Lessons under African skies
Ever struggled to know what to do with the kids on school holidays? Wellington parents Kate and Alex Dean took their children on safari, writes
play football with some local children.
From there the safari went through the Usambara Mountains, covered in native rainforest, where they hiked upwards and crept out onto a rock formation with a breathtaking view of the Maasai step below.
‘‘Suddenly the cloud cleared and there was the most incredible sweeping view – with a drop of more than 1km below,’’ recalled Alex. ‘‘I clambered out onto the rock, but stayed on all fours!’’
On day 12, the family left early to get to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city and one of the most populous in East Africa – and the gateway to the beautiful island of Zanzibar.
‘‘The challenge was to get there before 3.30pm to beat peak hour traffic – but we didn’t quite make it,’’ laughs Kate.
‘‘In the heat, we sat in 10kmlong rows of stationary traffic while hawkers came up to sell us everything from toilet s-bends to mops and undies.’’
After hours in traffic, their first glimpse of the Indian Ocean was reward in itself, and from there the family caught a ferry to Zanzibar. ‘‘We sat outside on the roof of the ferry and enjoyed lovely views of the skyscrapers of Dar as Salaam and, of course, the wide Indian Ocean,’’ said Alex.
‘‘We’d missed breakfast that morning so I came back with a breakfast of champions: popcorn, spicy cassava chips, chocolate, and a Pepsi to wash it down!’’
Their final destination, Zanzibar, a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa, is reminiscent of a chase scene in a James Bond movie; with its old Stone Town, labyrinth of alleyways, spice markets and chaotic honking traffic.
The family visited a spice plantation – sampling many exotic spices straight from the plants – and had a disquieting tour of one of the world’s last open slave markets, which was presided over by Arab traders until it was shut by the British in 1873.
The slaves were kept in dark and airless underground chambers, and a moving memorial remains nearby of a stone slave in chains.
They spent their final two days snorkelling, swimming, and handfeeding the massive tortoises introduced to Zanzibar more than 200 years ago from the governor of the Seychelles. After a mindblowing and frenetic fortnight in Africa, it gave them the space to process some of the wonders they had seen.
As Alex recorded in his journal on the flight home, ‘‘I’m so proud of my family – overlanding is not a relaxing holiday, it is full-on and many mornings begin by packing up the tent and all our belongings by 5am or 6am. In summary, it was the best trip ever – Africa is in me now and already I want to go back.’’
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