A Tango in Tanga

Firstly, I would like to apologise for a lack of piccies. All the internet, and indeed TV, in Africa is satellite based. So when adding pictures which take a few minutes to upload we invariably lose contact and we waste time and money uploading them. So no more piccies until we hit a major city. When we left you last we had arranged a trip snorkelling around Watamu, in the National Marine Park. Luckily we had bumped into the skipper of the boat and managed to haggle a price without the middle men. Although the coral was mostly dead, beginning to recover, the fish were great. Lots and lots of very colourful fish, including lion fish, parrot fish, zebra fish and angel fish. There were 2 germans and 3 english people on our boat despite the whole resort seeming to be italian. Afterwards we went to the Mapango beach restaurant for a lovelly tuna and advocado salad. Magnificent view overlooking the 'Blue Lagoon'. The next morning we tried to get up early to avoid the heat. Failed. Luckily we have a fan in the room, with resident lizard. Its only around 2cm long, and really cute. We then got a matatu to the Gedi ruins, a 13th century city, in the middle of the coastal jungle. No-one is sure what happened to people there, but the site is very atmospheric, with the earliest mosque known in Africa. It was our first time in a mosque! There was found here chinese coins and pottery, and portugese coins, indicating this place had quite a bit of contact with the outside world, which probably was the cause of their demise. Close to the ruins is a butterfly conservation centre. It was set up both to conserve species and to help the local communities make a living without having to encroach to much on the rain forest. We saw lots of lovely butterflies and cages with hundreds of pupae, some hatching. We took some rather tasty photos which we will enter into the bbc wildlife photographer of the year competition, along with our lions and cheetahs and gorillas and eleflumps. After visiting Mama Lucys we stocked up on some supplies including fresh veg and rice, and can now make our own tasty meals on our trangia again. We spent a pleasant evening cooking on the doorstep of our room overlooking Villa Veronicas lovely garden. We bought our first phone card earlier in the day and Dave phoned his Nan to wish her a happy birthday and Jo phoned her Nan to say Hi. Hopefully this should have taken us to Wednesday 30th November. So we made beans on toast to start us on our next travels. Everytime we move now, Jo and I can't help but to break out into song: Theres a voice that keeps on calling me, down the road, thats where i want to be. Everystep i take i make a new friend, can't stay for long, just turn around, and i am gone again Maybe tomorrow i'll want to settle down, until tomorrow i'll just keep moving on, until tomorrow the whole world is my home Prizes for where this song came from. A couple of matatus, a ferry and a taxi later we ended up on Tiwi beach, south of Mombasa. We stayed at a place called Twiga Lodge campsite, which is a stunning campsite, on a golden beach with the shade of palm trees. Our tent looked directly out on to the beach with the sea breeze blowing through the entrance. It was heaven. We spent the rest of the day kicking back and having a beer. Jo awoke with the sunrise as always when we camp. Shortly followed by a grumpy sweaty me, when the sun had got high enough to wake me with the heat. Joey strolled out to see the fisherman on the reefs edge at low tide while i was still trying to not let the sun wake me. In the end the sun won, but i craftily moved the tent instead! Joey had a great time, hunting around in the coral pools finding lots of bright fish and nudibranchs, a sea cucumber (not a gherkin as I have always thought), brittle stars and cowries. We walked to Diani resort further up the beach, which was mazungu madness. Have not seen so many white people since arriving in Africa. We had to dash back before the tide rose too far and cut us off from Tiwi. Not for the first time since arriving in Africa my virility was put to the question again. In Africa to be married and not have a baby within your first year is quite odd, serious looks of concern follow. They find it hard to comprehend that it is a choice, and assume that i am a Jaffa (probably). The next day we mainly read books, Joey swam, I hid in the shade, Joey made a yummy fruit salad, I made yummy tomato and carrot sandwiches. This was all thanks to 'The Mango Man' who visited us in our tent earlier that morning. That evening in the bar we met Simon and Mark from Wilminster near Longleat on their hols. (thanks for beers if you read this). Very friendly and spent the night talking about travel experiences and old enfield motorbikes in India. Saturday morning, an early start, packed the tent and strode off to meet our taxi. Waited around for half hour while the driver was located. Met up with Simon and Mark again, and shared the costs to the main road, as they were catching a matatu in the opposite direction to see a friend in Malindi. The first matatu to Ukunda was mellow matatu of the year, with tracks such as Chris De Burghs 'Lady in Red', cheering Jo up no end. Unfortunately this was about as good as it was going to get for the rest of the day. The next stop was Lunga Lunga on the Kenyan Tanzanian border, although the border has a 6km no mans land. Despite this several small villages have cropped up there. To get through this 6km, we caught a tutu to the next border. We have explained this is a very small 3 seater vehicle. Bruno our driver managed to fit 12 people in his. On arriving at the Tanzania side, we got our 3 month stamp and found another matatu to take us the final stretch to Tanga. Dave was surprisingly unconcerned that the windscreen was shattered and it looked generally like it had seen better days. Things started off well and it was only half full, stopping at each village to collect new passengers and dropping others off. Probably about an hour or so from Tanga, it became so full that it was no longer funny. By the way, this journey was only 45km but managed to take 2.5 hours. Dave lost count at 25 people and that was before they were squashed in, crouched over the seated people (of which we were thankfully 2) and hanging out of the doors. We had read that recently in Kenya they had got strict about numbers in matatus and that it shouldn't exceed the number of seats (14), which was great. In our first Tanzanian experience this was shown obviously to not be the case here. Matters were made worse when a yellow plastic drum spilt petrol over the floor and the conductor lit his cigarette while standing right next to the vehicle during one stop. Dave informed me later that he was so close to pushing everyone out of the way and legging it outside! However someone then threw sawdust over the spill so that calmed him down a bit. I was pleased to unaware of this at the time as I was squashed up to the edge, but thankfully next to an open window. Today we sit in our Tanga internet cafe and have just been told our time is up!!! We have yet to find a Tango drink so may have to settle for a boogie round our hotel room to satisfy the title of this installment!! More about Tango soon, but it is a really nice place. xxx