Feeling the Heat

10/05/2012
Thank the heavens, after a horror of a day yesterday, today I woke up feeling much better. We were off early, eating breakfast and lunch on the run as we made our way to the Tanzanian coast and Dar es Salaam. Despite the packed lunch, we still had a few pit stops for coffee and snacks. One of my favourite things about east Africa would have to be the samosas - they are everywhere, dirt cheap and amazingly tasty. I don't know exactly what is in them (and I think it is safer if I don't know), but they are little triangle parcels of deep fried goodness. At our last stop at a road station not far from Dar, I bought a couple to keep me going until dinner.


It was a classic truck day, with everyone keeping themselves entertained by reading, catching up on their diary entries, watching the countryside go past, playing card games or having a general chat. A few of us were discussing our worst ever date stories. I told the tale of how one weekend I had managed to crash a 'romantic' night in Adelaide for my friend and her sort-of boyfriend at the time: safe to say, it was well and truly crashed. We also played 'Root, Shoot, Marry', and everyone on Jozi was put under pressure by Mitch and Jules to name names. It made for a very interesting afternoon and some very red faces.



Those red faces weren't just from embarrassment though, as the closer we were getting to the coast the hotter and muggier it was becoming. With all of those bodies in the truck, it was becoming a sauna. Thankfully the camp site was right on the water of the Indian Ocean, and it was such a relief when we arrived and could hop in the water for a swim. I spent the whole afternoon in the water, having a gossip session with the girls and got really pruny skin. Susanna had a bit of a whoopsy - losing the numpty while she was having her swim.


After rinsing off in the salt water showers, I continued to cool off with a few iced daiquiris at the beach bar. That evening, everyone was on the truck trying to pack what they would need for the four nights over on Zanzibar. If we thought it was hot on the truck that afternoon, it was like an oven that evening without the airflow from the truck driving along. In the end, I couldn't be bothered spending more than five minutes in that hell hole packing. This resulted in me stuffing a heap of things in my backpack without any plan for what I might actually need.


The night hadn't brought with it any relief from the heat, so Mel and I decided to sleep without the tent's rain cover on, in an effort to catch any wisp of breeze that may pass through the camp site. With the heavy heat, music from a neighbouring party and the local Mosque seeming to be constantly broadcasting their prayers, neither Mel nor myself slept very deeply that night. This was probably a good thing though, as at 5.30am it started raining and we had to scramble out to get the rain cover back on. As I tried to get some more sleep, I remember thinking 'I hope it's not this hot on Zanzibar!'