Week 9

Thursday 16th June.

Medditeraneo madness.

We had a super dooper lazy day. We spent most of the day in our tent and on the phone/skype talking to people. We had a great time talking to and catching up with Mandy and Andy. we skyped Ingrid and got to say hi to all the girls. We skyped my sister Donna and her fiance James, but their computer was too slow so they could see us but we couldn't see them, and we also skyped mum and dad and had a really good chat with them.

We watched a movie and had an afternoon nap. Hungry from our 'busy' day we headed to a nice restaurant at the Junction shopping mall called Medditeraneo with Marcus and Fiona, Jerome, Wil, and Mark. The food was really nice, we had some prosciutto, I had beef ragu with homemade pasta and Alex had a steak. The wine was great, we had good company and I finished off the night with a yummy lemon sorbet with strawberry sauce. `

Friday 17th June.

Medditeraneo madness: Part 2.

We were up early (and by early I mean 9.30am) to go to Crossroads to find a cardboard box, some newspaper, and some bubble wrap. We found everything at Nakumatt, the gigantic supermarket and took it back to Karen Camp. Luckily for us there is a really friendly, super efficient Swiss man who likes packing things that was happy to help us. Everything bubble wrapped, newspaper stuffed and taped into the cardboard box we jumped into a taxi with the friendly, super efficient, packing loving Swiss man and Fiona and went back to Crossroads to send the parcel home. 22kgs of souvenirs. Whoops. It was going to cost us US$130 to send the box via cargo ship which would take 3 months or more, or US$170 to send it via airmail and it should take a week or so. We ended up spending a little bit more to have it home sooner and safer.

From there we got another taxi to take us all back to Junction and spent the afternoon wandering around the mall, Marcus and I bought a few tshirts from a Kenyan tshirt brand called Bonk. In the early afternoon we went to a sushi restaurant for lunch. It was even better than the other sushi restaurant we had been eating at. Then we continued to wander around until we were hungry enough for dinner. We didn't think it was ever going to happen, but amazingly we did find enough space to go back to Medditeraneo and have a late dinner.

Saturday 18th June.

Medditeraneo madness: Part 3.

We spent the day packing up what has been our home for the past week and reorganising all of our stuff. Benne, Jimmy, Aileen and Emma got back from the coast, they had a pretty wild time and it made me even more glad that we had stayed in Nairobi and spent our week relaxing, rejuvenating and eating and drinking lots of yummy stuff.

I spoke to mum and dad again on skype, it might just be the last time we get internet fast enough until we get to Cairo, as we have heard that internet in Ethiopia and Sudan is hard to come by.

We went back to.... wait for it...... Medditeraneo for dinner with Marcus, Fiona and Jerome. By this stage the staff recognised us and were upset when we said we wouldn't be able to make it in again because we were leaving the country.

I was up until 2am writing week 7 of my blog and then had a really bad sleep afterwards. I don't know if it was because of revisiting all of the emotions experienced in Rwanda and writing about them in detail, or the anticipation of moving into the new truck tomorrow morning, getting good seats and getting back to truck life after our week of relative luxury. Perhaps a little from column A and a little from column B.

Sunday 19th June.

Survivor: African adventure.

We woke up and waited around impatiently to see the new truck. We are not getting our original truck back now because it is still in the shop getting revamped and they don't expect to be able to go through Syria so the company wanted the truck in East Africa, not stuck up North. No one had seen inside the new truck because Farron had kept it locked all week so that everyone had a fair chance at seats and those that had gone to the coast or to the Masaai Mara didn't miss out from not being around.

Finally Farron gathered everyone up and took us on a guided tour of our new home. It is so much smaller than the old truck, both in the lounge room and storage wise. It is also a different set up with the front half of the lounge room consisting of forward facing seats, the back half consisting of inward facing seats, and a row of seats along the back wall. There is under seat and above head storage space which is a bonus, but there is no beach (flat platform area at back of truck where you could sit or lay down on) which is a shame.

After the guided tour Farron asked everyone who wanted to sit in the front half to stand to the left, everyone who wanted to sit in the back half to stand to the right, and everyone who didn't care to stand in the middle. Then one by one the groups of people were let on to the truck to choose their seats.

Although it is well known that the only person who had a set seat is Farron and all the others are fair game, we all tend to stay in the same seats. Mainly because all of our crap is above, below, on and beside the seat that you sit on. For that reason there is not much moving around in the truck and you really want to make sure you like where you sit. We wanted to sit in the back half on the inward facing seats, preferably near Marcus and Fiona, and not near certain other people. The whole week at Karen Camp had resembled an episode of 'Survivor', with people conspiring to make sure they wanted to sit near certain people, or avoid certain others, there was a lot of insider trading going on with what other people wanted and who wanted to sit where.

Its funny how relatively little things can turn into massive things when you have nothing else to focus on.

In the end everyone was happy with their seats, and we got inward facing seats in the back half of the truck across from Marcus and Fiona. Phew.

We packed all of our stuff into our new home and said goodbye to Karen Camp for the last time at 11am. We stopped at Crossroads to do some shopping in the Nakumatt. Five cook groups had to shop and we were told to stock up for ourselves as well because the options will start to become real limited in Northern Kenya. This of course sent me straight into survival mode and I bought enough to live on for a good 3 months, plus every AA battery that Nakumatt had on its shelves.

We drove down a bad highway filled with potholes and surrounded by roadworks until we reached Bantu Lodge at the base of Mount Kenya (although Mount Kenya was no where to be seen). We set up our tent and headed for the bar. It is a nice enough place that has a river flowing around the property and a small lake  at the back, but it did feel somewhat like a school camp for indiscernible reasons.

We ordered some food, which took more than 2 hours to come out, and watched some bad African dance competition on tv. Almost ready for bed I ordered a mug of coffee for Jerome and a pot of tea for myself, and an hour later we were given one very small cup of hot water, some hot milk, some sugar and a spoonful of instant coffee in a bowl. That took them an hour.. Giving up we went to bed and watched a National Geographic documentary on the laptop about crocodiles in Africa.

Monday 20th June.

2 months today!

We had a bit of a sleep in, not getting up until 9.30am because as far as we knew we were leaving the camp at noon. When we got up we decided that we had enough time to enjoy breakfast before packing up our tent, luckily, because we found out that we were now staying another night because Farron was waiting on a truck part to be delivered from Nairobi.

We spent the day fishing and exploring the camp grounds, watching baboons, colobus and vervet monkeys play and taking photographs. Cook group made a really yummy chili concarne dish and after dinner us newbies celebrated our two month anniversary of being on the truck by playing drinking card games.

Tuesday 21st June.

T.I.A.

We left Bantu Lodge at 9.30am and had a cruisy drive, arriving in the very rural camp- Arches Post in Northern Kenya just after lunch time. Farron organised a game drive in the Samburu National Park 5 minutes down the dirt road. He thought that the fee paid for park entry was for a 24 hour period, not one calender day so he said we could do one afternoon drive and then a morning one tomorrow.

We had enough time to eat something and set up our tent and then we got in the truck and made our way to the park gates. Bu they had changed the rules so that entry was for one calender day, not a 24hr period so we went back to camp. T.I.A.

We ate dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of our early start for the game drive.

Wednesday 22nd June.

Samburu sensation.

We were up at 5.30am and on the truck  by 5.45am so that we could be at the gates to Samburu National Park at 6am when they opened. This was our first, and probably last, game drive in our home. It was nice to be in a truck with so much space and with all of our gear in easy reach. There was us, Marcus and Fiona, Lars, Jerome, Janet, Wil, Kate and Geoff so there was a lot of space.

We saw a lion, heaps of antelope, baboon and vervet. We also saw the 'Weird 5', 5 unique varieties of animal only found in this area being: the reticulated giraffe, a different type of zebra, the oryx, the girrantelope (a.k.a. the gerenook), and a different type of ostrich. It was a beautiful park with a wide river flowing through it lined by towering palm trees. We stopped along the river to have lunch and ate while watching antelope and zebra cautiously drink from the croc filled river, we finished lunch by warding of the gang of baboons that had surrounded us. There was one that was jumping on the roof of the truck and trying to climb up the stairs. Cheeky bugger.

We got back to camp at 3.30pm happy with our day and about 500 photos richer. There was the option of doing a Samburu village tour that Farron had organised. I was really keen to go and Alex came along too, it ended up being a private tour for the both of us because no one else wanted to join in. We were led on foot by a local Samburu woman to a village just outside the camp grounds. We were met at the gates to the village by 10 or so Samburu women singing a traditional welcome song for us. We were then led into the village circle where the women sang more songs for us including a traditional woman's celebration song that they got me to join in on.

We learnt that this village is populated by about 40 women and their children. There are no men here, and it is a kind of refuge village for women who ran away from home to escape early arranged marriage, or by those abandoned by their husbands and made un-marriageable by the abandonment. There were round mud brick houses with cow poo roofs that take 6 months to build and only last for 6 years, a center area where the animals are kept locked in using acacia branches, and a preschool and playground for the children.

The women had set up a little market for us to look at, filled with local crafts made by them. We bought a traditional Samburu beaded necklace and two tiny little Samburu beaded bracelets for my sisters twins. The baby bracelets are actually meant to be curtain holders or something similarly useless, but will make adorable bracelets and then maybe napkin holders when the babies grow out of them. I paid a pretty high price for the items, but knew it and didn't mind because all of the money made from tourists like us goes to sustaining the village and building more play equipment for the kids.

After the tour we were escorted back to camp by 10 or so women, singing us goodbye songs. It was so good and also a good opportunity to get photos of the Samburu people who refuse to be photographed and will yell at you if they catch you trying to get a sneaky snap. I spent the afternoon organising and re-touching photos. Cook group made a vegetable and potato stew and Alex was on clean group. Not long after he had finished cleaning, exhausted from our long day we went to bed and watched a movie.

Week 8

Thursday 9th June.

Trivia night at Fish Eagle Inn.

Breakfast at 8am and on the road by 9am. There was only about 80kms to drive today to the campsite on lake Naivasha where we will be staying for three nights. We said goodbye to Benne and Jimmy who were heading for Mombassa to meet up with Jan and have a few extra days on the coast. We stopped in Naivasha town and had 1.5hrs to do personal stocking up and shopping for three cook groups.

Making it to Fish Eagle Inn we thought for sure Farron had turned into the wrong campsite as we passed the signs for the pool, spa, sauna.... surely this place is not for us! But it was. Between the lake and the restaurant, pool, accommodation there was a huge block of grass where we were able to set up our tents. The lake itself was pretty ugly, it was really shallow and muddy and looked like a giant swamp. Alex couldn't fish because it illegal as it was off season, a shame for Alex but the first time we have seen evidence of responsible fishing in Africa. We couldn't swim in the lake, even if we wanted to- which we didn't- because for every 30 meters there was a hippo or two. But it was a nice setting with fresh grass, huge trees, heaps of Maribu Stalks (the giant ugly birds that evolution left behind, that not even a mother could love, that really pissed off mother nature!), and Colobus monkeys everywhere.

To have washing done at Fish Eagle was going to be stupidly expensive as they were charging between 100-200 shillings per item (about US$1.30-2.30) and they wouldn't wash underwear. We wandered across to the camp ground on the next property and asked at reception if they could do our washing. The young woman called someone to ask them, presumable her mum, and said that they could do it privately for 30 shillings a piece and that underwear was no problem. You got yourself a deal lady!

Alex, Aileen and Emma were on cook group and made roast potatoes and a really yummy minced meat sauce. Because we were not going anywhere for the next three days, and were not planning on doing any of the activities that included hiking and mountain bike riding through Hells Gate National Park, I got a bit cheeky and put cheese on my potato. Damn it tasted good.

After dinner we headed for the bar for a trivia night that Farron and Leigh had organised. I had enquired earlier what the prizes were and was promptly given the task of sorting out prizes if we wanted some. The teams were Alex and I; Marcus and Fiona; Emma and Aileen; Kate and Geoff; and Sheri, Wil and BJ. . There were four rounds with ten questions in each round. A lot of the questions were Africa related, or related to the trip we had done so far and the people in our group. There were also some general knowledge questions, some celebrity questions, some mathematical questions, and some nature questions, and one riddle question. Farron and Leigh did such a good job with the questions and we had a lot of fun answering them. In the end there was a draw between Emma and Aileen and Wil, Sheri and BJ so Leigh came up with a showdown question. The final result was: 1st- Wil, Sheri and BJ; 2nd- Emma and Aileen; 3rd- Marcus and Fiona; 4th- Kate and Geoff; 5th-Alex and I.

The prize for coming 1st was a body warmer (thanks Box Hill Hospital), a condom, and whoever came last had to do their cleaning for one dinner time. 2nd got a body warmer, a pair of disposable earplugs, and whoever came 3rd had to put up their tents once on demand. 3rd got a body warmer, a mini sewing kit, and whoever came 2nd had to give them a giant bear hug. 4th got nothing because when I making the prizes I didn't know how many teams there were going to be. Whoever came last- that would be us- got congratulated on being a loser, a body warmer, one Australian dollar, and they (we) had to do whatever the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams told them to do for 30 minutes, plus do the dinner clean for whoever came first on their demand. Damn!

It was really good fun, and after our 30 minutes of servitude were up and we had had a few more drinks we called it a night and went to Helsinki, the name of our tent, and watched a movie.

Friday 10th June.

High tea time.

Overnight I heard a bunch of hippos and also what sounded like a pack of about 1,000 wolves. It made the trek across the giant grassy field to the toilet block in the middle of the night more interesting, and a little hair raising!

Emma, Aileen and Alex made really nice omelet for breakfast, which I indulged in as my tummy was already upset from the cheese the night before, so why the hell not. We spent the rest of the morning relaxing and watching colobus monkeys playing in the acacia trees above us. They make such a deep, glutteral sound and were jumping from tree to tree. Mid morning we went to the tent to have a nanna-nap and were woken up in the afternoon, just in time to go for high tea at Elsamere. Elsamere is the home of Joy and George Adamsonhippy, and together they passionate and successful animal conservationists. we went with Farron, Leigh, Jerome, Mark, Lars, Sheri, and Wil. After watching a 40 minute documentary on the life of Joy and George Adamason

We got back to camp just in time for cook group to start on dinner, Lars was making a traditional Norwegian dish which was apparently really nice, but I didn't try it as it was full of milk and cheese and my stomach was really making me suffer for the indulgence of the past few days. I took the laptop up to the bar to charge it and use the wifi. I was feeling pretty crappy in the tummy so we went to bed fairly early and watched a movie.

Saturday 11th June.

27 Hippos.

After a lovely sleep-in we went up to the bar mid-morning and jumped on the net. The internet was far to slow to skype but I was able to chat with mum via facebook chat, and messaged dad who was up at the houseboat on Lake Eildon.

Farron told us that he had found out that the Australian Embassy in Nairobi is shut on Monday because there is a public holiday in Australia. Lazy buggers. So now we aren't able to catch the overnight train to Mombassa because the train only leaves on Monday and Friday nights. I'm really disappointed by this because I was so looking forward to catching the train. We considered catching the overnight bus to Mombasa and train back to Nairobi but we cant even do that because the train only runs from Mombassa to Nairobi on Tuesday and Sunday nights and we are leaving for Ethiopia on Sunday. Bugger bugger bugger. We could get the overnight bus both ways, but I was more excited about the overnight train than I was about getting to the coast for two nights.

We grabbed some lunch at the neighbouring campsite and I made myself feel better with a bit of retail therapy. There was a bunch of little stalls set up on the ground along the fence line between our place and next door. I got dad a funny wooden bowl with a giraffe on it for his 60th birthday, got myself a mask and some soapstone bookends, and got 27 colourful soapstone hippos, three for me and the rest for presents. 27 hippos... sounds like a C-grade movie.

It was my cook group night with Marcus and Fiona and we made a vegetarian rice stir fry. We had been thinking about going into Hells Gate National Park where there was an annual wheelbarrow race and rave party but decided not to as I was still suffering from the cheese, and it started pissing down with rain. Jerome checked it out and said that we hadn't missed out on anything and the rave party was not what we were imagining it would be. We spent the rest of evening trying to decide what to do with our week off the truck, considered maybe doing a three day safari in the Masai Mara and went to bed no closer to a final decision. 

Stay tuned.....

Sunday 12th June.

Let the layover begin.

Marcus, Fiona and I were up early to get breakfast ready for 8am. We laid out the usual cereals, got the water on the fire to boil for coffee and tea, and made a batch of scrambled eggs. There was a truck clean booked in for 9am. We all, well most of us, got stuck in taking everything out of the truck, cleaning all of the cooking equipment, all of the tuppaware, the utensils, cutlery, plates, bowls and cups, we cleaned out all of the storage containers, went through all of the food and sorted the good from the bad and the ugly.

We were finished cleaning and on the road by 10.10am. Not a bad effort, I guess many hands to make work light. and those hands that stood and watched instead of helping clean got a lot of dirty looks.

We arrived at Karen Camp, Nairobi in the afternoon and officially started our week layover off the truck. We upgraded to a tent (i know, i know it sounds strange) that had a comfy bed, a bedside table with a light and spare power socket, a chair and a nice comfy feel. We ordered in for dinner with Marcus, Fiona, Fiona's friend Amelia, Farron, Leigh, Wil, Sheri and Tony and had sushi delivered to camp. It wasn't fantastic sushi but it tasted amazing because it had been so long since any of us had eaten anything like it.

Monday 13th June.

Posting from the Posta.

Had a nice sleep in. Once up and fed we caught a taxi to the nearest shopping mall, Crossroads, with Marcus and Fiona. We headed for the Posta (post office) to send dad's birthday present home. It would take about 6 days and cost US$25 to send. Much better than the three days delivery time and US$150 that DHL had quoted us.

We went back to Karen Camp and I called mum and dad. Tomorrow is dad's big 6-0 birthday and mum had organised a surprise birthday party for him today. It was so nice to speak to them, dad sounded like he was having an absolute ball, I would have loved to have been able to be there and celebrate with him. The rest of the afternoon we tried to figure out what we wanted to do with the remainder of our week off. The Masaai Mara would be awesome, but very expensive. The beach would be fun, but we would spend most of our time travelling. I sent a few email enquiries to hotels in Mombassa and down at Diani beach where  Benne and Jimmy were. We said goodbye to Emma and Aileen who were headed for Diani beach as their embassy had been open and they were able to get their letter of recommendation from their embassy so that they could get their Sudanese visas.

Went to bed not much closer to a decision, but no longer considering the Maasai Mara.

Tuesday 14th June.

Visa run.

We were in a taxi by 7.30am driving through the crazy peak hour traffic of Nairobi on a mission to get Sudanese visas with Jerome, Kate, Geoff and Farron.  Our first stop was a photocopy place where we had to get copies of a credit card each. Don't ask me why, its just something the Sudanese government likes I guess. We had copied ours the day before but had been a little to try-hardish and had copied both sides of our credit cards so that any person with half a brain could go on a shopping spree because there was our signature and the CVC security number on the back.

From there we went to the Australian embassy. Entering we had to surrender our mobile phones, and ipods because they look like phones, we had to send our bags through an xray machine and walk through a metal detector.  We all handed in our passport to the correct window and sat down and waited for them to type up our letters of recommendation.

Letters in hand we got back in the taxi and went to the Sudanese embassy. The security was not nearly as strict and we walked in through what looked like a side entrance with a really happy security guard. Once in their Farron handed in everyone's passport, credit card copies, two passport photos, letters of recommendation and 4,000 Kenyan shillings (US$46.50). Farron said that there was no point all of us hanging around because it would probably be a long wait with nothing to do, so Kate and Geoff walked to a local market and Jerome, Alex and I got the taxi driver to take us back to Crossroads where we grabbed some lunch and a coffee.

We went back to Karen Camp and relaxed the afternoon away on the couches before going out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner with Farron, Mark, Kate and Geoff, BJ, Lars, Fiona and Marcus and Fiona's friends Amelia and her partner. It was a nice night with way too much food, nice wine, gross sake, great company and many laughs.

Wednesday 15th June.

Sarit center madness.

By this stage we had decided to just stay in Nairobi and explore the city, go shopping, eat lots of yummy food and just hang out rather than rush around catching overnight buses for what would turn out to be only one full day at the beach.

We got a taxi with Marcus, Fiona and Amelia to a huge shopping mall called the Sarit Center, behind which is an even bigger market. We went to the market to do some hard bargaining and walked away with a really nice mask, some Masaai statues, some soapstone bowls, and a really nice mirror made out of a traditional Masaai necklace.

Exhausted and hungry from all of our hard work, we went back into the Sarit Center and headed straight for the food court. It was immediately a very strange experience. We were shown to a table by someone who we presumed worked for the shopping mall, then as soon as our bums hit the cold and uncomfortable metal seats we were surrounded by about 10 people all throwing menus at us. After a few dizzying minutes Amelia finally cracked and asked everyone very politely, but loudly and sternly to back off for a few minutes so that we could have a chance to look at all of the different menus.  After we had decided what we wanted we signaled to the waiters who came rushing back like eager seagulls. We all ordered from different places, I got some satay chicken and chicken and sweet corn soup, and Alex got fried chicken. We walked around for a bit longer and then got a taxi back to Karen Camp.

We chilled for the rest of the afternoon and ordered in again for dinner from the Japanese restaurant, but ordered from the Chinese menu and I ended up getting more chicken and sweet corn soup. Yum!

Week 7

Thursday 2nd June.

Back to the Kabale Hilton.

Woke up to the most beautiful view from our upgrade tent looking out over lake Bunyonyi. I spent the morning sitting on our 'balcony' writing weeks 3 and 4 of my blog while Alex walked around the lake fishing. He didn't catch anything but had a nice morning. We spent the rest of the day bumming around in the sun, eating and relaxing.

We left the lake at 5pm to make our way slowly down the shitty road, the alternative was to stay there another night and leave crazy early in the morning, so as much as we would have loved to have stayed at Lake Bunyonyi another night we were also happy not to have an early morning. We got back to the same 'hotel' in Kabale and set up our mats and sleeping bags in the hall again. Alex and Aileen were on cook group, and having lost Andrea in Rwanda, Emma joined their group. They made a yummy vegetable, curry, soupy thing. I spent the whole evening and night doing sweet F.A., laying on my mat in the scout hall type place playing games on the laptop and watching movies.

Friday 3rd June.

Adrift in Jinga, Uganda.

We were up at 5am and on the road at 6am. We drove all day only stopping three times. Once for breakfast at the petrol station we had lunch at on the way to Kable. Alex, Aileen and Emma set out cereals and bread in front of the truck in the petrol station and Marcus and I cleaned crouched on the ground of the petrol station. We stopped for lunch at the aids orphan shop we had breakfast at on the way to Kabale and got another chicken and avocado wrap. Delicious. We stopped once more just before the camp in Jinja at a mini mart/service station so cook group could buy some supplies for their sweet'n'sour sausages and rice dinner.

Arriving at Adrift Camp, Jinja, Uganda we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. We set up our tents on a small patch of grass between the bar and the toilets and set ourselves up in the bar. The bar looks over the great Nile River, which after our jaunt back to Nairobi we will be following all the way to Egypt. Also, from the bar you can sit and watch people do the 45 meter bungy jump and get dipped in the Nile. I didn't even think for a second that I might like to do it again, mum and dad will be pleased no doubt. There was also free wifi which is very exciting, but also was very slow.  Hopefully I will be able to skype mum and dad.

I forgot to mention that we have crossed the equator 4 times at this stage. We have to cross back into the Northern Hemisphere again making it 5 times in total. Pretty impressive!

Saturday 4th June.

Nile perch bonanza.

Alex was up early to go fishing in Nile. I slept in and then made my way to the bar to try and upload some photos. I managed to post some of my blog, but was unable to upload photos because the internet was so slow. I tried to call mum and dad on skype but it was to slow.

Alex came up for lunch, happy as a pig in s**t because he had caught some Nile perch. After lunch he went back to fishing and Felix and I caught a taxi into town with Mark and Jan so that we could buy stuff for dinner. I ended up spending most of the time in the line for an ATM while Felix ran down to the market to grab supplies.

Had a chilled out night sitting in the bar, watching the sun set over the Nile and organising photos.

Sunday 5th June.

Welcome home Farron and Leigh.

Had a relaxing day doing nothing much at all (its a hard life hey...). We watched as Jimmy, Benne, Aileen and Emma bungied, Alex went fishing and caught more Nile perch. He also hooked a massive fish which snapped his smaller rod. Impressively he managed to fix it 'McGuiver style' with some paper, glue and duct tape.

I managed to speak to mum and dad by calling their mobile phone via Skype. It was a pretty bad connection with bad feedback, long delays and it kept on cutting in and out, but it was so nice to hear their voices and their laughter. It made me feel close to home again even though I was sitting in a bar looking over the Nile River. I felt rejuvenated after speaking to them and then to make a good day even better, Farron and Leigh arrived at 5pm. It is so nice to have them home again, we all missed them.

Cook group made a really nice beef and potato stew and Farron made his dinner time speech about what we can expect the next day. Everything back to normal and how it should be again.

Just before bed I organised with the guys at the bar for Alex to get a big cooked breakfast in the morning for his birthday. The kitchen didn't open until 8am but we were leaving at that time, so they very generously said that they would open earlier and cook the brekky.

Monday 6th June.

Happy 29th Birthday to Alex!!!

I got up at 7am to make sure Alex's breakfast was being cooked and to grab his birthday present from Benne who had been stashing it for me ever since I bought it at Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar.

At 7.30am sharp Alex was up at the truck about to grab himself some breakfast when I gave him his big cooked breakfast and painting (I got him a large painting of lots of blue fish swimming in a circle. It kind of resembles a Magic Eye picture). He also received a bottle of Amarula from Mark, a really yummy, creamy liquor. While he ate his breakfast I went to pack down the tent and Mark kindly gave me  hand so that Alex didn't have to do it on his birthday.

Taking off at 8am we drove most of the day to get to our next camp closer to Nairobi on the shores of Lake Victoria. We arrived in the afternoon and set up our tents, making sure we weren't underneath a sausage tree. Lake Victoria, or at least the part we could see from camp, was like a big ugly swamp. Not at all what I had imagined. The camp was also 'different'... it looked like it would be the perfect setting for a haunting or bloodshed horror type movie setting.

Amazingly though it had free wifi and was unbelievable fast. Faster than any internet I have ever used, ever! Thanks to this I managed to upload hundreds of photos, but unfortunately it was the middle of the night in Australia and we would be leaving early in the morning so couldn't skype anyone. Alex gave a big Nile Perch to the staff who said that they would cook it for us and we were told that cook group could have the night off because we were all going to order from the bar. It had been organised that we meet up with another African Trails truck as one of the guys on it had traveled down the west side (Marrakesh to Cape Town) with our crew. It was like witnessing a large family reunion. Fun was going to be had!

Alex's fish came out perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious, there was enough for everyone to have a small portion of it which was good. We all ordered out food which came out in drips and drabs. I ordered a 'fillet steak' (read: a small piece of bone with some fat, leather and griscle attached), but it was nice to be able to order a meal and sit down at a table and eat with everyone. Everyone was buying Alex drinks for his birthday and Darny, our replacement driver while Farron was away played a drinking game with Alex, and a few other unsuspecting victims. It went a little something like this: Alex had to mimic Darny's every move, much like a game of Simon says, but if he failed then he had to drink whatever Darny gave him to drink. Darny put his arms in the air, Alex put his arms in the air. Darny poked his tongue out and made a funny face, Alex poked his tongue out and made a funny face. Darny took his shot of tequila, Alex took his shot of tequila. Darny spat his shot of tequila back into the shot glass, Alex failed to spit his back into the glass. Alex had to drink Darny's spat out shot of tequila. Gross but very funny!

Aileen came to the truck and helped me make a fairy bread cake for Alex. She had never even heard of fairy bread before and I was happy to spread the joy around the world, she will now take fairy bread back to Canada and spread the word. We gave Alex the giant plate of fairy bread while everyone sang happy birthday to him.

Best. Cake. Ever!

The celebrations continued into the night, songs were sung, eels ate straws and fun was had. A great night all up.

Tuesday 7th June.

Nice camp in the making.

We had breakfast of avocado on toast and made our way to the next camp. We stopped for lunch in a small town and grabbed some meat and chapati. We got to camp in the afternoon and upgraded to a really nice permanent tent for Alex's birthday. Mum and Dad had sent him with a birthday card with some US$ inside, so that paid for the upgrade for two nights. It was a really nice place, everything was brand spanking new. Although there was no internet, no food at the bar, and there was meant to be a watering hole- but it hadn't been dug yet.

A game drive in Nakuru National Park, famous for the pink flamingos, was organised for the following morning. It worked out to be US$60 each for park entry and 1,000 shillings each for the safari car (US$11.60).

Cook group made roast beef and potatoes. It was Felix's last night on the truck so we had a few drinks and said goodbye to him. We also fare welled Jan, Benne, Jimmy, Darny and Janet who were all being driven to Nairobi in the morning. The week layover was originally planned to start this week, but had been delayed a week so that we could cruise back to Nairobi and stop at Hell's Gate National Park. The boys however had a plan to go to head down to the coast and took the opportunity to spend an extra week there, Felix's dad was arriving from Germany, and Janet's husband was arriving in Nairobi from Scotland for a week, whom she hadn't seen in over 7 months. We were also missing Fiona who had left to go to Nairobi from Jinja so that she could send her passport back to England to get an Ethiopian visa, because when we organised them in Harare, she was meant to be finishing in Nairobi and had not yet extended to Cairo, so didn't get one. It was weird having such a small group! We went to bed at a reasonable time and watched a movie, still tired from the birthday celebrations and knowing that we had to get up really early in the morning.

Wednesday 8th June.

Rhino, flamingo, and much more in Lake Nakuru N.P.

We woke up refreshed and ready for the day after a brilliant sleep in the most comfortable bed so far. Our safari car was there to pick us up at 6am as planned. There was me and Alex, Lars, Marcus, Aileen, Jerome, Geoff and BJ. Nakuru National Park was only about 15 minutes drive away from our camp so we were there when the gates opened and as the morning mist was still settled over the plains. It is a small park, only about 150 square kilometers,but it holds a great concentration of most animals, except for elephants because the park isnt big enough for even one nellie, let alone a whole family.

We saw everything we could have hoped to see, another brilliant game drive. We saw black and white rhino, thousands of pelican and pink flamingos, lions that had just finished with a buffalo carcass and we watched as hyena and jackall moved in to finish the job, there was two adolescent male lions with the beginnings of a mane fast asleep in the shade of a sign, baboons, vervet monkeys, giraffe, zebra, many different species of antelope including waterbuck, and right at the end of the drive as we were heading out of the park we caught a glimpse of a colobus monkey.

We stopped for lunch at Lake Nukuru Lodge, a fancy pants lodge in the middle of the park. Getting back to camp at 6pm we bought our driver Peter a beer, which he well and truely deserved after driving us around for 12 hours. We were told when we arrived home that there was no cook group as Farron had organised some locals to cook us a feast. They made a yummy roast potato and bean stew with a mountain of chipati bread. After dinner Benne and Jimmy had everything set up for a beer-pong tournament, but we were all so buggered from the massive game drive the tournament had to be postponed and we went to bed to watch a movie on the laptop.

Week 6.

Thursday 26th May.

Bill Gates bar.

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

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

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

Friday 27th May.

Chck chck boom.

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

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

Saturday 28th May.

Farewell Farron and Leigh (frowny face).

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 29th May.

Camping in a 'hotel' in Kibale.

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

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

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

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

Monday 30th May.

Into beautiful Rwanda.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday 31st May.

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

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

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

Pulling myself together we went into the genocide museum.

It was heartbreaking. Horrible. Gut wrenching.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday 1st June.

Hungover  in Hotel Des Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda).

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

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

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

Week 5

Thursday 19th May.

Nmemba Atoll

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

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

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

Friday 20th May.

The gods must be crazy.

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

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

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

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

Saturday 21st May.

Happy birthday to my brother!!!

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

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

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

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

Sunday 22nd May. 

To the Serengeti.

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

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

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

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

Monday 23rd May.

Safari in the Serengeti.

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

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

Tuesday 24th May.

Ngorogoro and Maasai Market.

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

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

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

Wednesday 25th May.

Lets go shopping for a Tanzanite...

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

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

Week 4

Thursday 12th May.

Vicki the Pig.

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

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

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

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

Friday 13th May.

Shop-a-holic.

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

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

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

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

Saturday 14th May.

Tanzania, where the mountains meet the sky.

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

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

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

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

Sunday 15th May.

Chaotic Dar Es Salaam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday 16th May.

Hello Stonetown.

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday 17th May.

City and spice tour.

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday 18th May.

Seafood bonanza!

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

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

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

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

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

Vicki the Pig.