I woke up early this morning, because Jeffrey and I were going into Dar to pick up dad, who was flying in from Ghana. I was strange to be outside of the small area surrounding Ras Dege, however the roads were still potholed, and seeing a car was a rarity, and so it wasn't too much of a shock to the system. It took about an hour to get to the ferry crossing at Kigamboni. Along the way Jeffrey taught me how to identify the different trees, including the Mango, Cashew. We passed through many villages, each containing small shops selling Coke-a-Cola and Fanta, or Tigo sim cards (the main mobile phone provider in Tanzania)

The queue for the ferry was not too long and so we decided we would wait, instead of to go the long way round, over the bridge inland. There was a market along the side of the queue, but I decided to save my shopping for Dar itself. We boarded the ferry, with its minimal safety and crossed over into Dar, amidst crates with chickens, sweet sellers and milk churns. We were meeting dad at the Kempinski Hotel. The Kempinski was a shock to the system. For one it was air conditioned, but also there were lots of people sitting typing away on their computers. The difference between the Kempinski and the rest of Dar es Salaam over the wall was very striking.

Dad had a meeting in the afternoon but until them, we had some time to go and do some shopping for mum, Fig and the rest of the family. The only real place that this could be done was at the Slipway. Allan had a few errands to do in town but soon we were in the affluent suburbs of Dar Es Salaam, driving past the Norwegian ambassadors walled compound.

The Slipway was a bit of a tourist trap, with some all to expectable 5 ft high carvings of giraffes. However we did find some things that we could give as gifts. We went to the bank, and I was put off by the two guards with AK-47s sitting outside as we went in.

During the meeting that afternoon I got to explore for a bit. It was enormously exciting walking around the vibrant city. I went some way into town and through a market, I was fairly surprised that even in a city people would still give me high fives and shout 'mzungu'.

The trip back was uneventful, the ferry queue was the shortest I had seen it and soon we were driving along the dusty roads.

Hudson