Woolly says – We were outside the accommodation for our second try at the driving tour of Dar…as they locals call it… for 7.50am keeping everything crossed that the guide had a car this time!

Two minutes later and our transport arrived, as we headed into the main city area Jo explained about our walking tour and that we didn’t need to do the big market (Kariakoo Market) nor the fish market, as we were the only ones on the tour this wasn’t a problem but would mean that we finished earlier than the usual tour.

First stop of the day was the National Museum, established in 1934 and open to the public since 1940, it was originally a memorial museum dedicated to King George V; one of the cars of the King is still on display. The museum was expanded in 1963, with the addition of a second building. It is now dedicated to the history of Tanzania. Its most famous exhibits include some bones of Paranthropus boisei that were among the findings of Louis Leakey at Olduvai. The museum also has a large section dedicated to the Shirazi city-state of Kilwa. More historical miscellaneous material is related to the German and British rule, and ancient Chinese pottery. The museum also has ethnographic collections on Tanzanian cultures.

Heading in we paused to admire the two large ebony carvings that stood watch over those that passed by and a small field gun,

As Chris our guide went off to pay I spotted a most exciting exhibit and raced over to admire Mr T Rex who reminded me of the British Iron Works in that he was made from recycled parts, he was a very fine sculpture and once I had my picture taken I turned my attention to the rest of the site.

We went into the old museum which had a lovely doorway, now empty it was being redeveloped for more artifacts to come in.

Just outside was an area dedicated to those that had lost their lives in the 1998 United States embassy bombings, attacks that occurred on August 7th, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the United States embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the other at the United States embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

A sculpture artfully showed us pieces of debris found with the statue of an African women who had no arms to show the devastation that the bomb had created. Boards told us more about the event and those that had died which were next to a land rover that had assisted in getting people to safety. A sobering find.

A short walk away were a number of cars that had been used by the late President Julius Nyerere who had been able to achieve Tanzania’s independence. His first vehicle had been a cute green Austin 7 until he started riding round in Rolls Royce’s and then Mercs.

We climbed up some stairs to a display of photographs that explained how John F Kennedy and Nyerere had become friends and how the states had helped with education and laws in the country.

By this point our lovely guide had explained each and every item we had seen in great detail and my poor dyslexic brain was already overloading, with the mammoth shaking his head in shame I asked very politely if we could look at the items and ask questions as it was a lot to take in. Chris didn’t have a problem with this and set about following us round the inside exhibits.

Woolly says – We passed by a door that had once been part of a home and was beautifully carved, moving on we admired some Chinese bowls that had been found locally. An area dedicated to the explorers of Africa came next including Livingstone and Stanly.

The next room was all about rocks which sounded unlike something we wanted to know too much about, however we were incredibly surprised to find that it was actually about rock drawings over the centuries of man. They were really interesting especially the drawing of one of my ancient cousins, sadly no mammoths had made the collection.

The next area was filled with artwork which I rather liked, many bright and colourful paintings with a few sculptures and cleverly done wooden pictures.

The final section took us back to the start of homo sapiens and finds from the prehistoric times, again no mammoths so I had to be content with the skull of an African elephant.

We climbed back into the car and proceeded towards the Askari monument, a statue of an African soldier to celebrate their part in shaping Tanzania, sadly as it was on a roundabout we couldn’t stop and look at it properly and just drove past, the same happened at the clock tower.

Traffic as usual was chaos and getting anywhere in the city always took three times longer than you might think.

Our next stop strangely was in a carpark, at the very top of the car park to be precise so that we could see the views over the ferry port and there was the beast bobbing in the water that had made me so ill the other day, my stomach started to turn at the look of it. We walked to the other end of the carpark and looked out across the modern and old buildings of the city which were crammed into the streets.

Pulling out of the carpark we took the next left into the parking area of St Joseph’s Cathedral. A Gothic looking building it faces the harbour and was built by the Germans between 1897 and 1902 and consecrated as a Catholic church in 1905. It was incredibly white with a huge spire high up above my head. Sadly, we couldn’t go in a Bishop was stood in the doorway welcoming guests.

Off we went again through the traffic heading towards the place that Jo and I wanted to see more than anything. Opened in 1996 the Village Museum has more than 45 houses from Tanzania’s 120 tribes.

Including houses from the Thembe tribe which are rectangular in shape, thatched with soil on top.

There is also the Msonge house which are thatched with grass.

and the Banda tribal house which has a gabled roof which are normally found along the coast.

There were so many to look at it was unreal.

Each and every one was outstanding, as Jo and I looked inside we found them all to be cool and shady with small fire areas and with not the comfy mattress looking beds.

Just as we thought we had seen them all more came into view; I was loving every moment.

Each display area also had storage, not the usual cupboards but mud cased cylinders that would keep anything dry and cool.

The animals didn’t lose out either with a range of pens and places for them to eat and sleep.

The whole place was fascinating and having found the perfect house for myself I did consider leaving Jo to it and messaging Sion the Sheep to come and join in a new life, well that was until a late lunch was mentioned.

A short drive away was a beach side eatery where our guide left us to enjoy the view and the food until he returned to take us back to the digs.

Woolly says – So with another day off tomorrow we had already considered some time at the pool and a leisurely lunch on the sand. As soon as we opened our emails however, we found an issue with our onward flight so it might just be me enjoying the day as the human sorts things out. Back in a few days to tell you more.