We left the Collesium Hotel at 5:45 for a smooth ride to the airport and Precision Air flight at 7:40 to Mtwara. The heat and humidity hit you full on when you climb down the steps in the small Mtwara airport. Also, the dust and the dirt! There is a funky smell in southern Tanzania, buring something, that irritates my sinuses. A driver from the Old Boma Hotel picked us up. The Old Boma is in Mikindani, an old German port town right on the Indian Ocean. There are no banking facilities, and the buildings are in terrible disrepair. The "yacht club" has two boats in the harbor. The road up to the Old Boma is dirt and very, very lumpy. The hotel is beautifully refurbished by a British non-profit group and is still managed by volunteers who sign up for 3 to 12 month contracts. There is even a swimming pool, but the filters were not working during our stay. "Ten Degrees South" is a hotel and dive shop in Mikindani; Joseph and I had waited in the courtyard for a bjaj (a three wheeled vehicle) to take us back to Mtwara after a snorkel trip.
2 years ago, Ray had tried to get us all to go to the Mnazi Bay- Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park, but Joe was adamant about not going; why go all the way around the pennisula on bad roads when the guest house where we were staying had beautiful access to the Indian Ocean. This time, as soon as we got to the Old Boma Ray insisted on hiring a Toyota Corolla Taxi with terrible shocks come to take us out to Mnazi Bay. The roads were terrible, the snorkeling was not spectacular, but it is a very isolated beach, and the sand is beautiful. In a couple of years, when the coral has time to recover from the dynamite fishing this might be an area to come visit.
The cab driver did not speak English, and apparantly he did not believe in paying park entrance fees, as he simply refused and there was a stand off with the toll collector until we were allowed through. It was an interesting afternoon.
Met Jen Harding for dinner at the Old Boma to discuss the next day's trip to Ndanda.
