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.

Week 2

Thursday 28th April.

1 week down, 15 to go...

We didnt make it to the camp site last night after all. Farron decided to bush camp about 90kms from Harare instead so that we could put up our tents and start cook group before it got too dark. Cook group made hamburgers, salad and potato salad and I was on clean group, which means it was exactly 1 week into the overland, already! After dinner we sat around the fire and had a few drinks and alex got our guitar out. Jerome also got out his guitar which is looking mighty beat up after 5 months on the truck, and Lars got out his eukalale (??). It was a nice chill night.

We were up at 6am today to leave by 7am and head straight for the Ethiopian Embassy. Once in Harare, Farron drove to where the Embassy was meant to be but it wasnt there so Mark and Benny got in a taxi and used the drivers local knowledge to find it. They caught the same taxi back to the truck with the paperwork we all needed to fill in in order to apply for the visas. Once all the paperwork was filled in and our passports and passport photos were attached we each gave Mark US$20 for the visas and US$2 to cover the costs of the taxi to and from the embassy. Mark and Jan (pronounced Yaan) took all of the money, paperwork and passports back to hand them into the embassy and the rest of us went in search of somewhere to do food shopping for the next two cook groups and anything else we wanted for ourselves.

When we all met back at the truck we found out that the embassy has said that the passports may be ready by tomorrow, but if not it will be tuesday or wednesday before they are ready due to the weekend and public holiday next week. If that happens we might have to get them couriered to Victoria Falls... fingers crossed they are ready tomorrow!

We continued on to Boulder Creek Lodge where we will be spending the next two nights. It was in a pretty secluded location about 20kms from the town and there is no phone or internet. But it is a really pretty spot with a pond, a pool and a bar/restaurant, and we are the only people here so it is pretty cool!

There was the option of dorm rooms for the same price as camping so it was paid for with the local payment and a few people went with that option, Marcus and Fiona upgraded to a bungalow, and the rest of us set up our tents. It started raining and there was a pretty impressive thunder and lightning show and all of the power went out so the rest of the night was by head torches and candel light. Cook group made a yummy pumpkin and squash soup which suited the weather perfectly.I had a pretty late night because I stayed up drinking with Benny, James (Jimmy, aussie), Robin, Jan and James (baby james; BJ; charity bin). Finally to bed and looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow because we dont have to go anywhere!

Friday 29th April.

Lazin' on a friday afternoon.

Woke up at 8.30 today, which after only a week and bit feels like an awesome sleep-in! Cook group had lactose free scrambled eggs for everybody whick was really nice as its the first cooked brekky we've had since Cape Town.

Half of the group were heading into town for the annual arts festival, but we decided to stay back and do a bit of lazing about. There was a game park about a kilometer down the road that we were thinking of walking to with Tony and Sherry but it started raining after lunch and didnt stop all afternoon, so we ended up playing a few games of pool at the bar. We also decided to upgrade to a bungalow for the night which was a pricey US$40 although $12 of that was paid out of local payment kitty which was the cost of camping for the night. It was a nice room right on the pond, but after finding a massive cockroach looking bug in the bed we decided to use our sleeping bags anyway. Regardless, it was nice to spoil ourselves and have a night out of the tent.

I was on cook group with Lars and Wil but Wil had gone into town to see the festival and I told him not to bother coming home because of cook group because Alex was happy to help me cook. I was going to attempt to make apricot chicken, chicken being a bit of a luxury because it is really expensive. I say attempt because I couldnt find some of the ingredients and I only had US$30 to shop for a dinner for 25 people. The chicken we bought the day before was still cold in the esky (thank jebus for ice). I mixed in a heap of veggies and the two tins of apricots I had, the orange and mango juice I used as a substitute for apricot nectar, and a few tablespoons of Janets peach jam. Amazingly, it tasted really good! Everybody loved it and I was told that it was among the top 5 meals of the whole trip, western Africa included! Success is so sweet...
The power finally came back on so we were able to charge our ipod and laptops etc. then early bed. The guys that went into town came home well and truely tanked with thier faces painted as tigers, zebras and butterflies. They said it was an awesome festival and they had a really good time which made me a little jelouse but I was also glad to have done a bit of nothing and save some money in the process.

Saturday 30th April.

Hello Antelope Park.

We left Boulder Creek Lodge at about 8.30am to drive about 300kms to Antelope Park, back towards Botswana, where we would be spending two nights. We had a breezy day driving stopping for cook group shopping and lunch. We got to Antelope Park in the afternoon and couldnt believe how nice the place was. It runs along a really nice river and is such a nice set out. I got really excited when I saw the clean toilet block with... get this.... toilet seats AND toilet paper AND warm running water. Oh, I'm in heavan! Its amazing after only a week and a half how much I have come to appreciate little things like that. I will never again take a toilet seat, or supplied toilet paper for grated!

Once we were all off the truck and enjoying a cold drink, one of the senior managers came over to greet us and it turns out he known our resident Kiwi Mark because he use to be a bartender at Mark's local in Wellington- what a small world.

Matt the manager took us on a tour of the property and showed us where all of the important building were, like the restaurant, the bar, the pool and the laundry building. Then he took us to a small conference room where he told us all about the conservation work the park is doing and thier breed and release program for lions. Then he told us about all of the activities we could do while at Antelope Park. There were so so so many to choose from, a few people opted to do a package deal which had a selection of activities. We chose the three that we most wanted to do. The two most expensive things were the night encounter and the lion walk. On the night encounter you are driven out into the park to try and see a lion chase and/or kill. Outside the park you have a 0.001% chance of seeing a kill, inside the park you have a 30% chance, but at US$95 each it was pretty expensive. The other most expensive thing was the lion walk, where you spend 1.5hours walking through the park with two lions. This option sounded much more interactive, and at US$75 it was a little more affordable too.

After the introduction we had time to grab a beer and set up our tents, then Matt the manager came back so we could put ourselves down for the activities we wanted to do. Those that were doing the night encounter had to be at the 'meet tent' at 6.30pm. Alex and I went and bought some internet time from reception but no one could get it to work. Reception said they were having issues and would get someone to fix it.... bugger....
We had a really nice vegetarian stir-fry for dinner and Alex went down to the river to try fishing. The guys that went on the night encounter came back slightly dissapointed, they didnt get to see any action, but they said it was cool being that close to lions anyway.

Sunday 1st May.

Elephants, lions and more, oh my!...

Woke up at 7.30am today to have a warm shower (sweeeeet) get to the restaurant for the buffet brekky Alex, Mark and I had signed ourselves up for. It was pretty steep at US$12 each, and although it was nice to have a warm cooked brekky it was a bit dissapointing.... they had NO BACON!

At 9.30 we had to be at the meet tent to go on our 1hr elephant ride. Our elephant was a female called Amai, and all four elephants were about 20 years old, not yet breeding age which is around 25 years. Unlike the elephant ride in Thailand where there was a little cabin on top of the elephant, these ones just had a padded mat and thats it. It was great because you were so much closer to the elephant, I could feel its tail bone moving under me and could touch its skin while riding, but at the same time we had to have an iron grip with our legs and anything else we could grab to avoid falling off. Needless to say we were all walking like cowboys for a while after.

At one point Amai stopped to chow into an acacia bush and in doing so wriggled her gigantic arse around and I almost went flying off! I tried to take Alex down with me too apparently. I ended up only having half a leg over her and gripping onto a peice of the padded mat like my life depended on it. It took all my strenght to pull myself back up again. A little while later the elephant handler asked my why I was getting so nervous when Amai made any sudden or drastic movements. What I really wanted to say was "because my life flashed before my eyes before when your elephant tried to kill me", but decided this might be a little bit dramatic so settled for a giggle and a 'dunno'.

Near death experience aside, we had a wonderful time. Perhaps the best bit was after the walk when we were back on solid ground, face to face with the elephants dropping corn down thier truncks and patting thier humongous faces.

After saying goodbye to Amai we walked back to the meet tent to go straight to our next activity- cub viewing. Alex, James and I were taken to the cub enclosure which was a grassy yard at the back of the buildings where the lion managers live. The two little cubs were 2 and 3 months old and were just beautiful. They were so sleepy from thier big day of eating and playing. All i wanted to do was pick them up and give them cuddles and kisses because they were just like live teddy bears. The trainer explained that as hard as it is the lions are trained not to bite and not to sit on people's laps. These are the only two behaviour modifications made and they are so that when they are not so cute ad cuddly and weigh 100kgs more they dont think its a fun game to chew your fingers and jump up on your lap. Makes sense! These two little cubs are part of the breed and release program but wont ever be eligable for release themselves because they have been hand reared by humans, and as such don't have the necessary avoidance instincts they would need to survive. Instead, they will be placed on a huge property where they form thier own pride, have competitive species around and plenty of food to hunt naturally and it will be thier cubs that will be eligable for release. We had such a wonderful time patting and playing with the cubs, it is hard to imagine that these cute as a button babies will grow into fearless muscly hunting animals. Although we did see a glimps of thier potential ferociousness when the bigger one got a little too playful with the handler and drew blood.
After the cub viewing we had a few hours to kill so decided to add another activity in- lion feeding. We were driven to a lion enclosures and the only seperating us from the big bad boys was a little wire fence. It was incredible. The boys next door were making a raket and pacing up and down the fence because they could smell the food. Then when everything was ready the handlers opened the gate at the top of a small hill and about seven lions, all around 8 years old, came bounding down the hill and lunged into the two piles of cow intestine, liver, hooves and other grousome stuff. To witness how powerful they are when its piles of innings you can only imagine what they are like when chasing and killing live prey. They are pure muscle. There was lots of grunting and growling and they dug in. Wow. And only about a meter from our faces. Wow!
Back at camp after that we grabbed a steak roll and then went and hired a canoe. The next two hours we spent cruising up the river and Alex trying to catch a fish. No fish, but when we were almost back to the camp the 4 resident elephants were strolling about and they crossed the river right in front of us. We paddled to the other side to try and get closer to them and enjoyed watching them for a while longer while they rubbed up against trees and ate grass. Getting back to camp we had about 30mins to relax before our afternoon walk with the lions, but then our friends the elephants came to say hello. They walked straight past our camp, it was so cool.

At 4.30 we went back to the meet tent. Fortunate, one of our guides for the walk, gave us all a safety breifing on the do's and dont's of walking with lions and we were each given a wooden stick about the size of a walking stick. This was to be used to point at the lion and say a firm 'no' if they were picking on you or trying to play with you, and they could also be used to put between you and the lion if you didnt want it to rub up against you.

We walked down to the enclosure with Fortunate, two other guides and a volunteer worker and released the lions. Thier names were Meeka and Mara, both female 16 and 16.5 months old. Meeka was a regular walker and when she came out she came straight up to say hello. She rubbed up against my legs like a giant house cat and almost knocked me over. Mara on the other hand had only been at Antelope Park for one month and was still not too keen on walking with big goups of people so she did it at her own pace and only came close to us when she wanted to. She mainly hung back walking through the grass and wandering about. It was so amazing to be able to walk with these animals. Meeka had a habit of taking 10 or 20 paces and then flopping on the floor for a little break. It gave us plenty of oppertunity to get photos with her. At one stage she climbed a tree, with such ease it was incredible. We were also lucky enough to see something quite rare, and not just once but twice.. The first time Meeka caught the smell of a herd of impala across the field, she instantly went into the grass and went into stalk mode, crawling along the ground with tail and ears down. It was incredible to see a lion being a lion and not because her trainer is telling her too, but because she is a lion and this is what she does! Another time, close to the end of the walk Meeka and Mara got onto a small herd of antelope. Mara dissapeared and Meeka went into hunt mode. We actually got to see her try and give chase!!!! Mindblowing! She was far too lazy to put any real effort in and too slow and young even if she was hungry (they were fed the day before and only eat every 5 days), but what a thing to see! We got way more action than the night encounter group did and they were with a group of hungry hunting lions. Brilliant, Amazing. Definatley a highlight for us both.

Back at camp and on a real adrendaline high after our walk with the lions we showed off our photos to those that didnt come and got a cold beer. The rest of the night we enjoyed the kebab and fried rice dinner and Alex caught a decent sized catfish from the river. We still couldnt get the internet to work so we took the vouchers back to reception and got a refund. Antelope Park was such a nice place to stay and with so many amazing things to do, I would absoloutley reccommend it to anyone.

Monday 2nd May.

Happy birthday to me!

I woke up this morning one year older. Thats right, I am now the wise old age of 27. Alex sung me happy birthday as soon as I woke up and then as I walked to the toilet block everyone else sung it to me, already feeling very special!

We took our time packing up our tents and stuff and desperatley searching for th birthday card that mum and dad sent with me. We put it in a 'safe' place along with all of the copies of our passports, immunisations certificates and travel insurance details, but cant find it anywhere. Big time bummer, I was really looking forward to opening the card from mum and dad. At about 9.30 Alex came up to me and said that I need to put the coffee down and follow him immediatley... whats going on?????

He leads me back through the grounds and then points me out to a staff member who comes up to me and asks me to take my scarf off..... whats going on??????????????
Then I am quickly led into...... wait for it...... the CUB ENCLOSURE! Alex says happy birthday and leaves again. The next 20 minutes it was just me, the handler and the two beautiful cubs. Such an amazing present, I cant even express how happy it made me!!!!!

Something tells me this is going to be an amazing birthday!!!

We were on the road again at 10am to make our way towards Victoria Falls. Around lunch time we stopped in a town to get cook group shopping and lunch. Wil, Lars and I were on security group but Wil told me to have the day off so I could go shopping and not have to stay with the truck. When we got back to the truck Mark gave me a bottle of red wine, Benny gave me a huge packet of BACON (!!!!), Sherry, Janet and Carol gave me another bottle of red, Jerome gave me a lollypop and some codeine and Alex gave me the ugliest birthday card I have ever seen, but the most beautiful at the same time!

I found this all so unexpected from people I consider friends, but really havent known for that long. I felt so special! If I could just get on the net to send my family a message It would be perfect, but we are bush camping tonight, so it will have to wait till tomorrow night. Still, Today couldnt get much better!
We stopped for an afternoon pit stop at a local place in the middle of nowhere. There was about 4 locals chillin' out the front and there was music blasting from a speaker so, so, so loud I couldnt hear myself think. We all grabbed an afternoon drink, cold beer for most of us, and then back on the road again. At about 6pm we turned onto a dirt road that looked good for camping.... but got bogged! Thats right, our first of what may turn into may bogging experiences. It took about an hour and a few locals who seem to appear out of thin air to get the truck out, but we did it. It turns out that nice looking bush camp spot was a school, according to one of the local guys so I guess its lucky we got bogged so we didnt camp there. I dont know who would have gotten more of a surprise in the morning, us or the kids!

We drove maybe another 10minutes down the road until Farron saw a nice grassy patch that would be our home for the night. Cook group made baked potatoes with salad and mince meat as toppings and we cooked up half of my bacon for an extra topping. Leigh brought out a cinamon scroll with candles in it for me and everyone sang happy birthday again- never want this day to end! Some time after dinner while we were sitting around the fire 3 locals appeared and said that they were looking for thier cows, thier boys had been playing and the cows had gotten away from them and they thought they might be around this area. An hour or so later they came walking back from the wilderness minus cows, guess they didnt find them.
We were told to be careful if we leave the tents in the middle of the night because we were close to a national park and theres a good chance that big animals might be wandering around, as dangerous as that could be I was secretly hoping something like that would happen- imagine open the tent and be looking at a buffalo or elephant! Cool!

Tuesday 3rd of May.

Your gonna do what off that bridge??...

We were up at 6.30 and on the road by 7.30am. No wandering elephants to be seen but we did wake up to the calling of babboons nearby. Alex found my birthday card from mum and dad and it was so nice to read it, to see thier handwriting all the way on the other side of the world! We arrived at the camp site in Victoria Falls called the rest stop at about 10.30am. After putting up tents I went and had a hot- not just warm, but hot shower (although the see-through curtains were a bit off-putting) and then we walked the 5minutes to the shops. As soon as we stepped out of the campsite grounds there were 5 guys surrounding us trying to sell us money, carvings, bracelets, necklaces- you name it. It was the first time since being in Africa that we were really hasseled, and they followed us all the way to the shops too. Survivng that we grabbed some lunch, Alex got a pizza and I got some chicken. We were both pretty quiet because we were both too busy stressing about what we were meant to be doing today.... bungy jumping.....
We went back to the campsite and sat at the bar for a bit... still not really able to talk, I think at this point Alex had said a total of 5 words all day.

At 1pm we all met up at the truck and started the 2km walk to meet our fate--- I mean to the Victoria Falls bridge. Along the way we saw a Pumba (warthog) and two huge elephants just chomping away a few meters of the footpath. Who needs to pay to get into a national park- just walk the streets of Zimbabwe! Getting to the falls we had to cross the bridge to the other side to sign the indemnity form, crossing from Zimbabwe into 'No Mans Land', which is about a foot wide, and into Zambia. All marked with faded white paint in the middle of the bridge centimeters from where we plan on jumping.

Have I mentioned that we were planning to jump off this bridge???!!! What on earth were we thinking????
We signed our lives away and made our way back to the jump spot on the bridge. By this time we were both repeating "I dont think I can do this, I dont think I can do this", which got more insistent and urgent with every person we saw jump off. Alex was also concerned about his back, and after he saw the jolt that Carrol got at the bottom, he decided not to bungy, and instead just do the gorge swing and the flying fox. My turn came up and I was hustled through the gate onto the platform over the Zambezi River and with Victoria Falls in the background. I was seriously thinking that I was going to pull out at this stage. I thought jumping out of a plane was fun, this was something completley different. The thundering water below probably didnt help. I was strapped in and tied up and the next thing I knew I was standing on the edge of the platform with my toes hanging off. The guy that was holding me from behind, and the very same guy that pushes you to make sure you get some air, told me to let go of the railing. One of my hands managed to let go, but the other was stuck in an iron grip, it took another moment to let go of that side too. Then he started counting down. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1...... BUNGY.

To be honest with you, the rest is a bit of a blur. I remember screaming. I remeber falling. I remember bouncing at the bottom, flying up so fast that I though I was going to hit the underside of the bridge. I remeber falling again. Then flying up again. I remeber flipping so that I was upright and then having to fall again. Then bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. Those in the group that had bungied before said that this one bounced heaps more than any other they had done. It seemed to go on for ever. Finally I found myself with my arms trembling violently, periodically opening my eyes hoping that the moving, bouncing and turning had stopped- but it hadnt.

Then from the distance I heard someone asking me if I was ok. It was the guy who would help me to the top. I gave him the thumbs up, which I suppose was really a thumbs down because I was hanging head first over a torrent of water, but he got the idea. He started to pull me towards him and he started to sing a Bob Marley song.
"Don't worry, about a thing. Cos every little thing, is gonna be alright".
As he helped me into a sitting position and we started being lifted back up to the bridge he put his hand on my shoulder, pointed to the magnificent scenery and kep on singing. It really was magical.
Back on the bridge I had to make my way across the lower level, up a ladder and all the way across the middle level to get back to ground to reach the Zimbabwe side of the bridge.
When I got to the jump point again it was almost Alex's turn to jump. He was hustled through the gate onto the platform, strapped up and shown how to jump. Unlike bungy, he had to hold onto the wire attached to his stomach area and frog jump feet first, face forward. The same guy that gave me a helping hand off the bridge was giving Alex very forceful pushes towards the edge. Twice when Alex got the edge, he managed to take little baby steps backwards. Apparently the guy was giving him very stern instructions the whole time. Then the countdown began. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1..... SWING.

And off he dropped.

Quite a site to see someone you are so close to jump off a perfectly good bridge! Freefalling to the bottom, the swing went into action adn flung him in the seated position across the gorge and then back and forth. Back on solid ground again Andrea was having trouble with the idea of jumping off a bridge, having pulled out at the last second once, so we decided to do the flying fox next before I did my gorge swing and see if it would help her by 'easing' into the idea of jumping off a bridge.

It took about 30mins for us all to be strapped into the correct gear for the flying fox and walk to the place where you do the flying fox, on the Zambia side of the bridge just past the bar- which we stopped at to have a quick beer. The flying fox was really nice. It was a total breeze after what we had just done, and it was a good oppertunity to actually take in some of the beautiful scenery. It was over really quick though, and soon enough I found myself back on the bridge getting strapped up to do the gorge swing.
And then I waited. And waited. And waited.

People kept on turning up to do bungy, which must be easier and quicker to rig up because they all went in front of me. And I waited. Soon it was getting close to 5pm, the sun was starting to set and I was well and truely out of adrendaline. With each passing minute I could feel my energy fading.
Just after 5pm I was told to quickly to my Swing because they wanted to go home. By this time I was on the bridge by myself as well, because everyone else was watching from the bar. I got to the edge of the jump platform, and pulled out.

I just didnt have it in me to gather enough emotional energy at that stage to jump of the bridge again. I was a bit dissapointed, especially because the Swing was the one I was really excited about doing, but it was just too long between jumps, and with them rushing me right at the end after waiting so long.... I just wasnt feeling it.

But ah well, I still bungied! If I had of done the swing while my adrendaline levels were still sufficiently high, it would have been great. Next time.
What am I saying?? There will be no next time! I am really happy that I did the bungy, and I can now tick that off my list of things to do, but i will be happy never to do it again! I'd sky-dive again in a heartbeat, but I think bungy will be a once in a lifetime thing for me! Alex really loved the gorge swing and is quite happy that he didn't do the bungy, and also has no plans to try and do it again. Andrea didnt end up doing either the swing or the bungy, and she was most upset with herself for letting herself get convinced to do it in the first place when she never really wanted to. Mark also didnt do the bungy, pulling out at the last minute feeling much the same as Andrea, but enjoyed his swing that he did tandem with a bungy staff member. Emma, Aileen, BJ, James, Benny, Carol, Robin all did the three things and had a great day.

Getting back to camp at about 6.45pm we had about 10 minutes to get ready for dinner. The vegitarians of the group were going to a restaurant in town, and us carnivours were going to a buffet game restaurant called Bomas. It was a great night. On the way to Bomas we saw Buffalo on the side of the road, and getting to the restaraunt we were all given a traditional robe to were and women had two blue dots painted on thier left cheek and men were given two blue lines. Throughout dinner there was traditional singing and dancing, and at one stage everyone was given a drum to drum along to the music with. Mark got his hair braided and a few of us had our fortunes read with the resident witch doctor. I ws told that I had the strength of a man, that I would be very successful but not yet because I'm not settled enough yet and that without any limitations I could have 4 kids, mainly boys. Alex was told that he would also be successful, but not yet and that without limitations he could have 4 kids, mainly boys. Someone came around to our table and painted our faces. The food was also great. We ate smoked crocodile, ostrich, buffalo, warthog, cudu stew, spingbok, guinea fowl, and a grub/worm thing. The cudu stew and warthog were the favourites. Getting back to camp we were all exhausted from our emotional day and big dinner we went straight to bed and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Wednesday 4th May.

Wonderful Livingstone.

We left the campsite at about 9am and made our way back to the bridge, although this time with no plans of jumping off it. Instead this time we officially crossed the border into Zambia at a cost of US$50 each. There were baboons everywhere, walking along the road, sitting on the curb, cleaning eachother next to cars.
We arrived at Grubbies Grotto in Livingstone not long after as it is only about 12kms from the bridge and this is where we would be staying for 2 nights. Grubbies was small and basic, but nice enough. It had warm running water and a bar, but no internet. It was also an easy 10 minute walk into the town of Livingstone.
I am a really big fan of Zambia. Everyone here is really nice and it is by far the safest I have felt since Cape Town- if anything I feel safer in Zambia than I did in Cape Town. Livingstone was also a really nice town. We walked down to the local pub and grill with James, Benny, Mark and Jan for lunch and got back to Grubbies in time for the 3.30pm pick up for the Sunset Booze Cruise.
What a night!

It got pretty messy pretty quickly. We had a really nice bbq dinner while watching the sunset on the upper Zambezi river, with all you can drink beer, wine and spirits. We saw crocodile swiming next to the boat and we also saw two groups of hippos!

After sunset we kept on drinking and dancing at the bar where the boats live and then we were taken back to Grubbies where we..... wait for it.... kept on drinking.
I dont know what time we went to bed, but I might have to let the photos do the talking, because no one can remeber too much.

Week 1

Wednesday 20th April.

The adventure starts today...

We were up at 6am to get our bags packed into the tiny chartered overland bus, a Nomad company bus. We left at 7am sharp and were on our way to Namibia to pick up our truck. We had an almost smooth and quick border crossing from South Africa into Namibia in the afternoon, almost smooth because the grumpy immigration guy asked Alex if he was part of the crew, something Farron our driver had already told the man that he was the only employee but Alex thought by crew he meant 'team, family, group', so answered with "yeah I'm part of the crew". Nothing too drastic happened but it did take a little while for Alex and Farron to explain to the immigration guy what the confusion was.

We got to the Felix Unite campsite just over the Namibian border at 6.30pm, although we had to put our clocks back an hour so I guess it was really 7.30pm. Having only had short pee breaks and a lunch stop at petrol stations along the way we were all glad to strech our legs. Us newbies got a tent putting upping and a tent taking downing demonstration and then put up our own tents. We also got to finally meet our African Trails truck. It is so much bigger (abour twice the size) of the Nomad's truck and way more comfortable. We have pull down canvas blinds for windows so when it is open you can see everything and we have forward facing seats and inward facing seats, as well as a 'beach' at the back where some of the guys that have come down the west coast have camping chairs up there while we drive. It good to finally meet our home for the next 4 months.

While we were setting up our tents and finding the bar to buy a beer from the cook group started preparing dinner. Let me explain further... Everyone is put into groups of 3 or 4 people, Farron our driver selected the groups this time because he wanted a mix of oldies and newbies in every group as well as splitting up any couples/partners, but he said we can change them around after Victoris Falls in 2 weeks if we want. There are three jobs that need to be done on the truck:- Cooking: which means you are responsible for shopping for and preparing dinner and the following breakfast. Cleaning: which means you are responsble for doing the dishes after dinner and breakfast and loading everything back on the truck. And Security: when on security group it is your groups responsibility to ensure that when in public, say at a supermarket or petrol station, in a town or at a border crossing the truck is never left unattended. It is also the responsibility of the security group to hold the keys to the safe- which we call the 'toilet' so we can refer to it in public ("do you have the keys to the toilet?" sound much less tempting to thiefs than "do you have the keys to the safe?"), and finally when on security you need to ensure that the truck is all buttoned down and locked when everyone goes to bed at night.

Cook group made bangers and mash with baked beans as a sauce for dinner and I was on clean group with Wil and Lars so we did the dishes after dinner. After that Alex and I went back to the bar to have a nightcap and then made our way to our tent for our first night sleeping in the wild. All up we did 600 kilometers driving today.

Thursday 21st April.

The Amazing Race... through Namibia

We were awake at 4.30am and away at 5am. An ugly time of the morning, but we had a massive day of driving ahead of us. Farron explained at dinner last night that we want to fang it through Namibia to our camp site in Botswana so we could have more time there, rather than take it easier on drive days and having less time to do cool stuff at cool places. He also said that today would be the biggest drive day of the whole trip, western Africa included. Crikey. We didnt have breakfast straight away because it was so early so everyone piled onto the truck and fell back to sleep for a while and we stopped along the roadside for breakfast. Breakfast consists of a range of cereal and powdered milk, coffe and tea, sometimes tinned fruit and sometimes bread. It is the cooks groups responsibility to get the food out and clean groups responsibility to clean up afterwards. We had to start our antimalarials today but because we got up so early we didnt take it with food which gave us both a bit of a dodgy tummy for the next few hours. We stopped in a town in Namibia that had a Spars supermarket (Africas answer to Coles or Safeway) and were told to be back in 30mins but it was more like an hour because the cook groups for the next 4 nights had to shop, as well as everyone stocking up on munchy foods for the truck, lunches for the next couple of days, as well as alcohol. Wil, Lars and I are on cook group on Friday so we had to shop for that.

After finally getting moving again we drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. We pulled up at the Tropic of Capricorn sign at about 5pm for a photo op and Farron decided that rather than stop again further down the road we may as well have dinner there. So everything was pulled out of the truck and a small fire was started and cook group began preparing. We had tomatoes diced and marinated in a balsamic dressing and pasta. After a quick clean up by the clean group we were all back on the truck and ready to hit the road again. We knew that it was going to be a late night so Alex and I got our sleeping bags and climbed into them before getting comfy in our seats again, it made it a lot more cozy and easy to sleep especially after dark. After driving, and driving, and some more driving we finally pulled up on a soggy dirt road in the middle of nowhere to set up our first bush camp. By this time it was 11.15pm and everyone was well and truely buggered. We quickly got our tents up, setting them up in single file directly in front of the truck and went straight to bed. All up we did just shy of 1,000 kilometeres driving in one day. Holy crap. It was a long day.

Friday 22nd April.

Donkey Land (a.k.a. Botswana)

We woke up at 6am to have brekky and break down our tents so we could be on the road again by 7am. Everyone was still pretty buggered so most slept on the truck for a while. We reached the Botswana border at 9.15am and it was so busy no one could beleive it. We think the whole of Namibia was going into Botswana for Easter or something. We were through the border an hour and a half later and had to put our clocks forward an hour, making it 11.30am local time.

The difference in the landscape between Namibia and Botswana was instantly noticable. Namibia was very mountainous but very bare, sometimes passing huge sharp mountain ranges made of rock and grey sand as far as the eye could see for hours on end. But then it would change to lush green vegitation for a bit, then to grassy fields, then back to grey sand. There was also very noticable lack of people and animals in Namibia. The entire time we were driving through Namibia we would only see people and animals in the towns and surrounding areas, and I think we only passed 2 or 3 towns.

Botswana on the other hand is flat as far as the eye can see, we didnt see a single mountain. There are also plants, people and animals everywhere. People would be sitting on the side of the road hours from anywhere. And donkeys.... bloody donkeys. They are everywhere. They stand in the middle of the road and no matter how much Farron beeps the horn they only move at the very last moment, if at all, most of the time we have to slow down and go around them. There is also heaps of cows, goats and some horses just cruising around in the middle of nowhere crossing the road. We also saw some wildebeest and warthogs along the side of the road, not long after entering Botswana.

We got the camp site called Sedia Lodge at about 8.30pm and I was on cook group so I started that while Alex put our tent up. For dinner we cooked a spag bol sauce with heaps of vegies mixed through it and rice. It turned out really yummy but it did take ages and the rice was really hard to cook on a fire so it turned out to be really claggy. Apart from the 10pm dinner time and the claggy rice, it was really good though!
After dinner we had a game of beer darts for Eileen's 22nd birthday, where you sit in a circle with a can of beer in front of you and if your beer gets punctured you need to scull it. It was good fun, although a slow drinking game because you throw the dart one by one and with so many people playing, and darts rarely hitting the beers, the drinks were few and far between. This suited us though as we only had two beers and we also had to get up early again to head into the Okavango Delta. We ended up going to bed at about 1.30am.

Saturday 23rd April.

Bautiful Mokoro...

We were up at 6am and being on cook group I had to get the cereals, milk, tea and coffee out for everyone, while our resident fire starter Tony got the fire going. After brekky we had a bit of a rush getting our stuff together for the next 3 days because the only things we would have was what we could carry and this had to include water, cooking utensils, food, alcahol, tents, sleeping mats, chairs and bags and clothes. The transport utes were there to collect us at 8am and we left by 8.30am. Farron, Leigh, Sheri, Tony, Carroll and Jantet stayed behind at Sedia Lodge with the truck.

A short drive through the bush later and we were at the place where we got into the Mokoros and met our Pollers. The mokoro is a traditional canoe like boat that locals use to get through the delta. Originally mokoros were made out of wood, but it takes 80 years for a tree to grow big enough to carve a mokoro out of it and only 5-6 years for the mokoro to rot in the water, so not being very practical or environmentally friendly most mokoros are made out of fiberglass that looks like wood these days. All but two of ours were fiberglass. The pollers are the people thats stand at the back of the mokoro and push it along with a huge.... you guessed it.... pole made out of wood. Getting somewhat comfy in our mokoro, which hold two people plus bags we set off through the delta. It was so peaceful, there was no sound except for the periodic splashing of the poles in the water.

It was so beautiful being surrounded by water lillies and cruising through the tiny reed canals. ill never know how the polers find their way around these little canals, it looks litle a complete maze, but our poler George swore that they never get lost. Until we got lost... Well, George swears that we were taking a short-cut but the way was closed off by reeds. Whatever. We took a wrong turn. None of us minded getting to spend a little more time in the peaceful mokoros though. We hit land at 1.30pm and got to work unloading the mokoros and setting up our tents. We were given strict instructions not to leave the clearing in which we were setting up camp unless with a poler or a guide as this was a wild camp and we were not educated in how to handle ourselves if we were to come across a wild animal. We also had to be a toilet buddy with the person we were sharing a tent with so no matter what time of the night it was, if one got up to go to the dunny the other had to follow. The dunny by the way was a hole behind a tree on a path behind our tents. Five star indeed.

We had nothing planned until 5pm so Alex got his fishing gear together and we jumped into a mokoro with a poler who was also keen on fishing. He didnt catch anything but it was really nice sitting there in the sun, in the middle of the Okavango Delta. The poler, I think his name was Zero, had his fishing line on him but no worms so Alex gave him one of the plastic worms he has with him. The poler had never seen anything like it and was quite amused by it. We got back to camp with time for a quick siesta before our afternoon nature walk.

At 5pm we all piled back onto our mokoros and were taken to a nearby island. Once on the island we were split into three groups and each group had 2 guides. We walked for about 1.5hours learning about the local trees and bushes, spotting elephant and hippo poo and learning how to tell which one was which. We also learnt breifly what to do if we come across the animals of the Big 5 fame. I cant remember exactly (should have taken notes!) but for the most part running zig zag and climbing a tree seemed to be the way to go, unless it was a cheater and then your screwed no matter what.

Back at camp, cook group began preparing dinner which was pasta with a napoli sauce, it was plain but really really tasty. The rest of the night we sat around the camp fire with the guides and polers drinking red wine and swapping stories and went to bed in out tent without canvas on so we had the most spectacular view of the stars. What a life!

Sunday 24th April.

A day in the delta.

We were all woken up at 6am this morning for a big game walk, it had to be early so we could be back at camp before the sun got too hot. No time for anyone to have breakfast so we jumped in our mokoros and headed for a different island. We split up again into the same three groups as we had for the nature walk the day before and took off on our walking safari. We walked through a while through waist high grasses, water covered ground, palm tree patches, before coming to a vast grassy plaine. It wasnt too much longer after that that we saw a goup of 3 gigantic african elephants on the other side of the plaine. We stopped to look at them through cameras and binoculars, then we started moving closer to them. We got about 50 meters away from them and stopped to take it all on. They are so huge, you cant help but feel like a little ant in thier presence, yet they are so graceful and you can see the wisdom in thier eyes. We stayed with them for a while before moving on to see what else we could spot. Not long later we came across a heard of wildebeest, one of the Ugly 5 according to the guide. We also saw some pumba's (warthog) running around- quick little buggers they are- and then we came across a heard of zebra. we were standing admiring them and taking photos when a lonesome giraffe emerged from the trees. The giraffe walked with a limp as though it had been injured and Mr T, one of our giudes, said that is probably why it was alone and not with a heard. Spectacular to see, I felt like I was on some sort of Jurasic Park adventure walk.

By this stage it was 9.30am and starting to warm up so we started heading back to our mokoros... which were 1.5hours away. As much as it was a beautiful walk and a priceless experience walking with these animals, by the time we reached the mokoros I was about to loose my shit. A 4 hour walk in the Botswanian heat without food in our stomachs and not enough water to last us was perhaps not the best plan. We all collapsed into the mokoros and needless to say by the time we reached camp we were like a pack of wildebeest, grabbing any food we could lay our hands on. After eating and resting out legs we decided to go for a swim. So back into the mokoros for us. Almost everyone came for a swim in the swimming hole, and It was the highlight for me and Alex. The water was crystal clear, there were no reeds and it was the perfect tempurature. After a while people began leaving one by one until we were the last ones from our group there, and still in the water. I could have stayed there all day. It was amazing!

Eventually we decided to head back to camp and headed to our tent to have another siesta (have I mentioned yet how well this lifestyle suites me?!), waking up just in time for our 5pm sunset cruise. We were back in the mokoros and heading through the reed chanels to this really pretty clearing where we watched the sunset. Back at camp cook group started preparing dinner while the rest of us sat back and pondered how wonderful life is right now.

After a dinner of potato and soy meat curry the guides and polers performed for us around the fire with traditional singing and dancing. It was just fantastic, I couldnt get the smile off my face. After they finished thier performance we thought it only fair to all get up and embarrass ourselves. We performed a song that had the chorus of 'singing in the rain' in conjunction with movements of the 'simon says' game. They loved it and we all had a lot of fun.

Alex had been recording all of this on his ipod and plugged his ipod into the portable speakers Ben had brought and played it back to the guides and polers. They absolutley loved it! They had never heard themselves perform before and it wasnt too long before they were all crowding around us and the speakers listening and laughing. A magical moment we will never forget. One of the guides asked if we could put it on a disk and send it to him, we said absolutley, but it may take a few months to reach him. So as soon as we get to a computer with a cd burner on it we will be posting a copy to Action Jackson in Botswana.

Monday 25th April.

Flying High.

We were up at 6am again today so that we could pack up the camp site and get in the mokoros for our return trip. It took another 3 hours to get back to shore, reaching there about 10am. We said our thankyou's and goodbye's to the guides and polers and jumped into the utes that would take us back to Sedia Lodge. Once there we put our tents back up and went to the office to pay for our afternoon scenic flight over the Okavango Delta. It was a bit touch and go for a while with the person who was meant to make the booking for us failing to do so, also there were no seven seater planes left so we had to see if we could wrangle 3 five seater planes out of thin air (excuse the pun), you could only pay in visa or cash but couldnt sign for credit and no one knows thier pin numbers of the top of thier heads, and then there were one too many people so Felix dropped out so that Kate and Geoff could go on togther. But it all worked out in the end and in time for lunch. We headed to the bar to grab a burger and beer and finished that just in time to get on our truck and head out again. We left earlier so that we could stop at the supermarket and cook group could get dinner then we headed to the Maun International Airport.

After showing our passports to the company that do the scenic flights and going through an xray and metal detector we were walking across the runway to get into the plane. Alex got to ride shotgun with the pilot, which he was really excited about, Sheri and I sat behind him, and Kate and Geoff sat behind us.
The next hour was spent flying about 75 meters above the ground looking at the delta and its animals. We saw countless elephants, both single and in heards, doing elephanty things like walking through water, flapping thier ears and eating. We saw giraffe eating from the top of trees. And I was lucky enough to spot a hippo standing on the edge of the water! And we also saw lots of impala.

I had an image in my mind of what the delta would look like from the air and it was based soley on national geographic and the discovery chanel. I had expected it to be in a tree like shape, however it was not at all like that. It was random peices of land and water all joined by forests of reed and grass. It really was beautiful.

Landing at about 4pm we headed back to camp. Farron had decided that tongiht cook group wont run and instead we would all have a buffett dinner at the bar/restaurant paid for out of the local payment. Thanks Farron! After dinner of shredded beef, bq chicken, beetroot salad, chips and pap (an African staple food that is made of maize, has the texture of clag jelly and absolutley no flavour) most people went to bed and a few stayed up to drink.

James (jimmy; aussie), Ben (aussie), Yan (aussie), Felix (german), Eileen(canadian), Lars (norweigan) and us stayed up playing card drinking games. Alex went to bed at about midnight and I made it to bed at about 2.30am. It was a really fun night with lots of laughing and fun to be had.

Tuesday 26th April.

Bush camp.

We had a 'late start' this morning, not leaving Sedia Lodge until 8.30am. We hit the road and wanted to make it past the big town near the border of Zimbabwe called Francistown. We stopped for pee breaks and a lucnch break along the way but that was it until we found a dirt road up the back of the arse of the middle of nowhere and pulled over at about 8.30pm. I got about putting our tent up while Alex started cooking dinner with his cook group that had Andrea, Eileen and Jimmy also in it. They made a yummy spag bol for dinner, which was a good effort considering it rained constantly. I went to bed not long after dinner because I had a really sore throat and had bought a big fluffy proper pillow at a Spars supermarket and had to take it for a test run...

Wednseday 27th April.

Donkey is to Botswana what Crazy Money is to Zimbabwe.

We were up at 6am to have a quick brekky, pack down our tents and hit the road again. We got to the border of Zimbabwe at about 8.30am and had a smooth ride through, except for the two canadians who had to pay US$75 for thier visa. It was US$55 for UK and US$30 for americans, aussies, germans and norweigans. On the road again, we are heading for Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, which is the only place where we can get visas for Ethiopia from. We probably wont get there until 8pm tonight, or thereabouts, but are spending 3 nights in the one camp site called Boulder Creek Lodge. Looking forward to being able to catch up with things like washing and blog etc.

The first few hours in Zimbabwe we went through about 8 police checkpoints. There seemed to be one every 30-45 minutes or so. Farron has warned us that every police officer we see is looking for an excuse to rip us off by fining us for some bogus reason, and he has asked usnot to give them any reasons to, so sitting on the windowsill while driving and hanging out the window is out in Zimbabwe.

Farron went on to explain that every single person trying to change money for us into different currencies WILL rip us off, either by running with our money, giving us fake notes, or picking our pocket while doing the deal. So even though they might offer a much better exchange rate than the banks, dont use them. He also said to forget our plastic cards altogether in Zimbabwe. The local currency is a joke and so the currency used is US$, but at the first supermarket we stopped at I was given change in South African Rand, Botswana Pula, US Dollars, and one mystery coin, so apparently they will deal in anything other than Zimbabwe currency.

We have also been warned to watch ourselves and eachother in public places. Oppertunistic theft is the biggest problem, and Farron has said that if we make it all the way to Cairo without being mugged, stolen from, or pick-pocketed he would be surprised. He said to watch our personal space in public and that if anyone is walking close to us they are probably trying to steal from us, so he has told us to stop walking and stare at them until they walk away.

Although, as true as that all is, it doesn't change how nice the people are here. Everyone on the side of the road smiles and waves with such kindness and enthusiasm, it brings a smile to my face everytime. It has been making me think about the reception travellers get when they come to Australia, next time I see a bus of tourists drive past I'm going to smile and wave at them until my face hurts.