Week 6.

Thursday 26th May.

Bill Gates bar.

We left Karen Camp at 8.15am to begin the gorilla loop. We wont be doing the gorilla trek, something we might one day regret but at US$500 each it was a big chunk of money we could really use elsewhere.
We stopped just down the road at the Crossroads shopping center in Karen to stock up on food, use the ATM's, get more US$. Its a nice group of shops but Karen it is a rich, white, expat area- so the shops are expensive. I went to the pharmacy and got some antibiotics to try and kill whatever tummy bug I've been fighting. Felt weird to be able to walk into a pharmacy and ask for antibiotics over the counter. Much easier than the usual having to find a doctor with available appointments, get to the appointment, get a script, then get to the pharmacy to get the antibiotics.

We grabbed a coffee at the cafe and waited for Kate and Geoff who were at the Australian Embassy organising new passports because theirs got bad water damage at Victoria Falls. Felix was also off at the Sudanese Embassy gathering information on what we will have to do to get entry visas. Also, Fiona was organising her passport to go back to England to get an Ethiopian visa so that she can extend to Egypt instead of finishing in Nairobi.

Once everyone was back we continued on. We reached the camp in the afternoon and set up our tents. I cant remember the name of the camp, or more honestly, I never bothered to find out the name of the camp, but their claim to fame- and claim it they did on every blank piece of wall- was that Bill Gates had stayed there once. It did have the most amazing bar ever, which we spent most of the night in. To get to the bar you had to walk down this rabbit hole type tunnel which opens up into this massive cavern type place with a stream running through it and little bridges connecting all the separated areas of the bar. We positioned ourselves next to the huge fireplace, which was actually what held the entire bar up. We ordered lots of munchies like poppadoms and potato bhujies. Alex, Aileen and Andrea were on cook group and made a yummy veggie stew/soup thing. After dinner most of us went back down to the awesome bar to chill out. It thundered and pissed down with rain for most of the night and I left Alex, Jimmy, Benne, Lars in the cavernous bar around midnight to go warm up in bed.

Friday 27th May.

Chck chck boom.

We were up at 7am and gone by 8am. Alex was pretty badly hungover so got into the truck and went straight back to sleep. We drove for a few hours until we reached the Ugandan border. We stamped out of Kenya and paid the US$50 for the Uganda visa. We changed some of our US$ into Ugandan Shillings with the dodgy guys that hang around all borders. Got a good rate with 2,200 shillings buying US$1.
We had a flat tire so stopped to fix that and stretch our legs on the side of the road. We crossed the dam wall over Lake Victoria which we were not allowed to take photos of because otherwise the security guards with AK47s would get mad. No argument, the camera was hidden away! I used to feel uncomfortable when a police officer would walk past me in the shops at home and I saw their gun, but I think its safe to say that after this I will be well and truly desensitized to this. It is common to see a security guard at the front of a shop, in a park, at a traffic light, or at an ATM with big shotguns or AK47s! I don't even flinch anymore! Crossing the dam wall we also had our first sighting of the great Nile River that we will be following all the way up to Cairo, Egypt.

We arrived at Red Chillie camp in Kampala, the capital of Uganda at 7pm, and after setting up our tent headed straight for the free wifi hot spot. That's right- Free! It was pretty slow uploading photos, but I managed to get over 20 up which I was happy with. Cook group made a soy mince pasta and we went to bed not too late.

Saturday 28th May.

Farewell Farron and Leigh (frowny face).

We left in the morning and were warned that we would try and drive as far as we could, so all settled in for a long day. It took all morning just to get to the outer limits of Kampala city, it was so big and busy.
Just before lunch time we pulled over on the side of the road and sat there for ages. No one was sure what was happening, but we figured it was a police checkpoint or something. Moving again we drove not too much further down the road and pulled into a service station. It was here that we found out that the reason we had stopped before was because Leigh had received a call from home that a family member of hers was very suddenly and unexpectedly ill. The service station we had pulled into was just outside of Entebbe Airport and Farron and Leigh caught a taxi to the international terminal and booked two tickets to London. We waited at the service station and had lunch, looking over the U.N. air base, again with lots of men with big arse guns walking around. When FarronFarron had organised us a place to stay and organised a replacement driver to be there either late the same night or early the next morning.

Dropping us off at the hotel and making sure we were all settled and comfortable and camping paid for, Farron and Leigh were saying goodbye and were on their way back to the airport to get a plane to London not 3 hours after receiving the call from home. It must have been a terribly awful, stressful time for Leigh, but I suppose it was good that we were just leaving Kampala and close to an international airport and not somewhere hours or days away from the airport.

We upgraded to a room with a bed and nice ensuite and then we all gathered at the bar and digested what had happened. It was weird not having Farron and Leigh around, and we were all hoping that Leigh was ok. Receiving news like that from home is everybody's worst nightmare and it was horrible to see someone we care about having to go through that.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around, watching Andrea sort out some of her stuff as her trip was ending, and sitting in the nearby internet cafe trying to figure out what we needed for the Rwanda visas. We were going to have dinner at the local bar but instead decided to have the fried rice that cook group had made. Alex also had some of the cheese fondue that Marcus cooked up- all the way from Switzerland. After dinner we went back to the local bar, I ordered a bowl of chicken and sweet corn soup, which I was really excited about because its my favourite soup and I haven't seen it before in Africa. We stayed for a few drinks and then walked home to get some rest.

We found out when we got back that Felix had received word that our driver would be flying in at 11.30pm and that we would be leaving at 6am in the morning. Fell asleep thinking about Farron and Leigh and wishing them all the best.

Sunday 29th May.

Camping in a 'hotel' in Kibale.

We were all up at 6am, briefly met our new South African driver Darny and settled in the truck. We instantly noticed the difference in driving styles between Darny and Farron- Couldn't help but notice them as we bounced around in the back of the truck, getting air (and whiplash) over some of the bigger bumps!
We stopped for breakfast at a cafe and craft store at about 10am. 100% of the proceeds went to children orphans of aids, so naturally I had to buy some souvenirs and bought a few necklaces made of tightly wound paper. We both got a really yummy chicken and avocado wrap and a coffee.

We made good time, thanks to Darny's light speed driving, and got to Kibale in the afternoon. Kibale is a medium sized town with one main dirt road running through it. we pulled into the 'hotel' that we would be staying at. I'm still not convinced that it was actually a hotel. Sure it had rooms along a hallway, and the rooms had beds and bathroom in it, but that was the only thing this place had in common with a hotel. There was not much grass and not even much concreted area so those that wanted to upgrade to the skanky looking rooms did, some people put up tents on the small patch of grass, and the rest of us set up home inside the weird scout hall building outside of the main building. BJ set up his tent inside the hall, and the rest of us just put our mats and sleeping bags on the floor. There was no running water in this building, so the owner opened up a ground floor room in the main building so that we could use the bathroom in it. It was comfy enough, and definitely the most interesting place we have stayed in so far.

We went to the Little Hilton just around the corner for a few drinks and afternoon snack. It was an upstairs bar so we could watch Kibale and the afternoon go by. We went to an internet cafe down the road to try and sort out the Rwandan visas, everywhere we looked gave us different information. We found out that Australians are required to apply online 3 days prior to entering the country... uh oh. We applied online and printed out the receipts. All we could do was hope that it would be enough. We had decided to spend 2 nights in Rwanda as we were not doing the gorilla trek and Kibale was nice enough, but not somewhere interesting enough to spend 2 nights.  I was on cook group, because our nights had been swapped, and we made hotdogs- cheap and easy!

Later on in the night Benne, Jimmy, Jan and Alex and I went to a local bar just across the alley from our 'hotel' where a local group was performing live. It was a small place with not very many people in it but it was cool music so we stayed for a few drinks and ended up dancing in front of the stage. I was getting ready to leave when much to my horror the guy with the microphone was walking our way. He was looking for someone to join him on stage and he was walking straight towards me. Instead of the ground swallowing me up like I wished it would, I found myself on stage with a microphone shoved in my face. I had no idea what the guy was singing and it appeared that it was my turn to sing the song, so I belted out a few lines of Waltzing Matilda. Embarrassment! It was fun though, and I lived through it. Not long after I finished my amazing performance we went back to the 'hotel' and got snuggled into our bed on the floor of the scout hall type place.

Monday 30th May.

Into beautiful Rwanda.

We were up early to pack what we wanted to take with us to Rwanda. All was quiet because most people had left to do the gorilla trek at 5am. We packed a day pack each and then our taxi arrived to take us and Jan to the border. Jan got his visa for free because he has a German passport, and I could have too on my British passport but I was too scared to try. Swapping passports around and getting exit stamps in both and then getting back into Uganda on the right one just sounded like a headache waiting to happen, so Alex and I both had to fork out US$60 to enter Rwanda. Luckily, the print out of the lodged online application form was good enough too. So, in Rwanda we found a taxi that would take us into town.

We got our taxi driver to drop us off at Hotel Des Milles Collines- of the Hotel Rwanda fame- as this was where we would be meeting Felix, Benne and Jimmy the next day. From there we walked the short distance into the main CBD area of Kigale. Kigale is a really busy, but really small city centered around a main roundabout, and almost everything was within walking distance. We changed some US$ into Rwandan Francs (600 francs = US$1) and struggled to get used to the third different currency and exchange rate in as many days. Then we wandered around town checking out different hotels looking for a good deal until we came across Auberge La Caverne, where we decided to stay.

Now might be a good time to mention that Rwanda is a french speaking country, and English is very limited so it was the biggest language barrier we have experience to date. They also drive on the other side of the road- so crossing the road was interesting (read: terrifying), and not something I ever got used to.

After having an afternoon nap and a nice hot shower we met Jan in the bar of Auberge La Caverne and made our way back up the hill. We found a really cool place called Bel Air which was on the second floor up some dark and dingy stairs. We sat on the balcony looking out at the main commercial street in Rwanda. We had a few drinks and ate some of the yummy samosas from the bar. After a while we decided to keep walking and explore the city a bit more, and ended up drinking and eating samosas at a lot of different places, and basically ate and drank our way back to our hotel by about 1am.

Tuesday 31st May.

Disclaimer:  Sensitivity warning... Not happy writings below.

We had a good sleep in and got up just in time to get the free brekky at the bar of omelet, toast and Rwandan coffee. We were meant to meet Benne, Jimmy and Felix at Hotel Rwanda, where Felix was splashing out and staying (for over US$200. Benne and Jimmy ended up staying at the same hotel as us) at 12, but there was some confusion and it got moved to 1pm- or so we thought. As we arrived there we met Benne and Jimmy who were just leaving because they had been waiting for ages, turns out we should have put our clocks forward an hour.

Sorting out our time issues we grabbed a beer in the very nice pool bar of hotel Rwanda and then- much to my horror- caught a motorbike taxi to the Genocide Memorial Museum. I. Hate. Motorbikes! By the time we got there, which was only about 5 minutes out of town but felt like a hour, my hands had cramped from holding on so tight.

Pulling myself together we went into the genocide museum.

It was heartbreaking. Horrible. Gut wrenching.

The brutality that was used was just unimaginable. Mothers were made to kill their own children, children were made to watch while their mother was brutally and repeatedly raped and their family tortured and murdered. Babies were burnt alive. Children were smashed against walls until dead. Others were buried alive. A lot of the violence was inflicted with blunt machetes, but pain and death were achieved by any means possible. Friends brutally killed friends, neighbours killed neighbours, families killed families.

In 100 days over a million people died, about 20% of the population. The world retreated and just sat back and watched it happen. The UN had 5,500 soldiers evacuate white people from the area and the sick thing is that it would have taken only 5,000 to stop the genocide had their man power been used properly. And to think this only happened in 1994. Such recent history.

The hardest part of the museum for me was the exhibit that had photos of some of the children that were killed and underneath the photo a description of the child, their favourite food, their favourite colour, their last spoken words, and how they were murdered. Some were bludgeoned to death, some burnt alive, some smashed against walls, some buried alive, some drowned in human waste. There are over 250,000 people buried in mass graves in the gardens of the memorial museum and fresh flowers are still placed there. A lot of people were never identified because there was no one alive to identify them.

There was a public radio station broadcasting during the genocide that openly promoted the killing of the Tutsi people by the Hutu people. In some instances there were priests that lured their congregation into their church, locked the doors and watched as the building was bulldozed, or while the people were raped, tortured and murdered over many days. When aide finally arrived it went straight to the many refugee camps, but none reached those left behind in the city. They were just left to die.

When we all met at the front of the museum, we sat there in silence for at least 15 minutes. We couldn't speak. It felt different walking down the street and mingling with the people that this happened to only 17 short years ago. Every single person here experienced the genocide in one way or another. They were either victims of violence and torture, lost family and friends, killed someone, or were child soldiers. There was no long term psychological help offered, and it is just now that the women who were purposely raped by a known HIV+ male are starting to suffer from the disease they were left with.

And yet, this is by far the friendliest country we have visited to date.

We caught motorbike taxis back into town and went to our hotel to have a quiet drink and took time to reflect on and digest all that we had learnt. We also discovered, after some confusion that we were meant to have put our clocks back and hour, not forward. So we were sitting there thinking it was 6pm, when in fact it was only 4pm. At night we went back to Bel Air and then found different places to drink.

Wednesday 1st June.

Hungover  in Hotel Des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda).

I woke up feeling really sick from drinking way too much vodka the night before. Felix had invited us to hotel Rwanda for a big buffet breakfast on him. I was so upset because all I managed to stomach was some fresh pineapple. After breakfast Jimmy met up with us and we were all going to visit the memorial churches about 30kms outside of town, where more unspeakable horrors happened during the genocide. People went to these churches where they thought they would be safe, but instead it turned into a blood bath. In some instances, people were waiting 2-3 days to be killed while they could do nothing else but sit and watch while everyone around them was systematically tortured and killed one by one. Madness.

We had no luck finding a taxi big enough to take all 5 of us, and in the end Felix, Jimmy and Jan jumped on motorbike taxis. I found the motorbike taxis hard to stomach the previous day and I wasn't horrendously hung over then. We decided to skip the churches and instead went to the internet cafe just down the hill. We bumped into Benne at the cafe and I got to chat with mum and dad on facebook which was really nice and we had a nice lunch.

We all met up again a few hours later at hotel Rwanda where we had organised a minivan taxi to pick us up and drive us over the border all the way to Lake Bunyonyi where everyone else was. We paid the US$25 each to get back into Uganda, and remembered to wind our clocks forward an hour, meaning that we arrived at Lake Bunyonyi just in time for an early dinner. We upgraded to a tent (I know what your thinking- but it was a nice, permanent structure kind of tent) with two king single beds, a light, and the most magical view of one of the deepest lakes in Africa. We also got the room, I mean tent, cheaper because they thought only Alex was staying in there. We had a few drinks (only lemonade for me) at the bar and caught up with everyone and heard their gorillas in the mist tales, then went to bed feeling tired from the emotional time in Rwanda but at the same time better for knowing more about it. It is such an unimaginable thing that happened, we must learn about it so that we can learn from it and prevent it from ever happening again. It also gives credit due to those that went through it, it just wouldn't be right if we ignored that it ever happened and didn't try to learn about it.

Week 5

Thursday 19th May.

Nmemba Atoll

I didn't sleep very well because of the 3rd degree burns I got while swimming with the dolphins yesturday- well, at least it feelt that bad. We all met at the brekky table at 8am to go snorkeling with the turtle sanctuary people. We were met by one of the staff and walked down to our beach where the boat was waiting for us, and had to wade out to meet it. There was us, Jan, Benne, Jimmy, Sheri, Jerome, Andrea, Emma, Fiona, Marcus, and Aileen- who has learnt how to swim while on this trip! There were also 8 other people on the boat.

It was about a 2 hour boat ride out to the Nmemba Atoll where we would be snorkelling. The Atoll is a shallow reef surrounding a small island. The island itself has accomodation on it but we were not even allowed to set our flippers down on it. The accomodation starts at US$3,000 a night and you have to pay US$100 just to set foot on it if you want to visit!  Needless to say we didn't go check out the island!
The coral was nice and the water was the most perfect temperature. There were heaps of different colourful types of fish and we had a disposable waterproof camera with us so we took a few photos. Time will tell if they turned out ok or not. When we were all done swimming we got back on the boat and were taken across to the mainland directly across from the atoll where the staff had prepared lunch for us. We had king makerel with rice and some fresh fruit to finish off. The makerel was delicious. After chilling out for a bit and going for another quick dip in the water we boarded the boat again to begin the slow journey home. And I mean slow... for some reason unknown to us, they decided to try and sail back instead of using the engine. Only problem was there was next to no wind.... Hmmmm.  After about two hours they finally decided to turn on the motor and we finally made it back to our beach.  TIA. Another awesome day for US$20.

The water was irrisistable so I went for another swim and Alex went to get his fishing gear as he had managed to organise while we were snorkelling that the captains brother would take him out in the afternoon. Gotta give him points for determination! He got back a few hours later.... without any fish.... Gotta give him points for determination! They did however loose a fishing rod to some mysterious and massive fish, luckily it wasn't Alex's rod.  For dinner a group of us went down to another restaurant on the beach and had more seafood and more cocktails. Another awful day in paradise.

Friday 20th May.

The gods must be crazy.

We were picked up at 8am by the same mini van and driven back to Stonetown, arriving by 10am. We didn't have to meet for the ferry until midday, so had a good two hours to do more exploring of this eclectic place. I really love Stonetown. It is my favourite place so far. The people are friendly, the town itself if a wonderful labrynth of stone alleys, there is an interesting mix of cultures, and need i mention the food! It is where the Africa you see on the National Geographic Channel meets the Middle East. We will definatley be coming back here in the future.

We spent the two hours organising US$ for the serengeti (again or still, I cant tell anymore), wondering through the labrynth, we grabbed some lunch, and I bought a heap of really nice scarfs for me and for gifts, I got 4 for 10,000 shillings (US$6.60, or about US$1.60 each).

It was a comfortable ferry ride back to Dar Es Salaam. They were playing 'The Gods Must Be Crazy I and II', which was a perfect choice of movie, and one that a lot of people in our group had never seen or heard of. Farron was at the terminal to greet us when we arrived and we all made our way back to camp. Some people chose to walk to the other ferry and get a taxi on the other side, we jumped in a maxi-taxi with Janet, Sheri, Wil, Fiona, Marcus, Lars, and BJ. Bad decision. What should have been a 30 minute drive and ferry crossing turned into an arduous 2 hours drive. Our taxi driver thought he could sneak up the side of the que and push in front of someone, but was caught doing this by the traffic police at the ferry crossing. The female officer told him he had to turn around and go to the end of the quem, so he tried to bribe her to let us in. Well, this just pissed her off. She was not going to let us squeeze in. After sitting there for what felt like an eternity our driver finally realised that she wasnt going to change her mind and started reversing back down towards the start of the massive, peak hour congested, line of cars. He only reversed far enough though to be out of the traffice police's line of vision, got out of the taxi, and walked up and down the line of vehicles until he found one guy who accepted the bribe to allow us in front of him for cash. Finally in the line for the ferry we had to wait for 3 or 4 to come and go before we got on. From there it was a quick journey back to camp.

We were told that we would be leaving at 4am so make a quick dash to the bar to organise an upgrade so that we wouldnt have to get up at 3.30am to pack up our tent. The upgrade was awesome, Alex said it was his favourite upgrade so far. It was a little tree house/bungalow type thing with two mattresses on the floor and a big mozzie net over both of them. It also had a power socket so we were able to charge everything. It was also an excellent price, only setting us back 16,000 shillings- thats US$10.70- not each, total!
We chose to skip the cooks groups past dinner and ordered from the bar. Alex got a chicken schnitzel and I had a steak, both for about 10,000 shillings each (US$6.60). We went to bed early and set our alarm for 3.45am. Yuk.

Saturday 21st May.

Happy birthday to my brother!!!

We left the campsite at 4am as planned, got settled in our new, replacement, temporary home and fell back to sleep. The replacement truck is much smaller than our home and the seats are all inward facing and much more uncomfortable. There is no locker space downstairs so everything we own has to be stored in the 'loungeroom' with us. So now all of our big packs are under the loungeroom floor, and everything else- our day packs, sleeping mats, sleeping bag, pillows, pantry's, books- are stored under our seats and above our heads. I am a fan of the overhead storage because it is easier to get to the things that are there, but it is a pain having things under the floor because if you need to get anything you first need to get everyone to move. At least its only for a few weeks then we will have our home back.

It is strange how a big green truck can feel like home, and how attached and comfortable we have gotten with it in just 5 weeks, but it really is like our home and we will be glad to have it back.
We pulled over on the side of the road somewhere that looked like a good pee spot and cook group also brought out breakfast. We had fresh local pineapple and watermelon and the usualy cereal and bread was there too. Tanzania has the juciest, yummiest, freshest, sweetest pineapple I have ever tasted!

We stopped again at 11.30am for a stretch and toilet. It is going to be a long drive day as we make a dash for Arusha, Tanzania's capital. We stopped for lunch at a small town surrounded by towering mountains and got some meat and chips from a roadside stall, of which there are always at least 10 in a row all selling the same thing. Back on the road again, it wasn't too long after lunch we pulled over to admire our first sighting of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is such a beautiful, gigantic mountain, and I stood there thinking about my brother, on his birthday admiring the mountain he climbed a few years ago.

We stopped at 5pm in a town to do cook group shopping. Being Saturday night, Felix and Marcus and I were cooking. Farron asked if we could try and use as much as we could from the truck so we bought some mince meat and some veggies. We didn't end up getting to the Snake Park Camp in Arusha until 9pm, whipped up a potato and pumpkin mash with the meat side for the carnivours and a bean side for the herbivours. After dinner we had to pack what we wanted to take to the Serengeti and then it was straight to bed.

Sunday 22nd May. 

To the Serengeti.

The safari cars arrived to pick us up at 8am as planned, we all paid and got settled into one of the three 9 seater 4WDs. We were in a car with Tony, Wil, BJ, Benne and Jimmy. The drive to the Serengeti National Park was really pretty and on the way we passed through lots of Masaai villages and Masaai warriors hearding thier cattle and goats. We stopped in a town along the way where the staff were picking up food to cook us dinners and breakfasts for the next two nights.

At lunch time we pulled over at a nice picnic spot overlooking the Ngorogoro Crater where we ate our packed lunch consisting of bread, chicken pieces, peanuts, a banana, a carrot, a juice box, some cheese and a muffin. Gotta love a good packed lunch. We saw our first Maribu Stalk while eating lunch. They are the ugliest birds on the planet. They look like they really pissed evolution and mother nature off somehow. Another way to describe them is 'The bird that time forgot'. They also seem to have absolutley no idea how big or how ugly they are. They stand over a meter tall, with thier head easily reaching my chest. And yet, this one Maribu Stalk looked like it was trying to sneak around us- like we wouldnt notice it if it moved real slow and steady.  There was also a wild pig that was after some food and charged at a few people. All in all an interesting lunch packed full with wildlife- a sign of things to come?!!

On the road again we reached the gates to the Serengeti National Park in the early afternoon. The plan was to have a game drive on the way to the camp site we weould be staying at for one night. We saw heaps of animals, and as I sit here writing this I'm having trouble remembering what we saw on what day (it's June now). We got to the camp at sunset and we set about putting our tents up while the staff started dinner. The camp was really basic with a toilet block that had one male toilet and one female toilet only, plently of space for our tents, a fire pit that we sat around, and a cooking area that was fenced off. You could see places in the fence where animals tried to break in because the wire was all bent out of shape.

Dinner was a nice local meat dish with rice and fruit to finish. We stayed up and had a few drinks around the fire, but were pretty tired after being in the car all day so went to bed reasonably early. We had to do 'toilet buddies' and wake each other up if we needed the bathroom in the middle of the night because we needed to be really careful of all the wild animals. We heard hyena over night but had no visitors to the camp area.

Monday 23rd May.

Safari in the Serengeti.

We were up early to have a quick breakfast before leaving for our morning game drive. We saw everything you could hope to see on a safari in the Serengeti. We saw so many different types of antelope, countless baboon, zebra, giraffe, water buffalo, lion, hyena, jackal, leopard! I'll let the photos do most of the talking because I think they will describe it better than I could.

We went back to camp to pack up our tents while the staff prepared lunch for us. After lunch we piled back into the cars to go on our afternoon game drive.
We got to our camp in the afternoon on the rim of the Ngorogoro Crater and set up our tent. I was feeling really ill so slept all afternoon and night, hence, not much to report.

Tuesday 24th May.

Ngorogoro and Maasai Market.

We woke up early for the morning game drive through the crater. It was a cold and rainy morning with a heavy fog settled over the crater. As we drove down into the crater we broke through the fog cover, it was a sureal sight driving into a gigantic bowl surrounded by mountains with a fog cover as a roof. The fog looked like waves racing up the side of the crater. Beautiful.

Getting to the bottom of the crater we first came upon water buffalo standing in front of a small lake that had pink flamingoes in it. Once again, we saw too many animals to list so I'll leave it up to your imagination. The only thing we didn't see that we were really hopeing to was a male lion with a big fluffy mane. Sigh. I suppose we shouldn't complain.

After lunch we headed out of the crater and started the drive back to the snake park. Once there we set up our tents, thanked our guides, got a beer and walked through the area behind the bar where the turtles, snakes and crocodiles were housed. We got to hold a tree snake that wrapped itself around my neck like a fancy necklace, and we also held a small baby crocodile. After playing with the reptiles we walked the short distance to the market just outside the camp. There were about 40 little mud and straw huts in a row with old Maasai women in them. I went into one after the after looking for the best price for the Maasai rugs, although I am sure they were all in kahootz with each other as the price was static and they weren't budging. I finally gave in and bought 4 Maasai rugs for 10,000 shillings each, about US$6.
Back to camp after a hard days work, cook group made hamburgers for dinner. I was STILL not feeling great so I didnt really eat and went to bed early.

Wednesday 25th May.

Lets go shopping for a Tanzanite...

We left the snake park in the morning and made our way to the Kenyan border. We stopped in Arusha, Tanzania to look at Tanzanites. There was a big cultural center and Farron had organised for the Tanzanite dealer to be there early in case anyone wanted to look at Tanzanites. Arusha is where Tanzanites are mined and they are estimating that the mines will be dry in about 7 years. I was first looking at the cheaper stones filled with imperfections, which I thought would make a nice souvaneir. Then Alex came up and told me to buy the nice perfect, princess cut Tanzanite. Ok then! He said that he was buying it for me and that I should have a perfect one. Also, the perfct ones will acrue value, especially when they are unable to mine for anymore, whereas the imperfect ones would not. So I ended up with a nice 0.48 carat, perfect, pricess cut Tanzanite! I walked out of there with a massive smile on my face and was unable to wipe it off for hours. My plan was to immediatley express post it home to mum and dad but the Tanzanite dealer told me not to do that under any circumstances, but rather to keep it with me, he said that if I posted it, I would most likely never see it again.

Moving on to the Kenyan border, we had a smooth crossing and arrived at Karen Camp in Nairobi in the afternoon. I tried to get on the internet but instead ended up having a nervous breakdown. After messing with net for over four hours and only managing to actually do things on the net for less than 30 minutes I went to bed in a bit of a mood. Then I was reminded about my beautiful Tanzanite and fell asleep with a smile on my face!

Week 4

Thursday 12th May.

Vicki the Pig.

Alex was up at 8am to go and watch our dinner get slaughtered with a few of the other guys. Her name was Vicki. It is a tradition for overlanders at Kande Beach to have a pig feast for dinner and Vicki was our pig. It sounded pretty horrific first meeting her alive and happy and then watching as she got stabbed in the heart by a local guy while she squealed away painfully. When she was dead the local removed her innings and gave Tony the liver and kidney for his lunch, he kept the trotters for himself and then he opened her up so that she could be tied to the rotisserie. It worked out that this was happening on Alex's cook group night by chance and he helped shave her, tie her to the metal pole, start the fire, put the apple in her mouth and baste her in cider.

She was put over the fire at about 10am and was turned every 45 minutes or so by who ever was around camp. While all this was happening I was in the reception building waiting for the internet cable so I could try and upload some photos, but after more than 2 hours of waiting in line I gave up and left.
We went for a swim in the lake before lunch. The water was the most perfect temperature and it felt so bizarre to me to be swimming and bodyboarding in the waves in a fresh water lake. Im usually not very comfortable around waves and I hate getting dunked in the ocean, but it was brilliant in the lake. No stinging eyes, no bad taste in my nose and mouth. I loved it and could have spent all day in there. When we got hungry we made our way to the restaurant and had a beef wrap for lunch.

Alex had organised to meet a local on the beach at 2pm so he could take us out to the island in his canoe. The canoe was carved out from a log just like the mokoro's in Botswana although this one had a really narrow opening. I only just fit in it and poor Alex had to twist his upper body sideways to get in. It looked so uncomfortable and so funny! Getting through the waves was interesting and I thought we were going to tip for sure, which scared me because we were both jammed in really tightly and I think we would have been stuck if the canoe had tipped. We made it past the break wthout incident though and cruised over to the island. When we got there we found Emma, Robin, Benne, Jimmy and Jerome chilling out in the water. They left on thier paddle boat a shor while later and we had the island to ourselves. We stayed in the water for ages and then Alex got out to have a walk around the island and give fishing a go. I stayed in the water for another hour or so and then got out to lay on the giant boulders and read my book and dry in the afternoon sun. When it came time to leave we squeezed back into the canoe and headed back for the mainland. Approaching the waves they looked much bigger from that angle and I started freaking out, thinking 'how the hell is this floating log going to get through those waves', but it was surprisingly smooth. The canoe just sailed through them and I think it was easier than getting out.

By the time we got back Alex had to go and start on dinner, cutting the pig into edible peices, prepare a vegitarian alternative and cook a side of potatos and vegies. I went back to reception to try and get on the internet again and this time the cable was free so I was able to use our laptop. I managed to upload weeks 1 and 2 of my blog but the internet was so, so, so slow that I wasn't able to upload any photos. Just after 7pm I headed back to camp and Alex, Andrea and Benne were still breaking down the pig, no easy feat but they did a great job. Vicki was delicious! I don't usually like pork but this was so tender and juicy and tasty. Me, Marcus and Felix were on clean up group and we really copped it because almost everything on the truck was dirty, so a few extra people jumped in and helped. After it was all sorted we headed down to the beach to watch the fireworks display compliments of Benne and Jimmy and thier $5 fireworks from a supermarket. A tiny fizzle and pop later and it was all over. There was a fire on the beach and we sat around it playing Malawi Bao for a while before heading to bed.

Friday 13th May.

Shop-a-holic.

We left Kande Beach at 9am and drove for 45 minutes until we reached a big wood carving market on the side of the road. We bought two mini mokoro canoe boats that came with little spoons, perfect for salt and pepper, for 500 Kwacha and a red pen (about US$3.50). We also splurged and bought a wooden table, beautifully hand carved with the Big 5 on one side and the Malawi Bao game on the other. It cost us US$40 and a jacket of Alex's, but it is worth every cent. You can see the amount of work that went into making it. We set it up on the truck when we started driving again and played a Bao tournament with a few other people.

We drove a little further and stopped in a town called Mzuzu. We had a really yummy beef stew and chips for the extortianate price of 350 Kwacha (just over US$2) and bought two nice paintings on canvas from a guy on the street. We had agreed on 1,300 Kwacha, but when I went to pay him I discovered I didnt actually have that much on me. We ended up getting them for the cash I had on me which was 1,060 kwacha, an old fishing magazine, a packet of biscuits, and a cigarette.Shopping for souvaniers is easy here because the local see this giant green truck enter the town and rush towards it with all that they have, the shops come to you!

We reached our campsite at about 4.30 and myself, Emma and Andrea and Fiona went straight out to the market set up on the other side of the gates. I was after a little wooden chair to match our Bao table and after looking in every stall I found the one I wanted. I didnt count on the 12 year old sales boy being such a hard sell though. He kept on giving me the puppy dig eyes, which I'm a sucker for, and was not budging on the price. After what seemed like a long time we agreed on US$17 and a t-shirt of mine. Hapy with my purchase I went to head back to camp and found Alex and Andrea at the gates of the campsite surrounded by locals. Alex was having a good old laugh with them, they absolutley loved him. We got 3 necklaces with a wooden pendant in the shape of Africa for 500 Kwacha and the two t-shirts I had left to trade. Bargain.
We went back in and I dropped our goods in the truck and made my way to the bar for a hard earned drink. There was wifi internet at the bar which was faster than we have seen in ages, but still not fast enough to upload photos. We also upgraded to a sweet little tent/bungalow/treehouse thing for US$12. We have been nicknamed "upgrade" and are getting quite a reputation, but we figure while its cheap and available- why not!?

Farron warned us that the next two days will be long drive days because we are going to fang it through southern Tanzania so we can get to Zanzibar on Monday.

Saturday 14th May.

Tanzania, where the mountains meet the sky.

We had brekky at 5.30am and were on the road by 6.30am. We reached the Tanzania border a short 2 hours later. Got stamped out of Malawi quick and easy. Farron found a little chameleon sitting in the middle of the road at the busy border crossing so he brought it up to us to adopt until we find a suitable home for him. We crossed no mans land to the entrance to Tanzania and Farron and Felix collected everyone's passports and US$50 each (except for Americans who had to pay US$100). Apparently Tanzania doesnt care much for big crowds and are quite happy to let people into thier country without seeing them, so we waited in the truck while Farron and Felix took all the passports to get visas and entry stamps.

The scenery in Tanzania was instantly different to that of Malawi, and it is the most striking and beautiful so far. For the first few hours we ascended a great mountain range that reached a height of 2,300 meters above sea level, thats higher than the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. There were banana and tea plantations as far as the eye could see and it was all so lush and green and fresh. I was thinking to myself that these two long drive days will be great if we keep getting scenery like this!

We stopped for lunch and cook group shopping at a town along the way and finally got to do our shopping in a local food market rather than a supermarket. It was so much fun. Felix, Marcus and I got some fresh, locally grown tomatos, eggplants, capsicums, parsley, onions and garlic for a pasta sauce. And Alex and I grabbed some fried meat and chips for lunch.

On the road again we continued on for a while until Farron stopped so we could have a pee break. This spot was also deemed a suitable new home for our little chameon friend. We finally reached the campsite at 7.30pm and Marcus, Felix and I set about cooking dinner while Alex set up our tent.

Sunday 15th May.

Chaotic Dar Es Salaam.

I was up at 5am to get breakfast prepared. We layed out the cereal and spreads, mixed the powdered milk and mashed some bananas for toast. I haven't eaten bananas since I was a kid because the sound of other people eating them made me feel sick, but I decided it was time to get over it and start eating them again, especially now they are so fresh and in such abundance. So I did- mission accomplished!

We were on the road by 6.30am and most of us fell back to sleep as soon as the truck started moving. We drove all day to reach our camp site Mikardi Beach in Dar Es Salaam. Tanzania has the most stunning landscape. There are green rolling hills, gigantic ancient mountains that meet the sky, plantations of banana, pineapple, tea, casava, rice and so much more. We drove through what is known as Baobab Valley where- you guessed it- there were thousands of the grand trees. This may sound silly, but they have the same presence about them as elephants do- great, grand, ancient, and wise.

We stopped for lunch in a national park that Leigh used to live and work at, she had contacted them and organised us entry and lunch for 10,000 tanzanian shillings each (US$6.60). We sat there eating our toastie and chips while watching elephants and buffalo graze, it was a really nice spot to stop.

At about 4.30pm we stopped at a town for a pee break and to grab a cold drink if we wanted and it was estimated that the campsite was about 2 hours away. That probably would have been acurate if it wasn't for the scene of chaos that was Dar Es Salaam. We didnt end up getting to the campsite until after 9.30pm, it was just crazy. Every street we turned down we were met with a traffic jam, hundreds of thousands of people walking around, selling stuff from stalls, cooking on the side of the road. The smells of Dar alternated between fried meat, burning rubbish, grilled banana, raw sewerage. At one stage, while the truck was driving slowly, a guy jumped on and somehow managed to rip off the battery cover and run away with it! Another guy tried to grab the air filter. Chaos! We had a few of the guys walking alongside the truck to deter anymore theiving, the rest of us were hanging out the windows and Janet was holding the broom stick as a deterant. Farron did an amazing job getting the truck (and us), almost fully in tact, through that craziness.

Once at the campsite we set up our tents and cook group began preparing dinner, a soya mince chilli con carne type thing. We had been pre-warned about how dangerous Dar could be, and that if we left the campsite with anything more that the clothes on our backs we were begging to be mugged. All around the campsite were signs that read "Inside camp=safe, Outside camp=NOT SAFE. This is not a joke".
The reason we were so safe inside the camp, that had its own little beach, was due to the fact that there were Masaai Warriers protecting it. Apparently they are the best you can get when it comes to protection and security because no one messes with a Masaai! Dar seems like a totally manic city with as much character as crime.

After dinner we began packing for our days away on Zanzibar. We were meant to be catching the early ferry, but seeing as we got in later than expected Farron changed it so that we were leaving at 10am and getting the midday ferry. In the morning we also have to empty out our truck and put eveything into a replacement truck, because ours is going in to the workshop for a service and a little TLC.
It was Robin and Carol's last night with us so when everything was organised we went to the bar for a few drinks. We were super tired though, so didnt stay for long before we retired for the night.

Monday 16th May.

Hello Stonetown.

We were up at 8am to move all of our earthly belongings into our replacement home before the taxis arrived at 10am. Everyone was coming to Zanzibar except for Carol and Robin who's journey had ended, and Tony, Farron and Leigh who have all been to Zanzibar before and decided to stay on the mainland.

We piled into the taxis and began our journey to Zanzibar. We had to drive onto a ferry that would take us across the bay to where the ferry for Zanzibar leaves from. Getting back out into Dar it was just as chaotic as it was last night. There are people everywhere and they are all selling something. The majority of people here are muslim and it is interesting to see women walking around in birkas with everything but thier eyes covered, and others with a cloth covering thier hair. We have also heard the call for prayer a few times. It has such a different atmosphere to Malawi and anywhere else we have been so far, kind of stuck between Africa and the Middle East.

Once at the ferry terminal for Zanzibar we had an hour to wait, so Alex used the time getting a hellova lot of local shillings out so that we can change it into US$ on Zanzibar. We need a lot of US$ because the Serengetti and Ngorogoro Crater is next and that has to be paid in US cash.

We got on the ferry and settled in for our 2.5 hour journey. Approaching Zanzibar the sky clouded over and the rain began to fall, and fall, and fall. Once at Zanzibar we had to go through the quasi border crossing and get our passport stamped. Although Zanzibar is a state of Tanzania, they seem to think they are thier own little country. They are governed by two presidents, the president of Tanzania and the president of Zanzibar, and two different parliaments. There are over 1 million people living on Zanzibar and 98% of them are muslim.

We were met at the 'border crossing' by farron's fixer Danny who walked us to our hotel, Safari Lodge. Getting there was interesting, we were following in single file down the labrynth of tiny alleyways that had turned into raging rivers because of the torrential rain. We were all saturated by the time we got to the hotel. After we all got our room keys Danny said to meet in the lobby in 15 minutes and he would take us on a quick tour of the town so that we could get our bearings. The rooms were really nice, each with a tv, ensuite and airconditioner. Farron had described them as basic, but I think he overestimates our standards.
Most of us met Danny in the lobby after drying off a little bit and we started walking the streets of Stonetown. I instantly fell in love with it. Danny pointed out building, places and trees that we could use as landmarks should we get lost in the alleyways. He also said that Stonetown is a safe town, although at nightime it would still be better to walk around in groups of at least 4 or more people. We split up and organised to meet at Africa House at 6pm. We spent the time changing our shillings into US$ and then made our way to Africa House, a nice hotel and restaurant overlooking the water. It is apparently the best place to watch the sunset from, but because of the heavy cloud cover we didnt get to see it. It was still lovely though.
After a few drink and some fresh calamari at Africa House we made our way to the night market to find dinner. Thankfully it had stopped raining so the nightmarket could happen. We walked around and looked at every stall, sipping on freshly squeezed suger cane juice. We got a huge plate of mixed seafood for dinner that had lobster, crab claw, kingfish, prawns, and bread fruit (yuk) on it. We also got a famouse Zanzibar pizza which was kind of like a calzone- but better! We had such a nice time eating the fresh seafood and mixing with the locals, and when we couldnt fit any more food in we made our way back to Africa House with a few people for drinks and strawberry flavoured shisha pipe.

Tuesday 17th May.

City and spice tour.

We met Danny in the lobby at 8am for our city and spice tour. Jerome, Emma and Aileen volunteered to stay behind and do all the running around that had to be done in order to organise our Egyption visas, which had to be done in Stonetown. We started at the hub of the slave trade market. We saw two of the dungeons where people used to be chained and kept until being sold or killed, there used to be 15 dungeons but only two remained. It felt cramped and claustrophobic being in there with only 15 or so of us, they used to keep close to 100 people in these little holes in the ground, starving to death in thier own waste. We were also taken to a building known as the House of Wonders and the old fort.

From there we were driven out to the spice fields for our spice tour, about 45 minutes outside of Stonetown. We got to see heaps of spices and fruit, got to see how they grow, and taste them in thier raw form. It was more interesting than I had expected it to be. We saw tumeric, anato seed, star fruit, cinamon (the bark of the tree is shaved and you have cinamon sticks, the root makes eucalyptus oil), nutmeg, breadfruit, banana (there are 22 varieties on the island), coffee bean, cassava, ylang ylang, green and black peppercorn, passionfruit, clove, jackfruit, ginger, lemongrass, durian, cocao, cardamom, vanilla pods, bay leaf, grapefruit, custard apple. Towards the end a guy climed up a huge coconut tree, barefoot, and got us some coconut which we drank and ate the flesh. When the tour was over we were given lots of different types of tea to try and had the oppertunity to buy small packets of spices. All of the satchets, with the exception of some mixed spices and saffron, were 1,000 Tanzanian shillings, which equals about US60cents (1,500 shillings= US$1). So naturally we bought heaps! Alex got lots of different types of spices and I got some banana tea (should be interesting) and vanilla tea, and banana coffee (I think I might be taking this "I eat bananas again" thing too far).

We went from there to the home of the spice tour guide, who's wife had prepared a cooked lunch for us. We walked in to thier home and the room at the front of the small house had a floor covering and was set up with plates, cutlery and glasses. We all sat on the floor and not long after lunch was brought out. We had pilau rice, coconut curry and fresh fruit. It was delicious, and so generous of them to welcome all of us strange muzungu's (white person/foreigner) into thier home. As we left we all left a small amount of money in the tip jar that was strategically placed by the front door, said asante sana (thankyou very much) and piled back into the van. By this stage, Jerome, Emma and Aileen had been picked up and brought to where we were as from here we were being taken straight to the beach we would be spending the next few nights. Not a bad day so far, especially considering thr city tour, spice tour, transport and lunch only cost us US$25 each!

It was a two hour drive to Nungwi Beach on the north of the island. We settled into our 'basic' (read: awsome) rooms with ensuite and then made our way to the beach, a whole 30 seconds away. We were blown away by how beautiful it was, everything I had imagined. The water was the most beautiful aqua colour and the white sand was so soft it felt like walking on talcom powder. It took Alex no more than 5 minutes to find someone willing to take him out fishing, so while he did that I made myself comfy at one of the bars and started drinking with some of the others. While Alex was gone, Felix asked if I wanted to go swimming with dolphins with him and Sheri the next day as he needed 3 or 4 people or the guy couldnt take him. Of course I said yes!

We stayed at the same bar all night, Alex returned sans fish, and we drank cocktails, ate seafood, and loved every second of it.

Wednesday 18th May.

Seafood bonanza!

Alex was gone at 6am to go fishing on a boat with Wil, Lars and BJ. I met Felix and Sheri at 8.30am to begin the 2.5 hour drive to the southern most point of Zanzibar. We jumped on a motor boat with two local guys and went in search of dolphins. It wasn't too long before we spotted some. The driver raced over to where the dolphins were swimming and we all got into our flippers and snorkles, ready to jump in. When we got close enough to the dolphins we all jumped off the side of the tinny boat and started swimming in the direction of the dolphins. Once the dolphins had moved away the boat came to get us, put a small ladder over the side and helped us up. This continued for the next two hours or so. The water was a lovely temperature, not cold at all, even out in the deep water we were swimming in. Felix saw dolphins from under the water on two seperate occasions, Sheri and I didn't see them from under the water at all, but it was still nice getting to be so close to them.

When it was close to lunch time we headed back towards shore. The driver stopped closer to shore so that we could jump out and have a bit of a snorkle around, we also spotted one more dolphin which was a nice surprise.

We got back to shore and had some lunch of rice, kingfish, coconut curry and fresh fruit and then started the long drive back to our beach on the north of the island. Again, not a bad day for US$40! We almost made it back but I had to stop for an emergency toilet stop. Aparently the curry was too rich for me. The driver was nice enough to rush me over to a school across the road, but the toilets were locked, so he ran up and asked some guy if we could use thier toilet! By this stage all of the school girls had gathered to see what was going on and why the strange white girl was running around thier school. After thanking the guy for kindly letting me use his house, we went back to the car and contiued on home. 99% of all of the toilets past Malawi are squat toilets and I have become quite and expert, apart from the smell I think I might actually prefer them (but dont hold me to that).

We got back to Nungwi Beach just in time to catch Alex, who had caught nothing on his fishing trip, as he was about to leave for the turtle aquarium. It was a short walk through the town and along the beach and when we got there Mark, Aileen, Andrea, and Jerome were swimming with the giant turtles and Alex jumped in too. While there we organised to go on a half day snorkelling trip with the guys from the turtle sanctuary for the next day.

We got back in time to head out for dinner with Jimmy, Benne, Jan, Felix, Mark, BJ, and Sheri. Some of the boys had eaten at this little place on the beach the night before and were heading back there again so it had to be good. We both got a whole, fresh lobster for 20,000 shillings (about US$13!!!), we also got some prawns and some tuna. All freshly caught and cooked. Im getting hungry again now just thinking about it. The lobster was so, so, so good and a highlight of our time on Zanzibar for me. We had a few more drinks and then headed back to bed.

Vicki the Pig.

Week 3

Thursday 5th May.
Victoria falls national park.

We slept in until 9am this morning, feeling fragile and tired but not as bad as I had expected. In the mid morning we caught a taxi with Benne, James and Mark to the Victoria Falls National Park and walked around for a few hours. We got so saturated that the raincoats were just a novelty after a few moments. It was incredible to stand that close to the falls. The power of them is really not something I can put into words. At times it was like someone was aiming a hose at your face but it was just the spray of the splash back from the falls. One bit of the park involved us walking over a tiny bridge over the canyon, and at this particular place the splashback was so strong it almost pushed me over, and the little foot bridge itself was like a waterfall. On the upper side of the falls there was a place you could touch the water, meters from where it dropped over the void, and we sat there a while with our feet in the water.

Back outside the gates to the park we had a wander through the market stalls, with guys yelling "looking is free", and "miss, I like your hair tie, we can trade". Again, there were baboons everywhere, just walking right next to you minding thier own business. We got a taxi back to Grubbies and grabbed our laptop and walked down the street to the bakery we had seen that advertised free wifi. But thier wifi wasn't working. So we caught a taxi to the other end of town, about 3 mnutes drive, to a cafe we had noticed the day before that also advertised free wifi. Thier wifi was working, kind of. After an hour, the facebook homepage had almost loaded. It was so slow that I was getting frustrated, so after a few hours and not managing to do anything other than post a new status update on facebook we gave up and went back to Grubbies.

The plan for the night was to go back to the pub and grill to have dinner and see the live music they had on. But still feeling fragile from the booze cruise, I really didnt feel like going to a pub, so Alex and I went to a seafood restaurant with Marcus and Fiona instead. It was a nice chill night with good food and company, exactly what the doctor ordered. Back at Grubbies as about 10pm, I made a quick and quiet exit and went straight to bed.

Friday 6th May.

T.I.A.

We left Grubbies at 9.30am. When we woke up for brekky the t-shirts we had ordered the day before had arrived. They are a bit dodgy, but it just makes them quirky and interesting. We each got a t-shirt with our overland routes printed on a map of Africa on the back, Africa 2011 on the front, and the flags of each country we visit on the sleeves. For instance, Alex and I got 'Cape Town-Cairo', others got 'Cape Town-Isanbul'(spelt Istambul- one of the little quirks I was talking about), others got 'Marrakesh-Nairobi', and the real nutters got 'Marrakesh-Istambul'. Another little quirk is the flags on the sleeves. They are hand painted on some dodgy computer program, smudged, innacurate and half are just blank squares of colour. TIA (This Is Africa) as they say.

There was also the oppertunity to swap cook groups in the morning. I didn't really mind staying with Wil and Lars, but thought it a good oppertunity to get to know other people better so I wrote my name on the piece of paper under a different day which was blank. I figured I'd see who ended up in my group rather than choose one. In the end Felix and Marcus ended up in my group. The new A Team! I now cook on Saturday night, clean up after Alex (typical), Aileen and Andrea, but cant remeber what day we are security. I think it was a good thing to change it up a bit and have the oppertunity to work with and get to know others on the trip.

We drove 470kms all day, stopping for bush pee breaks every few hours, lunch, and firewood collection. We arrived at Eureka Camp just before Zambia's capitol, Lusaka at 5.30pm. Cook group made sauerkraut with a curried potato and sausage thing.

Saturday 7th May.

Drive day.

We left at 7.30am this morning because we had 560kms to drive. We stopped on the side of the road for lunch, stopped for cook group shopping, and stopped for a few pee breaks, and made it to Muma Rula's Campsite, Chipata, Zambia. Just out the front of the camp grounds there were zebras munching on grass.
It was my cook group night and we made a chow mein type dish which was another big hit. There was no internet at Muma Rula's but there was a bar. And in that bar was a small television. We were like moths to a flame and sat there most of the night watching Japanese game shows and then movies.

Sunday 8th May.

Hungry hungry hippo.

I was up early with Felix and Marcus to get breakfast prepared. We had a heap of fried potatos that werent used for dinner the previous night, so we added scrambled eggs and onion and made a bubble'n'squeek. We also mashed up a heap of avocados for guacamole toast. Yum!

We stopped at the shops in town to do cook group shopping and get lunch. I wasn't feeling to good for the second day in a row, having bad stomach cramps every time I ate or drank anything, so I stayed in the truck and slept. We arrived at Croc Valley Camp at 4.30pm, haven driven only 140kms. Bad roads can make short drive days into long ones.

Croc Valley is on the Luangwa River and on the opposite shore to the Luangwa national park. In the middle of the river there is a large sandbank with hippos and crocodiles sunbaking on it. Mere meters away from us on the shore! There were also vervet monkeys and baboons walking around camp and so we had to make sure that we left nothing lying around and the truck sides had to be done up tight. We were warned that hippos regularly came up on our side of the river to graze on the grass at night, in addition to any other animals that may wander across from the national park. We were told to be aware of this if we got up to go to the toilet and to look around and make sure it was safe to leave the tent. It was also pointed out that the swimming pool had slopped sides so that the hippos could get out again should they decide to go for a swim, because they are so aggressive they would not be able to be saved but instead would have to be put down if they got stuck. I was really hoping to see a hippo in the pool, or at least hear them grazing over night but knew my chances were slim as both Alex and I sleep through almost anything.

We set up tent and then grabbed a drink and sat watching the hippos sunning themselves for a while. I still wasn't feeling great so had an afternoon nap from 6-8.30pm, waking just in time to have a shower and grab some goat curry curtosy of Tony and his cook group. It was deeeeelicious. Not long after dinner we went to bed and curled up to watch an Indiana Jones movie on the laptop, of which I saw about 10 minutes of before I fell asleep.

Monday 9th May.

R.I.P. Kindle.

No exciting hippo action to report. Leigh heard them grazing near thier tent at some point overnight but we of course slept right through it. Some of the crew were doing a morning game drive through the national park but we decided to save some money and have a sleep in instead. We got up at about 8.30am (thats right, I now consider that a sleep in!) and went to the bar for a cooked breakfast and then spent the remainder of the morning watching the hippos and crocs, lying in hammocks and reading, and I went for a swim in the hippo friendly pool.

I finally managed to get on the internet as well. There was no wifi but there was a computer in the study of the owners house that you could use. Mum and dad were on facebook and I had a good chat with them. Hopefully we will find good internet in Malawi so we can organise a skype date. So, all in all, a fabulous day.
Then disater struck.

While I was having a quick swim in the hippo enabled pool I left my kindle e-book in its case, under a towel and some clothes and it died. Devestated. It seems that it got too hot, even though it wasn't in direct sunlight and it was only sitting there for a short while. I now have 87 books that I was really excited about reading sitting on my amazon account and no kindle to read them with. Worst. Thing. Ever.
Most of us were doing the night game drive and were picked up at 4.30pm. At least it got my mind off the loss of my kindle.

The game drive was brilliant. This is apparently the only national park that has night drives so its a pretty cool oppertunity. Before the sun set we saw two female lions sleeping right next to the track, one of them appeared to be pregnant too. We also saw more hippo, impala, cudu (yummy yummy), other types of antelope, and zebra. We stopped along the river to watch the sunset and have a snack of popcorn, peanuts and cordial. After sunset we took off again, this time on the hunt for leaopard. We were not dissapointed. We saw a leopard right alongside the 4wd, it is such a beautiful, graceful animal. We also saw lots more impala, too many hippo to count, a hyena, an elephant shrew (one of the small 5), a type of mongoose, and a hare. It was a really good night, and really cheap, only costing us US$40 each for the drive and $25 for park entry. Worth every cent and much more. When we got back to camp we ate a late dinner of sandwhiches and salad prepared earlier by the cook group, had a few drinks and went to bed hoping for some hippo action.

Tuesday 10th May.

G'day Malawi.

We decided yesterday arfternoon to upgrade to what was described as a dorm room. Dorm room- doesn't sound too interesting does it... this dorm room however was like a private little tree house with an outdoor open bush bathroom. It was really nice. We also got a bit of a sleep in because we didn't have to pack up our tent, having taken care of that yesterday. We are in for another relativley big day because we have to go back down the same bad road to Chipata to make our way to the Malawi border, 250kms from Croc Valley.

We stopped in town just down the road from Croc Valley for a tour of a textile factory that Farron had organised for us. It was far more interesting than I had expected it to be. It was a small factory, with wooden benches in rows under a tin roof building with no walls. The process of printing material was broken down into stages, everything is done by hand and everyone is a master of thier trade. Interesting to see how things were done pre-industrialisation, pre-conveyor belt era. The material started at the preperation bench, then went to the starch bench where the patterns were painted on, then to the painter, who got the paint colours mixed by the paint mixers, then to the cooker, then to the washers, then to the scrapers who scraped off the remaining starch and so on. They had a shop there selling some of thier merchandise and it was really beautiful stuff, but also very very expensive with tshirts costing US$35 and bags were $50, so we didnt buy anything. I did get a cute mobile for my nephews/neices currently cooking in my sisters belly from one of the local market stores out the front of the factory.

Farron had been talking to some locals while we were shopping and they told him about another road that will get us where we were going and may be a bit better in quality. He decided to go for it, it could shave off some of the travel time- or could backfire. We thought the plan had backfired judging by the quality of the road at the start, but it quickly improved. It still wasnt great, but it was slightly better.

It was a smooth border crossing for most of us. Actually for everyone except for Marcus. The poor fella has had a rough time with entry visas because he is swiss. Go figure. He had to leave the truck in Ghana and fly straight to Cape Town and wait for the truck to catch up with him months later due to not being able to get visas. Again at Malawi he had problems getting the visa issued and he has to report to the immigration office first thing in the morning. If all goes well he will get a visa. If all goes wrong he may have to fly back to Harare, Zimbabwe to get a visa or fly over Malawi and meet us in the next country.

We got to Mabuya Camp in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. We had just set up our tent when we found out we could get a room for under US$12, so naturally the tent went down again and we got a room. There was meant to be wifi but it wasn't working. Cook group made spag bol and we went to bed pretty early.

Wednesday 11th May.

Malawi Bao.

We met Marcus and Fiona at the immigration office in the morning. All had gone well, he was in the country and had a visa. We were on the road by 10am headed for lake Malawi. We stopped in a small town that had food stalls along the roadside for lunch and got goat and potato chips fried in animal fat and sprinkled with a bit of salt. Yuuuuuum! And it cost only 70 Malawi Kwacha which is lunch for under a dollar (150 kwacha = US$1).

We got to Kande Beach in the afternoon and a bunch of us all raced to reception to see about upgrades. May as well while we can. We ended up getting a bungalow right on the sand for US$40 for both nights, $10 each a night... not bad I say!

Lake Malaw is so beautiful. The water goes beyond the horizon and it is a beautiful blue colour. Right our from our beach about 800 meters there is a little island as well. The lake is also so big that it has currents, a small tide, and pretty big waves. I had to continually remind myself that it is actually a fresh water lake and not the beach. The only thing that it was missing was the salty beach smell. Apart from that you couldn't tell the difference.

With our room sorted, the only thing left to do was grab a beer and sit and admire the view and listen to the waves lap the shore. Another horrible day in the office.
Farron and Leigh made a nice vegitable curry for dinner and we met some locals on the beach that invited us to a bonfire they were having just on the next beach along. After dinner we made our way there with Benne, Jimmy, Jerome, Aileen, Felix, Emma, and Lars and BJ turned up later. We spent the night drinking and dancing to the music they were singing. We also learnt how to play the Malawi Bao Game, a game kind of like backgammon palyed with rocks found on the beach. The young guy who was teaching me how to play said that he makes Bao game boards out of wood so they can be folded over and latched shut. Perfect for travelling. I tild him that if he beat me at the game I would buy one off him. I would have bought one anyway but it was fun chalenging him. He was a really nice 17 year old kid who was trying to finish highschool so that he could go to university and become a teacher. In the village he was from there were 1,500 students to only 10 teachers, so his aim was to work there one day. After kicking my arse he asked me what I wanted carved on the outside of the game and said that he would make it in the morning and bring it for me at 2pm the next day.