Tanga is the most important Tanzanian port after Dar and lies just south of the Kenyan border. Like Bagamoyo, it has an air of fading decadence about it, and would not feature in any travel guide were it not for the superb beaches which sprawl to the south of the town, and the vibrant night life that transforms the town after dark. It was here that a German expeditionary force led by Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck defeated a joint British and Indian landing force in 1914, aided and abetted by millions of angry bees whose hives had been destroyed by gunfire. The tragic, though comical consequences of that battle shaped the opening chapter of William Boyd’s contemporary novel, ‘An Ice Cream War’