We rose at 8.00am, went up to the restaurant for a cooked breakfast, vacated room, paid the bill as we were going to Tanga later in the day. We walked down towards the main port and saw a very old giant Baobab tree, under which two dhows were being built. The men became quite agitated with John because he took some photographs so we moved rapidly away. The old dispensary, now restored by the Aga Khan Trust to its former glory looked very impressive and is now a Culture Centre. Next we visited the old Customs House from colonial times when Zanzibar would have been a thriving port and a Sultan’s Palace which is now a museum. The story goes that anyone who passed the Palace had to lower their eyes as should one look up it was death.
We had a taxi arranged for 1.00 pm to take us to the airport and it took 15 minutes to arrive at the airport. Before going through departures John checked into Coastal Travel and had to pay 5,000 Tsh each as airport tax. First a 12 seat plane took off for Dar es Salaam then five minutes later our plane arrived. We were last onto the plane and there was no seat for John, the rep. for Coastal Travel went back to the office and after some minutes returned and removed one passenger. So John had a seat after all. There was much hilarity amongst the passengers and the pilot joked that he would have had to throw me of as well. We headed for Pemba and after landing most of the people alighted there, all that remained on the plane was a citizen of Tanga and us. We arrived at Tanga 15 minutes after takeoff landing on grass airstrip. There was a prearranged taxi, which transferred us to the Mkonge Hotel. Our room was on the 1st floor overlooking the sea. The gardens swept away from the building down to edge and were lovely there we had tea. We met an American business man who owned a farm at Dadoma where maize, sisal and spices including coriander were grown. Later from the terrace of our room we watched a group of monkeys playing on the lawn.