Tanzania was my last remaining fixed goal; I had to get to Dar es Salaam to meet Colleen for attempt #2 at an Africa trip (the first in Cote d'Ivoire having been derailed by malaria). As the only reliable adult between the two of us she had booked us somewhere to stay on Zanzibar and a safari at the Serengeti, all I had to do was provide transport between the two. How hard could that be...
After completing the usual formalities of customs, insurance and SIM card at the border I was keen to get to Dar as soon as possible because I had a plan forming in my mind for my transportation task that was going to take some time to execute. All I had to do was work out how to get us from Dar to Arusha within 5 days. This is not difficult; it is only 630km between the two, and you can get a bus that will run you up there in a day. But that would be dull. There are also lots of places to hire vehicles, and in fact we had discussed the possibility of a 4wd with a roof tent, but the only place we could find with availability was asking $200 per day. Colleen had recently passed her motorbike test, so another option was to get a bike for her and ride up. Or the final option: realise the dream that I didn't quite manage to realise in India of buying a tuktuk for a roadtrip. The first two options I quickly ruled out, and then it was down to motorbike vs tuktuk. For option one I was planning on buying a local bike, spraying it neon pink and painting USA flags all over it, as I know Colleen would have absolutely loved every minute of riding around on that. However, I had an even better idea for option two.
For those of you unfamiliar, a tuktuk is a three wheeled rickshaw used as a taxi in countries all over the world. It is hugely underpowered, corners like a sofa on wheels and provides all the comfort of a 19th century mine cart, but it is definitely unique and certainly memorable. The decision to go for option two was made though when I realised that I could combine the tuktuk with a roof tent to form a one of a kind safari vehicle! This was going to require some work though.
First up was actually buying a tuktuk. Having found a beachfront campsite just south of the city I rolled somewhat blindly into town, and was almost immediately asked by a friendly local drug dealer if I wanted some ganja. When I said 'no, but how about a tuktuk?' his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he got right on the case, and within the hour I had viewings booked in. The first couple were decent enough but a bit expensive, but in the afternoon he found me one a lot cheaper. In hindsight, I may have been better paying a bit more, but as the saying goes you pay your money and you take your chance...
The formalities were complicated by the fact that paying the 2.7m Ts (Tanzanian Shilling) asking price was tricky when the maximum denomination note was 10,000 Ts and the limit per withdrawl was 400,000. I rinsed all of my cards at all of the banks but in the end, armed with a ridiculously fat wad of cash, we sat down and did the paperwork. From here it was all hands on deck:
First job was stripping the tuktuk down, taking off the canopy and sanding down the paintwork (for which I had some help from Kiwi Cape-to-Cairo cyclist and all round top bloke Steve Chunn), then it was getting both welders and mechanics lined up to build me a new frame and fix the brakes and clutch respectively. The great thing about Africa is how easy it is to find these people, and within a couple of hours both teams were working on the machine in parallel.
Next up was getting the thing painted. I had thought about doing this myself but time was pressing so I found a guy for that too, and having left him with instructions on how to do a zebra pattern went off to sort out the roof tent. I had weighed up several ideas - basic bivouac, putting my own tent on top, but in the end I was inspired by the thatched canopies at the campsite to do something better - build a rooftop hut. This required a bit of extra work from the welders to put together some removable side panels, but the roof was simplified when I found a guy who makes coconut leaf panels for fencing. At 20p per panel it was less than two quid to get enough for the roof, and then with some pieces of wood I set about making the frame.
I had five days or so to get all of this done, but despite good work from the guys by the day Colleen was due to arrive things still weren't completely finished. We'd had a couple of setbacks mechanically (the tuktuk had been sat idle for a while and needed a fair amount of TLC), but we weren't far off. By the time I went to fetch Colleen from the airport (in a taxi sadly - didn't fancy making the maiden voyage across this crazy city at night!) there were just a couple of bits left. But that was ok, I had the next morning too...
After completing the usual formalities of customs, insurance and SIM card at the border I was keen to get to Dar as soon as possible because I had a plan forming in my mind for my transportation task that was going to take some time to execute. All I had to do was work out how to get us from Dar to Arusha within 5 days. This is not difficult; it is only 630km between the two, and you can get a bus that will run you up there in a day. But that would be dull. There are also lots of places to hire vehicles, and in fact we had discussed the possibility of a 4wd with a roof tent, but the only place we could find with availability was asking $200 per day. Colleen had recently passed her motorbike test, so another option was to get a bike for her and ride up. Or the final option: realise the dream that I didn't quite manage to realise in India of buying a tuktuk for a roadtrip. The first two options I quickly ruled out, and then it was down to motorbike vs tuktuk. For option one I was planning on buying a local bike, spraying it neon pink and painting USA flags all over it, as I know Colleen would have absolutely loved every minute of riding around on that. However, I had an even better idea for option two.
For those of you unfamiliar, a tuktuk is a three wheeled rickshaw used as a taxi in countries all over the world. It is hugely underpowered, corners like a sofa on wheels and provides all the comfort of a 19th century mine cart, but it is definitely unique and certainly memorable. The decision to go for option two was made though when I realised that I could combine the tuktuk with a roof tent to form a one of a kind safari vehicle! This was going to require some work though.
First up was actually buying a tuktuk. Having found a beachfront campsite just south of the city I rolled somewhat blindly into town, and was almost immediately asked by a friendly local drug dealer if I wanted some ganja. When I said 'no, but how about a tuktuk?' his entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and he got right on the case, and within the hour I had viewings booked in. The first couple were decent enough but a bit expensive, but in the afternoon he found me one a lot cheaper. In hindsight, I may have been better paying a bit more, but as the saying goes you pay your money and you take your chance...
The formalities were complicated by the fact that paying the 2.7m Ts (Tanzanian Shilling) asking price was tricky when the maximum denomination note was 10,000 Ts and the limit per withdrawl was 400,000. I rinsed all of my cards at all of the banks but in the end, armed with a ridiculously fat wad of cash, we sat down and did the paperwork. From here it was all hands on deck:
First job was stripping the tuktuk down, taking off the canopy and sanding down the paintwork (for which I had some help from Kiwi Cape-to-Cairo cyclist and all round top bloke Steve Chunn), then it was getting both welders and mechanics lined up to build me a new frame and fix the brakes and clutch respectively. The great thing about Africa is how easy it is to find these people, and within a couple of hours both teams were working on the machine in parallel.
Next up was getting the thing painted. I had thought about doing this myself but time was pressing so I found a guy for that too, and having left him with instructions on how to do a zebra pattern went off to sort out the roof tent. I had weighed up several ideas - basic bivouac, putting my own tent on top, but in the end I was inspired by the thatched canopies at the campsite to do something better - build a rooftop hut. This required a bit of extra work from the welders to put together some removable side panels, but the roof was simplified when I found a guy who makes coconut leaf panels for fencing. At 20p per panel it was less than two quid to get enough for the roof, and then with some pieces of wood I set about making the frame.
I had five days or so to get all of this done, but despite good work from the guys by the day Colleen was due to arrive things still weren't completely finished. We'd had a couple of setbacks mechanically (the tuktuk had been sat idle for a while and needed a fair amount of TLC), but we weren't far off. By the time I went to fetch Colleen from the airport (in a taxi sadly - didn't fancy making the maiden voyage across this crazy city at night!) there were just a couple of bits left. But that was ok, I had the next morning too...
