We came in to land close over the Indian Ocean and could see the array of pristine islands and vast ships waiting at anchor in the wide blue bay. Immigration was mercifully swift and resulted in some more passport stamps and a lighter wallet before we were spat out into the arrivals hall which was a much more comfortable temperature than Sri Lanka had been!

It didn't take long to realise that we were miles from anywhere and that grabbing a 'quick bite to eat' was not going to be an option. We decided to head into the city to entertain ourselves and having got the price of the trip down to a third of his opening bid our friendly cabbie humoured me further by repeating some basic Swahili phrases, a lot of which involved characters from the lion king. Having passed a lot of places where we definitely didn't want to spend the few hours before Hattie and Charlie arrived we persevered through the grimy suburbs, filled with staring locals. Eventually the taxi dropped us at a very pleasant beachside hotel and we sneaked through into the bar where a cool breeze and the view of the ocean accompanied the cold drinks perfectly. It wasn't an accurate reflection of Dar but I got the impression there would be plenty of that further down the line.

We spent a very pleasant few hours there, sorting busy work and enjoying the atmosphere that money could buy. Trying to act like we were really staying there we sneaked a dip in the clifftop pool and reclined on the surrounding sun loungers without warranting any suspicious glances. Fortunately there was lots of coming and going as on the lawn behind us Landrover we're setting up a launch party for the new Discovery Sport and teams of people erected lighting gantries, stretched out banners and buffed the sleek vehicles to a bright shine.

I fell fast asleep and fortunately Bob woke me in time to make the pre-arranged rendezvous with our friendly driver who battled back through the traffic to return us to the airport where Charlie and Hattie should just be landing. By some stroke of luck we arrived at the arrivals door just as the beaming pair strode through it into the Tanzanian heat. It was so good to see then and we couldn't talk quickly enough, eventually moving away from the crowds and into the shade of a large concrete pillar. Over a cold coke we exchanged travel stories and made a plan for how we were to spend the rest of the day. Our plan did not include queueing to get our bags weighed before check in but we joined the scrum and eventually made it through to departures. Over a beer, samosas and fried chicken we were finally able to relax and before long were were boarding a disappointingly large plane and heading north west towards Kilimanjaro.

After a very short flight, with lots of legroom, we were spat out into the darkness and hired a taxi to take us to Arusha. Conversation with our driver was limited but by some miracle we arrived at the hostel safely where we had the same conversation 3 times about the availability of our reserved rooms and the irrelevant arrangement of their beds. After the well rehearsed welcome speech was delivered to our backs we unlocked the hefty padlocks securing our doors and dropped our bags before heading up to the roof top bar just in time for a drink. The beer tasted fantastic and we collapsed wearily into the soft cushioned sofas, listening to the busy sounds of the streets below and excitedly planned out our itinerary for the next day which included a rather long to do list.

The bar was eventually closed by it's very chatty tenders and we retired to our rooms where the noise of the street below was very much a part of falling asleep.