Makadi Beach

Today was another really mellow one. I took the ferry from Stone Town back to Dar Es Salaam then spent the rest of the day hanging around a small beach resort and campground that we're staying at called Makadi. After setting up my tent I crashed onto a couch in a nearby thatched-roof hut and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Even after spending so much time relaxing during the last few days I still feel so drained. I don't mind it because it's awesome just to be here in Africa and to be having amazing experiences every day, but it also will be nice to get back home in a few weeks so I can catch up on all the sleep I've lost, shower regularly, change into some decent clothes, and just get back to normal that way.

Traveling on an organized tour for the last little while has helped me realize the advantages and disadvantages of the way I usually travel when I'm doing it all myself. Usually I'll pick a country or a region I want to visit, I'll research the place and figure out the specific things I want to see and do while I'm there, then I'll string all that stuff together and plan out all the logistics so I can fit everything into the time that I have. More often than not I end up buying a handful of point-to-point flights to save time and move around quickly. I guess the Gap tour is doing things roughly the same way that I would, except there's not quite as much planned for each day and instead of flying everywhere we're going overland in the truck.

Originally I booked the Gap tour because I wasn't sure how safe it would be to travel alone in Africa and I wanted to do it with a group at least for my first time here. In retrospect I think I could have done it alone and been perfectly safe, I just would have had to have been a little more careful than I usually am. Next time I visit Africa I probably will do it independantly and I'll do it the way I usually do trips; by flying point-to-point and packing plenty of wild experiences into every single day. With that said though, I still think the Gap tour was a good choice for this particular trip. I probably saved a few thousand dollars and a whole lot of hassle by booking the Gap tour rather than doing it all solo.