Hannah Swithinbank

Check out the bedraggled state of this book. It’s my Tanzania guide from my gap year, when I spent 3 months working in a teeny little village on the edge of the escarpment of the Rift Valley in central Tanzania. Doesn’t it just look loved to death?

Well, it’s time to get another, new guide book to Tanzania, and love it to death as well. I’m toying between the Lonely Planet (which is more recent) and the Bradt (which is by the guy who wrote my Rwanda guide, aka the best guide book I have ever owned). Yep. I booked flights to Dar es Salaam today. It was both a little impetuous and a little not. I was going to be going to Cape Town with Mel to see if we could catch some rugby, but that didn’t work out (*slayeth internal organs of fail*) so I was wondering what to do in June. And before you ask, no, I really couldn’t not travel. That’d make it over six months between my upcoming ski jaunt and, well, September/October and wherever I end up in the next academic year. Not On, World.

Tanzania’s been tempting me back for a while, just to go, nearly a decade later, and see what I make of it now. And there was other stuff in Tanzania I wanted to do. I only did Kilimatinde, where I lived; Dodoma, probably the least exciting capital city on the planet; Arusha, but not the Serengeti, I was too poor; Dar and Zanzibar. I know, ‘only’. That is, I suppose, the Famous and Exciting Stuff, but there’s also Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, Selous Game Reserve, the largest in the country, Mafia Island, Pemba, and other exciting off the main circuit places. But then I thought I could probably use the cash next year, and I should maybe stay European and pay less on the flights, go for less time. But really, what’s the fun of life without a little mad gadabouting? I haven’t been in Africa in nearly six years, which is too many, and it’ll be cheap to live. I don’t think I’m going to regret being a bit poorer next year for one ace trip. I’m going to try and go back to Kilimatinde, which will be very weird, I’m sure, but I want to do it, and get something sorted for Selous. Otherwise, I’m going to go out with no plans and lots of wishes. And hopefully I’m going to be taking Eleanor with me.