The awesome Zanzibar

Zanzibar is the ultimate Indian Ocean experience, with its fascinating historical Stone Town and magnificent beaches.
 It may not have a particularly romantic name, but Stone Town is the old city and cultural heart of Zanzibar, little changed in the last 200 years. It is a place of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and grand Arab houses whose original owners vied with each other over the extravagance of their dwellings. This one-upmanship is particularly reflected in the brass-studded, carved, wooden doors - there are more than 500 different examples of this handiwork. You can spend many idle hours and days just wandering through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.
Most of the houses that can be seen today were built in the 19th century when Zanzibar was one of the most important trading centres in the Indian Ocean region. The coraline rock of Zanzibar was a good building material, but it is also easily eroded. This is evident by the large number of houses that are in a bad state of repair. Several buildings have already been renovated and the Stone Town Conservation Authority has been established to co-ordinate the restoration of the town to its original magnificence. Pictured opposite is a 'before and after' look at the restoration work done on the Old Dispensary. As a result of sensible policy, nearly all of the major hotels built in Stone Town are housed in renovated buildings.
 As you walk through the town, please remember that Stone Town is very much a real community, where real people live and work. It is not a museum piece or theme park created for tourists, and sensitivity should be shown to the local people.

For more on Stone town and Zanzibar Click HERE

You can book all your tours and safaris/overlanding tours with us on www.mufasabackpackers.com or email us on jana@mufasabackpackers.com or juan@mufasabackpackers.com 

Regards
Jana :)

Dar Es Salaam

Dar es Salaam (Haven of Peace in Arabic) was founded in 1862 by Sultan Seyyid Majid of Zanzibar on the site of the village of Mzizima. Mzizima's history dates back to the time when the Barawa people started to settle and cultivate the area around Mbwa Maji, Magogoni, Mjimwema, Gezaulole and Kibonde Maji Mbagara.
Present day Dar es Salaam's origins have been influenced by myriad of Sultans, the Germans and the British. The city started as a fishing village in the mid 19th century, is now Tanzania's largest city, and has become one of East Africa’s most important ports and trading centers.
With its great atmosphere, mix of African, Muslim, and South Asian influences, picturesque harbour, beaches, chaotic markets, and historical buildings, it is well worth extending your stay beyond the time between flights.
Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's financial and political hub despite having lost its status as official capital to Dodoma in 1973.
Dar es Salaam is certainly not at the top of the list of places to see for most visitors to Tanzania. It's often a necessary stop on their way to Zanzibar, the northern safari circuit or home. That being said, Dar has its charm. Walks around the city center are a great way to get a feel for the culture and Kariakoo market can be an interesting place for the more adventurous. It can also be a good base for visiting some of the nearby sites such as Bagamoyo, Bongoyo and Mbudja Islands, as well as learn to scuba dive or go deep sea fishing. For those looking for something more humanitarian, most international organizations are based in Dar and may be a good starting point if you wish to volunteer. 

Loving Africa by Jana Fourie: Panorama Route

Loving Africa by Jana Fourie: Panorama Route: Breathtaking views across and down the escarpment give this region its evocative title, the Panorama Route. Next to the Highlands Meander...

Panorama Route

Breathtaking views across and down the escarpment give this region its evocative title, the Panorama Route.
Next to the Highlands Meander, the Panorama route abounds with natural wonders along the eastern slopes of the escarpment.
There is God's Window and the world's third largest canyon and biggest green canyon, the Blyde River Canyon. There are also the astonishing Bourke's Luck Potholes and Three Rondawels.
The towns of Lydenburg and White River are gateways to the route, which takes visitors through the quaint towns of Pilgrim's Rest, a living museum dating back to the heydays of the gold rush, as well as Sabie, Graskop, Ohrigstad and Hazyview.
Route panorama is a continuous 2D image that includes all the scenes visible from a route, as it first appeared in Zheng and Tsuji′s work of panoramic views in 1990.Different from a local panorama at a static viewpoint, a digital route panorama is constructed from partial views at consecutive viewpoints along a path. A general approach to obtain such a complete route panorama is to use a line camera or slit camera mounted on a vehicle moving along the path smoothly. The camera scans temporal scenes in the side direction of the path and connect them to the spatial image. This is realized by a program that processes temporal image data or video data in a computer. The route panorama can extend to a long distance for indexing scenes and navigation on the Internet. The long image can further be transmitted to and be scrolled on computer screens or handheld devices as moving panorama for access of geospatial locations, navigation, georeferencing, etc.

Mathematically, the route panorama employs a parallel-and-perspective projection that is a continuous and extreme case of multi-perspective view to pixel lines. It may have the aspect ratio of an object different from what a normal perspective projection generates. In addition, a video camcorder is used to produce the route panorama by taking only one pixel line in the video frame at a time with the auto-exposure function of the camcorder and shaking removal function using the inter-frame matching.
If the depth of scenes from the path has a dominant layer, a route panorama can also be created on that layer by stitching discrete photos consecutively taken along the path  using Photomontage. Under the same circumstance, a dynamic slit selected in the video frame can generate a route panorama with less shape distortion.

I love the Panorama Route when we do a Private Kruger National Park tour the Panorama is one of my highlights its awesome!!

For more on the Panorama Route go to www.mufasabackpackers.com 

Kind Regards
Jana :)

Loving Africa by Jana Fourie: Namib Desert

Loving Africa by Jana Fourie: Namib Desert: The Namib Desert is often refered to as the world's oldest desert. Namibia, gets it's name from the Namib so it should come as no suprise...

Namib Desert

The Namib Desert is often refered to as the world's oldest desert. Namibia, gets it's name from the Namib so it should come as no suprise to discover that the entire western section of the country is comprised of the Namib. Of course the Namib spreads beyond the borders of Namibia and flows into southern Angola and the northern Cape Province of South Africa.
A section of the central Namib Desert incorporates The Namib Naukluft Park, one of the largest national parks in Africa, as well as the Naukluft Mountains. The park is a combination of the Namib Desert Park and the Naukluft Mountain Zebra Park as well as sections of the Diamond Area. The combined area is just under 50,000km² and main attractions are Sossusvlei, Sandwich Harbour and the Naukluft hiking and four wheel drive trails.
Sossusvlei is the one attraction that should not be missed while you are in Namibia; the dunes are amazing and even though this is a popular tourist destination it is still easy to gain a sense of solitude while climbing one of the dunes or walking to dead or hidden vlei. The Namib Desert section of the Namib-Naukluft Park also includes the Swakop and Kuiseb River Canyons.
The Namib Desert has a fascinating array of bizarre plant (and animal) adaptations, surviving in sand dunes of all shapes and sizes and vast gravel plains stretching for as far as the eye can see. With ephemeral rivers flowing unexpectedly, dunes, plains and rivers have all become vital components of the oldest desert on the planet, in existence for at least 43 million years.
Vegetation and wildlife are seemingly scarce in any desert and this is one of the most harshest environments in Namibia. Plant life in the Namib Desert can be defined as growing in the following areas:

For any desert exploring tours visit www.mufasabackpackers.com

Jana :)

History of Swaziland

The Swazis are a Bantu-speaking people who are predominantly Nguni in language and culture. They originate from east central Africa. As part of the Nguni expansion southwards, the Swazis crossed the Limpopo River and settled in southern Tongaland (today called Mozambique) in the late fifteenth century. Their leader was Dlamini, a man of Nguni background. After 200 years the Swazi people, still under a series of chiefs of the Dlamini clan moved into the region on the Pongola River, where they lived in close proximity to the Ndwandwe people. Later on, economic pressures of land shortage finally brought these two groups to blows, after which battle the Swazis retreated to the central area of modern Swaziland. Here the Swazis continued the process of expansion by conquering numerous small Sotho and Nguni speaking tribes to build up a large composite state today called Swaziland.


Modern Swazi History (1900 To Present)
In 1902, a victorious Britain declared Swaziland as "protectorate" (colony) under a Resident Commissioner, reporting to a High Commissioner in Pretoria.

The British applied their usual policy of indirect rule, leaving the monarchy and chieftaincy basically intact.

The British listed the chiefs and their "indunas" (lieutenants) in order to tax all adult males. Migrant labour had had a late start in Swaziland, in the 1890s, now it increased as men needed to pay tax.

In 1907, the British partitioned the land giving two thirds to white sellers and one third to the Swazis under their chiefs.

Sobhuza's grandmother, the Queen Regent Labotsibefli, was a formidable opponent of the British rulers. She sent Sobhuza to Lovedale School in the Cape.

Sobhuza was installed in 1921. To the British he was "Paramount Chief while to the Swazis he was king. In effect he was the head of the Swazi Nation for 47 years prior to independence.

In 1923 Sobhuza went to England to challenge the land partition but lost the case.

In 1941, the British requested help for the war effort, and Sobhuza approved the joining up of about 4,000 Swazi men who served in North Africa and Italy. After World War II, the economy was boosted, mostly by the first pine and sugar plantations.

In the early I 960s, as other African colonies regained their independence, Britain encouraged the formation of political parties. Sobhuza formed the "imbokodvo" ("grindstone") National Movement. The movement won all the seats in the first elections in 1967.

Swaziland regained its independence on 6 September 1968. It was the only state in black Africa ruled by the natural successors of the leadership of pre-colonial times.

In the second elections in 1973, the rival "Congress" party won three of the 18 seats. Sobhuza-in- Council then dissolved Parliament, repealed the Constitution and ruled by decree until 1978, when elections were held under the "Tinkhundla" (constituency) system.

King Sobhuza II then ruled as black Africa's only executive monarch until his death in 1982.

A supreme council of state ("Liqoqo") ruled the country for four years, while the Crown Prince, Makhosetive, finished high school in England. (Sherborne School, Dorset)

Makhosetive became King Mswati III in 1986.

In 1993, and 1998, secret ballot elections were held in a "no-party" state.

Swaziland is possibly unique in Africa as being 99% free of political violence. (One political death since independence.)