tiring

That was a tiring return trip.

One thing this trip emphasized was just how huge Africa is. It’s a widely known fact that the traditional world maps have tended to understate Africa’s relative size, and there have been a number of efforts to correct that in recent decades. But you have to travel there to get a vivid sense of it.

For one thing, in principle it seems as if Cairo and Nairobi shouldn’t be that far apart. But the flight takes five hours, not much short of a New York-to-London flight. Nairobi sits just below the equator, while Cairo isn’t even tropical– it’s on the same latitude as New Orleans and Austin, Texas.

Also, all of the endless vehicle travel of the past week still took us through only the tiniest portions of Kenya and Tanzania, both of which have vast stretches that we never remotely approached. Granted, some of that has to do with poor highway infrastructure in those countries (though not quite as poor as you might imagine). Yesterday’s bus trip from Arusha in Tanzania back to Nariobi took 6 hours, only 30 minutes of which was wasted in passport formalities at the border. That’s 5.5 hours for only about 165 miles. It didn’t feel like we were moving quite that slowly, but apparently we were.

I liked both countries. Kenya’s camping sites seem better developed, but there’s also more tribal political tension there than in Tanzania, whose 120 tribes all reportedly speak Swahili pretty well. Tanzania is more relaxed but also perhaps a bit more raw. The Islamic influence is far greater in Tanzania as well, and of course Swahili culture is heavily Arabic along with the Bantu elements. For example, our driver in Tanzania was named Anwar and had a Yemeni father, which is not so atypical there. Zanzibar was long the heart of the Arab-African slave trade.

One of the subtle pleasures of Tanzania, alongside the more famous wild animals and breathtaking landscapes, is looking at the women’s clothing. It is often stunningly beautiful, and each garment seems to be completely unique.

Another thing I like about Africa, at least based on this trip… If someone tries to sell you something and you say no, one no is often enough. That’s rarely the case in other parts of the world.