Friday, 8 July 2011

Day 248 Tanzania 08/07/2011, Sakina Camp-site, Arusha. Banks, ATM's and supermarkets

We both had a good nights sleep although Debs woke up cross with me, apparently I am now being mean to her in her dreams. I would like it to be made clear, I hadn't been mean at all, but it took her a while to get over the dream!

We opted for breakfast in the restaurant this morning, mainly because the only thing that we had to eat was noodles, plus at 4000TZS (£1.60) each it wasn't worth cooking. Not only was it cheap it was also surprisingly good and as we seemed to drink 4 or 5 cups of coffee each we more than got our moneys worth.

After breakfast I asked Robert if he would phone Benjamin at 'Arunga Expeditions' to see if they would take us to a bank to get the money for the safari. Benjamin had offered this last night when we spoke, but we had declined thinking that we would go into the city anyway. This morning the idea of wandering around Arusha with over a 1,000,000TZS (£400) each in our pockets, seemed a bad one! Especially as their office was a fair walk from the city. Robert totally agreed, even looking a bit concerned that we had even considered it! About 40 minutes later and we were heading into the city with two staff members from 'Arunga Expeditions' and dropped off outside a bank.

Having failed to get the money out inside the bank, we were told that we could just keep putting our cards into the ATM until we had all of the funds. Which is what we did, although unfortunately my card has a daily transaction limit as well as a withdrawal limit. Eventually we left the bank as Tanzanian millionaires and were taken back to the camp-site. We are now fully paid up and raring to go; let's hope the animals are ready for us.

This afternoon we set about finding a supermarket to try and replenish our supplies that have dwindled since Nairobi. Despite Robert's insistence, we couldn't find the supermarket near the camp ground and ended up on a very crowded matata heading back towards the city. Unless we find a much better one in the coming days we would have to say that Tanzanian supermarkets are not a patch on Kenyan ones. Nevertheless we managed to get some supplies and more importantly picked up some water for our safari. With bags of shopping and a couple of 5 litre water bottles in our arms we couldn't face another matata ride and opted for the more expensive, but easier taxi back to the camp. The rest of the day has been spent packing up our gear, chatting to Robert and suffering the disaster of my Kindle going wrong. Fortunately my Kindle has risen Lazarus like from the ashes, which is just as well or Debs would have had to put up with whinging on an epic scale!

Dinner and a few beers have rounded off the day nicely, roll on tomorrow.

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