Day 80: Morogoro to Bagamoyo

We woke up at 07:00 and snoozed a bit before packing in. We put everything in the car at 08:00 and then went for breakfast which has been waiting for us for an hour, since we were the only guests. Instead of the ‘usual’ sweet potato or cassava there was cold potatoes (our fault), one orange and bread without butter or a toaster. At least the eggs was made to order.

We left at 08:20 past and drove straight to Bagamoyo without stopping, reaching Traveller’s Lodge at 11:50 without incident. We listened to a few Podcasts which made the time pass quicker.

Although it was still cloudy, it was quite hot and humid, with the sun coming through the clouds every now and then. We opened the tent to try and did washing, putting up a long washing line again. Just as everything was almost dry the clouds darkened and heavy rain came down. We had to run to take everything off and to pick things up to throw in the car.

The rain basically continued for the rest of the day and night with only short periods of quieter rains. They let us hang our clothing in their washing room, hopefully we can iron it tomorrow in case there are any mango flies. Since we were already soaking wet we decided to wash the car in the rain before going for a cold shower. After showering we went to the restaurant area to sit and work and to sort out photos. We shared a beef burger, which had the best meat we ate in what feels like months.

As the night progressed more and more mosquitos were buzzing around our heads, until we couldn’t take it anymore and went to bed with the rain still coming down.

Day 81: Rain, rain, sun, rain, rain

We woke up at 08:00 and hoped that the sun would be out, drying the tent in minutes, but alas it was still raining. We moved the MoneyMobile under a big tree to reduce the direct rain and ate breakfast.

For the past few weeks our goal was just to reach the coast to go to Zanzibar to have some relaxing time off. Naively we didn’t think about the season and all the rain we encountered. When we realised that it is probably going to rain constantly for the next week or longer, we were obviously quite depressed. We thought of maybe skipping Zanzibar now, but later after Rwanda it will be a massive detour.

It started to rain harder so we moved to the restaurant again. We worked on this blog and sorted out photos and also did some work. Around 12:00 the rain stopped and by 13:00 we took the MonkeyMobile out into the open again. The sun started baking down through the clouds with some blue spots of sky visible. Caro made mashed potatoes while we waited for some things to dry. We decided the tent was dry enough and started to close it. As we closed it a dark cloud appeared out of nowhere and before we could even fastened the tent cover, we were soaking wet. We ran for cover to the stoep of the closest cottage and waited for the rain to calm a bit. Hugo went to ask Nick the owner if we can use some undercover area to sort things out and he suggested we can pull the car close to the cottage and use the stoep.

We waited for the rain to become a drizzle and then packed everything out which has just been thrown in every time it started to rain. We then packed our bags for Zanzibar and neatly packed the rest of the things back into the car. As we didn’t want to open the tent again we thought of going to look for a cheap hotel in town as the cottages at the Traveller’s Lodge cost $80 per night. Nick however offered us a very good deal and we stayed in the very room whose stoep we used earlier.

We took a nice hot shower and went for dinner in the restaurant. We ordered a beef burger again with 5 extra samosas, again the best we’ve had. After dinner we made some more use of the WiFi before going to bed. We decided we’re definitely going to Zanzibar, come rain or shine, so we booked an AirBnB room for tomorrow night in Stone Town.