Musafir Reunion

Next final destination was Kilwa Masoko, a little village South of Dar es Salaam. To get there ment a bit of a ride, let’s say a 3-day-journey. 

I had decided to take the early bus from Livingstone to arrive during daytime in Lusaka, where my flight was leaving from to Dar es Salaam. Taking the flight same day was too risky in timing, so after 7 hours in a minibus (~13€) I stayed one night in Lusaka at a really nice Backpackers, Natwange. I had a dorm bed, which I shared with only one more person. As always in those places you meet nice people, so I hung out with a German girl at first and for the rest of the evening with a guy from the US, who was a doctor and worked here for a month. Talking about humanity and traveling in such countries was very inspiring, so we stayed up quite a while when a couple from UK joined.

Second day traveling started a bit more comfy with breakfast and some laptop stuff. Then my flights started from 2.30pm via Lilongwe and Blantyre in Malawi. When changing planes in Lilongwe I got to talk to a lady with her little child, that sat next to me on the bus shuttle ride to the plane for only 5 minutes. But we got along so quickly, that we wanted to keep in touch. She was German, living in Malawi since 11 years working on different projects for NGOs and now building up an Ecolodge. They want to educate local farmers on permacultural planting and thus avoid loss during drought. I was fascinated by this idea of maybe visiting her, so would concider that...possibly during my Africa trip, but this year for sure!

Last plane from Blantyre arrived in Dar at 9pm, so got to the Hunch Backpackers in Makati, had a drink and went to bed soon.

For the day „layover“ in Dar I chose to relax at the beach and have a lazy day before the next travel journey was about to come next day.

So I went to bed early since my taxi driver was supposed to pick me up at 4.30am to catch the bus at 6am from Mbagala bus station to Kilwa Masoko. Purchasing the ticket of 5€ I got on the big bus, which took me in 7 hours to Kilwa. 

Finally arrived I got to the beach where two of the guys were washing the sail. 

Unfortunately the dingy still didn’t have an engine, it was stolen 2 weeks earlier. I left my bags with them at the beach and hopped on a kajak towards the Musafir. A bit nervous what to expect since the last experience was filled with tasks and people. This time we were only 5 people including myself. There were several things that had to be done on board in order to get ready for the next journey starting in April.

I got closer to the boat and Ibi already waved welcoming me with a big smile. So happy to be back on this energizing place. It felt like coming home, familiar faces, different vibe.

We cooked some lunch and hung out for the rest of the day.

Going to sleep beneath the stars and the shining moon was just what I missed.

Morning light slowly came up, a little drizzle of rain gave me a little morning shower until it stopped and the doze after felt so good. Clouds moved and sunlight got stronger, so the time for bed was over.

After breakfast I was introduced to the list of things, that had to be done on board. It’s hard to find an appropriate task with 4 guys. I couldn’t climb up to hold a sail or do some constructions. Luckily Paolo asked me to sandpaper the wood in the toilet to then be painted new with several coats of paint. There was my responsibility, so I spent a few hours with sandpaper and almost meditating movements along the wood. 

By the afternoon three of the guys left for town, so Ibi and I hung out swimming and chatting. By the time they came back it was already late. We prepared some light food and slowly went to bed, of course on the upper deck again beneath the stars and the even lighter shining moon.

The following days started mostly with checking the job list after breakfast. Enough on the list to keep us eight people on board busy. For me apart from the toilet I could drill some holes to fix the door and paint some other wooden parts for the next construction. Time passed quickly and it was time to prepare lunch. Twice I created some improvised dish out of what was here....vegetable rice with soy sauce and omelette with potatoes and tomatoes. I discovered a different way of creativity when it comes to cooking. In my perspective Western habit is mostly to select the meal with a recipe, buy everything needed in the supermarket and cook accordingly. Living in a close connection with the nature you get what you can or literally speaking can get at the local market. Preparing the meal with what is left on bord needs a bit of creativity. But a combination of different spices and ways of cooking can give so many different good creations. 

Afternoons and evenings we kind of free. Hanging out playing ten thousand, making dinner or watching movies.

After Paolo left for Dar es Salaam to buy some things, we kept up the daily routine. 

It’s amazing, how easy and efficient at the same time life on board can be. Everyone seemed to know what to do, even I slowly got into the mood just asking for jobs until they on their own came up to me asking if I could help. Being the only woman makes it difficult to find the balance between proofing yourself as capable and still keeping up with the appearance of a woman. 

Life can be really simple. In this sense for me being on board it means adapting myself to circumstances, but yet not missing out anything. Use water for shower consciously as well as using clothes to avoid too much washing, charge phone when necessary and so on. 

You don’t only get used to this lifestyle easily, but makes you happier not having so much to worry about. I am so much enjoying this simplicity.