At least no one was hurt....again...
So before I get into the epic boat journey, I wanted to go back to Nungwi and reiterate a couple things I think I didn't explain well enough. Firstly it was epicly beautiful. White sandy beaches, hot, hot days, and all good things. We met our friend Nora there for the last two days, which was nice to see her again. In case you forgot, she was with us upon my arrival in Tanzania. She came with a friend, Christine, and we all hung out and had a great time together. They are still there...not a bad choice.
We decided to take a boat from Nungwi to Pangani, and then a taxi for 75 minutes north to Tanga, where I am now. Tanga is on the coast, but it is faster and easier just to do it this way. They don't have real boat service for this route, so you either have to take a Dhow, which takes around 5 hours, or a speed boat, which should take around 2-2.5. We went with the speed boat, for what should have been $150 as per the agreement.
On the day we were to leave, the weather decided it would be a windy day. Really windy. Really fucking windy. But we are tough, so we figured it wouldn't be as bad so we just went with it anyways. Jory had argued with several different boat dudes about a ride, and finally agreed with one of the guys for the price, and he also made sure they had a second engine and four life jackets. All of which required Jory to bargain for as these are not normal requests, apparently. But we got them (although we are not certain that the second engine would work if we needed it in any case...).
We loaded the boat with all our bags...well, their bags and my bag...and boat guy covered all our stuff with a tarp. He also took the tarp off the top of the boat because of the wind. Once we were all on the boat, the driver started the engine and took off west and I started my timer. This was where I had that feeling. You know the one; where you immediately realize you have done something wrong, and are thinking about ways to fix it. But we stayed the course. Taking this boat was going to save money and time by going the other way around, which was a taxi back to Stonetown, the ferry back to Dar, and a 7-10 hour bus ride north to Tanga. (or a flight from Stonetown to Tanga, but we don't know how much that would have been. At least triple the cost per person or more)
Once we left, I realized that this was going to take longer than the planned for 2 hours. The wind was strong, the boat was going slow, and we all had moments where we thought that the boat was going to flip. Heidi was holding on for dear life, I was a little nervous, Amanda says she was ok for the first hour and Jory put on a strong game face. But I know he also had a dirty diaper when we hit some of those bigger waves.
There were a couple times when I was looking to our bags to see if I was going to be able to grab mine, with my passport and money in it, before it sank to the bottom. Luckily I didn't need to worry about that in the end. We all had some idea of how this boat ride was going to be...and no one thought that it would be like this. Wave after wave literally came crashing into us, and within 2 minutes all four were drenched all the way through. Luckily we were all wearing our bathing suits. I was also wearing a sweatshirt which I though would be a good idea. Mid-ride I realized that, if we did flip, I was wearing the baggy, heavy sweatshirt that I would need to struggle out of. At least the water was warm and the sun was shining. I can't imagine how much worse it would have been had it been raining too.
The part I was dreading most came after about an hour and a half, when Nungwi had disappeared from behind us, but Pangani had not yet appeared. There we were, in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a tin boat, getting battered by wind and waves, thinking about whether we should swim west to Pangani, or head back east to Zanzibar. But, thankfully soon enough, the driver pointed out that the coast was visible ahead, and that we had past the half way mark. Swim west it would be!
There were some nice spots though. Two. Twice, we saw some dolphins, which gave us a moments respite from concentrating on how much our wrists hurt from holding on so tight, and how sore our backs are from sitting in the same uncomfortable position. But the dolphins were nice. We all had a momentary smile when we looked and saw them breach the water. We spent another few seconds thinking how neet that was and that we would like to see them again (hopefully they will just stay with us the whole way and can save us and swim us to shore!!). But soon after they came to say hello, they left. And we never saw them again. Instead, we remembered we were on this god-foresaken boat in the middle of the ocean.
Finally, we spotted the shore of Tanzania though! As mentioned, the driver saw it, then I saw it, and slowly it got bigger bit by bit! How exciting! We were all soaked wet, were shivering from the wind, and getting burnt. After 2 hours and 15 minutes we came to a reef where we slowed down to see where we could could get through. We made it to the other side and the water was finally calmer! But this did not last. As we continued the waves again picked up, but thankfully only for another 15 minutes. Finally we turned north along the coast and were heading with the waves and not across them...which was clearly the problem. We travelled along the coast north for another 45 mintues and finally into the Pangani bay where the water was entirely calm. We pulled up on the beach, unloaded all our stuff, fell on the ground laughing hysterically, kissed the sand, found a little sand crab and kissed that, saw a dude peeing behind his boat, peed into the water behind our boat-bath tub-canoe-speed boat boat, and rested. We were ashore. And alive. with all our stuff. It was all wet, but not soaked all the way through like we were. The tarp actually helped!
After that we went and had some Ugali for lunch with some beans and sauce. We tried to find someone to take us the 75 minutes north to Tanga, and eventually did for 60,000 shillings. But then we had to pay our boat driver. As mentioned, it was agreed to for $150. In actuality is was agreed to for 240,000 shillings, which at the prior days rate converted to $150 at a conversion rate of 1/1600. But by the time we went to pay him,the exchange rate had allegedly changed by 1000 shillings, which means the cost was now $160. Jory argued, called him a liar, told him that was not the way to do business, yadda yadda yadda...in the end we had to pay him. I mean, we were going to give him a tip anyways so did not really change anything from our end, except for the fact that Jory is a little disillusioned with the way things work around here, and that absolutely nothing gets done without the proper bribes or people simply lying and changing the price on you. As happened here.
Overall, the boat ride was a success...in that we made it across with out dying or losing all of our stuff to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, or even having to swim most of the way ourselves. And it was another great adventure that we can talk about. And it is also another reason to fly places. We certainly saved time and money by doing it this way, but our 2 hour easy cruise-ish boat ride turned into a 3.5 hour boat ride that is kind of respective of life in Tanzania. Despite have good intentions and good reasons for doing what we did, nothing will ever come easily or as planned here. (Jory has been here for 8 months trying to start a honey farm, and upon arriving realized that despite this being good for the economy and the people here, nothing actually happened here due to 'rough waters').
We are now in Tanga where Jory has been living. Tomorrow we head to Moshie and prepare for our climb up Kilimanjaro. Will update again after that.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Elliot S. Weinstein
All that was missing on that boat ride were pirates!! Glad everyone is safe. Say hi to the Cohens for me.
ReplyDeleteDan the Jet