Sosage

Completelt irrelevant title other than I saw it on a menu yesterday and thought it was hilarious. Don't know if that's actually the swahili word (swahili is fantastically phoenetic) or a really good spelling mistake. I liked it though.
Anyway back to business. Finally manages to leave Zanzibar (though it was a bank holiday so immigration office was closed- according to my passport I'm still there. Though according to my old on I think I'm still in Macedonia). I say finally because I think it was the longest day of my life. We got up ridiculously early to get on a bus to take us to get a boat at 10 but because it'd started raining amd the wind was the wrong sort (?!) we had to wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually got a boat out at 4. We had to stop halfway across because now the wind was the right sort but there was too much of it (ever seen a windsurfer turning cartwheelly type things-we didn't feel like doning that). It was dark and it rained. A lot. We had out trustly plastic sheeting though didn't get too wet. And the crossing was a lot comfier than the first one-this time the cargo was sugar which is a lot les lumpy than charcoal. Got to the mainland at aronund 11 I think. I tell a lie, we didn't yet to the mainland, we got about 10 meters away from the land and because the water was deep and cold we paid a guy to carry us across to the mainland. That definately scores me poiunts if we're playing transport bingo. Human taxi-not recommended.
The port (and I use the term oh so lightly) only has one guest house which was full but luckily (again, a very loose term) the boat captain has friends there so we were provided with floor space and a straw mat. Yey. Another early morning-the only bus is at 4! All the way up to the mountains, beautiful journey if a little (or a lot) terrifying, lots of turns on a slippery mud road in a bus who's sides didn't seem to be attached to anything. I've got a considerable (though diminishing) amount of weight and nowhere really to put it. Certainly interesting though.
Now we're still stuck in the mountains in a place called Bumbuli (which on all the bus signs is shortened to bum, crude I know but I've got to get my kicks somehow). It's really pretty but getting steadily less so. We wanted to go ont to a place called Mtae but it's been raining so much that no buses are daring to risk the road which is all up hill. Think the plan now is to wait until the road is a little better (the rain seems to be easing a little in that it hasn't rained yet today, though it's only lunch time and time will tell) then I go on to Dar which I'm really not looking forward too. It has little/no sewerage system so is not the nicest place to be in the rain. I theoretically could by pass it all together but it's pretty much the only place between here and Nairobi that has a cash machine. From there I'll be heading down to Malawi and then I start my journey back up again.
Tom your birthday is the day I come home so I don't need to worry about finding a cake that will withstand airmail.
Anyone know what Alex Howell's up to. It occured to me last night that he's meant to be in Mozambique at some point-or at least that was the plan last I heard. It probably isn't anymore.