While most people use six to seven days to climb Kilimanjaro (5.895 meters above sea level), we only had one. So going all the way up was not an option.

From Moshi it is possible to do daytrips to Kilimanjaro. Not to the top of course (as that would be dangerous), but to the first base camp (where climbers spend the night) at 2720 meters.

So we drove to the park headquarters where the Marango route starts at 1800 meters. Our guide Michael has been on the top of Kilimanjaro more than 200 times.

The weather was beautiful and the plan was to spend the normal four hours up to Mandara huts (2720 meters). As we only used two hours through the tick forest to reach the camp, we continued to the Maundi crater (around 3000 meters). We enjoyed the view towards Kenya and had our lunch there. And even though we were still in Tanzania, Jurgita got an SMS saying “welcome to Kenya”.

We were happy to have walked halfway up Kilimanjaro, but are eager to come back one day to do the full tour. And I think we will!

It is quite expensive, but I guess something you do once in your life.

Halfway to the top of Africa, on the powerful mountain of Kilimanjaro.

Kilimanjaro, 5895 meters above sea level.

Selfie with our guide, Michael, who has reached the top of Kilimanjaro 200 times.

First base camp, the Mandara hut at 2720 meters.

Maundi crater, close to 3000 meters above sea level.

Beautiful rainforest on the way down from Kilimanjaro.

We have written about Safaris, trekking in the forest, beautiful beaches and good food. It sounds like we are on holiday all the time, doesn’t it? We try to take advantage of the weekends and we have also been on a one week holiday to the mainland, but from Monday to Friday is working time.

Jurgita works at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital (MMH). And when she´s working, she´s working: Sometimes 8, sometimes 12 hours a day.

So what do I do?

There is a lot to do for me and my camera here. It is a win-win situation: More pictures and new challenges make me a better photographer, while the pictures I’m taking are being used by NGOs, MMH and other local companies.

I spent three days in Paje taking hundreds of pictures for the well-known Seaweed-Center where local women work so hard to make soaps, scrubs, oils and juice out of seaweed. I also spent some time taking the photos for Ushindi work-shop where local women sew fantastic fabrics. Recently I had the honor to take pictures of the Zanzibarian President when he opened the new ward at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital.

While we were on holiday in the mainland, I took some pictures for the Shagga-tribe who wants to attract more tourist and needed pictures for their webside. By the time I am writing this I spend a lot of time at the international school on Zanzibar taking pictures for a book that hopefully will be released before the summer.

So if you ask me if I´m bored, the answer is definitely NO. I love it here on Zanzibar helping people with photography.

Here are some of the pictures I’ve taken.

Picture for the Seaweed center; Women harvesting the seaweed at the beach of Paje.

The beautiful women at Ushindi workshop in Mbweni.

Photo taken for the Shagga-tribe making coffee at the foot of Kilimanjaro.

Close up of a giraff for a safari company in Moshi.

Picture used to advertise a fantastic beach-house in Chukwani.

Body-scrubs made from seaweed in Paje.

Me taking pictures of the president of Zanzibar for Mnazi Mmoja hospital.

Finally we did what all tourists (as opposed to residents) do when they visit Zanzibar. We went on a spice tour. Zanzibar is the Island of spices and the second biggest income after tourism is exports of cloves.

Jurgita’s colleague lives nearby one of such places. So we drove to the countryside, managed to find her house (luckily we picked up another of her colleagues on the way) and started a day with a spice coffee and walking around in the garden. Then we went to the farmland together with a guide. He was showing us how clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper and many other spices which are essential ingredients of Zanzibarians everyday life grow.

Locally grown spices have been an important part of the island for a long time, and the areas they grow in are impressive. So is the knowledge that the many workers have.

Besides that, the tour was quite commercial… It was way too much attention and we understood immediately that’s all about the money…

First we were met by a guy in the middle of the forest selling overpriced soaps and perfumes made form spices. Then a guy came and started to make hats and jewelers from leaf. After that the same guy opened a fruit and started to put the color as make up on Jurgita. We were looking like clowns walking around in the farm (together with many other tourists :)

After the tour we went back to Jurgita’s colleague. While we were walking and looking at the spices, she cooked a fantastic pilau (very traditional Swahili food- rise, potatoes, meet and LOTS of different spices!). For desert we had some fruit from their garden and I think we have a new favorite now: jack-fruit.

It was a great day and local experience!

On our way to the spice-farm.

Jurgita with her favourite fruits.

Nutmeg: extremely nice and red.

Achiote aka – also known as the lipstick fruit.

Vanilla- sweet and tasty.

On spice-tour with one of Jurgitas coalleagues.

Climbing a tall palm with no security to get us a coconut.

We have heard a lot about it and waited for a long time for what is one of the most popular events on Zanzibar every year: east-Africa’s biggest music festival, Sauti Za Busara.

In the middle of Stone Town, inside the old fort. Tousands of people and 50 conserts in four days. African music under African skies…

We went there three days, listening to good music from bands and solo artists we have never heard about before. Some of the bands were better than others, but it was an unforgettable experience with many highlights like the Madagascar group Tsiliva who played two conserts on Friday and Saturday.

The best music-experience (at least for us!) was on Sunday with the amazing guitar-player Tcheka. Unfortunately, he didn´t bring enough CD´s as they were sold out five minutes after his concert.

The festival was topped with the Algerian group Djmawi Africa playing roots, pop, reggae, rock and fusion. And so much energy! The Algerian band made thousand people dance on a Sunday evening. (Check them out on youtube!)

The atmosphere was great: sitting on the grass, listening to music and having some white wine in the evening, dancing when the night came…

The Music festival of Zanzibar is impressing. We’re glad we had the opportunity to go there, and hopefully we will be back next year.

From the stage on Sauti za Busara Zanzibar – east Africas biggest music festival.

Us at the yearly music festival in Stone Town.

Without doubt our favourite. The Algerian band Djmawi Africa made thousand people dance on a Sunday evening

Together with Hanne Gjesdal in the old fort where the festival was held.

Dancers stretching at the wall just behind the big video screen.

The parks are not like a zoo: no one is guaranteed to see “the big five” or any other animal one wishes to see. But we were lucky! Not only had we seen the big five, but also lots of other animals.

It’s simply impossible to describe how it feels to drive around and watch the animals living their lives: sleeping, playing, hunting, eating… Therefore we’ll just let pictures talk for themselves… It’s so amazing, the animals just so don’t care that we are around watching them!

Here are a few of the photos we took during our safari in Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the world famous Serengeti.

Elephant bigger than our Toyota Landcruiser crossing the road.

Hippos relaxing in the waters of the Ngorongoro crater.

Three male lions relaxing.

Lion having a dinner (buffalo)

What do most of us like to do after a good meal? Rest. So do the lions (preferably in the shadow as it’s quite hot). And if the only shadow around is because of the cars – why not to lay down there?

Elephants: It seems they love bathing! Not so sure if they get any cleaner after that but it’s really amazing to watch them!

Leopard: she was just showing off! Going zig-zag between the cars from one side to another as if she couldn’t decide which way to go…

Buffalos: hundreds of them!

Rhinos: Far away, but close enough to see how they eat and move… There are around 23 of them in Ngorongoro crater, and we got to see three of them!

Geopard (Chita): The world’s fastest animal. But also a good mother for her baby.

Zebras: classically black & white

Wildebeests: Let’s go to find some water!

Giraffe: Slow down: giraffes crossing

A bird for lunch?

In the car.

Five days in Dar Es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania with 4,5 million people, made us realize how lucky we are to live on the beautiful island of Zanzibar.

Dar Es Salaam skyline with the citys golf course in front.

Tallest building in Dar Es Salaam – the bank of Tanzania.

Don’t misunderstand! We were glad to be in a big city with high buildings, less conservative clothing and shops with more European things. Dar Es Salaam has almost everything: good shopping, interesting restaurants, plenty of big hotels, beaches and even a park and a golf-course in the middle of the center. It is divided into to major areas; one is the city center where the boats from Pemba and Zanzibar come in. The other area is the Peninsula where most tourists go for better beaches. Here you have American diners, chain-hotels like Hilton and Marriot and the nightlife.

The city-center where we stayed had local food, local hotels and local shops and mostly local people; sometimes we were the only tourists in the streets. But that’s how we like it. However, we tried to be extra careful as everyone in Zanzibar warned us that it could be dangerous for mzungos (=white people) in Dar.

The reason we went to Dar Es Salaam was Jurgitas visit to the private hospital of Aga Khan – one of the best and upmarket hospitals in the country. The goal was to share experiences and see how they are running the hospital. The visit was good and it was a motivated group (Jurgita + 4 of her colleagues) that came back from the mainland!

And me?… I had five nice days on the mainland. In fact, I had some very nice walking trips while Jurgita was at work. But when we took the boat back and got closer to the harbor of Stone Town – the main city (or the only city) of Zanzibar – and the sun was shining on the stone buildings and people were swimming at the city-beach – I felt I was home…

Having lunch at the peninsula.

A selfie from the Penisula with the beach in the background.

Dar Es Salaam city beach is only for boats and not for swimming.

A group of pelicans looking for food when the tide is low.

Nice view from our hotel in Dar Es Salaam.

Coming back with the ferry to beautiful Zanzibar.

With a ticket saying I am from Lithuania.

Jozani Forest is the only national park on Zanzibar. It’s 50 square-kilometers large and has the only red colobus monkeys in the world. The forest was also home to the legendary Zanzibar leopard. And some people think that the big cat it still there, hunting for antelopes at nighttime.

I’ve been there twice, once with a friend at Haukeland house – Lars-Marius, and the second time with Jurgita, Kari and Jorid. The forest is located around 30 kilometers away from where we live which makes it a perfect day-trip destination.

It didn´t take long before we saw our first red colobus monkeys. They say there are around 3500 monkeys there, and the number is rising. No other place in the world can you see this monkey that has a red back, a black face and white head and neck. Suddenly there where 15-20 monkeys jumping and playing around us (carrying a baby did not seem to make any difference for them!).

Zanzibar is the only place where the red colobus monkey live.

And they are jumping from tree to tree just over our heads.

Jurgita trekking Jozani forest with Kari and Jorid from Haukeland house.

Me and Jurgita on a local adventure.

Our local guide, Suleiman, showed us into the deep forest. It was amazing to see quite a few plants that we have in the living room at home growing wildly here (seriously, they were huge. I’m glad they will never get that big at home, otherwise we need a new place to live). The guide told us that Jozani forest has monitory lizards that can be up to four meter long, King cobras and giant pyton-snakes together with a lot of birds. We didn’t see any snakes this time, but two weeks earlier Lars-Marius and I saw a one meter long monitory lizard and a blue snake.

Large lizard showing of. They can be up to four meters long, according to experts.

A blue snake that we never figured out what was. Any ideas?

At the end of the trip some black monkeys came visiting.

We had a great five kilometer walk trough fantastic jungle with enormous threes and large green plants. At the end of our walk we spotted some black-monkeys and also some giant snails.

But the big cat, the Zanzibar leopard was not around (or just hiding?). Nobody has seen any tracks since 2004 and according to the scientists it does no longer exist. However, our guide believes there are a few left in the Jozani forest, so maybe we will have to come back again :)

After a very nice walk and a cup of coffee, we went to visit the turtles. They have a nice turtle-rescue center where one can meet them quite personally…

Friendly giant turtoise with a weight three times more than Jurgita.

One of the lucky ones at the rescue-center for turtles.

Have never seen them so big and so close before!

Great trip that we’ll definitely do again!

Jurgita and Kari jumping goodbye to the forest.

Going to a safari was even more extreme, wilder and more beautiful than we had imagined.

We took a morning flight on a Friday to Selous south in Tanzania, and the adventure started already there with a 12-seats plane and a scenic 2-hour ride before we landed on a grass field in the middle of the bush. Our driver met us there and drove us to the lodge. The lodge was great, with shower and toilet, but no electricity at day- and night time. But who cares- we were sitting outside, watching hippos and crocodiles floating around in the river just seven meters away!

Our very small airplane towards Selous game reserve.

The queen of the bush meet us already on our first day!

A group of elephants came really close to our car.

On the first game drive it didn´t take more than minutes before we saw lots of giraffes, hundreds of antelopes and about 30 elephants. It’s a strong feeling being surrounded by all these wild animals in an open car, but it felt safe all the way. On the afternoon-safari we saw buffalos, waterbucks, more giraffes, hundreds of hippos and different kinds of birds. Followed by all these animals, we finally found what we were looking for: a lion. It was suddenly there, just four meters from our car, looking at us. I guess we spent half an hour there, just the four of us: our driver, we and the lion that didn’t seem to care about us at all!

The animals made sure we were entertained during the night too. It’s been a little rough for Thomas since a few large hippos came very close to our tent and made strange sounds while eating grass. He also killed two scorpions inside the tent before going to bed. (Jurgita was of course sleeping through it all…)

A hippo-family coming up from the river.

Selous would be a dream-destination for Crocodile Dundee.

There where plenty of girafs.

And we saw more animals (including hyenas and wild dogs) on day 2. So, out of the big five (Lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant and rhino) we saw three. Not bad at all!

Our stay there was very special: Massai people were following us even from the lodge to the restaurant and it was absolutely forbidden to be outside the tent between 22:00 and 6:00!

On Sunday afternoon we were picked up by our transportation home to Zanzibar; a four passenger-seat plane to Dar es Salaam, and then a 12-seat back to Zanzibar! As the plane was full, Jurgita had to sit in front, together with the pilot… (she did turn back to the passengers and promised not to touch anything while we were in the air…)

It was an unforgettable weekend, that’s for sure! (See more pictures below!)

Thomas and Jurgita

A baboon looking at us from a three.

One of the big five: the dangerous buffalo.

Not very common, but still there; the wild dogs.

Group of elephants in a distance.

How many different animals can you see on this picture?

As the only guests at the camp we got a very private and romantic dinner.

Empalas walking slowly close to our car.

Sunset in the jungle.

Watching hippos and crocodiles from our swimmingpool.

Together with our Massai-guards that where watching our tent everyday.

We never thought it would! :)

But we’ve never thought we would celebrate Christmas with 25 people that we’ve met two and a half months ago. And we’ve never dreamed of that we would celebrate Christmas in 30 degrees Celsius. But here we are!

And even though we miss our families and friends back home (especially on holidays like this), we had an unforgettable X-mas celebration with amazing people on the roof terrace at Haukeland House. Thank you all!

Against all odds (it’s hot, no snow, no Norwegian- or Lithuanian Christmas food, no family around) – it’s Christmas!

From both of us to all of you: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Jurgita & Thomas

Celebration at the terrace of Haukeland house.

To hot for at gingerbread-house!

We’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins in the open sea. Last weekend we were in Kizimkazi – a small fishermen village with a couple of hotels and a nice beach. Apparently there are around 350 bottlenose dolphins in the water just outside Kizimkazi and they like to play around people.

We met Mr. Happy, a local boat captain and we arranged a boat-trip for Sunday morning. When we met him in the morning he was real Mr. Happy- we didn’t need to go far to find the dolphins as they were just around 200 meters from the beach!

Jurgita about one and a half meter from at bottlenose dolphin.

So close to our boat!

Beautiful creatures gliding in the surface.

It seemed like there were different groups (or maybe families) of them swimming around. There were also 3-4 other small boats, some just watching, others planning to swim with them.

So how did it feel? Were we chasing the dolphins or not? The answer is both yes and no:

Yes, were going after them when they were swimming. (And there were some boats driving too fast so that some tourists could jump in the water in front of them… that’s sad!). No, because dolphins are smart animals and they can easily leave us if they want to.

Playing in the quiet water of the indian ocean.

Three dolphins just in front of Jurgita (left) and Andreas.

Our captain did his best to make sure we’d have a chance to swim with them shouting to us- jump out, look left, swim right and so on. But at some point we stayed on the boat, asked him to switch off his boat and watched them playing. And that was so amazing! There were six-seven dolphins swimming slowly around the boat. After a while, we put on our snorkeling-gear and jumped in the water. And yes, they were there- under us, on both sides and behind us! We could have touched them if we wanted to (We didn’t and hope most other people don’t!). Seeing these beautiful creatures under the water is amazing. They are huge!!

And they do come to you. If they want. And that’s how it should be.

Jurgita spotted to more dolphins.

A small kid hoping to se more of animals underwater

Moving away for this time! Hope to see you again.

Ann-Karin, Andreas (7) and Jurgita on their way up from the boat.