TAN: Out to Bagamoyo

Up at 5:00 a.m. Grab a quick shower and get back to work on the Pixel Corps website. Maina comes by a bit after 8 a.m. Julie and Gabe have packed a little heavy. Chantal and I give them a bit of a hard time. It is not so important to be light now but when we start moving around by light plane, weight consciousness will be imperative.
Our driver for the trip to Bagamoyo is supposed to arrive at 11 a.m., so we head over to the office for some last minute Internet time. Gabriel and I head out to get a step down transformer for our lighting kit. One of the gentlemen from DTP helps us find a spot that sells the supplies we need. After great deal of negotiation and the proprietor making a trip to another store for a higher wattage transformer, we end up with a solution, which should work out nicely. We grab a few other adapters on the way back to the office. While the little setup I cobbled together worked in my mind, I was very happy to find that it did indeed work with the actual gear. I was able to get all four lights powered up to their full potential.
The driver has some other people to ferry, so our departure is pushed back an hour and a half. I am glad, as it gives me a chance to get a bite to eat. There is a restaurant right around the corner, where an ample portion of ugali with beans or curried vegetables can be had for $1. As our next departure time comes and passes we come to find that we have been bumped again and that the driver will come for us around 3 p.m. There is some discussion about getting a taxi at the cost of $40 to get us an hour and half north of Dar es Salaam. We opt to wait for the driver.
We somehow manage to get all of our gear and the four of us crammed into a little Toyota. The drive north is pleasant on a smooth paved road for the bulk of the trip. The boat to take us over to the camp is nowhere to be seen when we arrive, so we have a bit of time to explore the shore. I talk with a couple of gentlemen who are students and Fisheries Institute we launch from. They have three large vessels they work with. They conduct most of their fishing about 150 nautical miles out to sea. Our small fiberglass boat shows up and we lug our gear aboard. I am much happier to be traveling with four people instead of the seven we had last time. The going is a little slower as the channel is quite rough in the late afternoon.

Boats hewn for the most part from a single log.

Gabriel talking with a couple of fisheries students. One of them raps for him in Kiswahili.

Upon arrival, the new camp host, Vladimir, greets us. He is an Italian who comes to Tanzania by way of England. At first I cannot figure out why one of the other guests is so concerned about making us feel welcome and comfortable, but I eventually figure out whom he is. We settle in for a couple of cookies and tea on the upper deck looking out over the end of the spit. Julie and Gabriel are pretty awestruck. Eventually we gather up our gear and get settled in our rooms. We head back over to the deck to talk about the next steps for the DVD project. The camp seems to have gone a little up-scale, and we are brought a menu to make choices about which starter and entree we would like. Dinner is superb as always. Everything is so fresh and being out in the sun and fresh air all day, heightens the experience even more.
After dinner I take some long exposures of the main dinning area and our banda. I am a bit disappointed to see that the low light noise problem I had with my camera has returned with a vengeance. Lots of clean up work ahead. The moon is a couple of days passed full and is still quite bright. Finally tuck in around midnight.