several tonnes.  Traffic scattered, or attempted to scatter, before it which didn't stop it from sideswiping a tuktuk possibly the most one sided vehicle on vehicle collision in history.

All of this traffic plus a mass of pedestrians was heading for the ferry wharf.  Our group joined the throng, a modern day exodus with a battered vehicle ferry as the somewhat improbable promised land.  Along the way I managed to annoy another of the ladies of Dar es Salaam.  She was leaning against a railing near the ferry as the lemming like tide surged past her but when I did the same outraged shouts followed me.  Apparently she was checking tickets.  I waved mine over my shoulder and kept moving, attempting to go against the flow would have resulted in my horrible death by crushing.

We hopped off the ferry and trotted through a couple of city streets until we reached the proper ferry wharf with the big ocean going ferries that would take us to Zanzibar.  Our excellent tour leader had managed to get us all an upgrade to business class on the large and comfortably appointed (at least in business class) ferry to Zanzibar.

The name of the ferry was Kilimanjaro IV.  Every second thing in Tanzania is named Kilimanjaro including the beer (their marketing slogan "Kilimanjaro; if you can't climb it, drink it").  The journey to Zanzibar takes about ninety minutes.  If disaster does strike it would be convenient if it happened more than thirty minutes into the trip as it takes that long to complete the safety briefing (first in Kiswahili, then English).  We were assured that the crew were highly trained professionals and that our safety was their primary concern and that they would not at all focus on using our water bloated bodies as flotation devices should things go horribly wrong.  Perhaps fortunately this dedication wasn't put to the ultimate test.