Somerville, Massachusetts, United States
Nov 19, 2005

Well 4 weeks to go before taking off for a 6 month adventure, so far my first 2 destination are looking a bit dodgy. The Ethiopian government just shot 30+ people for protesting last Junes elections and arrested the opposition leaders on treason charges. As if that wasn't enough they have started amassing troops on the border with Eritrea! Uganda have just arrested their opposition leader on treason and rape charges and now the military have taken them away to a tribunal. On the bright side they aren't shooting protesters there (yet!).

Nobody said Africa wasn't going to be interesting!

Below is the planned itinarary at this point in time!

Ethiopia for approx. 1 month
I will head north to Lake Tana, Blue Nile Falls, Lalibella, Simien Mountains. Maybe Aksum and the Bale Mountains.

Fly to Uganda for approx. 1 month
Places of interest include Ruwenzori Mountains for a 5 day hike, Queeen Elisabeth NP for hippos and crocs, Biwindi to see the gorillas, hike up Mt. Sabyinyo in the Mgahinga NP that borders Zaire, Uganda and Rwanda and probably spend a couple of days on Lake Bunyoni.
Other posibilities depending on time Murchison Falls NP, Jinja, Ssesi Islands on Lake Victoria and Kibale for the Chimpanzes.

Tanzania next for approx. 3 weeks
Hike Kilamanjaro or Meru, probably do some safari or possiblely a hike at the Ngorongoro Crater or the Serengeti and some time on Zanzibar

This takes me to about mid march, I have the following I'd like to do
before mid May and meeting Erica in South Africa - Mozambique island, Victoria Falls, the Okavango Delta in Northen Botzwana (Chobe or/and Moremi wildlife reserve for canoing). Perhaps about a month in Namibia - Atosha NP, Skeleton Coast, Sossusvlei dunes (the real red sand dunes), Fish River Canyon.

The final month in South Africa with Erica and some of the following - Cape Town, the Garden Route, elephants in Port Elisabth, the Drakensbergs, Kruger and then Durban and home.


Let's see how much that changes!

Leeds, United Kingdom
Dec 26, 2005

OK just a quick entry to let you all know I'm alive and well - I managed to eat plenty of steak and kidney pie, haggis, indian food and fish and chips in England and wash it all down with many a pint of Theakstons best bitter. I'm actually in a place called Bahir Dar in Ethiopia at the moment but more to come - just wanted to let you know I'm on my way :-)

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Dec 30, 2005

After about 24 hours and plenty of complementary London Pride on the BA flight I finally made it to Bahir Dar on the edge of Lake Tana. I tried to ignore the burned out plane just off the runway at Addis Ababa. The scenery was fantastic from Addis, a sort of green and brown patchwork with trees every now and again where the villages were.

The guy in the hotel mentioned my room would be 2 minutes, it ended up being 4 hours - A sign of things to come I think! While waiting in the hotel grounds I managed to spot pelicans, lovebirds kingfishers, hawks, hornbills, monkeys and more all within 10 minutes - I think I'm going to like this place!
















Did an afternoon trip to the Blue Nile Falls, a bit of a disappointment - only 10 percent of the water actually goes over the falls now, the rest is sucked up by a hydro electric plant. The landscape and villages were fantastic though so that made up for a lot.

Met a nice family called the Tetts who I spent the next couple of days with, had dinner with them that evening and sampled my first Ethiopian beer, called St. George! An excellent day.



Next day Elliot got a good deal on a trip to the monastry's on Lake Tana, we visited 3 where we saw some fantastic colourful vibrant paintings, crowns, manuscripts and carved crosses. On the second island we met a nice monk who gave us some of the local beer, Tella, looked a bit like muddy water, but tasted pretty refreshing. We also visited the opening to the Blue Nile, very scenic and managed to spot my first hippo, if only for a few seconds. We also spotted plenty of the local tankwa boats that the locals made out of papyrus.

Spent the afternoon in a terraced cafe called Mangos on the edge of the lake, the pelicans came within feet of the shore - very cool. Went posh that night for my last dinner with the Tetts where we paid less than $10 for an all you can eat buffet!




Day 3 and I decided on a trip to the local market, one guy followed me the whole way and pissed me off so much I went home! Tried again 20 minutes later, got followed by another 'guide', but decided it would be best to have him tag along he could potentially scare off any other unwanted 'guides'! Turned out to be a knowledgeable guy and some of the more interesting things he showed me were the place they stored the honey to make a local mead called Tej, also the milling room where they produced the grains for the local Injera bread.


Feeling confident I headed out that afternoon on bike to Weyto, a village where they made the tankwa boats, an absolute tourist trap, I was swarmed with people asking for money in seconds, needless to say I didn't hang around too long! Next was the palace of Haile Sellassie, which was closed but was meant to be on a hill with great views, to be honest it was a bit crap. Spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the dock trying to get pictures of the pelicans and some fish eagles, some guy tried to extract 50c from me for the privilege, I was quick to tell him where to go!






Gonder and the Simien Mountain next!

Gonder, Ethiopia
Dec 31, 2005

Wasn't looking forward to the trip to Gonder, but it turned out to be really pleasant. Arrived at bus station, no touts, got a bus and seat immediately and we were gone, even arrived ahead of schedule, the burned out tanks on the side of the road were a bit disconcerting, but the scenery was fantastic, plenty of egrets and some cool black and white storks with bright orange beaks. Went to a church that was described as one of the treasures of Ethiopia for it's paintings, Debre Barhan Selassi Church. They didn't open when they should have. I arrived and I was alone, I had to wait for an hour, but they soon opened it when the big tourist bus arrived though! Nice painting but I think I preferred the ones at the monasteries in Lake Tana, a bit more colourful.



Met 3 Bostonians at the posh Goya Hotel, that was placed high on the hill, I'd gone there to have a beer and watch the sunset. Had dinner with 2 very German Austrian guys :-)



















Second day in Gonder and I visited a couple of the main tourist attractions, the Royal Enclosure (castle) that gave Gonder the nickname of the Camelot of Africa. Also visited Fasilada's Bath. A place that really kicks into life on Timkat (Epiphany) when they have a mass baptism there - Interestingly the Ethiopians use a different time and date system to us, so their epiphany is on Jan 22! The skies of Gonder are always full with black kites and I've also spotted a number of vultures and there more bloody pigeons here than Trafalgar Square.

New year eve tonight and I went out with Zak (originally from Sudbury, Mass) and his Ozzy wife. We went to see some traditional Asmari music and dancing, the Ethiopian women can really move! They played a one stringed fiddle that made an interesting sound. I think we caused a bit of a fracas when we left for not leaving enough of a tip, the singer kept grabbing my hand and placing it on her forehead - I thought she had the hots for me, but apparently you're meant to place the tip on their forehead! I was totally oblivious to the fact we'd pissed them all off until someone mentioned it to me halfway home - I guess that means it was a good night :-)

One other funny thing in Gonder, one hotel there named after the Simien Mountains, but they had a bit of a typo in the name - they named it 'The Semen Hotel' - well it made me laugh out loud!

Debark, Ethiopia
Jan 1, 2006

A new year and 5:30 start up to the Simien Mountains. Got prime spot on the bus, front row right next to the driver, good job really as by the end of the trip the bus was packed to the rafters. Totally illegal of course as everyone in Ethiopia must have a seat!

I had decided against the all inclusive package from Gonder and decided to go it alone. Debark was a bit of a hole and I was getting hassle at every turn, I was starting to regret my decision. After visiting the park HQ I was happy again, I was quickly assigned a guide and a 'scout', a gun carrying fellow who is there to stop anyone attacking you! Millis, my guide, spent a few hours shopping with my, not too much on offer so it would be pasta, tuna, tomato paste, garlic and onions for dinner each night, egg sandwiches for breakfast and chocolate spread sandwiches for lunches! Eggs could be bought in the mountains. Spent the evening with Millis, was feeling a bit flush so I bought him dinner - cheeky git ordered the most expensive thing on the menu!















First days hiking and up at 6am for a bus ride to the mountains, we picked up a mule and mule handler at our start point. Saw plenty of the endemic Gelada baboons, very spectacular with their bright red coloured chests. We hikes all the way along an escarpment with some fantastic scenery, the landscape reminded me a lot of the Grand Canyon although very different vegetation. Saw lots of interesting plants including Giant Lobelia and a couple of Red Hot Poker plants that were still in bloom. We also passed through some local villages. Geech, our campsite was situated high on a grassland plateau, although mot of the grass was grazed down to almost nothing. I decided to have a wander and take some snaps, Tagon our scout was a very keen chap and decided to follow me the few hundred yards from the camp even though I was in full view all the time!





Spent the evening swapping travel stories around the camp file with Steve, Nat, Thomas and Joke, 2 Canadian brothers and a Belgium couple.

















Day 2 and what a cracker. We continued across the plateau and then up to Imet Gogo, a 13000ft peak with 6000ft drops to the valley floors, much of it pretty sheer. My English lungs were struggling with this altitude. We stopped at another peak, Innatiye for lunch before heading to Chenek camp, all the time up high looking over the cliffs to the valley below.



Day 3 was supposed to be a nice easy one, it started off badly as my kerosene stove took over an hour to boil the kettle for tea! Never mind fantastic hike up to the 14000 foot Bwahit. I had a pounding headache by the time we hit the summit, managed to spot one of the endemic Walia Ibex very close to us near the top, it had of course disappeared well before I could grab my camera! Also saw plenty of troops of the baboons. That afternoon sat back in camp we saw one of the famous Lammergeyer birds swooping overhead.




Sick to death of pasta the 5 of us decided to slaughter a sheep - well we got the chef from a posh tour group to do it for us. $30 killed and cooked for us, although there wasn't too much meat to be had! It came out on a bit platter, chops, liver, kidneys, tripe and all!

Nat had bought his laptop so we all sat around that evening looking at the photos of his brother Steve's wedding to and Ethiopian lady a few months earlier. Like most Ethiopian girls Steve's wife was very attractive, every time a picture of her came up on the computer all the guides, scouts and mule handlers would burst into applause. It was only right for me to join in! The other thing I found funny was my name in Amharic was 'Johannas' - When the Ethiopians pronounced it, it sounded like 'Your Highness'. It made me feel kind of important :-)



Day 4 and back to Sankabar camp where we started, not a fantastic day for scenery as we had moved away from the cliffs - we did however see plenty of Auger Buzzards, very spectacular with their white undercarriage and wings. Had a very special lunch. Tagon invited us back to his house. Like all the homes in the area, it was a circular building with a thatch like roof with grass on top to keep in the warmth. Inside it was all one room and included the kitchen (a fire I the middle of the room), beds and an assortment of animals including hens and goats! Spicy Injera was first on the menu, a pancake like food used like a nan bread. They put a dairy product on top of this that was a lumpy milk. Next we had kolo, a roasted barley and very tasty indeed. Finally the coffee, they took the fresh beige coloured coffee beans, roasted them till they were black, crushed them and then added them to a kettle of boiling water. Not quite a cup of Yorkshire Tea, but a very fine cup of coffee and I don't think I've ever had such a fresh coffee!

That afternoon took a minibus back to Debark - No water in the whole of Debark, apparently a water main had burst - not really what you need after 4 days hiking, luckily there was one place in town with a big water tank, so I paid my 5 birr and took a cold shower.

Gonder, Ethiopia
Jan 6, 2006

Debark didn't have much going for it, so I was up at the crack of dawn for he first bus back to Gonder. They put my backpack on the roof on top of some empty Ras Dashen beer barrels. It didn't look too secure and I let them know but they assured me it was fine. Every time we hit a big bump we'd hear a clatter from above and the inspector would look out of the back window to see it anything had fallen off! This didn't give me a feeling of comfort, but at least I guess someone was looking out for my luggage. After an hour of traveling and a particularly large bump the bus came to a stop. I jumped out to check if my backpack was still there. It was, but I realized that the inspector was not checking for my backpack but rather for a sheep that someone had tied up and placed on the roof! At this point they decided the best place for the sheep would be on the bus under my seat - I could only laugh for the next 30 minutes as the sheep kept head butting my calves! Thank God its owner reached their destination at that point and I was spared any further bruising! Met Steven and Nat that evening for a few beers and food.



I think I mentioned before that Ethiopia is on a different calendar - well today (Jan 7th) is Christmas day! No turkey and stuffing but went to a fantastic church service, lots of people dressed in white and other brightly coloured robes, holding staffs and crosses. Fantastic morning, Christmas in one of the main celebrations days in this mainly Christian country.


Relaxation in the afternoon, tried a mango and avocado fruit juice on someone else's recommendation - surprisingly tasty. Went up to the Goya hotel again to watch the sunset and see if I could get tome photos of the black kites. Finished the evening at the Ras Restaurant - Torquay and Birminghan in the FA cup third round - Torquay got an admiral draw! The Ethiopians are mad on English football, the only problem is most of them support Man U. !

Aksum, Ethiopia
Jan 8, 2006

Left as 6:30 for my 9am flight to Aksum. Met Matt and Athene, 2 english students at the airport. Some great views of the Simien Mountains from plane, the mountains looked very arid from the air. Arrived in Aksum and managed to get fleeced by some taxi driver who managed to persuade me I couldn't take the hotel bus and had to go with him! Oh well another dollar wasted! Luckily Matt and Athene want to hire a 4WD and go to Debra Damo and Yeha, excellent news as it would probably be a bit expensive by myself! Not many other independent travelers in Aksum, although a number of small organized tour groups.

Tried to crack a joke about Yeha, something along the lines of 'ride 'em cowboy', don't think the guy from the hotel really understood!

The 3 of us headed out to check out the town stopping at the main square for lunch. They introduced my to Shiro, a chickpea dish laced with garlic - a new favourite. Most people complained about the Ethiopian food but I found it very tasty, especially the vegetarian food. Every Wednesday and Friday was a fasting day for orthodox Ethiopians when they would go vegie - the rest of the week they were big meat eaters and the though of having to eat vegetable was not entertained.



The square like all the places I'd been had a grand old fig tree, the largest ones were enormous and must have been well over a century old. I think only 3 percent of the original forest was left in Ethiopia and that was one of the main reason they had gone from a great civilization to a land especially in the east that experienced a lot of cyclical droughts and famines. The country has some of the best topsoil in the world that originally supported these civilizations but deforestation is causing a lot of erosion and the removal of the trees has caused a lot of the areas further east not to get the rains they once used to. Places in the highland of Ethiopia such as Addis get on average 1.5m of rain every year and after the rainy season the place is green with vegetation. It's a shame more tourists don't come, put off by the pictures on TV of drought. For one of the 10 poorest countries in the world tourism is a big boost to the economy and from what I have seen the country is one of the most interesting in terms or history, wildlife and also it's tribes people in the south (that I won't get to see this time!).




We could tell we were getting closer to the mighty Sahara as besides the usual array of donkeys, carts and tuk-tuks this town was full of camels! Outside the main stelae (obelisk)park is were the usual crowd of beggars including people without limbs and eyesight - a lot of it is very sad indeed. Inside the stelae park they have the largest obelisks in the world. The biggest is believed to have been transported from a quarry 4km away, it weighed over 500 tons and fell as it was been erected in the 6 century, many say causing the downfall of the Aksumite civilization. Also in the park were plenty of birds, African starlings, much prettier than their European counterparts. The other cool bird was a Hoopoe, very colourful with a crown on its head that it kept raising and lowering.


After walking past Queen Sheba's baths and Kink Kalib's tomb where we had a rather close encounter with a whole load of bats we headed across some pleasant countryside to Abba Pentalewon Monastery. Perched high on a hill, besides the usual objects there were some superb views across the Tigrayan countryside.

That evening we went to the Abyssinia Café and met Zak and his wife (sorry I never did manage to pick up her name properly), the couple from New Years eve. True to form they spent the whole evening complaining about everything and anything, I hope I'm not like that after 3 months on the road!

Next morning after a tasty egg sandwich and coffee, Abebe our driver turned up with his smart jacket, flat cap and landrover. He looked like he would have been right at home as a 1960s chauffeur!



There was plenty of dust on the roads in that part of the world and overtaking consisted of driving up to a dust ball, trying not to breath in too much, moving out from the back wheels of the vehicle in front. Next you'd hope nothing was coming the other way, before overtaking, opening the windows to clear out all the dust that was floating in the vehicle! Thankfully the roads were very quiet. The villages we passed through were mainly small dusty towns also, but the locals had a habit of painting all the houses bright colours that gave them a certain charm.

The scenery on the 4 hour journey to Debra Damo was fantastic and we made lots of photo stops along the way. Pinnacle shaped mountain and local agriculture made for nice scenery.
















I'd decided to go to Debra Damo after watching some poor hapless guy on PBS making has way up the 25 foot cliff face using only cowhide for support, he looked truly scared. Young Matt made it all the way up without a safety rope held by the monks at the top. I got about 1/4 of the way up before going back down and spending the $2 on the safety rope. I think it was a wise choice. I managed to get tangled in the safety rope halfway up and one of the monks came down to un-tie me! On the table top plateau every side was surrounded by vertical cliffs. They had a monastery, livestock, crops, housing and watering holes up there, that at times since its 6th C construction had been used to house up to 600 monks. Also on top were plenty of open tombs with skulls of passed monks clearly showing.

From the top Eritrea could be clearly seen a few kilometers away, due to the ongoing hostilities I think we were about 20km closer than the British government was recommending. Oh well we lived to tell another day.

We stopped at Yeha on the way home, the site of Ethiopia's first capital build back in the 8th C BC! The remains of one building we amazingly still standing, its stones fitting together so well, some as long as 3 meters, that you could not get anything in the gaps in between them. The guide book described the place as peaceful and evocative. After our long journey over some terrain that only 4WD could go, I was starting to feel more jaded and fleeced as one more unofficial guide followed us around and tried to extract money from us or as the kids who roamed the complex asked for pens, birrs and plastic bottles. A Meta beer back at the hotel and I was soon back on form.













Up early next morning for a walk in the hills behind the hotel. I was followed all morning by a group of kids who eventually had to be told strongly to go away. Saw an Auger Buzzard up close that was pretty cool. Lots of people walking around in this part of the world with brightly coloured umbrella trying to escape the sun. Went out to see Queen Shebas Palace and another Stelae Park in the afternoon. Not too much to report apart from a pile of rubble. Went to an Ethnographical Museum in the afternoon where a woman had preserved her house as it was in the old days. All very interesting indeed.

Feel like my time getting fleeced in Ethiopia is coming to an end, so spent the evening doing some research on Uganda to see what interesting way the locals have of fleecing the tourists there!

Lalibella, Ethiopia
Jan 11, 2006

Managed to get my flight changed for a day earlier on the Fokker 50 plane ride to Lalibella. Moved away from the straight espresso this morning and ventured towards the Machiatos (a kind of latte). Every now and again I would forget to ask for no sugar and get half a cup of sugar with my coffee - I guess the Ethiopians like it sweet! Seems like Lalibella has a bit of a cartel working from the airport and only one minibus turned up charging a flat 30birr per person - no choice really, but no worries either, pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things.


Stayed at the Asheton Hotel and did an afternoon hike with Jean-Pierre. Absolutely fantastic views. Lots of flowers in the town and countryside as well, but not to hot on my flower species so no idea what they all are. The hotel tried to charge me twice the price it should do for water so I sent a local lad, our guide as it turned out, to get some at the real price from a local shop - they are definately used to rich tourists here as the number one tourist destination in Ethiopia. The hike went to the Asheton Monastery that was carves out of a cliff face. Above the monastery we got some stupendous views of the surrounding countryside.

No power in town that night but still very bright with an almost full moon up high in the sky. Had a great meal of pizza! No cheese but a fantastic tomato sauce and topping. Toby who was with us worked for the biggest pizza manufacturer in Europe - he gave us the lowdown on the good and bad points about the pizza we had just had as well as plenty of other trivia, but I think even he was suitable impressed with our offering! Matt and Athene, plus an Australian guy I had briefly met in the Simien Mountains were also there.

Day 2 and the coffee not too tasty this morning, it tasted more like Turkish coffee! I left 3/4 of it but when the lady saw I hadn't drunk it she made me a whole new cup! I then felt rather guilt and had to finish the whole lot! I guess it's the Italian influence, but most places, however poor have a shiny new expresso machine. We still had a power cut so I guess they were not working and all the coffee was of the inferior stovetop variety.



Bin, our guide took us around the churches and all I can say is I was gob smacked, they were absolutely amazing. All sculpted out of solid rock, mostly below ground and freestanding, experts though it must have taken 40,000 people to build them! Many had stunning artifact such as one with a 7kg gold cross. All of them were looked after by colourfully robed priests, that were happy so show off their treasures for a few birr.

It was funny to see some of the priests wearing sunglasses to protect their eyes from the flashes on the tourists cameras.


Around the churches there were caves as small as a few feet tall where hermits lived and prayed - truly amazing. We went to one of the posh hotels for lunch, I had hamburger and beer, the burger with all it's spices tasted like a sausage pattie you'd likely get in the USA, minus the grease. A respectable burger indeed. Back to the rock carved passageways, tunnels and churches in the afternoon.





I spend the late afternoon sat on a hill watching storms cross the valley and also the sunset. Very pleasant.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Jan 13, 2006

Friday 13th and no major upsets apart from paying for an extra days accommodation to the hotel , not too sure if this was a genuine mistake on the part of the hotel or not, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt though. It has to be said sheer stupidity on my part though!

The flight touched down in Bahir Dar to pick up and drop off some passengers before arriving in Addis. Toby, Matt, Athene and myself shared a taxi and got a place at the Taitu Hotel, close to the Piazza. Had some very nice Shish Kebabs and a Middle Eastern place that evening.

Next day and a busy one at that, after French toast, coffee and OJ on the very nice terrace at our hotel Toby and I changed rooms to one of the posh ones above the terrace with views of the city. Saw Man. City beat Man. U. and knew it was going to be a good day.

Went to the Hilton and booked a flight with Kenya Air to Kampala, Uganda. Then headed to Bole, the posh area of town to meet Steven from the Simien Mountains. He owns a tour operating business and can give you cheap good trips around Ethiopia if any of you are interested?

Had a bit of an interesting incident on the way to Bole when I was thrown off one of the buses, the guy said I had to get another bus, I thought he meant one behind but there was not one - he gave me my money as I was leaving - I get the feeling either him or the guy next to me didn't like foreigners or I smelt - anyhow no harm done.

After sunset on the terrace we went to a place that did dancing, food and Tej that they brewed in house, almost like a brewpub I guess. Tej is a honey based alcohol drink that many of the local drink, we tried an non sweet version, to be honest it wasn't up to much and I'll be sticking to pale ale in the Cambridge Brewing Company in future!

The dancers were of course fantastic and thank god in this place they weren't trying to drag me up to dance all the time! I think the other Brits were similarly relieved that they could keep their bums parked firmly on their seats.

Toby, Matt and Athene all left on an early morning plane - sad to say goodbye really.

Day 3 in Addis and a nice quiet one. Breakfast on the terrace again, although it's not quite the same now I'm on my own again.

Visited the natural history museum. Good to put a name to so many of the birds I had seen also good to check out some the species endemic to Ethiopia that I hadn't seen. They had a Nile Perch on the wall, those things are as big as whales. They must have also had about 15 different antelope type species, very impressive indeed, especially the Oryx, but most of these animals were from the south - I'm sure I'll see more once I leave Ethiopia.

Botched up trying to speak with Erica on the phone. Hopefully tomorrow. Drowned my sorrows with a few beers on the terrace followed by some more middle eastern food.

Kampala, Uganda
Jan 17, 2006

The water is still not working - toilets not in a good state by now. Managed to get the hotel next door to allow me to shower there. Was going to go to the Ethnographic Museum in the morning but luckily just before I set off I realized I couldn't read the 24 hour clock and my flight was 2 hours earlier than I thought. So I settled in for a cake, coffee and a surf of the net to relieve me of my final few birrs. Still have about $10 left in birr if anyone is going to Ethiopia soon?

Met Steve at the airport, he's going to put a few of my photos on his tour web site - shoot me to stardom!

The rest of Africa is going to have a lot to live up to after Ethiopia!

Tusker beer on the Kenyan Airlines flight and some quite decent, if not rather salty fish. I was transferring through Nairobi (or Nairobbery as my guide book liked to call it). A crappy airport but the place is full of British stuff, Union Jacks and quality British papers, so it certainly got my vote of confidence.

Shared the 45 mile taxi ride into Kampala from Entebbe airport with some crazy Nigerian who lived in London. Arrived at The Backpacker Hostel (That is it's name!) and had a big bottle of the strongish Nile Special Beer while watching the Geckos on the wall. First thoughts on arriving in Kampala was the taste and moisture in the air made for a totally different feeling and although it was dark it looks green out there and plenty of people.

I know I'm going to like it.

Next day took the Matatus (minibus) into town and all I can say is the place is absolutely bonkers, especially around the bus station and the market. There are hundreds of people intermingling with buses, matatuses and motorbikes on the road, all somehow managing to avoid each other. How more people don't get killed is beyond me, I feel like I'm constantly fighting for my life! Luckily I managed to make it out of that area in one piece but I knew at the back of my mind all that day I would have to go back to that area at the end of the day to get back to my hostel.

Looking up in the sky in Kampala was a bit different to Ethiopia, the cities skies were full of Malibu Storks. They had huge nests up in the trees throughout the city and were some of the dirtiest shabbiest looking birds I'd ever seen, probably as a result from delving through litter all day!

This place is so green compared to Ethiopia with palm and banana trees all over the place. Early afternoon and I soon found out exactly why - the heavens opened and stayed open for about an hour with some of the heaviest rain I'd seen. Nobody seemed to carry umbrellas, so everyman and his dog took shelter wherever they could. As quickly as it all started it stopped again and life went back to normal.

Later I got some money changed and withdrew some from the bank machine. Very few places outside Kampala change travelers cheques and the places that do have awful rates, so I was forced to change about $1.5K into Ugandan Shillings. I became a millionaire instantaneously, in fact I became a multimillionaire just like that. 2.5M to be exact! The wad of 10,000 notes was so big I couldn't fit it all in my money belt. Let's hope I don't get robbed!

I managed to dispose of 1M pretty quickly paying for my 7 day trek in the Rwenzori Mountain (the Mountain of the Moon). These are the tallest mountain range in the whole of Africa (Kilimanjaro is volcanic) and one of the main things I wanted to do in Africa. I booked for the 30th Jan for a 7 day trek.

Had a bit of a mix up with the taxi driver when heading to the park HQ, he said 500 beforehand but meant 5000. I was quick to tell him where to go, but after speaking to a guy at the park HQ I was told this was a good price. I had to eat humble pie and cough up the cash, he should have told me the correct price in the first place, that way we wouldn't have got in such a pickle!

I took the matatus back to the hostel, I still haven't plucked up the courage to take a boda boda (backseat of a motorbike), it all seems a bit too life threatening to me, although I have seen a couple of westerners on them!

Power cut that evening although at the hostel there is a generator so at least the light are on. Murchison Fall National Park is the destination for the next day in search of wildlife!

Murchison Falls, Masindi, Uganda
Jan 19, 2006

Back down to the bus station and onto my bus, called Babyface for my long ride to Bulisa. It was about an hour before the bus left and every type of hawker and seller that you can possible imagine entered the bus in that period. One of the most innovative foods I saw was a runny yogurt in a plastic bag with a straw for sucking it out. I don't know if bread was in short supply or expensive outside of Kampala but half the luggage racks on the bus seemed to be full with bread or there would be bread tied to them and just dangling in mid air!

All the Ugandans seemed to go for a #1 haircut with the clippers and a nice shirt. I looked like a scruff in comparison with my uncombed hair (it's getting longish now!) and unkempt beard.

For the first hour of the ride we had a traveling salesman stood at the front of the bus trying to see a whole host of products from Aloe Vera malaria medicine to homeopathic toothache and ulcer products. He seemed to do a roaring trade.

Many of the adverts on the side of the road seemed to be for beer and gin products. The slogans for these seemed to go something along the lines of 'Great Night, Great Morning' or 'Number One Gin, No Hangover'. I'm not sure if they would have made it passed the censors in the West.

The scenery was very flat and we went from the green palms and bananas of Kampala to a dry arid bushy scrub to these lush long green expanses of sugar cane that seemed to stretch forever. In the dryer areas were cattle with the longest horns I'd ever seen.

Tall red termite mounds were also scattered everywhere. I thought I spotted these along the road from Entebbe airport but wasn't sure in the dark.

We stopped for a spot of lunch in Masindi and also to give the driver time to complete a quick wielding job under the bus. Nothing too serious I'm sure! The toilets I was pointed towards didn't look like they had been flushed for a whole year - I didn't hang around in there to powder my nose! I think during the whole bus journey and even over lunch I didn't see one person smoking. Uganda must certainly have a very low smoking population.

The afternoon bus ride was superb, we came over a small hill about mid-afternoon and were presented with Lake Albert and it's shores spread out in front of us. The bus took 10 hours altogether to reach Bulisa, about twice as long as my guidebook mentioned. One of the reasons was all the road works. At one point the road crew had placed truckloads of rubble in the middle of the road and left for the day. Our bus being so big had to drive over the edges of the piles. At one point after having a very strong feeling we were going to tip over all the locals screamed at the bus driver to stop the bus where they all proceeded to get off. At this point the driver and some passengers spend about and hour digging through the piles of dirt and flattening them so the bus could make it through!

From Bulisa I took a Boda Boda (back of a small motorbike), backpack and all about the thirty miles over dirt tracks of red clay to Paraa and the Red Chilli Rest Camp.

After paying the Boda Boda, accommodation and speaking to the rest camp owner about the price of safaris etc. I realized everything was about 3 times the price my Lonely Planet guidebook quoted. I'm not sure if this was a consequence of this place making it into the guidebook in the first place. Unfortunately I realized I wouldn't be able to do everything I wanted to do any would probably have to miss the game drive. After consoling myself over a Bells beer I got chatting to Darryl, Alan, Jessie and their driver Robert. They were over from Alaska and Alberta for in between 1 and 3 months to kayak in the town of Jinja, just where the White Nile flows out of Lake Victoria and one of the premier kayak and rafting destinations in the world. As luck would have it they had a spare place in their minibus and graciously offered to take me along with them. Jackpot!





















My first full day in the park and it must have been one of highlights of my trip so far. Sara our guide took us out from 7am until 12pm on a game drive. A few of the things we saw include bushbuck, hartebeest, oribi, waterbuck, giraffe, vervet monkeys, lions, elephants, warthogs, hippos, buffalo and a whole host of interesting birds, including the interesting but ugly Abyssinian Ground Hornbill and the national bird, they Grey Crowned Crane - very cool looking. One of the bull elephants we surprised on the game drive decided to charge us in what was a bit of an adrenalin rush moment for us. Luckily our driver managed to hit reverse pretty quickly, although he nearly put us in the ditch at one point! Our guide mentioned if we were a small car we would have probably being overturned by the elephant!














































That afternoon we did a boat ride out to the thundering Murchison Falls, described in my book as 'the most spectacular thing to happen on the Nile'. To me the highlight had to be the wildlife. Crocs, hippos bathing, elephants drinking - all close up. We also saw a whole bunch of birds such as herons, egrets, ibis, fish eagles and storks. One of the highlights had to be some clay cliffs where a lot of Northern Carmine Beaeaters and Pied Kingfishers nested. I had watched a BBC documentary on these nesting areas recently so it was good to see them for real.

All this safari business is hard work and after a couple of the local brews I was in bed by 9pm. Returning from the bathroom at 2am I was shocked to see a hippo outside my tent. These animals are considered the most dangerous and the biggest killers in Africa! I quickly went to the reception area where I informed the attendant. I felt sure I had saved the camp from certain carnage and saved plenty of people from the hippos imminent killing spree. I was informed that he was 'Harry the Hippo' and passed through most nights and basically told to stop been such a scaredy cat! The guy escorted me back to my tent but I have to admit it took me a while to get to sleep!

The next day to was down to Kaniyo Pabidi that was popular with people as you could do trekking to see Chimps. The campsite was fantastic, set in the middle of lush green jungle. The bandas (huts) we stayed in were spotless. Much more than I was expecting from a place in the jungle! The tanks for the outdoor showers were filled by hand and around the camp I spotted baboons and also plenty of butterflies.

I'd been told there was food at this place but we arrived to be told there was none. Andreas and Clara who I'd met were happy to borrow some cycles and head to the local village that was 5 miles down the road and pick up some supplies while I caught up on my journal and observed the baboons.

We went out with a guide round about 3pm and spotted chimps, black and white colobus and red tail monkeys. The jungle had really interesting vegetation with mahoganies, ironwoods (the strongest wood in the world apparently) and some strangler vines that made interesting patterns as they wrapped around their prey! That night we cooked some plantains on a wood fire to make some Matoke, a local delicacy! It is actually one of the most popular dished, particularly with the less affluent people.

The noises made by the insects, birds and mammals early evening and into the night were deafening!

Fort Portal, Uganda
Jan 22, 2006

The next morning I went out for another chimp trek with a Turkish guy and his family. He was in his forties and had his own business and had decided to jack it all in for 6 months and travel from Istanbul to Cape Town overland in his landrover.

A 65 year old German with a dodgy dyed haircut and his 20 year old Ugandan 'girlfriend' joined us for the final part of the trek, he was rather annoying me as he kept trying to tell our guide where to go - like he knew better than the guide!

Back in camp he officially became the most objectionable tourist I have ever met as he started shouting and bawling at the guides, who by the way were the kindest people you could ever want to meet! He was complaining that he had to pay $2 to bring his Ugandan girlfriend along - what a wanker!

One of the rangers took me out to the national park entrance on the back of his motorbike and then a really friendly German couple I'd met on the boat trip (the guy never stopped smiling and laughing) took me the final 20km to Masindi. The couple of rides I'd done cross country really got me thinking it's be nice to buy a motorbike again :-)

From Masindi it was back on the public transport and a Matatu to Hoima was my first leg. This was my first long distance trip on one of these things and everything they say about them is true. We were traveling up to 70 miles an hour for sections through villages on dirt roads with children playing at the road side. Many of the windshields had sun visors at the top with things on them such as 'Arsenal' and others said things such as 'Trust God' - at the speed they were driving I certainly hope that someone up there was looking out for us! I liked the Ugandan people as they are definitely not afraid to speak up. After a near miss with a truck that took us down into the ditch (luckily we didn't stay there) some of the passengers got a bit hysterical and a big discussion ensued about how the driver should slow down - I don't think he listened though! The main problem was another matatu was on the same route so it was a race to see who could get to the next set of passengers first so they could make the most money.

The Matatus are built to hold 14 people, infact it even says that on the side, but they will cram as many people in there as possible until passengers start screaming, there were over 28 at some points as I counted! When we arrived in Hoima my pack came off the roof along with all the empty plastic containers that had been placed on top of it. I presumed they were water containers but it turns out they were used to transport Waragi (a local based millet based alcohol), all the dregs had spilt onto my pack, it made it as me smell more like an alcoholic than usual!

Next leg of the journey was to Kyenjojo. This driver drove even quicker and this time I only had one of my bum cheeks placed on the seat! We also got a ticket from the cops on this journey - speeding I hear you say? No it was for having unsecured Waragi containers in the roof, I think one nearly hit the cop as we slid around a corner and they patially flew off to the side!

I was happy when the matatu arrived at its destination but unhappy to hear it wasn't going the whole way like my driver had said, it actually stopped in Kagadi, a town with nothing going for it in the middle of nowhere with no more buses running that day!

It actually turned out to be a nice evening, for starters with no guide book entries for this place I was forced to discover things out for myself - it really felt much more like traveling. Once I had found the hotel I sat back on the patio looking into the main square, had a couple of Senator beers and watch the locals going about their business. Beer in only 50c for .5L in Uganda, at twice the price of water it come out to be nice and cheap, it seems a waste to buy water when beer is that price! Some of the strange things they do in Uganda when you order a beer is ask you if you want it warm or cold, they always ask you before they open it for you and some of the locals drink through a straw!



Early morning start and the final leg to Fort Portal and my butt is aching more than when I ambitiously tried a 2 day horse ride taking the same route as Butch Kassidy and the Sundance Kid took on their last ride before they got shot and killed. I was so happy after 2 hours when we hit the blacktop. It was nice scenery as we started passing all the tea plantations on the way into Fort Portal, but where ever possible I will be taking one of the buses in the future!



Laundry (I was covered in so much dust after this trip my beige top was red!), internet and a fantastic chicken curry have helped paint a rosy picture of the pleasant Fort Portal. One of the nice drinks they have in Uganda is a ginger beer called Stoney Tangawizi, it made by Coke, god knows why they don't make it in the US, I'd buy buckets of the stuff! The Africa Cup of Nations is also on at the moment, I managed to get the highlights of Guinea's shock win over South Africa, there is a bar in my hotel that is so packed tonight I can hardly move!

Bigodi, Uganda
Jan 24, 2006

Breakfast was included in the hotel price, I wasn't expecting too much but it turned into a feast. Coffee, fresh juice (tasted a bit like a mix between papaya and orange), bread fruit and a Spanish omelet, well that's what they said, I always though a Spanish omelet was with potatoes, but this one was with onions, tomatoes and peppers. Any ideas anyone?















After a quick visit to one of the local mosques that was particularly pretty I headed off for Bigodi wetlands. Good views of the snow capped Rwenzori mountains along the way. My accommodation was a home stay with a Ugandan family of 8, who I did everything with such as meals etc. this made for a good authentic Ugandan experience. The wetlands were famous for primates and birds. We went for an early evening walk and spotted a whole bunch of Red Colobus, Black and White Colobus, Red Tails, Vervets and L'hostes in the primate category. Ok now for a list of some of the birds for anyone who's interested - Great Blue Turacos, Black and White Hornbills, Yellow Backed Weavers, Wagtails, Cookoos, Woodland Kingfishers (a beautiful blue colour), Flycatchers, Mannikins..... Oh and almost forgot we saw a big green mamba slink away from the edge of the trail and some cool looking red flowers belonging to Fire Lilleys and Fire trees.

The kids had a good laugh at me later that evening as I had my first experience of Jackfruit. Very tasty indeed, but a bit fiddly to get the actual fruit part out. As with lunch my dinner was so huge I only ate about half of it, I felt guilty but I really couldn't eat anymore, and I believe it's good to leave at least some to show that your host they provided you with enough! On the menu we had, pork, kale, cabbage in a peanut sauce, sweet potatoes, matoke (plantains), cassava (a white root vegie) and posho (maize flour based I believe). All the food was steamed in banana leaves over a stove.

Once the food was done the young kids spent the evening telling fables that the older kids translated to English for me.

The house I was in was very environmentally friendly, solar power on the roof, water drained off the roof into some large water containers, this would satisfy most of the families water needs. They grew all their own food in a number of plots they had around the village.

Lake Nkuruba, Uganda
Jan 25, 2006

I got up early and I did another swamp walk (as they called it). OK time for a rant, but it always amazes me the people who rush into these places do one walk and then rush off (it seemed from conversations and the guest book that this is what most people did). Both here and with the chimps I always got a lot better viewing the second time out. It seems if you come such a long way you should at least make a bit of an effort to make the most of each place you visit rather than just rush from place to place to say you have done everything! Besides the money made in this wetland went straight back into the local community and guided walks here were a fifth of the cost of the ones in the Kibale NP next door. OK rant over.

Man, my Matatu out of that place was cramped, I was more than happy when the piece of junk ran out of steam halfway up a hill and we all had to get out and walk, I think I'd lost feeling in my feet and had pins and needles up my leg!

I arrived in the Crater Lake region and in particular Lake Nkuruba and managed to lock my key in the pretty banda almost immediately, of course they had no spare so they had to saw the padlock off! As I waited there were Red Tails, B+W Colobus and Red Colobus swinging out of the trees above my head - talk about been close to nature!







Late afternoon and I took a stroll to a hill top named Top of the World where there were views over 3 crater lakes. Nice views of the verdant countryside on the way up there. Near the top one enterprising young git had fenced the land off to the summit and was charging to go to the top! It was well worth the expense though, the views from the top were magnificent. The 3 crater lakes we could see were a beautiful dark green, there names left to right were Nyamirima, Nyinabulita and Nyabikere. Around the lakes were farmland and the famous Kibale Forest National Park, popular for the chimp and primate treks. To the back side I could see the Rwenzoris.

Back to the camp and a fantastic dinner of beef, Irish spuds and cabbage. Funny all the potatoes here are called Irish potatoes. Met a group of people traveling for the last year in a Land Rover, Debbie was from Hull and they had come all the way up from South Africa where they were going to return and live. Land Rover seems like the way to go next time!

Next day and it's one month on the road - still have plenty of time left! Didn't sleep too well last night as there was a mouse under the papyrus mat in my room ripping shreds out of it! I was going to stamp on it but the thought of the mess it would cause put me off.


Met Patrick, my guide, early morning for a 6 hour walk to Mahoma Falls. Nice scenery passing through the fields of amongst other things peanuts, bananas, papaya, avocado and jackfruit. There were also some great photo opportunities in the rural areas, especially the ladies in their colourful dresses as they carry things such as 1.5ft tall stacks of bananas on their heads. The only problem is nobody will let you take their photos as they all believe you will go back home and sell them for a heap of cash! Real shame. We also passed a number of crater lakes, according to my guide they are about 1000 years old (but they seem older to me). They usually lie about 100ft below the regular height of the land with beautiful dark water at the bottom.

On the way back we stopped at a colourful market where I purchased a couple of the local donuts and fried mash potatoes (Irish of course) and veg. for my lunch. It was a real scorcher that day, even my guide said he was flagging under the heat, so I was happy to get back to camp and dive in the lake for a nice cooling swim.

Went for the beef and spuds again and ate with Debbie, Mark and Janet. We watched with great fascination as a gecko had a go at a praying mantis about 3 times it size. They were squirming all over the place - and at one point I thought the mantis had the gecko, but the whole thing ended in a bit of a stand off. Probably had one too many pops tonight, the excitement of the battle I think!

The next day was one of relaxation, a short walk in the forest, birds, butterflies and primate viewings go without saying! A swim in the lake and read a good chunk of Dark Star Safari (thanks Liz and John I'm enjoying it).

Kasese, Uganda
Jan 28, 2006

Left Lake Nkuruba to the monkeys playing in the trees. My boda boda ride to the main road was a good 30km. Down the hills the rider would switch off the engine and coast in neutral to save petrol. It nearly ended in disaster a couple of times when he put the bike into first gear instead of neutral. That ended with the back wheel locking up, us skidding and slowing from 60km to about 30km almost instantaneously pushing the driver up onto the petrol tank.

Next onto the matatu and every time I think it can't get any worse it does! I was close to the termination point of its journey and the thing was packed to the rafters. I was sure I'd have to wait for the next one but the driver assured me I'd fit! I was stood with my head plastered to the roof with and arched back. The guy who was sat below me kept brushing the stubbly crown of head against the cheek that wasn't transplanted on the ceiling giving me a good case of stubble rash. If that wasn't enough I was pinned up against the side door by a middle ages woman's butt. When the bus emptied a bit I was put in another compromised position, I was given a seat, but the driver decided that the best place for the cutest girl on the bus was right on my lap!

I got to Kasese and my god that place was hot! I booked into the Kogere Hotel and ordered a Krest - Another tasty bitter lemon drink made my Coke that is not available in the west - I don't know what they are playing at!

Went to find the national park HQ to do the final organizing for my trek and was a bit shocked to be told it had been moved to a town 20km away, especially since the guy in Kampala had told me to come to this town. It turns out I didn't need the NP HQ but rather the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services office. Phew that was a relief! Did food shopping that afternoon, the menu for the hike will be weetabix, powdered milk and instant coffee (Africafe) for breakfast. Sardines, tuna, corned beef, crackers, peanuts and bombay mix for lunch and 6 different flavours of soup and either rice or pasta for dinner. Not too many other options in Kasese, but no biggie, I can survive on that for 7 days!

The electricity went down so I went out for dinner. Had some nice Tilapia fish for dinner, cooked in a muslim restaurant that didn't serve beer, but it was very tasty cooked in some nice middle eastern spices and served up whole - not too good for those who like their fish boneless and headless!

Dreamed of the Rwenzoris that night although it did take me a while to get to sleep owing to the bar in my hotel playing music at full blast until the wee hours of the night and some drunk knocking on my door thinking as a foreigner I should come out and join them all for beers!

Next day the electricity was still out and it was still oppressively hot so I decided to take off early to Nyaklengija. The thermometer read 35C as we set off. It was nice to gain some altitude and get into the cooler air. I placed a pre-order for goat stew that evening at the local community center. As I returned to my digs I could see dark storm clouds looming ominously above the mountain peaks. About 20 minutes later the heavens opened and it poured for the next 30 minutes - A sign of things to come I think - The Rwenzoris were the mountains directly east of the Congo rainforest and had a reputation for been some of the mistiest and rainy in the world!

In Uganda the kids seem to know how to say 3 things and this town was no different. 'Hello', 'How are you?' and 'I'm fine'. The problem was they didn't realise they weren't meant to say all three together and they would usually say 'How are you' followed by 'I'm fine' without giving you chance to say anything! They were good natured enough though and it was fun driving or riding through all the villages as they would come running down their path waving, smiling and shouting at the passing 'Muzungu'.

Went for a bit of a walk through the village as the rain had stopped. All the walls of the houses are always plastered with adverts for the local politicians, the one of Museveni, their president always made me laugh. He never seemed that serious with his wide brimmed hat. He had been in power for 20 year I think. It reminded me elections were coming up on the 23rd Feb. I'd try to be out of Uganda for then!

Went for my goat stew, spuds and cabbage. Bloody hell they must have given me at least 10 large boiled potatoes and a big bowl of stew. I'm surprised but I've actually lost some weight since I started traveling even though I seem to eat like a king and have bigger portions that the US! I guess moving away from the high sugar diet makes that difference.

Heading back to the hotel the sky had cleared and there were some nice silhouettes of the mountains up ahead of me. Back in bed and all I could hear was a couple of wagtails making a real racket - as luck would have it their nest was right outside my window!

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Jan 30, 2006

10km and 3300ft

Woke up with a slight swelling of the gums due to goat meat stuck in between my teeth, boy that stuff is stringy. Breakfast definitely not up to the quality of dinner, in the aim to go big the pancakes were about an inch thick and hence soggy in the middle and contained no fruit as the menu promised!



I had to listen to the ranger give a one hour talk before leaving, absolutely bored out of my brains as he was just repeating stuff I already knew and I just wanted to get out of there so I could beat the midday heat. Eventually I got a bit short with him and he soon got the message and sped through the rest of his spiel.
















Met my guide Vicent and by 9am we were on the road. Fantastic days hiking up along the Bujuku river followed by the Mahoma river (the same river we went to see the waterfall on at the Crater Lakes). Lots of pretty flowers and butterflies in thick green vegetation. While every now and again we'd get a peek through at the cliffs at the steep mountains and the gray clouds covering the sky.

Passed a few passion fruits trees on the way and enjoyed some of the windfalls. Passed some areas where all the vegetation was flattened either side of the path - elephants apparently, although luckily they weren't roaming the area today but we still had to navigate the huge pieces of dung they had left!














It was a 3300ft climb to Nyabitaba hut. The vegetation turned more towards hard wood forest that looked from all the moss that it had it's fair share of rain. Met Luke an Aussie medical student who I would be spending the next few days with - nice guy.

As the afternoon progressed the skies cleared to show of the steep sided Rutara in the Partial Peak range.

Both Luke and I made enough food that evening to feed ourselves and the porters (I had 4). They seemed pretty happy. We used charcoal stoves and after the porters and guides had gone to bed Luke whipped out what turned out to be a packet of custard powder - what a bonus. It all turned into a bit of a debacle as the coals were now getting pretty cold and it took about 45 minutes with both of us on the ground blowing into the coals to get the custard to boil and thicken. It has to be said though that the results were fantastic and worth every minute!

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Jan 31, 2006

7km - 3000ft








Weetabix and hot milk to get the day started. We dropped down to the Kurt Shaffer bridge where the Bujuku and Mubuku rivers converged (incidentally the hike was called the Bujuku - Mubuku circuit). We would follow the Bujuku for the next 2 days. Dropping down and out of the trees we got some more great views across to Rutara.









After continuing through what seemed like tree heather similar to the Simiens in Ethiopia we also passed bamboo and the start of the infamous bog! Luckily for us it hadn't rained much for the best part of the week and the wellington boots I'd rented weren't needed. Again many flowers along the way and the biggest bonus of all no rain for a second day in a row! We got to the John Mate hut for about 1:30.

Some of the porters carry huge sacks up to 25kg and the way they support them is strapped to their heads! The funny thing was even with backpacks they did not use the backpack straps, but rigged up their own strap system so they could still use their heads!






Later that afternoon while in the safety of our hut down came the rains. Very interesting to watch as many of the clouds were down in the valley below us and we could see them clear, this time giving us nice views of Rutara from the back side. Made what was probably the most discussing food ever that evening, hard rice, very sweet tomato soup laces with chili sauce. Made a good effort to finish some up, but in defeat gave the rest to the porters. They seemed happy with it!

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Feb 1, 2006

6km - 1800ft







Today we hit the real bog. Apparently yesterday was just a taster. I was all gaitered up but a lot of the day was spend jumping from log to grass tussock and back to log. During the day the two main bogs were the Upper and Lower Bigo bog. Good day for wildlife, saw Blue Tailed Monkey, the colourful Rwenzori Turaco and some brilliant dark green flycatchers. Lots of interesting vegetation also, lobelias and some joshua like looking plants.

Caught a few glimpses of Margarita, the tallest peak on Mt. Stanley and also Uganda and the 3rd in Africa. Later that day passing Lake Bujuku we arrived at Bujuku hut and the starting point for ascents on Mt. Speke. Oh and a 3rd day without rain!















After a quick chat with an American tour group (one guy was 69 years old and was going to do the 3 biggest mountain in the Rwenzoris followed by Kilimanjaro and Meru - very impressed) I did a quick hike up through the 'Joshua Trees' to the 14000ft Stuhlman Pass and the Congolese border. After quickly crossing the border visa and passport less I returned down getting some great views of Mt. Baker with a cloud line halfway down and Lake Bujuku at the bottom.

Had a successful custard making experience that evening.

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Feb 2, 2006

4km 1400ft ascent and descent.



Happy birthday to me. Up before dawn, Weetabix and a stroll back down to Lake Bujuku to see if I could spot Mt. Stanley through the clouds (morning and evening are usually best), no such luck though! Nice hike up to the Scott-Elliot Pass. Good views back down onto Lake Bujuku and also saw glimpses of Mt. Stanley, Mt. Baker and Mt. Speke through the mist. Found out the Joshua trees were actually groundsel and one section of our trail was called the Groundsel Gully. The path was so steep ladders were put in places.















On the pass the hail and rain finally came. Treacherously slippery rocks up there and I managed to slip into a big rock hole, just big enough for a person, right up to my chest. My guide thought I was a goner and was a bit surprised when I hoisted myself out and said let's go!

Despite the rain good views up to the glaciers on Mt. Stanley and down to Kitandara Lake and the hut where I would spend the night. Once there I sorted out all my wet gear and jumped into my sleeping bag for a while to warm my chilled bones.














It's amazing what a bit of sun can do though! 1 hour later and the sun was out and my clothes were drying on nearby bushes. I went with the porters for another incursion into the Congo and up to what was a nice viewpoint of Mt. Baker and got my camera out and tried playing with the macro capabilities on my camera with the local flowers. One in particular, the Everlasting Flower was particularly beautiful.

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Feb 3, 2006

5km - 900ft ascent - 3000ft descent


Woke up to a fantastic blue sky. I was a bit gutted as I had decided at the start of my hike not to climb Margarita (16,763ft) mainly due to the $250 extra, not enough warm weather gear and the fact that most of the time it was covered in cloud. Days like this one don't come often in the Rwenzoris. Luke who I'd been with for the first 3.5 days had left yesterday along with the Americans to climb it. I was chuffed for him yet a little jealous.













I soon cheered up on the way up to the 14,000ft Fresh Field Pass when I realized I had a whole 6 months off work, during which time I had a whole load of exciting things to do in Africa, one of which I was in the middle of and I had a fantastic girlfriend whom I would soon be meeting in south Africa. Besides it was such a glorious day how could I be gloomy. Plenty of photo opportunities on the way to the pass.

We could also see all the way down to the Congo. I say see, but from 14,000ft up all we could see was a sort of haze way down low.


From the pass we gradually dropped down east again back into the clouds. The terrain was varied from slabs of rock to more bog. This made things pretty tricky, imagine trying to keep upright and trying not to fall to your death on a slab of rock with and inch of mud on the soles of your boots! By the end of the day I'd just about had enough bog to last me for a long while.







Passed by a beautiful arched waterfall named Kabamba just before reaching the Guy Yeoman hut. Probably the toughest day, but what a corker and no rain again!

Most of the days so far had been short distance wise but it had worked out well as the going was hard and it also meant we got to camp for 2ish just before any afternoon showers in most cases.

Opened the corned beef and served it up on crackers for a late lunch, to be honest it tasted like what I'd imagine dog meat to taste of, and certainly wasn't up to Fray Bentos - with a label saying 40% meat what did I expect!

Watched a couple of blue tailed monkeys in the trees behind camp before joining the guides for dinner. I think they were short on charcoal and could only manage one fire this evening.

Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
Feb 4, 2006

6000ft descent

There were 2 days officially left on the hike but most people did it in one. After been reluctant to get up too early most morning, this morning my guide suggested a 7:30 departure skipping breakfast. I guess he was hoping to get out early!




Again it was down down down and eventually through some bamboo forest to Nyabitaba campsite where we had stayed at on the first night, we arrived there for midday. At this point I told the porters that were going all the way out. A big cheer and thank you rang out. I quite fancied staying in the Rwenzoris for a bit longer and felt my time here was not over but I knew the porters and guide were desperate to go out - my guide had been nagging me all morning to find out what I was doing.

I told them there was one condition to leaving early was they tried extra hard to spot a Rhinoceros Chameleon for me on the way down. It had been high on my list of things to see things and you only found them on the first and last days. Well I came around the corner to shouts of we've found one, it was high in a bush and one guy was throwing stones at it while the other was poking sticks in the bush where it was - needless to say by the time I arrived on the scene the bloody thing had bolted! What a set of muppets!

Back to base camp, no rain again, I had been extremely lucky, and I have to say the Rwenzoris were absolutely fantastic, maybe I'll be back to complete unfinished business some day!

Took a boda boda back to Kasese. I have to say this is a great way to travel, you get to see everything going on around you unlike when you're crammed into a Matatu.

It's always good to come back to somewhere when you know where everything is and you can direct your driver as to where he should go. It was back to the Kogere Hotel where I found the electricity wasn't working, just like when I left. Ordered a Nile Special, this has to be Uganda's best beer, before showering and handing my clothes to a young lad for washing - After 6 days hiking it amazes me how clean they manage to get them! Headed to the Saad Hotel, the Muslim restaurant I had gone to on my last visit, this time I ordered a very tasty chicken curry. Listened to the IPod for the first time since leaving the US that evening!

Kasese, Uganda
Feb 5, 2006

A day of relaxation and waiting for the washing today in Kasese. Breakfast at the Saad, power back up so a quick check on e-mail and an update of the blog. Finished Dark Star Safari, a good book, but I now need another! Predictably back to the Saad for Tilapia dinner. Looking forward to getting out of this hot and dusty town and taking the bus to Lake Bunyonyi, known as 'The Switzerland of Africa' tomorrow. Listen to Hamid Karzai interview on the BBC World Service that evening - seems like a genuine, down to earth chap!

Next day woke at 6:30 to yet another power cut and had to root around in the dark to find my torch hidden somewhere in the bottom of my pack.

Not sure why I had returned to the Kogere. It was too hot to close the windows at night and my room was right next to the reception which tended to be the place for all the drunks and prostitutes to hang out when they wanted a break from the bar. By 2am once the bar had emptied the night watchmen did his damnedest to make sure he made as much noise as possible. Went for the 7am bus and round about 6:55am asked the usual question, what time will this bus be leaving? As usual the blatant lie of 7am came back. It always made me laugh as I knew buses in Uganda have a scheduled time but in reality they will never leave until they are full. This bus had 3 people on it! We did manage to get off by 8:30am, but as usual our first stop was for petrol followed by a few laps around the town to see if we could find another few passengers. It all frustrates the hell out of me as our 7am departure becomes 8:30 but in reality it is well after 9am before we actually leave - It takes longer for us to get going than the actual predicted journey time of just 2 hours! In Uganda any taxi, motorbike or bus will only carry enough petrol for its journey and for the rest of the time it will run on empty. The theory is, with an empty tank, if anyone steals the vehicle they will not get very far!

Great trip though, passed Lake George and through Queen Elisabeth National Park. This was like a safari and we saw buffalo, warthogs, waterbuck and over 100 Thompson Gazelle along the way! Oh also crossed the Equator! Apparently Uganda is only one of 10 countries in the world the equator passes through. It must be plantain harvesting season as there were bicycles loaded with them all over the shot. Arriving in villages there would be 40+ bicycles waiting while their crop was counted, put into sacks and loaded onto trucks. Besides the plantains there were also a number of cotton and tea plantations on route. The tea pickers were out in force!

Ordered some banana pancake thingies from a street vendor in Ishaka, but wished I hadn't been quite so keen as the samosa vendor came around a few minutes later!

I'd had to take a small detour though a town called Mbarara as it was one of the 3 towns in Uganda that had an ATM machine that took Visa cards. I was trying to get in and out of this place as quickly as possible and get on my way. I jumped on a boda boda and asked him to take me to the Standard Chartered Bank. After negotiation a price the bastard literally drove me across the street - easy money for some!

After my trip to the bank and hitting millionaire status again it was off to the bus park for my bus to Kabale. Unfortunately my good intentions to just take buses from now on fell down when a matatu pulled up. This one did have a big sign in the front saying Kabale Express. I though it may be direct but I was disillusioned, it was the same as all the rest, overloaded, driven by a lunatic and stopping every 5 minutes. We did get a ticket although I'm not too sure what for, the cop poked his head through the window and said something to me along the lines of what the hell are you doing traveling in this piece of junk.

It got cooler as we got up into 'The Switzerland of Africa' and Kabale. It was certainly a welcome change after the sweat box of Kabale!

I was umming and arring about staying overnight here or pressing on to Lake Bunyonyi. My guide book had mentioned it would take 4 hours to get here, it was 3pm so it had taken me over 8 hours. Not too sure where they get their times from - the author seems to talk about the best night spots in each town though so I guess we know where his priorities lied!

I checked out one hotel in which time I decided I'd press on. In this short space of time the proprietor had dropped the price from 10,000 shillings to 7,000. It made me realize maybe I should spend a bit more of my time bargaining rather that accepting the first price offered. Took 20 minutes on a boda boda to get to Bunyonyi Overland Camp. The views as we came over the pass over the lake were fantastic.

The camp was popular with the overland trucks. I had avoided places these trucks went in the past and as I sat in the bar that evening and as the gap year students streamed in I could see why!















I have to say first impressions of this chilled out place were great lots of beautiful flowers and birds in the campground that was right on the lakes edge - Good recommendation Francois. Went for a walk that evening and secured a wooden dug out canoe for a lake trip the next day - $2 total cost - bargain.

Some young lads helped show me the way to the top of the hill (Like I couldn't have made it myself!) and the posh Arcadia Hotel. In a beautiful location overlooking the lake I watched the sunset and promised to be back next day for breakfast.

Had a fantastic dinner of crayfish (fresh from the lake), chips and avocado for dinner all while overlooking the lake - definitely beats work!

Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda
Feb 7, 2006

Think those banana pancake thingies I ate yesterday must have been a bit dodgy as I had a good case of the trots that morning! Not wanting to let a minor inconvenience interrupt my schedule I hiked the 1000 or so feet up to the Arcadia Hotel again and had an enjoyable breakfast on the patio while watching the sun coming over the hill behind me and hitting the lake down below. The terraced farmlands up on the sides of the surrounding hills was described by my book as High Atlas Mountains (Morocco) /Lord of the Rings type terracing. After returning down I grabbed my sun hat and some sunscreen and went to meet Jackson, the guy I had arranged to rent the canoe from the previous day. For the purpose of this journal we'll call him 'Jackson the Liar'! The canoe had a load of water in the bottom but Jackson assured me it was from recent rain and the boat did not leak. I was to find out it leaked like a sieve! This was an issue as I had to keep my bag at one end of the canoe to keep it dry - the canoe was too unstable for me to reach my bag so I couldn't get my sun hat, water or camera out of it for the time on the water. Missed out on some great photo opportunities of otters, kingfishers, lilac lilies and locals in their canoes!

Bunyonyi is supposedly 6500ft deep and was billed as the deepest lake in Uganda! I paddled out Bushara Island and by the time I got there I was so tired and lethargic I couldn't even muster the strength to walk around this pretty island! I drank a bottle of Krest and decided best head back to land as soon as possible before I deteriorated enough that I wouldn't be able to make it. I'd wondered why Jackson had asked for the money up front, after I return I told him what I though but he just kept smiling at me and asking if I wanted to do a guided walk or go and see some traditional dancers!

Back in camp it was all I could do to open a packet of rehydration salts add them to my water and try to force myself to drink them. For the next 4 hours I lay in the shade on the grass making moaning sounds from under my hat that was laid on top of my face. People must have wondered what the hell was the matter with me. The trots, followed by the hike and a day paddling out on the lake in the sunshine must have dehydrated me and given me a dose or heat exhaustion. At 6pm I decided a cold shower was the way forward, it really did the trick and after a plate of egg and chips I was feeling nearly human again. Managed to kick back in the bar and watch Nigeria Vs Ivory Coast and Egypt Vs Senegal so we're all set us up with an African Cup of Nations final on Friday of Ivory Coast and Egypt - can Egypt do it for a record 5th time?

Kabale, Uganda
Feb 8, 2006

Woke up to a dry overcast day, took a few snaps of the weaver birds that were everywhere. By the time 11am rolled around and a few sprinkles had fallen I decided to hightail out of that place a day ahead of schedule. Back to Kabale, it seems like a nice town with good humoured people and relatively little hassle. Caught up on e-mail, blog site and popped into the local bakery for fatty meat samosas and banana cake. E-mailed Erica the phone number of the Skyline Hotel I was staying in but after 2 employees started arguing about whether the phone actually worked I didn't hold out much hope of the call coming through! I was correct.
Went to the local bookstores and all they sold were school text books. Looking forward to getting to Kigali tomorrow so I can get a new book - a bit bored stuck without one!

Kigali, Rwanda
Feb 9, 2006

What a day it has been - mental. Absolutely none stop. I'm sat here in the Urumgli Hotel in Ruhengeri having traveled halfway down the country and back and paid for 2 different hotels in 2 different cities.

Up at the crack of dawn only to find the border did not open until 9am. So instead of heading out of the hotel I had pleasant breakfast with Molly, a Canadian who worked in Rwanda as a volunteer for a while - we discussed the pros and cons on NGOs in Africa and George Bush's investments in alternative energy. Took a shared taxi to the border after a bit of a fracas occurred over who would take me.

A long line at the Uganda side and it took me about an hours just for someone to simple stamp my passport with an exit stamp! The Rwandan side had no queue and as a double bonus, a welcome to the country sign, the immigration officer refused the $60 I thrust at him for my visa - he said no you're British you don't have to pay - I think I'm going to like this place even if they do speak French!

Caught a shared taxi instead of the minibus for the 80km to Kilgali. First as a big surprise the driver told me to buckle up! They would laugh at you in Uganda if you did that! Next they drove on the right - must be that Belgium influence, it did take me a while though to figure out me driver wasn't truly suicidal as the steering wheel was on the right also.

All the way to Kigali the scenery was much the same as southern Uganda, people picking in tea plantations and high terraced hills. Regardless it is always a bit thrill and always puts a smile on my face when I arrive in a new country.

Kigali looked like an interesting place, perched upon a hill with greenery all around. After booking into the Hotel Gloria I headed off to the Gorilla Park HQ to book a gorilla trek. A grand total of $375 + $50 for transport for a total of no more than one hour with the gorillas. They take $US cash, Mastercard. You can pay in Rwandan Francs, the currency all the locals use, but this incurs a 10% surcharge! You can also pay with travelers cheques but again there is a $20 surcharge. Not too friendly when you're shelling out such a big chunk of cash!
I wanted to conserve my cash and travelers cheques so I went to get a cash advance on my Visa. Well that turned into an exercise in complexity also. They would only give it in Euros, they then had to change it Ugandan francs. To not be hit by the 10% surcharge I wanted them to change it into $US - they could not do this though! Next I had to go out in the street to get this done! What a palaver, who knows how much commission I paid to the various money traders!

I'd been told the next available date for treks was 6 days time, after pushing for an earlier time once I got back to the park HQ I was told there was a cancellation and if I wanted I could go the next day! I said yes and I was on my way.

I quickly went to a foreign bookstore that sold English books before I left - I was desperate to get something new to read. It was just passed 2 and as I knocked on the door the lady kept shouted we don't open until 2! I kept telling her it was after 2 already in my best French before storming back to the hotel and then off to the bus station. The driver here said the bus would leave at 2 also - it was 2:45 by now! At this point I realized Rwanda was an hour behind Uganda - what a plonker!



My boda boda driver to the station was wearing a helmet, the minibus driver left on time and before it was full, didn't pick up people along the way and drove safely. He did however stop for a petrol top up before we departed! A bit different to the Ugandan experience! A 2 hour journey back north to Ruhengeri and the Uganda border, fantastic scenery, we seemed to drive up on a high ridge most of the route, looking across the valleys to other huge hillsides filled with terracing. On getting close to Ruhengeri 4 of the 7 volcanoes in the area, some topping out at over 15000ft were clearly visible!

Definitely more beggars on the streets here than Uganda, but after the 1994 genocides I was surprised to see what a normal country this seemed.

Well as I mentioned earlier, here I am now sat in the Urumgli Hotel with a 65cl (I told you those Belgium's had some influence) bottle of Mutzig, a 6.5% local brew. Finishing my fillet of Tilapia in pepper sauce and chips and getting ready for the big event tomorrow!

Ruhengeri, Rwanda
Feb 10, 2006

Awoke at 4am. This always happens when I have a big event I have to get up for. I'm always concerned the alarm will not go off and spend the time clock watching! Never mind, 4:30am and the mosque chants kicked into top gear. 5am and there is someone somewhere in town playing some sort of bugle - no I'm not going mad, someone else confirmed my suspicions later that day! 5:30 and the room is vibrating with the snoring of someone next door and by 5:45 as my alarm goes off I'm already well and truly awake! Quickly packed the bag and then outside for 6am to meet Francis, my driver for the day, where we got on the road to Kinigi, a town laying at the base of Sabinyo. Great views of the volcanoes, Muhabura, Gahinga, Sabinyo, Bisoke, Parisimbi and one over the border in Congo I don't know the name of, that apparently started blowing out smoke the previous year. I guess they are still active!

There are 5 habituated gorilla groups in all, I was assigned to go and see the Susa group, the hardest one to get to and the one furthest away from where we were. It is however the largest group with 37 members and is situated high on Parisimbi.

We got an interesting talk before we left, some of the stuff I can remember was how the males develop. From 8-12 years they are called blackbacks and can grow up to 180kg. From 12-15 they get the distinctive silverback that gives them their name. One of the silverbacks in each group will be the chief. The Susa group for example has 4 silverbacks weighing in at180-220kg (that is 400-440lbs!!!). Also yhey identify the gorillas by their nose marking, similar to the way we identify humans by their fingerprints! Despite their size and look of ferocity they are vegetarians and pretty save to be around.














It was a 90 minute drive over mainly rough tracks to out starting point. Lots of kids waving and shouting the whole way, views of the volcanoes and sorghum fields (a local grain). I'm glad we had the long drive to get where we were going as the scenery was fantastic.

To be honest I was worried I wasn't going to enjoy the gorilla experience that much, a bit commercialised, too many people all crowding around to get a look, blah, blah, blah. One of the main reason I'd done it was my book described it as most peoples favourite experience in Africa!

















It was a nice trek up through rainforest and bamboo. One guy who had an altimeter said we were just below 10,000ft. We had to leave out packs with the trackers and head off with just our cameras to see the gorillas. These trackers had already done the job of finding them and they would stay with them the whole day to protect them from poachers.

















It is difficult to describe our first encounter, I thought we were in for a longish walk once we dropped our packs, but literally 20ft in the guide moved away some vegetation and there laying down 5ft away was a large female gorilla! I'm not too sure what I was expecting but I was shocked. Our guide pushed on and within 10 minutes of seeing plenty more we ended up in the middle of a circle of at least 10! I was literally stood over a blackback who had rolled over and was napping at me feet. All the young kids were playing with each other and rolling around and one of our group had a fit of laughter when one of the older males let out a rip roaring fart! The laughter certainly got the gorillas attention.


The gorilla that was lying at my feet had a big gash on his eye and a huge one on his chest. The guide mentioned this was probably due to him trying to get a bit too friendly with a female and been put in his place by a silverback.

There were a couple of the large silverbacks hanging out with us but eventually the big boss came onto the scene. This caused a bit of movement amongst the other gorillas. He was actually coming down directly towards us so we had to stand right back and got pushed into some bushes, stinging nettles and trees. As he came through the other silverbacks made a bolt for it and the big guy came running through the bush chasing them and within a foot of us! I found out later that he had whacked one of the Dutch guys on his leg as he came through!


We moved on with the family as they fed and played before a similar incident happened. This time the guide had hold of my arm and as the silverback charged passed he hit my guide squarely on the chest with a crunching punch narrowly missing me. I asked my guide if this was usual, and he just replied they're only playing. I was hoping they didn't want to play with me!

My guidebook mentioned you should not get closer that 15 to 30ft from the gorillas. We were clearly a lot closer, I'm not too sure if my guidebook was just been over cautious or if our guide was trying to increase the thrill factor to get a big tip. He had certainly done this as a couple of the guys had crouched into balls at certain points and even turned to run (a definite no no with the gorillas). I have to say though that my one hour with the gorillas had to be one of those life time memories that I will not be forgetting anytime soon! I'm still trying to process that whole experience - in some ways it's so surreal it's almost like it didn't happen.



Back in Ruhengeri and I hiked a local hill to watch the sunset behind the volcanoes, I was a bit worried as there was cheap corrugated tin housing at the top of the hill and I wasn't sure how the people would react to the tourist, camera in hand. The guys I met turned out to be some of the nicest people with some of the best English of anyone I had met in Rwanda!


Back to the hotel and into the bar for the African Cup of Nations final. It was my one white head amongst 200 black ones! The first thing I noticed about this bar was it was a no smoking bar. They are more advanced than England in that respect! The support was definitely for the Ivory Coast. Not too sure if this was because as Paul Theroux put it in Dark Star Safari - 'Egypt is not really Africa' or if it was on religious grounds. Rwanda has a huge Christian population and there were churches all over the place.

Thought it best to join in with the locals and support Ivory Coast so it was a bit of a disappointment when Egypt won on penalties, against the run of play I may add.

Back to the Urumgli Hotel for chicken in cream of mushroom sauce and chips. What a day, it doesn't get much better than this!

Sabinio (or Sabinyo how ever it is spelt), Uganda
Feb 11, 2006

My little sojourn into Rwanda was almost over - From what I saw I liked it a lot and everyone apart from the rude lady at the gorilla park HQ in Kigali had been lovely. I was disappointed to be leaving early but trekking in the volcanoes in Uganda is much cheaper then Rwanda. Who knows I could very easily be back to this place at some time in the future, fingers crossed that the peace holds.

The trip to the border was interesting, I've never seen so many people walking down the road (apart from Kampala), it was like leaving a football game, but this place was out in the sticks! I wondered if they were all people trying to get refuge status in Uganda as Uganda has a huge number of refuges around the Rwanda/Congo border.

I was the only person crossing this border (Cyanika), very different from the big lines at the Katuna border I had passed by a few days earlier.

Booked into the Virunga Hotel back in Uganda in Kisoro and went for a wander. Went by the Mgahinga National Park HQ and arranged hikes for 2 days of my stay. Tomorrow I'll be going up Sabinio, at just over 12,000ft it intersects the borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Congo, at the summit you are in three countries at once. The guy at the park HQ said this is only one of 3 places in the world where you can do this!

The second hike in 3 days will be up Muhuvura, at 13,500ft it is meant to provide great views of the rest of the volcanoes, including ones in Rwanda and Congo that I saw when I was over in Rwanda.

Next onto the internet that had a very annoying enter key that kept sticking and cost twice the price as the rest of Uganda - no other places to chose from in town so the place had the market tied up.

I finally decided the Ugandan gents were showing me up so off it was for a shave and haircut. Had an unpleasant experience where the guy said it was going to by 1000 USH and then charged me 10 times that! He quickly came down to 5000. I left him 3 and a dirty look to show my disapproval before leaving! The rest of the shop seemed to be suitable impressed with how I handled the situation.

Later still some guy from the Congo passed by my hotel selling 'antique' Congolese masks and carvings for $50 a pop. Didn't really want anything so I offered him $30 for a mask and headrest hoping that would get rid of him. He seemed to be gutted to have sold at the price but must have needed the cash and said yes - So now I'm stuck with them, god knows what I'll do with them, I certainly don't want to carry them around with me for the next 4 months.

A guide named Joseph passed by slightly later and I arranged a trip with him for 2 days time (in between the hikes). Wow it's been a busy day! We will head out to Lake Mutanda where you get great views of the volcanoes - from there we will kayak out to an island where you get a chance to see pythons and other snakes.

The incident at the hairdressers and a few other little things were a sign that I was time for me to move on from Uganda. After here I think I'll head on to the Ssese Islands on Lake Victoria followed by the tourist tout heaven of Tanzania to see if I can handle what that has to throw at me.

A new day and I was going to mention I'd hardly seen a mosquito since leaving England - that was until last night. I fell asleep forgetting to put down the mosquito net and woke up itching all over and thought I had bed bugs until I heard the buzzing overhead. Let's hope those malaria tablets work!

Got on my boda boda at 6am and got to the park gate for 6:45, it was still dark. Made myself a honey sandwich using honey purchased from the local bee cooperative the previous day. We were at the trail head by 7:30, me, my guide and 2 guards. My guard mentioned the starting elevation was at 4,000ft, that would mean an 8,000ft climb! I'm guessing his information was fundamentally flawed!

This park used to be a place for gorilla trekking but the group people used to see had moved across the border to Rwanda. I felt bad for the park and also for the town of Kisoro. It was obviously a big revenue spinner that attracted lots of tourists, not just to the park but all the hotels and other businesses - I had seen 3 tourists in my whole time here!













The first 90 minutes was through bamboo forest and flowery meadows. This area had been reclaimed from agricultural land and re-integrated into the National park as early as 1992. We heard buffalo and Golden Monkeys but never saw any. I also saw a couple of earth worms on the trail. They were no ordinary earthworms though, over a foot long and half an inch wide - they looked more like slow moving snakes!





After this first section things steepened and we moved into primary forest. It was an overcast day but every now and then we'd catch glimpses of Mt. Muhuvura and Mt. Gahinga to the left. We also spotted a couple of Rwenzori Turacos throughout the day.

The name of the mountain translates to 'old mans teeth'. From the first tooth we got to we could see across the ridge to the other 2 before the main peak. We were also on the Rwanda boarder and I could see down to Ruhengeri where I had stayed a few nights earlier and also Kinigi where we had gone to start the gorilla trek.

As we traversed the Rwandan border and the ridge to the main peak the mist came in as did the thunder and it eventually started to pour. This continued most of the way down. At the tallest peak I had one foot in Uganda, one in Congo and one in Rwanda although didn't get to see much of any of them!






Back to the Virunga hotel, out of the wet clothes and a Nile Special later and I was all back to normal. Well that is to say as normal as I ever get!

Kisoro, Uganda
Feb 13, 2006

Was meant to be going off to find pythons today but it turned out to be a bit overcast and apparently the snakes like the sunshine, so it wasn't to be! Backed up some photos onto CD again. I'm glad I don't have to carry film, I'd probably have about 100 rolls of mainly crap, blurred and repeating photos - going digital though it's all on the Ipod and hopefully there are a couple of keepers.

Stating to hope I'll meet some westerners again for longer that a short while. I haven't really met anyone I've spend a good chunk of time with since I left Luke on 2nd Feb and am starting to get a bit lonely for western company - plenty of Ugandans to chat to though.

Traveling in Africa definitely isn't as popular as South America or Asia. It seems like most people who travel Africa are on posh tours or overland tours and the independent travelers, the few that they are, all take different routes. On other trips you usually find most people are taking the same routes and visiting the same places so you keep bumping into the same people over and over again or end up hitching up with someone for a week or two which is nice.

While I was typing my travelogue today there were a number of political rallies in town. The local and national elections are on the 23rd Feb, I want to make sure I'm out of the country by that time! One of the groups had over 2000 people in the march. This is only a small town and it definitely showed me there is a lot more political activism over here than the apathy that occurs in the west.

Valentines Day and my boda boda driver was late so I walked into town to get another one. Just as I was in mid-negotiation my original one turned up over 30 minutes late. I'd already been told by someone at the hotel that I'd got him dirt cheap so I didn't complain too much and hopped on to get to the start of the hike up Mt. Muhavura. Christopher and George my guides were the nicest people you could want to meet and we had some great conversations on the way up about the differences between Uganda and the UK. They were amused when I said you can pay $3 for a pound of beef - they would pay 75c! They also found it funny that bacon was one of my favourite meats - pork is considered the poor mans food over here.




This trail started steeply and continued that way. I got the truth about the starting elevation from the guides GPS system and it was 8000ft, so a 5500ft climb. I was pretty knackered by the time we hit the summit.






Definately preferred this hike to the one up Sabinyo. It was more open, some trees early on followed by nice open areas of heather, with groundsel nearer to the summit. There were nicely spaces huts after 90 minutes, 3.5 hours on the 4.5 hour hike. After 2 hours we ended up in the clouds and it was that way all the way up to the crater lake at the top of this cone shaped volcano, it would have been nice to get some views but the mist made it kind of mysterious. All the cloud over the last few days has my guide thinking the rainy season is on the way.

We also saw a lot of flowers on this hike, some of which looked like the red hot pokers from Ethiopia. My guide called them red and white pokers, even though they were red and yellow!

Back in Kisoro and I booked a bus for 6am the next morning to Masaka, the gateway to the Ssese Islands out Lake Victoria before heading back to the hotel for hamburger, chips and a good old Nile Special - I'll miss that beer!

Buggala and the town of Kalangala, Uganda
Feb 16, 2006

The bus was outside my hotel honking its horn at 5:30am. I wasn't quite ready so I went running out half dressed and half packed finishing it all off on the street! It certainly gave the passengers some early morning amusement! I was told the trip to Masaka, on the edge of Lake Victoria, would be 5 hours, it of course turned out to be 8, but it was on a big bus and relatively comfortable, so apart from been in a grump early in the morning it was pleasant enough.

We passed back through Kabale and Mbarara. Two towns I had visited earlier on my trip. Early morning was spectacular, mist covered many of the valleys as we traversed the steep windy roads. Up above the mist rose the peaks of the 13,000ft cone shaped volcanoes. From Masaka I ended up in a shared taxi that included a one hour ferry ride to the island of Buggala and the town of Kalangala (no other choices of transport at that time of the afternoon and I was on a mission to make my destination!). I know I keep going on about the transport, but each trip seems to get worse than the last, not too many more to go though in Uganda! This time it was 11 people in a Toyota Corolla, 7 in the back, 4 in the front and an open boot so full of luggage that it rose above the height of the car! I shared the passenger seat with a well built gentlemen while another passenger shared the drivers seat. What made me laugh was the driver kept complaining at me because he couldn't change gear because my leg was in the way, like it was my fault! I wanted to point out to him that there were 11 people in a car designed for 4 people, but in the end decided this would be futile.

The ferry ride was nice and I could see we were back in the world of birds. Fish eagles, cormorants, egrets, kingfishers etc. One thing that I have to say annoys me on all my bus and boat journeys is litter. As the locals finish with their plastic food bags or bottles down comes the window and out it goes either onto the street on into the lake. I want to say something each time, but up until now I have refrained. About 13 hours into my journey and close to Kalamgala the car pulled up and the passenger next to me grabbed a guy on the street by the scruff of the neck and a big shouting match ensued where the only word I could understand was police. My guide book had made a point about what a safe place this island was! All I could think about was please get me to my destination, preferably in one piece but at this point I was passed caring.

Tried a few local delicacies from the street vendors along the way today, including maize samosas, chapattis and some very tasty roasted peanuts. Let's hope I don't get sick this time! I haven't mustered up the courage to try the BBQ meat on the skewer yet, but I have a few more bus journeys where I'm sure I'll get the opportunity if I'm feeling brave.

Arrived in Kalamgala to be told no restaurants in the place and that all I could get were some more maize samosas! Well the guide book had said this was a quiet place!

My hotel had the name PTA Andronica, with a name like that I should have known it would be strange. Pictures of the pope everywhere, a list of rules that included reporting to the police station on arrival and PTA painted upon every single item that could be removed. Must be scared of thieves!

I took a boda boda the 2km out of town to the Hornbill Campsite Resort. I met a whole bunch of nice people and given my lack of human interaction and the fact no one else was staying at PTAs I vowed to return the next day. I didn't bring my torch and my walk back up the hill and through the jungle in the dark, it was rather spooky. The road had lots of junctions and I wasn't even sure if I was on the right track until I hit the first houses in town.

As if I needed any more persuasion to leave this hotel I saw the two biggest cockroaches ever in my room and heard the little blighters scratching all night.

Woke up and had a tasty breakfast in a little hut in town where the lady cooked outside over charcoals. The maize samosas I couldn't face the night before, cake and African tea that is made with all milk and no water. After that I was out of PTAs and down to Hornbills.





What a beautiful place set in the middle of a bay of white sand beaches complete with hammocks on the edge of the beach and a canoe to go out and paddle in. I chatted with Rebecca and her friend (sorry not good at names) for a while before they persuaded me to swim across the bay with them to a posh resort. Rebecca must have been an Olympic swimmer, in fact she said her sister could have been, as she was just a dot somewhere in the distance for most of the way across. Not having done any swimming for many years it was a 40 minute trip for me - no chance of me turning back though, I didn't was to get shown up by 2 young English students!

After resting up for a while I walked back with Rebecca's friend leaving Rebecca to do the return leg solo. Lots of fisherman on the walk back around and views of Rebecca's head bobbing up and down in the sea. She nearly beat us back.

Tasty giant fish samosas, literally the size of a dinner plate, for lunch followed by an afternoon on the beach, reading in the hammock. At some points I could count up to 50 black kites soaring up in the sky somewhere off shore.















Excellent walk around the bay that afternoon with lots of birds, including a close up fish eagle. This was followed by the communal dinner of smoked Tilapia in the dinning hut. It's nice to be around a group of westerners again swapping stories.

Barry was a retired McDonalds executive and a physical therapist. I tried to get him to talk about the book Fast Food Nation, but he was in denial and as he put it McDonalds was part of his family. He was over here doing PT but his main thing was STD treatment and awareness programs. He said over here on the island HIV infection rates were as high as 50% and there were no condoms available on the whole of the island. In Uganda as a whole he said that individual organisation had measured infection rates as high as 37%. The government's official figure was 7% but he claimed that these figures were manipulated to show the programs were working, this was the only way the government would get any more money from overseas donors. Truly horrific figures. Obviously with those figures people were at it all the time and from what I understand people will often have 5 sexual partners at any one time.

Barry had his own theories about how to solve the problem and some people including the Zambian government found them a bit controversial, so much so that he had been asked to leave that country previously. Barry wanted to get people talking about sex and he though the answer was to get the locals to talk about mutual masturbation and oral sex instead. This made for an interesting conversation as he tried to get the locals who were working at the bar talking about it later on. Good for him though, at least he is doing more that the government who apparently had a warehouse full of condoms that it wound hand out because they have not been certified yet.

1am and a couple of beers before I hit the sack - way after my usual 10pm bed time.

About 1:30am a Japanese fellow arrived in camp and then proceeded to argue with a boda boda driver over a $2 ride that he wanted to pay $1 for. He then complained to the camp the $2.50 was too much to pay to rent a tent and then proceeded to go and sleep on the camp beach chaining all his gear to a nearby boat! At 8:30am he tried to leave without paying the $2.50 camping fee (it was $2.50 camping per person and $2.50 for tent rental). An hour long standoff followed with the security guard before he coughed up and paid. Though this provided some entertainment for me, I really couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to travel this way when everything was a conflict! Besides why had he come off the beaten track to this camp in the dead of night only to leave first thing the next morning without spending time to appreciate his surroundings. Each to their own I guess.

Definitely one of those good relaxation days. Managed to get an old copy of Popular Photography and a copy of Jane Goodall's autobiography in exchange for my Dark Star Safari book. Sat in the hammock for most of the day, swam across the bay and strolled up and down the beach.

Molly who I'd met a week earlier in Kabale turned up that evening with her friend Amanda and her father Les. After fried Tilapia we all sat down around the fire on the beach where I had the pleasure of hearing Barry's life story for the 3rd time! It has to be said it was pretty interesting though.

Kampala, Uganda
Feb 18, 2006

By some amazing stroke of luck a day previously a new ferry service had started up leaving Kalangala and going direct back to Entebbe (20 miles from Kampala). This saved on a whole day of nightmare road journeys. Molly and crew were on the same boat. Had a good chat with Les, an interesting fellow who was an agriculture journalist and public speaker. He was also a bit of a traveler and had started writing books, he very kindly gave me a copy of his latest one, On the Right Track. A self-published book about his Trans Siberian rail journey, something I had always dreamed of doing. His new book was based on his present trip, I doubt I did anything interesting enough to get a mention, but I'm sure Barry and some of his stories will make the book!

Back in Kampala and it was back to Backpackers. Did a bit of souvenir shopping down in Kampala and booked the 22 hour bus ride to Arusha via Nairobi. The buses were filling up quickly but after shopping around at a few companies I managed to get a trip for the 20th, a few days before the elections. It seems like plenty of other people also wanted to leave for the elections!

Met a good group of people that night and stayed up to the wee hours drinking. Wendie a teaching volunteer from Masaka kindly lent me her cell phone to call Erica and gave me the low down on how cell phones work in Africa. I think I may be making a purchase when I get to Tanzania!

Feb 19th and I stayed in the dorm room the previous night as there were no single available. Realised how glad I was not to me staying in the dorm room all the time as Dave and his buddies alarms went off at 6:30am and Dave spend the next 30 minutes trying to persuade his buddy that he should get out of bed and try the shower as it was fresh with a capital 'F'!.

All the ladies who I'd met the previous night headed off to Lake Nkuruba on my recommendation, I hope they enjoy it. I think Wendie and Laura like their creature comforts and that place is pretty basic!














On the other hand I headed out to Entebbe for the botanical gardens and wildlife education center (or zoo as it is more popularly known in the west!). The gardens were pleasant. Lots of Vervet monkeys and Black and White Casqued hornbills. Learned the egrets I'd seen on the Ssese Islands with the black beaks were Small Egrets whereas the ones here with yellow beaks were Cattle Egrets. Lots of other birds here and I had a guide who was knowledgeable and good at pointing them out. Other things of note were the Cannonball Trees and Dragon Spiders.












Next on to the zoo, and besides the usual array of African animals, the highlights for me were 2 White Rhinos and the highly endangered Shoe Billed Stork.










I spend an evening with Les, Amanda and Molly again, we went to see some very colourful and energetic traditional dancing for what will probably be my last day in Uganda for a long while.

The last day in Uganda and it was first down to the post office to mail home the dodgy Congolese woodwork and the souvenirs from Kampala. Something else for my sister to have a laugh over. I had a few hours spare before my mammoth 22 hour bus ride to northern Tanzania where I sat down to contemplate the trip so far. Besides the power was down as was the Internet, what else was I going to do with my time?

Just thinking about my 5 weeks in Uganda/Rwanda so far I had managed to see gorillas, many species of primate, go on my first ever game safari and see lots of big game, birds galore, fantastic scenery and interact with fantastic set of local people.

2 months down - 4 to go!

I went down to the bus station thinking Kampala was definitely not as mental as the first time I had visited. I think it was just that I'd gotten used to it. I got prime spot behind the driver and started to read Les's book. One of the quotes I loved and could relate to was 'The more you have, the less you share'. Why was this?

Dickens, who was sat besides me, was a customs official at my border crossing - he wanted me to share my money with him! He was getting married the next week and thought I should be a donor at his wedding. True to the quote from above, I didn't share with him, but he wasn't really a person in need. He was also telling me how he was going to help me quickly get through customs at the border and how I could take a photo of him on the border crossing and send him the photo. Like I really wanted to get my camera out and start snapping away at a sensitive border crossing - I though a bribe was wanted! Luckily it was raining by the time we hit the border and another request was made for money. I stood my ground and made it out of the country bribe free.

Finally tried the dodgy BBQ beef kebab turned out to be quite tasty and not as fatty as it had looked. Hope to see them in Tanzania.

Over on the Kenyan side and there seemed to be a good number of roadblocks. The cops liked the old place a bed of nails across the road trick just to make sure people did actually stop. The road here were so well worn, that where the trucks had passed the contour of the road looked like a 'w' with the bottom of each 'v' where the tyres went.

It was a dark night and the land flattened out. Across the plains a number of spectacular lightning storms could be seen in all different directions. Eventually a half moon rose, that low on the horizon and across the plains it looked so much bigger than any moon I had ever seen.

We stopped late on for snacks, a lady barked orders at a Kenyan man very rudely, but he took it in his stride and even joked with her in a subtle enough way that she didn't know, but his friends could see the joke. Maybe Kenya would have been a fun place to visit for a while after all!

Nairobi, Kenya
Feb 21, 2006

Arriving in Nairobi it looks like quite a modern city. The first thing I noticed were no boda bodas - how the hell were people meant to get around? Taxis!

I took my complementary breakfast with the bus company - Chips, eggs, fried battered sausage and tea, before jumping on the next bus to Arusha. After the Black Kites of Ethiopia and the Maribou Storks of Uganda, this cities bird seemed to be full of some dirty looking black and white ibis.

Once we left the rush hour traffic of the city, the plains opened up and I could see for miles. Just on the trip down to the Namanga border crossing there were plenty of zebra, ostrich, gazelles and also camel. Not too sure what the later was doing there, they were a long way off track from the Sahara! There was also a whole host of Massai people en route wandering along the road.

Wanted to change $20 when I got to the border so I had at least enough money for a taxi once I got to Arusha. I must have been half asleep when I got to the border as although I knew exactly how much I should get for $20, I excepted 2500 Tanzanian shillings - 1/10th of what I should have got - Oh well that would still suffice for the taxi to a hotel.

Was this a sign of things to come in Tanzania?

Arusha, Tanzania
Feb 22, 2006

Into the Minja Hotel and I was accosted by touts on the street in the 5 yards from my taxi to the entrance. I thought that was bad, but after I'd dived into the shower there were a bunch of them waiting outside the shower for when I exited and thought they had a chance of selling me a trip as I walked back from the bathroom! Probably not exactly what you need after a long trip! After cake and coffee in a nice café I met Glen and his friend, 2 NGOs from northern Kenya and Uganda who were involved in feeding programs. We decided to go our own separate ways that afternoon and see what information we could find on safaris. I was also in the process of checking on e-mail and buying a phone (the number is +255 74 693 7745 and should be good until about Mar. 23rd when I hit Mozambique if anyone wants to give me a call.) so in the end I only managed one operator. Moses Wildlife Safari & Tours. I met up later that afternoon with Glen and we decided to go our separate ways as I had slightly longer and wanted to go to the Serengeti. I was going to do a whirlwind 5 day tour of Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Tarangire.

We had rain that afternoon - lots of it - I guess the rainy season is coming. Arusha had also had a lot of rain over the last few days. Mt. Meru, towering above Arusha and clearly visible looked very cool as all the rain had fallen as snow on it's summit.

Dinner at the Jambo Coffe House with Glen + friend. They showed me some truly horrific pictures of some kids with malnutrition whom they were both working with.

First things first though. In a new country it is important to get a handle on the local beers. We tried Safari, Serengeti and Kilimanjaro beers - original names eh! For anyone not wanting to take part in the research side of things and just get started with the best beer Safari came out the winner and came close to Uganda's premier amber nectar - Nile Special.

Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Feb 22, 2006

Scotch eggs and donuts for breakfast! Well they were like scotch eggs but nicer, a hard-boiled egg wrapped in some sort of meat product.

There was some drunk outside my room who kept following me around and knocking on my door, it turns out he was from the tour company - probably celebrating with the money I passed onto his buddies the previous day! The big boss arrived in a taxi and together with the drunk we headed off to where the 4WD was situated. The boss suddenly slips in the following dreaded words to the conversation 'things have changed slightly' and I thought here we go.

He mentioned the Kiwi couple I was meant to be going with was sick and I was going with a different company. It turns out the company was Victoria Travel, the itinerary was the same and there were only 4 people in the vehicle - some trips take 5, but this means there is one person in the middle - I didn't want to be that person. My travel companions were Bill, Jane and Dave. Jane and Dave had a similar story about a Dutch couple they were originally meant to be traveling with.

I may be making a large erroneous conclusion here, but my guess is all the tour companies say they have clients to get others interested. They then all get together the night before and pool their clients!


It was a long drive out to Lake Manyara and after arriving at our campsite and stopping for lunch, it was 2pm before we started that day's safari. It worked out well though as this gave us time for a nice long 4 hour safari - about as much as I could take in one session.

Most of this safari was in the trees. We saw lots of impala, a couple of Buck Bush and baboons by the 100, including one who aggressively jumped onto our 4WD baring it's teeth and reaching through the window for Dave.



Other sighting include Blue Vervet and Vervet monkeys, beautiful blue kingfishers, groups of 20+ mischievous looking Banded Mongoose, giraffes, elephants, guinea fowl and Dik Diks, an antelope the size of a large hare!





Out on the lakes edge were miles of green meadow. The season had been very dry and I'm guessing this was often covered in water. The lake was so far away and low that we couldn't really see it - in the distance I could see a pink haze. This was apparently up to 3,000,000 flamingoes that lived over the far side of the lake.

In this area we could also see lots of Cape Buffalo and hippos both wallowing in the mud and also out of the water. I think I got a bit close to one as it started making a bluff charge, but luckily for me backed off pretty sharply.

Lots of birds in the watering holes here. Egyptian Goose, Yellow Billed Storks, Marabou Storks, Pelicans etc.





Back in camp and I found a guy across the road selling red bananas. I've never seen red bananas before. The guy gave me one to try before trying to sell me stuff from his souvenir shop. The banana was sweet and very yummy.

Got to make use of the new cell phone that evening and contacted Glen who was just down the road from us. Both our groups met for drinks later.

Serengeti, Tanzania
Feb 23, 2006

Off to the Serengeti this morning, very excited as it's a place I've always wanted to go. We passed through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the way where we got fantastic views over into the crater. It is 200sq miles all together and when we looked down we could see elephants looking like dots!












We stopped at the Samba campground up above the crater to pick up a new tent - there were Marabou Storks and zebra wondering around like they owned the place!



The drive down to the Serengeti was great and it gave us some idea to the vastness of the plains. There were colourful Massai people all over the place - these are the only people allowed to live and farm the land around the crater and the Serengeti.







We stopped for lunch and Dave managed to get a spear throwing lesson from some locals who were hanging out in the area.

Plenty more zebra, gazelle, impala, wilder beast and ostrich along the way.







A small hill at the park entrance gave some great views across the savanna and showed just how much dust the 4WDs were kicking up.




Spotted lots of other game. Topi, Heartebeast, elephants, lions, cheeters, and one of the highlights was a leopard hunting a troop baboons. Eventually a couple of the older wiser baboons spotted him and in turn they ganged up and turned aggressive, chasing the leopard back into to bushes. There were also a number of Blackbacked Jackels just as we were getting back into camp.

The day had felt a bit rushed due to the distance and not been able to stop that often.


Into Nyani and lots of colourful Superb Starlings around. Set up camp and wondered off a few feet from camp to watch the sunset, but got told off by the chef - something to do with the lions, I didn't quite understand :-) Fantastic sunset, unfortunately the camera was a bit tied up downloading to the IPod, so no photos of this one.

Heard lots of noises in the night that may well have been lions - apparently it wasn't unheard of for lions to pass through this camp. I was a bit concerned when I needed to head out for a pee mid way through the night. After a good scout around I deemed it save and managed to get back in my tent alive - I have to admit I did pee a bit closer to the tent than under normal circumstances!

Up early for a sunrise game drive. One of the munching noises we heard must have been the 3 buffalo 5m from the campsite!





Good morning for game again and not too rushed. Hippo pools, crocs and an elephant that bluff charged us must have been the highlights. Funny thing with the elephant was our driver didn't even try to start the car up. He either knew we were safe of figured there wasn't enough time and if it did charge we were gonners anyhow!




I spend most of the day with my head popped out of the top of our open topped Landcruiser scouting for game. What an experience, the wind in your face, game either side and the vast plains going on for ever.






A few other animals spotted include Nubian Vultures (they are the famous ones you see in cartoons with the red necks and heads), Secetary Birds and some beautiful Yellow Billed Hornbills down by the hippo pools.

Top lunch. Curried Quiche, chips and nice salad. Lucas our chef is great.







Again feeling a bit rushed in the afternoon, not able to stop that often so see the huge herds of zebra and wilderbeast spread out over the Masai Steppes. We had a bit of a winge at our guide and ended up doing a little detour giving great views of the wilderbeast and zebra and as a bonus we also got a great experience with a pride of lions and a close up Spotted Hyena. I guess it pays to be a winger.















Our truck stopped at a Massai village on the way out of the park. I thought it was going to be a bit touristy and although they did try their best to sell some stuff, the people were really friendly and it was an enjoyable and informative experience.

We got a welcome dance and a tour around the village and houses and photos without people asking for money. They even had me up doing a dance and judging by the smiles on their faces I think the were impressed!

Simba campsite overlooking the Ngorongoro crater was the destination that evening. It was mobbed with at least 30 other tents. The crater has a reputation for traffic jams when big game is spotted due to it's small size. It also has a super larger concentration of game in it's small confines.

As I lay in my bed I though to myself, what a top day. I was interested what to expect tomorrow.

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Feb 25, 2006

Rain overnight and I don't think my flyless tent cut the mustard. At one point with strong gusts of wind outside I had water droplets landing on me.

A very steep road down into the crater - this place is so green compared to the Serengeti. Buffalo, wilderbeast and zebra everywhere. The population here stays all year round, whereas the wilderbeast in the Serengeti do their migrations because the quality of the grass deteriorates in the dryer seasons - not the case in the crater.


Some of the hillsides going up the crater wall were just so green and they were covered in the black dots of the ungulates swarming all over them as we viewed from a distance.
















The animal highlights of this place to me after what we had seen before had to be all the Spotted Hyena, some flamingos in one of the soda lakes and the zebras with their reflections drinking from some of the watering holes. Oh an the German couple on a posh safari getting their food nicked by a group of invading Vervet Monkeys :-)



Other new animals we spotted here included the highly endangered Black Rhino, Crested Cranes, Kori Buzzards, the colourful Lilac Brested Roller and the Abdim Storks. The crater also contain a few of the pretty Yellow Arcacia trees.


















A 2 hour drive out of the park and we were at the Panorama Campsite, up on the hillside overlooking Lake Manyara and all I can say is WOW. A 180 degree view across the lake, the national park, the plains towards the distant mountains on the horizon. And if that wasn't enough a cracking sunset behind the guest house!

2 fantastic days in a row. I love this safari business, I'm sure I'll be back some day!

Listened to a few 'traditional dancers' over dinner that night. Everyone seemed to like them although I though they were pretty crap and just scamming a bit of extra cash. We left them a little that they seemed happy with, but what got me was the fact they did were traditional Massai skirts, but for tops they wore just was regular street wear, including 2 guys who wore dirty white vests.

Tarangire, Tanzania
Feb 26, 2006

Months 3 on the road starts here. I've become the official alarm clock now as Zablon, the guide and cook seem incapable and nobody else has an alarm. I'm expecting a big tip. I did the rounds this morning at 6:20 as everyone wanted to get up for the sunrise. I have to say though it was a corker.







In the car for about 8:30 and at Tarangire National Park for 10ish. The place was a bit void of wildlife for the first hour, although the scenery was fantastic, the park was famous for its 1000 year old baobab trees scattered everywhere and some nice birds. New ones include lovebirds, franklins and sand grouse.





The highlight of this park had to be once we got down to the river though. What I will remember is that river teeming with zebra, elephants and giraffe just going about their every day business. Spectacular.

Lunch was and experience and a spectacle with raids on most table from the baboons and Vervet Monkeys. People seemed powerless to stop them!

On the trip back to Arusha I though a bit about what a great trip it had been. It really was none stop and each park did have its own unique features. I guess it could be called a sampler of 4 of the major parks in Tanzania and I'm glad for my first time I did it that way, although it did feel rushed. Now I know the ropes I'd probably concentrate on a couple of parks next time spending longer time in each one and get to appreciate the early morning and late afternoon viewings a bit more when the lighting is best and more game is out from under the shade.

I must have been traveling solo for too long. One other thing I found hard to start with was getting use to other people and the fact I had to be flexible and couldn't do things as and when I wanted. This was unlike I'd been able to do on most of my trip so far.

Bill, Jane and Dave were fantastic company though and we all met up for a last supper that evening. Bill was climbing Kili in 3 days and Jane and Bill were hiking Meru the next day along with Lucas our cook.

I on the other hand I managed to get persuaded by the same tour group, Victoria Travels, to hike the 6 day Machame route up Kili the very next day! I think I got a good price as other people were already going and they figured if they let me back out on the streets for a day I could be persuaded to go with another company.

No rest for the wicked!

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Feb 27, 2006

Busy morning before leaving - ATM, internet and a restock on toiletries - $12 for a stick of Right Guard! It will save other people on experiencing my smelly pits though.

I was very careful to check on the other participant's nationalities. 2 Dutch I was told. The guy must have known if he had told me the truth I would have probably not signed up, I was soon to find out the truth - 2 Germans! Marcus who had worked in South Africa for Mercedes Benz for 5 years and Freidel, his mother. There is definitely a big difference in the personalities for the British and the Germans, more than other European countries on the whole. They were very nice indeed and Marcus turned out to be a keen photographer and video enthusiast and had 20kg of equipment including 2 cameras, 2 videos (like the real deal) and lenses, estimated worth must have been a good 20 grand!

Kili was in the clouds for our drive and when we got stopped by the cops, Marcus saw the driver pass over what looked like a bribe.







We arrived at base camp and I was gob smacked - at least 50 hikers and their entourage of 200+ guides, cooks and porters - the place was a zoo. I had though I'd see 10 hikers max. I guess with 35,000 people climbing Kili each year I should have expected this - although the route we were doing wasn't the most popular. We had a 4000ft climb up to Machame camp at 10,000ft that afternoon. It was nicely graded through rain forest and true to its name, Mother Nature through a few showers our way.

We arrived at Machame Camp for about 5pm, just as the clouds were clearing. Some summit views were visible later that evening. Everyone seems to have cell phones nowadays and most of the people seemed to spend their first 20 minutes catching up with loved ones and telling them that they had made camp one safely. I sent my first ever text from a cell phone! Someday I'll be up on all this new technology, but bloody hell I can tell you it took me a long time to type that thing into the phone!

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Feb 28, 2006

A clear view of the summit early that morning and a picturesque valley full of cloud.






Starting off on the trail was more like walking down the high street in Kampala as big bottlenecks and waits occurred at every rocky section of the trail. Once we passed the 20 South Africans and their porters things improved considerable. This is definitely not a hike to escape from civilization. After an hour or so the clouds rolled in and remained that way for the rest of the day, so no fantastic views. Lots of beautiful flowers including Everlasting Flowers, some with a spectacular red tint.


Interesting combo for lunch. Boiled egg, chicken, cake, banana and a triple decker sandwich with green peppers, carrots, jam and peanut butter! Some of the more expensive hiking groups even had their table and chairs set up for lunch, along with thermos flasks of coffee and tea. I listened as a group of Aussies hurled abuse at people for going on such a trek. I figured there were so many people on this trail anyhow, why not live it up a bit. Like I mentioned, it wasn't like were on some secluded wilderness experience!

I don't know if I've mentioned it already but the bananas over here are so much sweeter and tastier than the ones from home! Someone mentioned it was because all the ones with thicker skins that don't taste as good get sent overseas. Apparently the thicker skins mean they last longer.





Into Shira camp by 1:30pm. Freidel told me the everlasting flower was called Kilimanjaro Edelweiss here and the other pretty red flowers I'd spotted was a wild gladiola.








Soon after getting into camp it rained cats and dogs before clearing late afternoon. I proceeded to the top of a small hill to count the number of tents at this site - there were over 100! I was also rewarded with Kilimanjaro's summit clearing and also views across to Tanzania's second highest mountain, Mt Meru, about 40 miles away.

Markus had a headache, maybe due to the altitude, and the German couple retired from the dining tent early leaving me to read my book and listen to the BBC World Service. I chatted with Julius the guide for a while and he confirmed with me what some Ugandans had already told me. It is the groom who pays the brides parents to marry in East Africa. Sounds like there is a good excuse not to get married in this part of the world :-)

Lightning that lit up the sky and tent, along with rain that night and another tent for me with waterproofing issues. Luckily the rain ran to the bottom corner where there was a substantial puddle. It was only really the bottom of my sleeping bag that got wet.

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Mar 1, 2006

Plenty of snow coming down the mountain side from the summit of Kili to just above our campsite this morning. The mist soon came down as we started to ascent into the alpine zone making for a moonscape like morning. We had some drizzle before lunch that took us to the highest point for that day at 15,000ft. After lunch it really came down as we descended the 2000ft down to Baranco camp. I was in top gear as I passed groundsel at the lower elevation. I beat all the porters into camp and spent about 15 minutes wandering around camp trying to find them before they showed up. This camp was in a gully and surrounded by hillsides on all sides but by the miracle of technology the cell phone was still in service!

Surprised so far as I don't really seem to have been affected by the altitude at all, maybe the other high altitude hikes I've done have helped. Let's hope this continues.

Had a good chat with Freidel, she mentioned Marcus was hating the hike. He hadn't hiked in 20 years and his main goal was to do some filming but the rain had but a stop to that.

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Mar 2, 2006

Another day in moonscape type landscape. A few ups and downs with clouds for the first few hours. We got a few clear moments later in the day and some cool moments when the clouds rose up from below us and the valley floor. We stopped for lunch at the campsite people often stop at on day 4 to make the hike a 7 day trip to help acclimatize, but I knew better and decided to head on to the high camp at Barafe. Many of the porters were looking jaded but I was on a go slow pace and was feeling good until I hit the camp at 15,000ft. By this point I was feeling dehydrated and a headache had set in.












The camp was up on a rocky ridge and the porters had to carry water up from a good distance below. I felt sorry for them to a certain extent but the lazy gits didn't bring enough as I only had a litre to drink for the next day's summit attempt. Had a chat with my sister and Erica, pretty cool to be up here and chat with people about the experience. The Ipod is also making strange clicking noises and won't work, I just get a message saying contact customer support. I have to say I'd be a bit sad if it stopped working, that would be all the photos gone down the toilet! In bed for 7:30 but the porters were chattering rather loudly in the tent next door so it was after 9pm before I got any shut eye.

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Mar 3, 2006

Woken by the porters at 11pm, still officially yesterday, this is going to be a long day! Tea and peanuts to get us on our way and on the road by midnight, as we start getting higher I am able to look down at a trail of flashlight coming up behind.

The sky is clearish and there are lightning storms to our left and right. After 2 hours the hail and snow starts flying at us vertically and with below freezing temperatures and a wind-chill that is taking us well below freezing my biggest concern is hypothermia - I certainly didn't bring my insulated mitts and plastic boots from Boston!

An hour later at 3am I took off from Marcus and Freidel. We had discussed things earlier and I had told them my dream was to get to the summit for sunrise. The weather was still terrible and I think I picked up the pace a bit too much for my guide, I looked behind and he was bent over double puking his guts up. At this point I suggested we go back down. The truth be told this was more for my benefit than his as I now felt terrible, but the bastard insisted on continuing after a short rest! Damn I was hoping I'd get a good excuse to get out of this climb. A while longer and on the verge of turning round to quit we reached Stella Point. I knew things flattened out from this point and despite the cracking headache and holding myself back from being sick I knew at that point we could both make it. I was so physically and emotionally drained of energy at that point that my eyes started welling up with tears. A similar feeling to when I finished the NY marathon.








Coming towards the top the skies began to clear and I could see the most fantastic views of glaciers through the mist. Unfortunately the horizon had cloud on it so I didn't see the sun rise up from below but it was visible within 10 minutes. Who cares, I'd made the summit and was a happy chap. It was just passed 6am and after a very short photo stop on the summit all I wanted to do was get off the mountain. My hands were bloody freezing but I managed to take a few of what I though were great photos of the glaciers on the way down. The problem with a flashy camera though is you can play with the settings. Unfortunately that is just what I had been doing the previous day so all the photos were way too dark! C'est la vie, I think some of those view will be etched on my brain for ever!




Just 15 minutes down from the summit and I saw Markus and Freidel. I was dead chuffed they were going to make it and very impressed at Freidel. She was 65, I hope I'm still as active as her at that age.

Off the summit and on the way down I was so buggered I couldn't even muster the energy to get the camera out to take what would have been some lovely photos. Not that it really mattered anyway, the camera was still all set up incorrectly!

Eventually the inevitable happened. We stopped for a rest and I couldn't hold it back any longer and spend the next 10 minutes puking up what turned out to be nothing from my empty stomach.

There were people literally getting carried and dragged up the mountain by their guides as I descended down. Based on how I felt going down I dreaded to think how they would be. They looked terrible.


Back down in camp at 9:30 and it was all I could do to climb back into my tent where I fell asleep until 11am when Markus and Friedel returned.

Remind me if I ever talk about going up to 20,000 feet again how I felt after this climb and after the 20,000ft high Huayna Potosi in Bolivia. I don't think my body was built for altitude!

After soup and fried bread we broke camp and headed down to Mweka camp at 10,000ft, about a 10,000ft drop from our highest point that day!

It's amazing, food, a big drop and by the time we got into camp I was feeling great and was knocking back a bottle of the beer that they sold in camp.

On the way down I'd seen a poor lady who was been stretchered down due to altitude sickness. They put her in her sleeping back and what really was there had been a big downpour just before camp - they just left her at that camp with her drenched sleeping bag. I didn't fancy her chances for getting a good nights sleep that night!

I forgot to mention besides my leaky tent I was also given a pole for my decent that didn't work and some gaiters who's straps underneath were missing - practically rendering them useless in the deep snow. A word of warning if you rent equipment - check it first. My dream was to go back to Victoria Travels take the pole in and snap it in two in front of the owner and say don't ever give people crap like this to hike with again. Of course in my English way I did nothing of the sort and returned saying what a lovely hike it had been when the owner asked me!

I wonder how many of the people hiking Kili really know what they are getting themselves into!

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Mar 4, 2006

Woke up to rain - we had certainly seen our fair share of rain on this trip! Poor Freidel didn't like the rain at all and she was having a tough time of things. Freidel and Markus were nice people but on the way down after hearing ya, ya, ya and the same story from her for a third time I was definitely looking forward to meeting some new people to socialize with! I was definitely looking forward to getting the video from Markus.

The trip down was back through the rainforest. I have to say I'm never a bit fan of the trip out - it usually spells the end of an adventure and some great experience. I usually want things to continue for a while longer.

We gave Julius our tip to share out amongst the porters, assistant guides, cook, assistant cook (10 people all together - some high end tours have 11 porters per person!). This was probably a good idea as there seemed to be a substantial amount of arguing and bitterness between who got what amounts.

The 60 mile trip back went through a lot of coffee plantations and was pretty uneventful apart from a near miss with a donkey. I don't think the brakes on our minibus were top notch and I'm glad there was no traffic coming the other way. Our driver ended up having to swerve to the other side of the road to avoid hitting this beast of burden. Not too sure what they all do but there seems to be donkeys all over the place in this part of the world.

Back to the Meru House Inn and before been there long the familiar power cuts came. It was certainly nice to get a warm shower though and pass on some of the wet cloths for the laundry folk to take care of.

Went to the Noble Restaurant for a nice Indian meal, probably one of the best meals we'd had since leaving England. I was surprised to see they charged 10% extra for take-out. Thinking about it though it does make sense, due to all the extra packaging that gets used. It doesn't seem to work this way in the West though!

Lushoto, Tanzania
Mar 5, 2006

Nice breakfast back at the Noble Restaurant followed by a well deserved day of relaxation (supposedly). Laundered some silk and delicate items I didn't trust the hotel to wash. Checked the internet, once I'd wondered all around town to find a place with a generator - the power was out again. A large percentage of the power here comes through hydro electric so the big lack of rain had caused the water levels to become so low and I think power was actually cut purposely because of this. The IPod seemed to start working again - It must have been the altitude, so I went off to burn some photos onto CDs. The guy wouldn't let me do the burning myself and I had to hand the IPod over to him. While watching him and correcting him a couple of times I was sure he made a right bollocks of it. I also checked on the IPod and it looks like all the photos of the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater had gone. I actually ended up having to go to another place to check what was on the CDs. 2 were corrupt and the others didn't have the photos on they should - I was a bit annoyed as this guy had charged my $35 for the 6 CDs! It also put me in a bad mood knowing what a mess this buffoon had made and that I'd lost all the pictures of the Serengeti!

Spoke with Wesley, a tour operator I'd met in the Rwenzoris. He'd told me he could arrange some hiking for me in the Crater Highlands for $80 a day. I was very excited but had been put off going here by the prohibitively high costs. The $80 a day he'd mentioned suddenly turned into $1000 for 3 days! Canoeing at Momela Lakes, some soda lakes with flamingoes on them in Arusha NP, another place I really wanted to go, also turned out to be similarly expensive and above my budget. Oh well they will still be there next year! Plan C was to head to the Usambara Mountains so I headed to the bus station. I've never been swarmed by so many people in my life and in the end I just had to walk away as I couldn't handle all the hassle. I returned later with reinforcement. I hired a taxi and got help from the driver with finding a reputable booking office and negotiation a price. I booked a ticket for the next morning before getting out of that place as quickly as possible.

I thing after 12 none stop days in Tanzania. I'm ready to hit Zanzibar for some R+R. I quick trip to the Usambara Mountains first should be nice.

I returned to the hotel for a cold Safari beer to help me perk up a bit.

Next day and a 5am start back to the dreaded bus station and the trip to Lushoto. The BBC world service was on the radio but in Swahili - I wondered if British TV License fees were really used to translate the BBC into Swahili and if so how happy the British public would be about this.

Lots of litter on the road out of Arusha and green as we traveled back passed the coffee plantations and fields of plantains. I was surprised how green Tanzania was, although not like Uganda, I had expected most areas just to look like the pictures I'd seen beforehand of the Serengeti Plains.

Moshi was 2 hours down the road and they had pretty, scantily clad girls of each junction of the main roundabout in town as an advertisement for Kilimanjaro beer. No selling like that on the streets of Boston! As the journey continued we seemed to stop at every cluster of houses, however small, for some like the guy next to me it was an opportunity to do some shopping from the local vendors. I saw him purchase a pack of dress socks and a pack of 5 Imperial Leather soap bars. I began to doubt whether I had seen the shops of Arusha selling these items! Toothpaste seemed to be the biggest commodity though and everywhere we stopped there was someone who was convinced my teeth were not clean enough and I should buy some. Unfortunately Tanzania is missing the dodgy kebab sellers at the side of the road and the best they could do were biscuits.

Things did start to dry out the further east we went and a lot of the scenery reminded me of parts of the west of the USA. Red soil, scrub, bush with barren looking hills on the horizon after miles of flat expanse. The landscape was also dotted with the odd Acacia Tree or Baobab Tree.

Behind the bus we got views back to the summit of Kili that was rising up out of the clouds. There seemed to be a lot of snow up on top - a whole lot more than when I had summited a few days earlier.

It also looked like this section of the country had seen some serious rain over the last few days. There were big piles of dirt that had been washed onto the road that we had to slow right down for so pass safely. The siding for the train track that ran parallel to this road had also been washed away in a couple of places, this left the train track suspended in mid air in places.

Once we left the Massai Steppes we started heading up a steep windy road into the mountains for our final 20 miles. Things got green and very scenic and cooled off some what. We also had some showers. Lushoto was at 3,500ft and as expected after leaving the bus I was surrounded by touts. I was straight into a taxi and off to the White House Annex where I was soon followed and accosted by other touts.

I headed straight to the official tourist information pursued by these folks and booked onto a 3 day hike to Mtae starting the next day. On leaving and informing all the touts I'd booked my hike they started getting arsey with me and demanded their brochures (cheap photocopies) back.



Mid-afternoon and I started hiking up to Irente Point, a local view point, until I was told by some locals that it was about a 4 hour hike and I would not get back until after dark! I headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a beer with 3 Danish girls, Maria, Ann and Helle. Since the cartoon scandal they had pretended to be Finish! We all got a taxi up to the viewpoint to watch the sunset over the plains. Fantastic views down to the plains 3,000ft below.

Lukuzi, Tanzania
Mar 7, 2006

Took a while to wake up this morning. I'm pretty sure my battered body is still recovering from the Kili trip. While at breakfast one of the touts who had taken the 3 Danish girls for a hike was trying his best to chat to a German girl. The Danish said he'd followed them around incessantly until they had signed up for a hike with him. Even though we'd all played cards the night before he totally ignored me. I wasn't sure if he was a ladies only guide or if he was scared that I'd spill the beans that he had hounded the Danish girls.



















Jumu my guide seems like a nice guy. We set off through farmland and villages before arriving at a viewpoint. Lots of nice flowers, colourful grasshoppers and a couple of Black and White Colobus monkeys along the way.

We met 3 Germans who bragged about seeing a chameleon - I wonder if they knew my story from the Rwenzoris and were taunting me. I told my guide I must see one.

We stopped at Magamba for lunch. I'd been promised lunch as part of the deal and was given half a packet of biscuits! I ordered a plate of chips from the shop next door to fill the gap. I also ordered what I thought was a Fanta Lemon - It turned out to be a Fanta Pineapple. Why do the people over here get so many options? Don't they think we are capable of choice in the USA?

I've noticed the salt over here seems to add a better flavour to the food. I think it's sea salt, I wonder if that is the reason why?

About an hour into the afternoon after a brilliant morning the thunder started and was followed by the rains. I'd been a bit concerned about coming to the Usambaras, given the fact it seemed like the rainy season had started. We stopped for shelter under the overhanging roof of some locals house along with about 10 Tanzanians. One young girl in particular was fascinated by the presence of a white man. It was funny to catch her staring and laughing at me.


I have to admit I did what I consider cheating once the rain did not stop for a while. I committed sacrilege and took the bus for the next 20 minutes! Once we got over to the next valley we could see all the rain water surging down the valley and across all the fields of crops. The locals must have been happy that the rains seemed to be finally returning. The short rains last year had not arrived in Tanzania and I think these were the first real rains for 9 months or so.

Coming into town all the locals kids were chanting Muzungu (or it may be Wazungu in this part of the world) again. Juma had also tried to teach me some Swahili along the way, but I don't think I was born to learn, or speak for that matter, languages other than English. New words seem to slip through my mind like a sieve.

It was tomato harvesting season and there were huge baskets of them everywhere. This caused us a bit of a problem when we came into Lukuzi as all the merchants were here from Dar Es Salem and our first choice of hotel was full. I think we got the last room in town and our hotel was a craphole, with chicken shit covering the hallway and no shower room - although they did offer to let me stand above the squat toilet and wash in there. I politely refused.

I spend the rest of the afternoon in the nice hotel drinking Castle Milk Stout - This South African beer sold for 75c for 500ml out here in the sticks. It had been a nice pleasant days hiking in the Usambara Mountains. Good scenery and the colourful Sambaa people, especially the women who seemed to like to wrap themselves in yellow.

We went to a real locals place to dine that evening and I told Juma I wanted to try Ugali (ther same as the Poshi I'd tried in Uganda). This was an East African staple made of maize flour. The locals liked to eat it every night of the week. Personally I though it was a bit flavourless and once a month would be sufficient! The meat it came with was like old shoe leather.

Juma kept stumbling into me on the way home and I have I feeling he'd been knocking back the old sugar cane beer. I though I'd smelt alcohol on his breath at lunch and in late afternoon. Both time he had disappeared somewhere for a short while!

Usambara, Tanzania
Mar 8, 2006

I found out where all the chicken shit came from. About 5am there was a cockerel cock-a-doodle-doing in the corridor right outside my room!

Tea, chapatti and Karimata (a donut type thing) for breakfast at another dive joint in the morning before hitting the road.

Mainly road walking that wasn´t always the most interesting as a lot of it was through the trees and it was plantations as oppose to the indigenous trees. The good part was the 50% that went through villages and agricultural land.



We met 2 interesting old gents early morning who came running after us so they could walk with the muzungu. Pretty good running for an old couple in their 60s on the way to one of their buddies funerals. They mentioned how when the British were here this whole area was indigenous forest. Now it was mainly terraced farmland! I wondered if all this deforestisation was to blame for the failed rains the previous year.


Finally got to see a chameleon, stopping to photograph it drew a big crown of locals. They couldn´t understand what was so exciting as they had all seen plenty in their time. It gave them something to chuckle about!



We headed through Marindi and onto Masoke for lunch where we had an omelet and a cake. The cake had actually been fried so I guess that could really be classed as another donut! Homer would be in heaven here :-) Had a Fanta passion fruit today.

So much for the rainy season coming, today was an absolute corker! The guy from the tourist information office had suggested not to take sun tan lotion on this trip. Comments that were perhaps misguided. Let´s see what happens tomorrow before I get too cocky.

Nice afternoon, farmland all the way, peppers, maize, sunflowers and of course tomatoes by the bucket load. There were lots of people tomato picking in the fields and bikes and people loaded up to the hilt with huge baskets taking the seasonĄŚs bounties to the lorries, all heading for Dar.

My guide mentioned in the high season 25 people a day did this hiking route. Based on the fact that just about every young kid under the age of 5 ran like a bat out of hell when they saw me coming, IĄŚm not too sure I believe his figure. I know I look strange ĄV but IĄŚm not an alien!

I opted for a night at a convent that evening. It was a nice peaceful place set in beautiful grounds. After tea and some delicious home made bread I retired to my nice veranda that overlooked the grounds.

All the nuns were super friendly, and I´m not too sure if the younger ones giggling at me was super nun like. Still I was a bit lost for words when one of them came to my room with a large container of water and said ĄĽyou wash my bodyĄŚ. There was no running water when the power was not working as the water pump obviously could not work either so water top ups were a regular occurrence. I have to admit it took me a few seconds to work out that what she was really asking in her broken English was if I had bathed!

What I meal I received that night - that alone made it well worth the extra cost to stay at this place. Tender chunks of beef, tomatoes in a fantastic dressing, rice with rosemary and lemon, cabbage, spinach (or some local vegetable that was very similar), chips and gravy. I was in heaven and went to bed a happy man.

Mtae, Tanzania
Mar 9, 2006

Fresh bread and milky coffee to get me of to a raring start for the day. A bit of mist lingering but that soon burnt off. Farmland and villages to start the day before entering the cool of the pine forest. A locally planted venture used for local timber.

On seeing a man with a stick and machete I asked Juma what the stick was for. Walking came the reply. Funny as most walking sticks I see don't have two sharpened points at either end, but who was I to argue with the guide!

We followed this guy to a group of men and dogs where it turns out they were going wild pig hunting.




After the forest we dropped down to the village where Juma was born where we picked up quite an entourage - perhaps 50 kids! Juma knew everyone.





Climbing up from the village we could see all this cloud rising up from the Massai Steppes 3000ft below. The whole valley looked like it was blanketed with cloud.

Lunch turned out to be bread that Juma had half inched from the convent - I wasn't complaining the bread was tasty, but given our meager lunch menu I wasn't sure if he was given a small budget or if he was pocketing anything he didn't spend.





We eventually dropped down into Mtae and the cloud cover. By the time we checked into out hotel the mist had cleared somewhat and we grabbed a couple of Safari beers and headed to a viewpoint for a post celebration hike.

All in all I'd really enjoyed the Usambaras. Definitely not the spectacular scenery of the other hikes completed but a pleasant hike. The highlight though was the cultural side of things. Getting to see the Usambara people in their colourful clothing.



Mtae itself is situated right on the northern point of the Usambara Mountains and a road traverses the ridge from south to north where I believe it came to an end. The ridge itself was pretty thin so must of the town consisted of one house to the right and one house to the left of this road with steep drop-offs leading down from the houses. To the west the Massai Steppes were red and parched and stretched out towards the Pare Mountains. To the east the plains were green and stretched towards the Indian Ocean and Mombassa in Kenya. All perfect for sunset and sunrise viewing.

Had a beer and finally found a dodgy kebab, that turned out to be very tasty. Not as large as the ones in Uganda. But at 10c a pop it was definitely a reasonable price!

Had a chat with Juma and he is not the alcoholic I thought he was. He is 22 and had his first beer ever a year ago. The reason he was stumbling on the first night was I bought him a couple of beers so I had someone to drink with, so maybe it´s me who is the drunk! He mentioned because he´d never really drunk before if he had 3 beers his friends would be carrying him home!

After sunset we went for what Juma called 'Draughts dinner'. So called because like the board game there were many pieces/dishes to choose from - again very tasty, I think Juma preferred this African food to the western stuff we got at the convent.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mar 10, 2006

It would have been a nice sunrise, but 3 buses left Mtae that day. 4:15am, 4:20am and 4:30 am. We decided to get up early for the first one!

Juma was alarm clock-less and seemed a bit concerned that we would not wake up in time. No need to worry about that the bus drivers had it covered and had a great way to make sure all their passengers were up on time. 3am they were all outside seeing who could rev their engine the loudest and just incase that wasn't enough to wake you the noxious exhaust fumes drifting through the window along with the fresh mountain air was sure to wake you from your slumber. How anyone can live in that area of town without complaining is beyond me!

The driver was also gracious enough to let all the other villages know he had arrived and if they wanted a ride he was outside. A few short blasts on the air horn at every town, village or couple of sheds at the side of the road saw to that.

Back to Lushoto for 7am and breakfast and lodging in the Christian run, no alcohol hostel I´d eaten in with the 3 Danes a few evenings previously. After some rest and relaxation, book reading, ticket booking for Dar es Salaam, I had a nice stroll up to Irente viewpoint.

On the way up I stopped at Irente Farm for lunch. Bread, jam, cream cheese, regular cheese, salad, passion fruit juice - all freshly made on the farm. I´ve really been impressed with the food I´ve had in a couple of places in Tanzania.

Sat up on the viewpoint waiting for sunset, one local student who came up took 6 photos of me, one with each one of his giggling girlfriends. I was happy to oblige with plenty of cheeky grins and a request for a tip, that was not forthcoming. I also met a Swedish guy who had gone all the way down the west coast of Africa in his 4WD truck. He´d passed through Congo, DRC and Angola along the way which I though was a pretty impressive set of countries to make it through alive.

I finished my book, Gorillas in the Mist, which was an interesting book about an extremely motivated person, Dian Fossey, who eventually got killed by poachers.

Next morning I got a window seat with the Shambalai bus company, but thankfully not a front seat for the long steep drive down to the plains. Smelt of burning brakes when we stopped down at the bottom so I popped my head out of the window to see smoke pouring out of the wheel arch.

The landscape started out pretty green and we eventually passed through some areas of coconut groves. It did get very barren after that though and I was amazed at how unpopulated the country was. Even the towns we passed through didn´t seem to have more than a few dozen houses. There were a few plantation of Sisal (used for rope production) along the way

The locals amaze me at how well they can sleep on these rickety old buses, nearly every one of them was asleep. About 6 hours into the journey we took a left turn and headed directly east towards Dar and the coast. At this point it started to get decidedly hot and sticky and the soil turned sandy and the coconut groves returned. On each tree I could see where steps had ingeniously been hacked out of the tree so the fruits would be easy to pick.

A few slums on the way into Dar but on the whole it looked very vibrant and more affluent than else where in Tanzania. I found a population of 3 million hard to believe, from what I could see it looked more like a big town.

Eventually the Indian Ocean came into view. The first sea I´d seen since flying over the Med on my way to Africa. I decided on the Chef´s Pride for dinner and took what I though was a good seaside option of seafood pizza and fresh pineapple juice.

Back to the YMCA and as I sat in the bar reading 2 Massai guys came and sat next to me and were enthralled by what looked like Miss World. For what it´s worth I can definitely tell you Miss Thailand isn´t going to win this one. Pretty face, but who chose that haircut for her!

When I couldn´t take the heat and the mozzies any longer I ordered another beer and went to sit on my 4th floor balcony stripping down to my undies and starting my new book. Reason for Hope, Jane Goodall´s autobiography.

Stonetown Zanzibar, Tanzania
Mar 12, 2006

A bit claustrophobic last night with all the heat and I'd had to get out of bed a few times to escape the suffocating feeling. Down on the boat and in the harbour we could see plenty of huge container ships with the small dhows passing close by. Pretty cool to see them next to each other - old verses new.

There was a bit of a fracas on the boat as an Aussie guy, quite rightly, told a loud obnoxious Arab looking gentlemen who was using the F and C word profusely and looked like he had one to many pops that morning to quiet down. This just made him louder and his poor, embarrassed looking, mother had to come to save the day. He sulked and complained to anyone who would listen to him for the rest of the trip.

I love the sea and was more than happy to sit on the upper deck for the whole trip watching Dar disappear and Zanzibar getting closer.

There were loads of containers on the docks in Stonetown and I wondered what they all had inside. Safety obviously wasn't a top concern as one of them was suddenly hoisted by a crane and left the ground about 5 feet from where I was walking. Luckily it swung in the opposite direction to me.

Not too many touts around as I had expected to see lots given the warning given in my book. I jumped in a cab to the Flamingo Hotel. My room had some nice views across the rooftops from its 4th floor location. I spent the next hour just getting lost in the narrow maize of streets. Plenty of old colonial buildings, many of them falling into disrepair. Lots of interesting woodwork on the doors themselves.

Eventually I ended up by the sea in an area full of beach front cafes where I enjoyed a latte, a mango, pineapple and orange juice while looking out to sea over the white sand beach.

I met Bill from my safari a while later just wandering around Stonetown so it was back to another cafes for another juice and an opportunity to swap stories about the Kili hike. It sounds like Bill had experienced a real blizzard on his hike and white out conditions on the summit!

I have to say the people I've met on Zanzibar have been super friendly and not too aggressive like my guidebook mentioned. Sure people ask you to buy things but it's all in a good natured way and a quick no will usually send them packing.







After a sunset beer on the beachfront I headed to Forodhani Gardens a place locals are meant to go and hang out on the evening times. There were rows of seafood BBQ stores that seemed to be mostly frequented by tourists. But for $5 I managed to get 4 kebabs containing Red Snapper, Kingfish, shrimp, some sort of shell fish , some Nan bread and a glass of sugar cane juice.

I met a Slovakian girl who lived in Boston and 2 nice ladies who worked for one of Bush's faith based initiatives. There were over in east Africa working on reducing the number of AIDS cases and naturally the conversation centered around some of the huge problems this continent still faces.

We all went for Gelato later, apparently this island is hugely popular with the Italians who can take charter flights here. You'd thing they had enough beaches in Italy! One of my scoops was an interesting licorice flavour.

I have a lot of respect for the German guy I met at breakfast the next day. Unlike most NGO and charity workers who were in Africa driving $30,000 Land Cruisers and staying in $200 a night hotels that comes directly from your tax dollars or charity contributions, this guy was staying in a $10 a night hotel that included breakfast. The reason why? So he spent as little as possible of his VW foundation money on travel so more would be available for the scholarships he was handing out. The guy was a professor at a German university and did this work on top of that.



I booked onto a spice tour and it was fantastic. After stopping at some historical baths we made about 5 different stops each time seeing different things. Some of what we saw included

Fruits - Sour sop, almonds, bananas, jackfruit, coconut, papaya, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, bread fruit, durians and coffee.

Spices from trees - Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all-spice

Spice plants - Turmeric, ginger, vanilla, lemon grass, pepper and cardamon

Some facts I found interesting were that most of the spices on the 'spice island' come from Asia. Coconuts fruit 3 times a year, all other spices twice apart from vanilla that produces just once a year, making it one of the most expensive products.

There were also Aloe Vera plants and 11 types of citrus plants all together.

Black and white and red peppers are from the same plant. Red is riper and white is just the inside of the black pepper corns. We saw cassava, the root vegetable I saw in Uganda, this is apparently the same as tapioca! The nutmeg stone is enclosed in a fruit that is used for jam, there is also a red jacket around the nut that is used for soup.

As well most of the spices are used for some sort of traditional medicine and cures for ailments including diahoria, toothache and malaria.

After a feast of a lunch that included most of the spices we'd seen we headed to the beach. It was absolutely bucketing down but 3 South Africans went swimming anyhow. I wasn't going to be outdone or let the British be outdone so I followed right behind. It was excellent, the beach was beautiful, the water was like a bath and we saw some fishermen cleaning some barracuda type fish they had caught.

Our guide invested $4 of his hard earned money on what looked like about 15 small sized fish.



The Mozambique embassy was the destination late afternoon, I soon realized that my Portuguese wasn't too hot and communication could be an issue in Mozambique! Later I headed down to the beach to watch the sunset with Wikas and his wife who I'd meet on the spice tour. We also met a Belgium couple, Rolland and Myriam who were traveling for 14 months in their own 4WD. They'd been all the way down the west coast and were now traveling back up the east coast. They saved my live as they had a guide book for southern Africa. All the shops in Dar and Zanzibar had sold out, I'd have been screwed without a guide book! It was the Forodham Gardens again for dinner. My choices tonight where lobster, squid, octopus, blue marlin, chips and sugar cane juice!

March 14th and all the eggs in Tanzania seem to be missing yokes. It's funny my first experience was on the safari and I thought they were saving them to make the mayonnaise at lunch - but now based on the hard boiled eggs I've had I think they are just really pale to the state of being almost white.








I decided to finally take the camera out and take some snaps of the fancy doors and crumbling old buildings around Stonetown. It wasn't all plain sailing though. I managed to get a soldier and government building in one shot - the soldier who came up to reprimand me wasn't very happy. Tried to take some pictures of a boat on the beach before a man came running up screaming 'one photo on dollar'. Finally a woman came up to me while I was wandering down some alley and told me in a very stern voice to put the camera away as this was a dangerous area of town and I would surely get robbed. All in all though is was a pleasant little stroll.

After all that I needed a beer. Funny in Tanzania they feel compelled to put the drink right in front of you. If you have a book on the table they will put the glass right next to it and push the glass towards the book until you move the book. That's ok though because as soon as they have gone you are free to re-arrange your stuff as it was!

Went back to the Mozambique embassy to pick up my passport with my nice new visa attached. I always get a happy high feeling when I know I'm going to a new country so this put me in a good mood.

The usual routine that evening. A beer while watching the sunset followed by fish BBQ. This time it was barracuda and a shell fish similar to mussels. I also had chips falafel and sugar cane juice to wash it down with.

Tonight I met 2 Jehovah's Witnesses who didn't once try to sell me on converting! The guy was a builder and working in Malawi for 3 months for charity, but for some reason it didn't seem right for a Jehovah's Witness to start talking in his British slang about what a great group of lads he worked with and how they all had a great laugh at work!

Nungwi, Tanzania
Mar 15, 2006

Took the 8am bus to Nungwi, a beach resort right on the northern tip of Zanzibar and booked into the Jambo Bothers Resort. Man this place is gorgeous. White sand, turquoise sea and small dhows both in and out of the water. Nungwi is known for is boat building.








After checking in I headed up north hoping to reach the most northerly point. I though it would take about 15 minutes after an hour with no end in sight I gave up. I found out later that it was 15 minutes and I had passed the northern point and had been heading down the east coast. No wonder it was far! On the way back it started to thunderand some grey clouds came over from the east. The first I knew about the rain was when I heard a real racket where the rain had started hitting the coconut palms, then a few second later the same rain started hitting me. It really came down and plenty more thunder and lightning to go with it. After the rain I went into town where the whole place was flooded with water up to a foot deep.

Spent the afternoon chatting with a whole bunch of people in the resort. Later I went for beers with Annie and Jason, 2 Peace Corp volunteers who spent 2 and 3 years repectively on Vanuatu. Seafood pizza that evening, it was lovely.





Went to watch the fisherman prepare their boats early morning followed by a trip to a nice aquarium, which was a tropical lagoon that was used for rescuing injured turtles. I had the biggest jumbo shrimp ever for lunch grilled on the BBQ with what was a garlic and onion stuffing. Very tasty indeed, although half the fly population of Nungwi seemed intent on making my table their own for the next 30 minutes which did rather spoil the experience! Sand, sea and sun for the rest of the afternoon. Octopus, squid and kingfish with Jason and Annie after a nice sunset.




Next day and it was our snorkeling trip. Annie and I along with a boat of about 10 others that included Wikas and Annette who I'd met on the spice tour trip. The 90 minute trip went around the northern point of the island to the eastern side and a picturesque little atoll. A very nice snorkel apart from a leaky mask that was a bit of a pain and caused me to have all the accumulated water running out of my nose at inopportune moments of the rest of the day! BBQ fish on one of the white sand beaches before returning to Nungwi that afternoon.

This was the night of the full moon party. Annie insisted we didn't eat before we left as there was a danger we would all get sleepy and go to bed. After 3 large beers and at 9:30pm we were pretty buzzed as we took the boat that came to pick the 30 of us up and take us the 2 miles south to Kendra Rocks. Unfortunately all the food places had closed by the time we arrived and I had to make do with a packet of Custard Creams. Plenty of dancing going on that night, this didn't appeal too much to a 2 left footed person such as myself. I met my buddies from the BBQ fish stall in Stone Town and sat on the beach with them as they enjoyed a couple of joints and I had a couple of cold ones.

I also got to meet a whole bunch of Norwegians including the girl who lived next door to me in the resort. I had only spotted her once up until now as she was out to the crack of dawn every night and slept most of the day. All in all a pretty chilled evening and not what I had really expected.

It was after 3am by the time we took the boat home and went to bed. Way too late for an old man such as myself.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mar 18, 2006

Up way too early nursing a bit of a headache and back in the minibus down to Stonetown. The driver was using 2 exposed wired that he would pinch together and sound his car alarm as a horn! I presumed the normal horn was broken, but half way into the journey he started using that interspersed with the car alarm. Not sure what the difference was and why in one situation he would use one over the other.

Got persuaded by my bus driver to check out a different hotel to the Flamingo, the one that I had stayed in before. Though it wasn't as good I was too lazy to change once I was there, it was only for one night after all!

I have to say I love Stonetown and Zanzibar in general. It's so easy to spend the day wandering the small streets, sitting in cafes and checking out the internet.











Of course my evening routine did not change. Sunset, beer, fish BBQ and gelato.

I said goodbye to Annie and Jason before returning to my hotel, the Annex of Abdullah, to watch TV in my room. I think it's the first room I've had that has had a TV in the room and I made the most of it before falling sound asleep. Well deserved sleep that night after the late night shenanigans from the previous evening.

The next morning and at 5am I found out why my hotel was called the Annex of Abdullah. I'm guessing that Abdullah's was the mosque that I think had placed a loud speaker either directly on my roof or pointing at my room. I nearly fell out of bed I jumped so much once the call to prayers started. Not too much to report from today apart from a bit more street wandering. Chinese food for lunch. You can always rely on finding a Chinese restaurant where ever you are in the world! Stonetown had the China Delight.

Annie was a bit of a surfer chick and this got me thinking about learning how to surf in Cape Town if I got there early. Her and Jason where heading there next, although some other people had told me the waters off Cape Town were extremely cold and maybe I should wait until Durban! I'd also had a chat with a Swiss couple the previous night about Namibia and was now all excited to go there. Along with Ethiopia and Uganda, Namibia was one of my top 3 destinations I wanted to visit before I'd left Boston.


Picked up my luggage for the 4pm ferry back to Dar for what was a pleasant trip. I thought I'd mix it up a bit and try out the YWCA this time. It turned out to be a bad move as unlike the YMCA this place didn't serve beer and I found myself back in the YMCA on a few occasions!

Back to Chef's Pride that evening. Tasty mango juice here, it reminded me a lot of traveling in India where Francois and I would always drink a couple of mango juices each day.

Mtwara, Tanzania
Mar 21, 2006

A busy day. First the Belgium Embassy to pick up a guidebook on Southern Africa that Rolland and Myriam had kindly left me. Next it was off to the MV Safari office to try to book a boat to Mtwara. Unfortunately the schedule had changed and Tuesday's boat now went on Saturday! A tour agency office tried to sell me a bus ticket for 30,000, but I knew their game and took a Dalla Dalla (minibus) to the bus station and picked up my own for 18,000. My guidebook said it would be at least a 24 hour trip in a rickety old bus on dirt roads!

Back into town and I had to photocopy a few pages from my guidebook, burn a couple more CDs and get a phone cover as I could hardly read anyone's text messages anymore due to the plastic on the phone cover being all scratched up.

Once the CDs and the book were photocopied I was ready to send a package home to England. It took my over 90 minutes in the post office to go through the whole wrapping process and procedures with customs.

Of course the power was also down so it took a good while to hike around to places to find ones that had a generator. The noise made by all the generators around the cities is pretty deafening.

I caught someone trying to open my bag at one point and very bravely or stupidly grabbed hold of them and confronted them. Of course they denied it, what could I do!

The heat that day also seemed more repressive than usual so I was happy to try a coconut from some guy on the street, after he lopped the top off with his machete I was able to enjoy the refreshing milk inside.

I was in bed very early ready for the 4:30am bus ride. Someone called me about 11pm, I though it was my alarm clock going off on the telephone to wake me up for my bus and promptly cut them off.

Up to get to the bus station for my 5:45am bus. Amazingly it leaves on time but after one hour in traffic jams we stop for 1 hour for no apparent reason! Back on the road and the inspector comes around and throws 2 people off - one literally. It seems like they did not have enough money.

Had an early stop at a small village after what smelt like a fuel leak. The first of 5 stops that day for minor repairs.

I met a guy who said he was christened with the name Boss Kamara who bought me a tea and gave me some of his bread, pastries and laughing cow cheese. The guy had all sorts of stories, not too sure which ones were true but he was definitely a talker. He was from Guinea and this trip was taking him from his home in Nairobi down to Mozambique to buy some uncut gems that he would take over to Thailand. This apparently was a trip he had done numerous times in the past but not via this particular route into Mozambique. I was rather unsure just how wise it was to befriend him, but hey, I'm here for adventure so why the hell not! He was also very load and outspoken and caused the locals to laugh out loud as he barked orders at people or made comments on the bus.

The route started out on what could be described at the palm tree coast. Coconuts, papaya, bananas and some other palms although no sea on sight for the whole of the day, we must have been inland for a few miles.

The road eventually changed from palms to some green plains and after lunch we got forest for the rest of the day. We spotted a good number of baboons and the locals were very excited so see them. It's funny because I just assumed they would see them all the time. I guess the local enthusiasm is a positive sign for the future preservation of wildlife in Tanzania.

Managed to pick up a corn on the cob some time before lunch and then for lunch I had some fish that looked well dodgy due to all the flies buzzing around. There were lots of street vendors selling the fish and it turned out be very taste indeed. It was very salty and it seemed like it had been slowly cooked over the fire so it was almost dehydrated.

After the lunch in Nangarukuru we kept on going and I found out the trip wasn't going to be 24 hours after all but that we would get there some time that evening. Apparently the road had been improved since my book was written and they had put black top in some places. Where there wasn't tarmac the road was still terrible. As we got further south it became obvious they had some serious rain here earlier. There was plenty of it left in the road and we came to a muddy dip in the road where a truck with 2 trailers had jackknifed. It took a few hours before that truck got pulled out and a few others in the line of waiting traffic that also got stuck got pulled out. Our bus finally got through. Boss Camara did his best to oversea the whole operation though. In between time I listened as Boss has a chat with a guy who was a 'believer'. Boss was telling him how he was going to find a girl once he got to town. The 'believer; told Boss how his preacher had told him that he could get HIV from a girl even if that girl didn't actually have HIV!

The guy next to me was a politician but hardly spoke any English. English is usually the third language in Tanzania after a local language and Swahili. I really wish I'd been able to communicate with him and some of the other locals more.

As it got dark I though to myself the traveling on the local transport part of travel, although frustrating at times, was probably my favourite part of the whole travel experience. When it comes to documenting all my travel experiences I think I write the most when I'm on the road as this is when the most interesting things happen. At this point in time I could see fireflies outside to my left and right and the Southern Cross up in the sky.

I'd managed to leave the photocopied pages of the Lonely Planet guidebook inside the book I'd mailed home! I had no idea what my options were when I arrived in Mtwara at it was going to be late. I was glad to have Boss and 'the believer' around to negotiate taxis and arrange a hotel room once we did get there at about midnight, 5 hours ahead of schedule! I had heard though that another bus that had left Dar at the same time as mine had got in at 4pm that afternoon. It must have missed the road blockage!

Last night in Tanzania and a final few thoughts. Tanzania really had exceeded expectations. It wasn't on my list of the top 3 countries I'd wanted to go to as I though it would be quite touristy but everything had been fantastic. The safari, Kili, the Usambaras and the streets and beaches of Zanzibar. These also were all every different experiences from one another.

The only bad thing about Tanzania was the touts or Papsi (ticks in Swahili) as they were called locally. There was some hassle from them but I had also being expecting that which made things easier. Besides them the other people I'd met were some fantastic people. I'll remember Juma, my 'drunken' guide from the Usambara Mountains and the guy from the fish BBQ and all his worries about the type of woman he wanted to find and settle down with.

In the three main countries so far what has been great is the diversity. Each one has been a totally different experience and I've been extremely happy with my choices of countries so far.

Mozambique and the rest of the countries have a lot to live up to!

Mocimboa de Praia, Mozambique
Mar 22, 2006

7am start and Boss who had stayed in a separate hotel due to the number of rooms available came to pick me up in the taxi. I let him do the haggling to get the transport to the border and he showed no mercy. I think the driver liked him though as he came to join us for our chai, bread and eggs at breakfast.

We met a sound father and son from Zanzibar who would be our partners in crime for the day. The farther was 77 and I'd never have guessed. He was a very strong gentleman for his age and stood 6'2.

Together with the other passengers we took a truck for the bumpy 2 hour drive up to the border. Boss bought me some more of the tasty dried fish along the way. He had secured us the back 2 seats on the truck thinking he was doing us a favour, but of course the back of the truck in the bumpiest and it also meant we got clouds of black smoke blowing into our faces for most of the journey, due to what can only be described as a very environmentally unfriendly and dodgy exhaust system.

Boss had something dodgy going on with his visa but a quick bribe to the immigration official and the custom officials to not check his bag soon got us on the road again. The customs lady asked me for some 'Coke Cola' money to not search my bag also, but I politely refused.

It was another few miles to the border where we all piled into a small motorboat to cross the Rovuma River. It was very wide and had a strong current that meant we had about a 20 minute crossing time. The boat was very low in the water and we got stuck on a sand bank at some point. I was happy to get across safely in the end.

There were lots of birds across this river and it seemed like it would be a great spot for birders. Once over the river we had a 2km walk from the boat to the road. This was all over some very slippery mud that I had to go barefoot on. One poor guy who was with us went for a really burton right into a nice wet patch. Once we hit the road we had a bit of a stand off as the guys with the only 4WD transport around tried to extract as much as they could from us to get us to the village and immigration another few miles down a very bad road. All the Tanzanians did the bartering and eventually decided on a price. It was good having them there to help with the bargaining and they had also being a great help when changing money. They had all been disgusted with the transport costs, but when you have a monopoly there is not too much choice.

After Mozambique immigration we had another 2 hour wait before we could get our transport to Mocimboa de Praia.

The 4 hour trip on the back of a pick-up was very cool apart from the obnoxious Portuguese lady driver who for some reason annoyed me intensely. I must have being getting tired from all the travel. The road was all sand and a bit bumpy. Rice, cashew nuts, bananas and forest lines the whole route along with hoards of smiling and waving locals.

We got into town at 7pm. This was 8pm Tanzanian time due to a one hour time difference.

The Pensao Leeta, one of the only ones in town, was one of the worst I've stayed in on my whole trip. Dirty, no mosquito nets and expensive. Boss the international gems dealer had unfortunately run out of money. I gave him a bed in my room and bought him dinner. God knows how he was going to buy all his gems once he got to Maputo!

I had fish stew and one of the local beers - 2M. Not as good as Safari beer by a long shot.

There is definitely an interesting mix of people here from what I've seen so far. Everyone from Europeans, Arabics, blacks and people who look like they are a real mixed bag.

Pemba, Mozambique
Mar 23, 2006

Boss took advantage of my hospitality by getting up at 3am for the 5am bus! My alarm was set for 4:30, I bit more of a sociable hour, but not much!

The bus was half empty, what sort of African country had I come to! Stopping in the villages was also different, street vendors didn't sell water, biscuits or toothpaste! All the produce was fresh from the fields or sea. Fish, bananas, peanuts, watermelons, cucumbers and chickens, dead or alive, take your pick.

There also seemed a lot more poverty here. There are people with money, but there are also a lot who seem to have nothing at all and a good amount of begging goes on. I had to say goodbye to Boss after about 1 hour and he changed to get his bus to Nampala. I had been an interesting travel partner for a few days, but I was pretty glad to be saying goodbye. 2 days of him was about all I could take!

Stopped about 10am for breakfast - 2 pre-cooked tasty egg sandwiches.

The route was forested the whole way and very flat. I hope it doesn't all get felled here for firewood like it seems to have done in many other countries.

Getting further south and more vendors started appearing selling the usual biscuits, sodas, beers and also what looked like those small bottles of wine you get on planes! Must be the Portuguese influence.

Arriving in Pemba it looks like a dirty and uninteresting town. After getting cash from the ATM I took a taxi out to Russell's Place getting there for 2pm after what had been a mammoth 3 day travel experience. It seemed a friendly place and I was offered beer before I even looked at the rooms. There were a number of other backpackers there and it was located right on the picturesque Wimbi beach, very different from Pemba centre!

Got my first shower in 3 days, had a couple of 2M beers with the 2 Afrikaner guys running the place and smoked a cigarette! I was certainly glad to be off the road and all cleaned up after 3 days travel.

Sat around all afternoon, 2M close at hand and met a couple of nice Swedish guys. Also met a Spaniard Roberto and Irish Steve who had been on the road for over 2 years! He had a couple of interesting stories. Smitty and Philip, the 2 managers were like Laurel and Hardy. By the evening time they were both steaming drunk and Smitty spent the whole evening moaning at the other 4 guys because he had to get up early to give them a ride to the bus station. In the end he persuaded them to take a Dhow boat to Ibo Island, their final destination. I'm fairly sure this was just so he didn't have to get up early! Philip very helpfully spent the whole evening telling us exactly what was going to happen next in some crap film we were watching on TV!

Ibo, Mozambique
Mar 24, 2006

Made the snap decision to take the Dhow with Steve and Roberto to Ibo. The Swedes had dropped out. I'd wanted to go to Ibo originally but decided I didn't have time. The chance to take a Dhow, something I'd wanted to do also, had changed my mind. Smitty gave us a ride to the shop to get some supplies for what should have been about a 10 hour trip. The Border Collie that resided the Russell's Place sat on the bonnet of the Land Rover for the whole trip!

Sardines, crackers, cookies, grape Fanta, Lords Gin and Schweppes tonic we purchased for the trip. Gin was only $1.50 for a half litre so we made sure we stocked up with plenty. The Dhow we were taking was only going half way to our destination and was going to pick up some supplies for the house Smitty was building. He'd bought the 2 acres of land, just off the beach for $5000!




Spent the first 20 minutes on the boat bailing like crazy. The boat was leaking like a sieve. Once our captain and crew patched it up with some putty like stuff, the boat seemed good as new again.





There were about 20 local women who were surrounding fish in nets close to where our boat was leaving from that was interesting for us to watch. It was a nice ride, but a bit choppy to start with. Roberto was sick as a dog. We saw lots of tuna fish up near the surface at a few points along the way. They were rounding up what were probably sardines and there were flocks of terns dive bombing the small fish from up above.





Once the seas calmed down a bit the food and G+T came out - All very civilized. Steve got out his IPod and speakers and we put on a bit of Manu Chau. It really doesn't get better than this and I was very happy that I'd taken the Dhow trip. At one point Roberto had mentioned to the crew that I looked like a hyena. I really think I need to have a shave and haircut!





At about 5pm we arrived at Kilalea Island where we quickly managed to secure another boat to Ibo. Our ETA was 9pm. It took about 30 minutes for the guys to finish preparing their dinner first, oysters and rice that they then very kindly shared with us. The oysters were smoked and were very tasty indeed.

Unfortunately that evening the wind died off and the rains came. I got absolutely drenched and we ended up downing anchor as without the wind we were going nowhere. I was wet and cold in my cotton tee-shirt and was trying to sleep on top of two oars I'd carefully balanced on 2 planks. I kept feeling like I was going to fall through the middle! Needless to say sleep didn't come easily that evening.

By 5am the sun was coming up, but unfortunately we were stuck on a sandbank and weren't going anywhere. By 9:30 the water was high enough for the boat to be freed, but within 10 minutes our captain had got us stuck on another sandbank and it was 11am before we really got up and going.

During this time we'd all been trying to catch up on a bit more sleep along with the 5 guys on the boat who said they were all brothers. Twice I'd popped my head up to have a look how high the tide was and spotted one of the other of the brothers with their hands down their pants doing what looked very much like masturbating! Both times they'd looked at me and shrugged their shoulders as if this was a normal activity for a Dhow trip. I quickly put my head down both times and pretended I hadn't really seen anything!

By 1:30 after having the captain stood on deck and navigating us through the sand channels around the islands mangrove swamps we arrived at a spot about 500m off the shore of Ibo. After saying goodbye carefully not to shake hands we had a very tough wade through the water with out backpacks held above out heads. We arrived at Casa Janine and promptly ordered a beer and cheese sandwich from Janine the French owner. Cheese is a rare commodity in Africa and when asked, most people say it is the thing they miss most from home.

A French guy who had worked there for 4 years told us we were the first people he had known to have arrived on a boat direct from Pemba. Most people flew or took the shorter one hour boat ride from the town just over on the mainland. Our route had taken a full 28 hours! I felt like a bit of a trail blazer.

Steve and I had quick wander around town, this place is really falling into disrepair! There were crumbling houses everywhere.

Dinner was a fantastic combination of crab stew + rice. The claws had been pre-cooked and were served up separately.

Pemba, Mozambique
Mar 26, 2006

Month 4 starts today and it's Mother's Day in the UK, unfortunately no e-mail here or phone service to wish her a happy Mother's Day. Finished my book, Jane Goodall's autobiography, A Reason for Hope. She talks a lot about her life and thoughts about the world and how it will cope with all its problems going forward. A very though provoking read.




















After an early morning stroll to the port, Steve, Roberto and I headed out to the fort. Absolutely fascinating. It had been built in 1791 and had later served as a jail. Like the rest of the town this place was also falling into disrepair, but this added character to the place. Many of the canons were still around and they were mostly still attached to their original wooden frames and wheels. Steve spotted a young Green Mamba sliding across the floor next to us at one point.

The currency in Mozambique is called the Metical, I'm not sure where this name come from as I've never heard of it before. Some young kids were selling some older coins from the Portuguese era that we bought. They had Portugal on one side and Mozambique on the other.





Later we headed out to an old cemetery, it was during the walk that the rain started again and we got soaked! There went my last set of dry clothes. Back at the hotel all my other clothes were getting laundered and hung on the washing line. Unfortunately the ladies who laundered them were all sat around drinking beers and didn't have the good sense to bring them off the washing line once the rain came!

I have to say the Mozambique people I've met so far have to be the laziest I've met on my travels so far. For example at dinner time when we'd ask for the salt pot they'd give you a look of disgust like you'd asked them to jump off a bridge and they only after asking for a second time you'll be lucky for it some come after maybe another 10 minutes. By this time, if you eat at my speed, you've obviously finished most of your dinner.

Talking of dinner, we got some fantastic Giant Prawns that evening. Chatted with Roberto about his Anarchist believes. He made a lot of money through capitalism buying property in Spain. He uses this money to but property overseas and fund guerilla groups in places like Southern Senegal and Paraguay. He had a few other strange ideas including support for Mugabe, but a lot of his argument seemed to contradict each other.

New day and it rained overnight - all the clothes are still damp. There is so much moisture in the air here. My clothes still stink, I don't think I got the usual excellent job done from the ladies here washing my clothes. I guess that is a lesson not to pay up front in the future.

We'd arranged with another Spaniard, Antonio, who was going back to Pemba by motorboat and 4WD to get a ride with him. A South African had said the road on the mainland was impassable due to all the recent rain, we could have also taken a flight but this seemed like it could be another great adventure. Roberto was all smiles and proudly announced the Spanish can do it. I was going to reserve judgment until we arrived in Pemba!

After waiting on the docks for close to 3 hours it turned out the Spanish couldn't do it after all, they couldn't even arrange the boat to the mainland! Poor Roberto looked a bit embarrassed by the whole situation and both Steve and I were annoyed with him as he hadn't really told us the whole story. Antonio then came and told us about a large boat that was in the docks that had a 95% chance of leaving later that evening. I took this with a grain of salt and worse was by this time we had missed the daily flight. Steve went for a wander to find out what other option there were and found a Dhow boat that was leaving in about an hour. He managed to get the 3 of us a ride for the bargain price of $4 each.

We took down our wet washing that was hung all over the port area, much to the amusement of the locals, and headed for the boat picking up some food and water along the way. Unfortunately the island shop lacked gin!

Steve commented that Ibo was the most desperate looking place he had been to on all 2 years of his traveling! I have to agree with him, but at least the people here have plenty of food, with the fish from the sea.




The wind was really up on the sea and the Dhow was flying. Our captain who seemed like the nicest person you could ever want to meet seemed a lot better sailor than the Muppets who had brought us over 3 days earlier. We all had a lot more confidence.

We passed back through the mangrove trees, they seemed to be full with what looked like mistletoe. We also saw a group of about 10 dolphins swimming in the bow and some flying fish, maybe Garfish or Barracuda.




Rather than getting stuck on a sandbank and caught in the tides this captain had the good sense to stop just after sundown. We camped just off the beach and the crew set up a windbreak with some plastic sheeting and used some other sheeting to waterproof a mud hut for us just incase it rained.

Steve did a beer run with one of the crew to a small village that was close by, unfortunately there was not a beer to be had in the whole of the village.




Next morning we were scheduled to leave at 4am and I think I provided Steve with one of the funniest moment of his trip so far. At 2:30 the captain woke us to ask us the time. Steve and I both told him in Spanish but he didn't believe us and insisted on checking my watch. Half asleep still Steve said I said something along the lines of 'Na na na na' when he checked it and it was actually 2:30. We were up and on the boat by 3:30 and flying again with a nice strong wind. Sunrise on the Indian Ocean was at 5:25 and we spotted a few more dolphins along the way.

We arrived back in Pemba on the fisherman's beach at about 9am. The locals use all the beaches in the area as their toilets and it's not uncommon to see 5 people lined up on the shoreline taking a crap. We were sure to watch our footing while walking back up the beach. We also had to cross a pool that must have been the scummiest water I've ever seen! I followed quickly behind our captain and in his wake as he pushed a lot of the more solid looking scum aside!

Once we had negotiated this heath hazard and a few fisherman huts our captain led us through some rundown housing and up a very steep hill to Pemba centre. Roberto had asked me a few times in the last few days, in rather a condescending way why my bag was so large, like he knew better. Going up the hill I realized why his was so light. The poor guy was knackered and we had to stop for him on a good number of occasions while he caught his breath.

After ordering sandwiches and coffee, using the ATM we headed back to Wimbi Beach and Russell's Place where we met 3 Americans, James and the 2 ladies he was chaperoning.


They had two of their backpacks robbed from the Russell's Place dorm rooms as someone was in the room sleeping and as 2 security guards were wandering the grounds. The guards had been threatened with job loss unless they could locate the passports and miraculously they did get returned and were dumped outside the main gate in a plastic bag. All seems a bit too suspicious to me!

Remarkable Antonio had also returned and managed to navigate the road. He had ended up traveling all night and I'm pretty glad we weren't stuck in his pick-up doing that trip at nighttime. He had some young girl in tow with him and I won't bore you with stories of his sexual exploits on the island but I think a lot of the local guys from the island were unhappy with him and that his remaining time on the island was going to be short.

Roberto managed to piss Steve and I off again by paying for some drinks for Antonio and his friend and decided that he would use the couple of dollars he owed us to finance these drinks. He said the drinks were for all the help that Antonio had provided us. What a cheeky git, the guy had been a nightmare. To add to this Roberto had spent the last few days bragging about how much money he had in his bank account, he had even called us over in the Internet café so we could check out for ourselves!

Champions League footy that night. Benfica earned a 0-0 draw with Barcelona. It was a great game.

Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique
Mar 29, 2006

7 hours in a bus and then 1 hour in the back of a pick-up to get us to Ilha de Mozambique - Recently the whole island was turned into a UNESCO World Heritage site. We picked up plenty of food on our bus ride from street vendors. Guava was 20c for 30 and bananas 40c for 12! Even cheaper than Market Basket or Kwik Save! The landscape was mainly woody scrub but was dotted with these rocky pinnacles that looked great for climbers and someone mentioned they were used by base jumpers. The tallest looked 300 to 400 ft high.

The pick-up was packed to the rafters with people having to hang over the side. When we arrived at the thin bridge that goes over to Ilha we were stopped by the police demanding passports. This caused a bit of a problem for Steve as he had a new one that was been sent over from Saudi that was meant to be sent to our next destination, Nampula. He had sent his full old passport to Saudi a few days earlier as they will not give you the new one till they have the old one!

After about a 30 minute standoff the police took Steve across the bridge separately where they demanded 1,000,000 Meticals or $40. This is the first time I've seen a bribe against a tourist in my whole time in Africa.

We finally ditched Roberto, or Pedro as we now affectionately called him, at the hotel we were going to stay at. The final straw came when there were two good rooms and a dorm available. He jumped in the good room with 2 singles and wouldn't swap to the good room with the double or share a single bed in his room. Walking on to the far end of the island we were both very happy and relieved to get rid of him.

That evening we met an American and Aussie couple and a South African and enjoyed a couple of sunset beers followed by rice and fish at a real locals restaurant.






Next day and the island looks great, old colonial buildings but not as dilapidated as Ibo! It used to be the Mozambique capital up until the 1900s. We had a relaxing day and went to visit the old Portuguese governor's residence in the afternoon. It was very pleasant and interesting to see how the other half lived 100+ years ago.

This place is so laid back. In the morning the only place that sold coffee didn't open until 10am! I also got my hair and beard cut. The beard trim felt more like going 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. First the shaver, they guy just kept going over the same area over and over again until it was red raw. Next the clean off with the towel where I felt more like a punch bag. Finally mentholated spirits all over the head and face. You can imagine how that felt. I particularly disliked it on my lips and in my mouth.

I think I was lucky to escape with my life!

Drinks and dinner following the same routine as the previous day, although the fish was not up to the standard of the previous night. Around sundown some local kids showed me what they called a 'Lula' in the water. It looked like it had a seahorse type head and a fish body. It didn't take long for them to start throwing stones at it.






Up nice and early at 6am. Steve and I had an early morning wander to pick up bread, eggs and salt to make breakfast with. We also picked up some tasty sweet flapjack type food from one of the local street vendors. It was really humid and I was dripping with sweat by the time we got home. Relinquis was finally opening by 10am and we went for a coffee followed by a trip to the fort. We ended up stopping at some tidal pools and spending a whole bunch of time exploring those before a powerful thunderstorm blew in off the sea and we hurried off back to our hotel. Our house got hit by lightning and Steve and I looked at each other in amazement as a bolt of lightning shot out of the solid wall about 2 feet from my leg making a deafening bang.







Once the rain blew over we headed back to the fort. It was very large and dilapidated and I didn't enjoy it half as much as the one in Ibo. The other thing that was disappointing was there was no information on what was what.

This fort also contained the oldest European building in the Southern Hemisphere that was still standing. A church built in 1522!

Steve was still having passport issues and it turns out the Saudi Irish embassy had still not sent his passport. He was going to spend a few more nights in Ilha.

Early evening beers again with Richard from the dive shop and Avery and Barnaby from Portland, Oregon. This bar had a beer called Manica that is slightly better than 2M. Laurentina, Castle and Amstel were the other beers available here.

We went to the more expensive Relenquis restaurant that evening for dinner and had some fantastic squid. I found out the Portuguese name for it was Lula - the creature I'd seen the other night and though looked like a seahorse!

Richard sneaked in a full bottle of brandy to the restaurant that evening that we managed to polish off and later on we decided to go to the local disco. I bowed out around 2am and headed home.

Mike my friend from England had told me Ilha de Mozambique was one of his favourite things in Africa and I had to go there. I was very glad I'd come out of my way to this northern corner of Mozambique.

Nampula, Mozambique
Apr 1, 2006

April fools day and I was up at 4:30 to leave for Nampala, after the night before I was pretty jiggered.

In Nampula I paid the most I'd ever paid on this trip for a hotel room in the Pensao Parque. It really was a terrible hotel with a lock that looked like it could be broken by a baby, in-fact given how it was attached to the wall it looked like it had been broken into before on a number of occasions. I made sure I took my valuables with me when I left for the day.

I found out the daily train I wanted to take did not go for another 4 days and the 2 potential flights to Malawi didn't run anymore! I'd heard really negative thinks about Nampula from other travelers, but despite all this I did quite like Nampula, although not enough to stay here for 4 days! I don't know if it's the Portuguese influence (they stayed until 1974) but the towns in Mozambique seemed so different to anything else I'd experienced in Africa.

Met Barnaby and Avery for a very nice Indian fish curry that evening. I was knackered and after our long wait for food it was 9:30pm. My eyes were closing mid conversation which was rather embarrassing.

Milange, Mozambique
Apr 2, 2006

Decided not to wait for the train and got up at 3:45am and on the road for 5am to Mocuba. The landscape was all very green and wooded with a few patches cleared here and there for agriculture. Mozambique doesn't have a huge population and many of the areas I've passed through still have plenty of forested areas. I wondered how long all this will last for!

We climbed up into the highlands for part of the journey and experienced some rain and beautiful rainbows spanning a full arc.

From Mocuba I managed to get a ride in a large sized pick-up truck along with sacks of grain. We had bicycles, sacks of coconut and about 10 other people with luggage in tow. Our destination was Milange on the Malawi border.

The road was not too bad, but a bit of a bone jolter especially from the back of the truck and a bit uncomfortable at times. As it got dark we moved up hill and the weather got colder. The few showers made sure I stayed awake.

We arrived at 8:30pm and I booked into Pensao Esplanade. Yet another terrible hotel.

I have to say outside the tourist areas the hotels in Mozambique have to be the crappiest and most expensive I've encountered on my Africa travels. After an omelet and chip dinner as was in bed snoring by 9:30.

Overall I have to say I'm extremely pleased I made this detour to Mozambique instead of heading straight for Malawi. The Portuguese influence, the Dhow rides, Ibo and Ilha de Mozambique have made this yet another mind-blowing experience. Again what I have experienced here has just been so different to what I experienced in the 4 countries previously.

I'm glad I came to the not so tourist north, the whole time I've been here I've felt the people totally genuine, quoting true prices most of the time. This, I'm told is not the case in the south, where I've also heard reports of lots of robberies.

The big challenge here has been the language. I found it very daunting at times when traveling solo and it was extremely difficult to communicate. I guess these things are all sent to challenge us though and it all worked out well in the end.

Blantyre, Malawi
Apr 3, 2006

Looking forward to a bit of a lie in this morning but it wasn't to be. I was right by the side of the main road to Malawi and at 4:30am the local mosques started their call to prayer.

Great views from the hotel over to Mt. Mulange's peak sticking out of the clouds over in Malawi. Hopefully I'll be up there in a couple of days.

Borders are usually a hassle and in Africa they tend to attract the scum of the earth. 2 cyclist tried to charge me 150,000 meticals to take my luggage the 2 km to the border. My hotel lady said it should be 5,000. They kept grabbing my bag, not allowing me to find any other cyclists. The lady from the hotel spoke with them and I gave them 10,000 each when we got to the border. They then started demanding 150,000 again! A couple of nice Malawian then helped me tell them where to go.

Next there were the money changes. Firstly they tried to sting me for half the true rate of exchange, then the guy pulled out his magic calculator that did the maths in his favour! When he typed in the numbers my Malawi Kwacha should have been 7,000 but it showed as 6,000 on his calculator. I wish I could get one of those for calculating my pay check.

The lady from the hotel was a lifesaver in helping me out with these 2 issues and it sort of made up from the fact she had a crap hotel.

Malawi feels like been back in Uganda to some extent.

On the drive all I could see were miles and miles of tea plantation in the shadow of Mt. Mulange. The roads were excellent, some of the best I'd seen since Rwanda.

If a countries wealth can be determined by the means of transport people take, then Malawi would be very low down the list as the road to Blantyre teamed with walkers and cyclists. Malawi is actually one of the poorest countries in Africa and also one of the most populated per sq. mile. Malawi had about the same population as Mozambique, but if you check their size difference on a map Malawi is about a tenth the size!

There were police checkpoints all the way from the border to Blantype not too sure what for exactly.

My guide book had mentioned that the people of Malawi were super friendly and on this short minibus journey I also got that impression. All the way people have wanted to talk to me and help me with anything I needed, all with no ulterior motives.

There is definitely a lot of poverty and begging here, but arriving in Blantype I started to see signs of a lot of wealth, people driving cars that I would have no hope of affording back at home.

Doogles, the hostel I booked into, seems really nice with a whole bunch of travelers there. Probably more so than I've seen anywhere else on my travels so far. They also have a great bar and pool. I'm beginning to think what the hell am I doing going on a hike, why don't I just stay here and chill by the pool?

I got myself a Sobo ginger beer and checked out some of the bank notes, thinking how clean and colourful they all seemed over here. When I'd finished with the bank notes my eyes moved to the fridge to check out all the new beers that will be on offer to me that evening.

That afternoon I got some cash from the bank and went to the local Shoprite supermarket for my camping food. The supermarket was huge and as big as one I'd go to back in the US, with prices to match.

Sat in the bar with 2 English gap year students that evening. I don't know if I'll be able to handle drinking back in England ever again watching just how much they consumed. They must have had about 10 gin and tonic and vodka and pineapple drinks. I managed to make my way through the whole beer selection a couple of times. All beers are made by Carlsberg who have a brewery just outside Blantype. They had a watery Kuche Kuche and Carlsberg Special Brew, Carlsberg Lager, Carlsberg Brown and Carlsberg Stout. Carlsberg Special comes out on top closely followed by lager, or green as it is called. It was all a welcome relief after the beer in Mozambique but still a long way off Uganda's Nile Special.

Likhubula, Mt. Mulange, Malawi
Apr 4, 2006

A bit of a treat this morning as they had the full English fry on the menu. Bacon, eggs, sausage, beans, tomato, toast and coffee. The bastards never mentioned they were out of bacon though until they bought the plate over. No worries I think I got extra sausage to make up for it.

I retraced my steps back towards the Mozambique border and to the small village of Chitikali where I jumped in a pick-up. The pick up was going to Likhubula where the hike started and was absolutely packed and I was convinced some people were going to fall out. Most people actually had to stand it was so full.

After it broke down 3 times in the first 1km I decided it was time to get out and walk for the final 9km. We asked for our money back, but the driver assured us it would start again and he would pick us up somewhere along the way. We, of course, never saw the truck again.


It was a pleasant enough walk though through tea plantation with Mt. Mulange rising up behind them. The owner of the hostel had mentioned the previous evening that it was the largest monolith in the world!

One guy from the pick-up had the same idea as me, Beste was his name and it turns out he was a guide for Mt. Mulange. The guides are used on a rotating basis and there are 25 of them. I'm guessing an average of one hiking party a day leaves for the mountain so they probably don't get a huge amount of work. Beste asked if he could be my guide, even though he'd only been out a few days earlier. I agreed as long as the head at the forestry office was happy with it.

I told the head of the forestry department this, but within a few minutes he went out to pick a porter and immediately there were also a whole bunch of guides out there who gathered and argued for the next 15 minutes because Beste had jumped the queue. The head then came back inside and started shouting at me telling me it was all my fault. I yelled back at him rather loudly for a while until he finally shut up.

The porter he picked for me was Jeffrey.

I booked into the CCAP mission ( this is a big Christian organization in Malawi) where I had a peaceful afternoon listening to all the hymns been sung as only African know how. Later I went for a dip in some deep swimming pools close by.

4 Belgium's arrived later that afternoon and we all went the 10 minutes down to Likhubula for food and drinks.

Chisepo, Mt. Mulange, Malawi
Apr 5, 2006

We'd arranged to get a 6am start to avoid the heat for what was going to be a steep climb. By 6:30 neither the porter or the guide had arrived so I walked down to the village to find them. Beste said that Jeffrey had probably been out on the piss the night before and that was why he was late. I'd given them both an advance on their wages for food, I wondered what exactly they had spent that money on!

We decided to set off anyway and Jeffrey turned up later and give me some sob story about how he'd had to go that morning to give some food to his poor sick grandma. Although I did wonder why he hadn't been able to do that the previous afternoon!

We stopped at a spectacular waterfall on the way up. The track was extremely steep and slippery and almost like ice in spots. We had some great views down to the valley while climbing up but eventually we headed up into the clouds that are famous for enveloping the summit of Mulange.

All the way up we could see people walking down with large loads of cut timber on the heads or shoulders. 3 days later I was to try to pick one of these planks up failing miserable! Beste said these guys got paid about 40c a day!

Beste managed to annoy me about half way up the mountain when he suggested I change my whole 4 day route. I had mentioned wanted to get back to Blantyre after my final days hiking. At the bottom yesterday he had said this would not be a problem and now he was saying it would not be possible. I'm not too sure if this was because he wanted to do a shorter route and get out earlier on the final day! Regardless I decided to stick with my original route.


Just before lunch we went and did a bit of a bushwhacking through the forest to see if we could find some of the local woodcutters. They were sawing planks from a tree trunk that was suspended in the air. They had a huge saw that one guy was using from the bottom and the other was using from the top.

I thought Beste has taken me here for my own benefit but it turns out he really wanted to do some business for himself and he spent the next 30 minutes negotiation while I just sat and waited for him.

He bought a whole tree for 200 Kwacha ($1.70). From this he would get 4 planks that would each sell for 240 Kwacha each. A pretty big mark up!

A lot of the area we were now traveling through was now burnt trees and not the prettiest of scenery. At one point a quite remarkable thing happened. A crow came flying through the trees pursued by some bird of prey. It got so close to me I was just about to duck!

Keeping up with the standard knowledge of most of the African guides I've had so far Beste remarked, wow did you see that bird chasing the eagle!



Once we got higher things started to open up a bit and it was extremely pretty. Lots of flowers, so I helped Beste extend his knowledge a bit and gave him the names of some. Not too sure how much notice he took.

Interestingly the Everlasting Flowers here were yellow. They had been white in Uganda and red on Kili. The same red gladiolas from Kili were also white here.






We had a spot of rain during the afternoon and it became very misty. We arrived at Chisepo Hut at 2:30, it was all very nice and only about a year old. When inside I noticed the sign saying switch off the lights. I remarked to the warden how good it was that they had solar power, he replied that it had been good but 6 months ago someone had stolen all the panels!

John, as the warden was called, lit the fire and I was able to hang out my clothes to try and boil some water for a cup of Milo. As the afternoon progressed most of the mist and cloud cleared up and some nice views opened up down to the valley.

The really bonus about these huts was they sold beer for the price of $1 a bottle. How cheap is that considering someone has had to hike it all the way up here. It was actually the same price it was sold for in Doogles back in Blantyre! I did my best to help John out with his little business venture and polished off a few while allowing the BBC World Service to send me to sleep.

Sapitwa, Chambe, Mt. Mulange, Malawi
Apr 6, 2006

A nice clear morning and we left at 7am for the climb back up Sapitwa Peak. At just under 10,000 feet it was about 8,000 feet up above the valley floor and the plains I had climbed up from the previous day. It was also the highest point in Malawi. We could actually see all the way out to Lake Malawi that must have been over 100 miles away.


There were a lot of flowers on what turned out to be a very tough steep climb. Besides the slabs of exposed wet rocks that were like black ice, we also had so scramble under boulders with only just enough room to pass under and also through thick bushes. It didn't seem like the most used trail in the world.



About halfway up the clouds came in and a bit later at a point that seemed close to the top my guide mentioned it was another 90 minutes. He did of course have no idea what he was talking about and from that point it took us another 30 minutes to get to the top. I'm not sure if because of the mist that was his way to try to persuade me to quit early. He obviously had no idea who he was dealing with :-)

The guide seemed so lethargic and unenthusiastic on the way back down that I decided to change my plans and my route. I was to head back to Chambe Hut that afternoon and back out the way we came the day after. This cut one day off the hike. Besides I knew the 4 Belgium's, Gail, Rolland, Eva and Marie were there so it seemed like it would be a lot nicer to spend the evening with them that my bored guide.

Back in Chambe I took a refreshing dip in a cold stream before taking advantage of the beer on hand. Mt. Mulange was a hot and humid place at this time of year.

The 5 of us pooled all our remaining food and had a feast. Chicken and Mushroom soup for starters. Pasta, white sauce, fresh tomatoes, sardines and tuna for mains and cappuccino biscuits and Milo for desert.

We all sat on the porch that night and watched the clouds clear, the moon rise while checking out all the stars.

Blantype, Malawi
Apr 7, 2006

Woke up to see the first of the suns rays hitting Chambe Peak.




After sharing Weetabix and Milo with the Belgium's - new experiences for them all, we headed out. Nice views of the plains and surrounding mountains on the steep path down.

I don't think I mentioned but this mountain is often called the island in the sky as the lower part is often covered in clouds, whereas the top is often sticking out of the clouds. It was much like this by the time we got down to the bottom today.

I'd decided not to give any tips at all to my guide or porter, but in the end I felt guilty and gave them something. I told Beste he would have gotten more if he had the good sense to read a field guide and learn about some of the plants for future trips. I told Jeffrey to be on time in future. These guides really do pretty well when they do this work, earning $10 per day compared to the country average of less than $1 per day.

Back to Blantyre and we managed to pick up bananas, donuts, roast corn and sugar cane along the way.

Back in Doogles and it seemed like paradise. A pool, laundry, Carlsberg Special Brew and gin and tonics.

Later we all went for what was a very tasty Chinese meal. Interesting though, the restaurant was owned by an Indian gentleman and some of the dishes contained paneer! Chinese was Rolland's idea and he told us when we were there that this was his first ever Chinese meal. Fancy picking Malawi to try your first Chinese!

A few more G+Ts and then back to Doogles to finish the night with yet more G+T. I think I've found my drink for Africa. Purely medicinal of course at the quinine in the tonic is good for malaria.

Eva is a loud and raucous girl, but she had me in tears of laughter that evening on more than one occasion. She really was a very funny girl.

Cape McClear, Malawi
Apr 8, 2006

Took advantage of Doogle's full monty breakfast again this morning before we all head off to Cape Maclear on Lake Malawi. This is one of the first times I've traveled with other people for long distances on public transport and it was great to have help from people watching the bags for when I wanted to go and buy food at the stops.

It was a long day on the bus and most of the day was spent just driving past mile after mile of maize. We also had a long spell driving along the side of Lake Malombe before we eventually got to Mangochi where we met an interesting character named Keith. Despite the fact he was from Manchester I had a really good chat with him, maybe because he was a City fan!

He'd spent most of his life in Australia and was over here helping with child welfare and education programs. When we got to Monkey Bay he sent the young boy who was traveling back from town with him to get a pick-up while we all went straight for beers. As I mentioned, it had been a long day and we all deserved them!

Our pick-up truck arrived early so we took the beers with us for the 40 minute trip to Cape Maclear.

We arrived at Steve's Place just in time for a quick dip. Followed by sunset on the beach.


Thomas's for dinner, although with all the fisherman hauling around their catches, it's hard to believe they didn't have any fish left on the menu! I ordered a chicken curry.

Next day and up at 6:30 for a swim. Some local guys offered us tea and banana and lemon pancakes cooked on the beach. We took them up on the offer and sat their watching the fish eagles soaring above, while the kingfishers and cormorants went about their fishing.

Spent the rest of the morning lazing on the beach, swimming in the lake and generally doing nothing. Roland, Eva and Marie joined us for lunch, half way through their first day of their PADI diving course. This turned out to be a mistake as the food took 2 hours to arrive and they didn't get started again until after 3pm! The Chamba fish I ordered from Steve's Place was really good, but after that mammoth wait, poor Roland didn't even get what he ordered and ended up with a plate of chips!

Gail and I rented snorkels that afternoon and headed down to Otter Point in the national park that afternoon. Some very pretty cichlid fish including some nice yellow ones and some blue and blacked stripped ones.

With all the swimming over the last few days in this disease infested water, I'm pretty guaranteed of a good dose of bilharzia disease. Let's hope my doctor can sort me out with something to fix it up once I get back to the US!

We arranged for one of the beach boys to cook barbecued food for us on the beach that evening. The food was good, but they promised lots of fish that never really materialized. Joe, the director for the national park joined us later that evening and I was asking him if selling crocodile teeth was legal as some of the local guys had tried to sell me some earlier in the day. I told me it was not legal and at the same time Mike, the cook, was banging on my leg telling me to be quiet. Obviously he didn't want to get the other beach boys in trouble.

Next morning and said goodbye to Gail who was going to meet her husband in Harare.

That afternoon I headed out to the national park. To be honest for the $5 entry fee there really wasn't too much there. A short walk along the beach and I was at Otter Point where I had snorkeled the previous day. I saw a few lizards with lovely blue tails, baboons and of course the usual array of lakeside birds.

Just outside the park entrance were some missionary grave sites from the 1800s. A famous one included William Black. Cape Maclear was the site of the first missionary center set up by Livingstone. When it was found the whole area was malaria ridden the site was moved north to Livingstonia.


Had a very nice Cherry Plum soda made by Sobo later that afternoon before meeting up with Keith that evening to swig a few beers while watching the sunset.

He kindly invited me back to his place for a few more cold ones and a large helping of stewed beef and potatoes for what turned out to be an enjoyable evening.

Cape Maclear, Malawi
Apr 11, 2006

After taking 3 weeks to read 30 pages of A Short History of Africa and decided history books weren't really my cup of tea. Started the mammoth autobiography of Nelson Mandela - A Long Walk to Freedom. Spent the morning reading this book. Much more enjoyable.



Later 6 of us including Keith loaded up a dugout canoe with beers and lunch and headed out to Thumbi Island. First stop was a beach where we were hoping to spot some human sized monitor lizards. Unfortunately there were none to me seen. Keith bought guacamole sauce and bread for lunch that we washed down with a few beers. We tried to leave some of our lunch out for the lizards with no joy.


Next we canoed around to 'The Aquarium', an outcrop of rock that was teeming with cichlid. Some of the local guys could put their hands in the water, loaded with bread and catch the little blighters in their hands. All I caught was water and soggy bread.









After the Aquarium we set off to do what I really wanted to do. Before setting off that morning I'd gone down the market to buy a bag full of fish. We threw the fish out for Jerry, as he was know locally! Jerry was a fish eagle and he would come swooping down and grab them right out of the water about 20ft from the boat! I managed to get a couple of what would be very blurred photos!

The weather looked like it was going to take a turn for the worse and Keith was desperate to get back to the mainland for more beers. I liked Keith, he was direct, straight to the point and didn't take any crap is a way only people from the north of England can do.

After a couple more beers at the bar we went back to Keith's place where he cooked up some of the local maize flour (called Nshima here) and beans.

I bought a couple of carved pipes from Duncan, one of Keith's African buddies.

Lilongwe, Malawi
Apr 12, 2006

Up at 5:30 for my matola (pick-up truck) ride to Monkey Bay. Funny how your sleep pattern changes, 5:30 seems normal now.

The 30 minute trip wouldn't have been too bad but we had to do a couple of bumpy circuits around the village first to pick up passengers, so it took over an hour to get to Monkey Bay.

I must have got on the oldest rickety bus of my whole time in Africa, but a nice lady on the street was selling fresh hot donuts so that made up for the bus somewhat. They were so nice I had 4!

I waved goodbye to the 1,500ft, 3rd largest lake in Africa before heading off in to the land of endless maize fields and baobab tree. This was day 1 of what was going to be a 3 day cross country journey to get to Vic Fall.

The usual array of sellers appeared at every stop. 20 tomatoes would set you back the princely sum of 70c. I got some peanuts. This was the third time I'd had peanuts and they had always been soft and moist. I don't know if this was because they were under ripe of because we normally dry them before eating them in the west.

The day started with what was quite an amusing incident that turned into a distressing one. A lady who was clutching a bible and singing for the first few hours of the journey started shrieking and walking up and down isle of the bus shouting a word that sounded like Satan. Next she started whacking people on the head, and eventually started spitting at people. In the end one guy had to physically restrain her and we ended up driving into a town a few miles off the main road and depositing her at the police station. It was a bit sad to see, but the locals handled the situation very well.

As we got closer to Lilongwe we started to climb up to a plateau, Lilongwe is Malawi's capital but I have to say it's not a very appealing city at all. It's very spread out with no real centre and like most Africa large cities a reputation for crime.

I headed for Kiboko Camp, the most popular backpackers in town and what I though would be a 5 minute walk. It turned into a 30 minute slog in the heat and by the time I got there I was ready to polish off my last few Special Brews before moving on to a new country and a whole new selection of beers.

Luckily an overland truck had arrived and there was a crazy Kiwi called Brett who had the same idea as me. His whole trip from Cairo 4 months earlier seemed like it had been a complete drunken blur and Brett had absolutely no idea where he was going next. Sounded like another good reason to stay away from overland tours and I decided the trip I was contemplating doing from Vic Falls to Cape Town was definitely a no go!

I hadn't really enjoyed Malawi as much as the other countries I'd been to and couldn't work out why. Maybe I'd been on the road to long. Maybe there were too many similarities to Uganda. Maybe it was too touristy. Maybe it was because it seemed like the country had grown into a hand out society and the muzungus were charged at a different rate to the locals, and the was considered OK. I was hoping Zambia would put me in a more positive frame of mind.

Lusaka, Zambia
Apr 13, 2006

Decided I'd best take a cab back to the bus station, it got me there for 5:45am, unfortunately my minibus took a while to fill up so we didn't get on the road until 7:30. We were trying to get the 10am bus on the Zambia side of the border to Lusaka, but this wasn't looking now. I met a nice guy on this minibus who had left from Blantyre at 1am the same morning and was trying to get back to Lusaka to visit his family for Easter. As with all the border crossings I'd negotiated so far, it was definitely nice to have someone to help me navigate, what tends to be the scum of the earth that hangs out at these places. Actually I have to say the money changers, taxis and other people at this border crossing were all very pleasant indeed.

There were lots more fields of maize laid out in front of us as we took the 2 hours drive to the border, and once there I saw all the guys from the overland tour the previous evening. They knew I was coming the same way, but hadn't been gracious enough to offer me a ride in their near empty truck.

There was a bit of a wait again at the border for our next shared taxi to fill up, so I took the opportunity to enjoy what I though would be my last Sobo Cherry Plum drink from one of the local street vendors while I wondered what the sodas would be in Zambia.

My friend told the taxi driver to get a move on so we could make our bus - not a good thing to say to your average macho Africa taxi driver. I don't think I've been driven so quickly or been so scared since Uganda!

I'd spent a summer in 1993 in Ontario, Canada picking tobacco and had been told around Lilongwe area was the place in Africa where all the tobacco was grown, although I never spotted any. I was a bit disappointed as I'd hoped to see some of these monsters plants that had provided 45 days of back breaking work for me in my younger days, while at the same time depositing thick chunks of tar down my arms.

My visa for Zambia cost an extortionate $60, for some reason Brits were charged more than any other country. It didn't seem like all that time as a colonial power had done the future British tourist any favours! To make this matter ever worse, I found out if I came here on a pre-arranged tour I'd only pay $10. A pre-arranged tour, I was to find out later, was as simple as e-mailing the place I was staying at that night and for them to contact immigration to let me in for this cheap rate. Oh well another $50 down the toilet!

We finally arrived in Chipata, just over the border and about 20 minutes late for the 10am bus and had 3h 30m wait for the next one. I got a very tasty plate of chips, battered hard boiled egg and smoked sausage.

This bus ride turned out to be an 8 hour marathon and besides the maize, we also saw lots of cotton and beautiful fields of sunflowers. Despite the length of the trip though, I have to say that this bus was probably the best bus I'd taken in the whole of Africa. It surprised me as my Lonely Planet guide book had mentioned that travel in Zambia could be a nightmare. Oh well better this way around than thinking the transport was good and it turning out crap.

There was a Canadian guy on the bus, who spent his whole time smoking. Nobody else on the bus smoked as it was banned and people kept asking him to stop. I really can't believe some people - what a wanker. He was also the guy who smuggle told me about the way to get cheap visas, which certainly increased his wanker status.

We arrived at Chachacha Backpackers about 11pm and I had to try one of the local Mosi beers before hitting the hay. I have to say Mosi isn't the best beer I the world, I want my Carlsberg back!

Livingstone, Zambia
Apr 14, 2006

Day 3 on the buses and a nice early start with a trip to the bank, a coffee before heading back to the bus station.

Lusaka, the capital of Zambia seemed like a nice city and with some affluence. I even spotted a subway, things are also a little more expensive than Malawi. I've always found the best way to measure affluence is through the basic food groups, beer, chips and donuts. In this case beer was up from 80c to $1.60. Donuts and chips, up to 30c from 8c. Buses and taxis also cost a tad more.

The buses to Livingstone were all sold out, I'd forgotten it was Easter time. The lady at the information desk said rather sheepishly, 'Would I mind taking a minibus?'. Sure I said wondering what the hell I was getting myself into, but after Uganda I knew I was capable of handling anything. The journey was fantastic and it turned out to be the safest and most comfortable minibus I'd been on so far!

The usual fields of maize turned to sugar cane, the first I'd seen since leaving Uganda. I liked the people here also, they were all very friendly and like Mozambique there was no sales pressure, you either take it or leave it.

I thought I was going to have a nightmare finding accommodation. Everywhere in my guide book was full, again due to Easter. The cheapest places were over $50 per night, way over my usual $10 backpacker specials. On a whim I called one of the cheapo backpackers back to ask for any suggestions and luckily and dorm room had become available for the nice price of $6 per night!

Livingstone was where Victoria Falls were situated and it also a major adventure/adrenaline junky centre. Jollyboys was the name of my backpackers, and it was all very quiet and civilized until a crowd arrived back from the $30 all you can drink booze cruise on the Zambezi. Bloody hell was a set of piss heads I wish I could have been there! There were also a good number of gap year students here. Maybe this was a sign of things to come for the rest of the trip down to Cape Town and beyond - God help me.

Livingstone, Zambia
Apr 15, 2006

Woke up for what was to be a big day. Vic Falls viewing followed by an afternoon microlite flight.

Vic Falls had been high on my itinerary of must dos since starting my trip, infact since I was young and had seen some of the fantastic paintings and photos of it.

I was blown away by the sight that first greeted me, it was the sort of place that sends shivers down your spine. I think I spend my first 10 minutes just glued to the spot staring in awe.





I walked up to the place just where the river meets land and the falls start to cascade down. From here you got some nice views of some pretty rainbows kicked up by the waters spray and get some idea of how much water is coming over the falls. Next I walked along a section of trail called the knifes edge that crosses right in front of the falls. There was just a phenomenal amount of spray along here it was just like India in monsoon season and everyone, rain jacket or not, was soaked through to the skin.





We walked down to a spot at the bottom of the falls on the Lower Zambezi, called the boiling pot. Here you get some idea of all the water that is coming over the falls and getting forced through this small channel creating a whole host of currents and whirlpools in the river. From here we could see the people doing their 110 ft bungee of the Victoria Falls bridge and also the jet boaters as they shot up and down the river. The last trail I took was along the top towards the bridge where there were some more great long distance perspectives of the falls. What a fantastic place.

Spent time doing some more research on Botswana and Namibia and found out they were hellishly expensive and almost impossible to get around as a solo traveller. Despite all I'd said 2 days earlier I was contemplating signing up for an overland tour to get me down to Cape Town.

It took 2 phone calls that afternoon to get the guys from the microlite place to come and pick me up. Apparently they'd forgotten about me. This ended up working in my favour as I was the last microlite going out and I ended up getting the sunset trip.


I have to say, the microlite trip was one of my favourite things so far. I sat up from and behind the pilot, unfortunately they wouldn't give me the controls for some reason! He was a German fellow who had been in Africa for the last 12 years ever since he travelled through when he was younger on his motorbike and just loved the place and decided to stay.

It was a bit of a shaky take off, but once in the air, the machine felt pretty stable. The route took us high above the falls for a birds eye view of the fall and what was a great perspective.

In front of the falls we could see 7 zig zag gorges showing where the falls had been in previous generations and how they had moved backwards. We could see a new gorge forming in the existing waterfalls that would be where the falls got moved back yet another step.

The falls themselves are a mile wide and 108m high. At this time of year the waterflow was at it's peak, and although hard to mentally visualise the 8 million litres of water per second that fell over the top, it looked and seemed an awful lot.

Flying back up the Zambezi we could see elephants, hippos in the water and impala from the sky. At the same time the sun was just dipping below the horizon.






I spent a worthwhile $20 on a CD full of photos, taken from the camera that is attached to the end of the wing and faces back in towards the engine. On the ones that I'm looking at the camera, you can see the grin, like that of a Cheshire cat, that didn't leave my face for the whole flight.

That night I ended up getting dragged out with a bunch of people I knew who had just got back fro the booze cruise. A bit of a heavy drinking night and I don't think got home until the early hours. One poor young gap year student managed to get robbed at knifepoint on the way home - His third time in Africa!

Livingstone, Zambia
Apr 16, 2006

Cornflakes for breakfast for a second morning in a row. A treat I hadn't experienced since leaving England! BBC World Service news on the TV also. Yet another treat!

Headed out to the national museum that morning, not that interesting at all. In fact I would almost go as far as to say boring! A few pieces of rock, from stone age Zambia aparently, although looked like the stuff I find in my back garden. The usual array of stuffed animals, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary and a room with some of Dr. Livingstones posessions and some text on the wall that I could have read from a book.





I returned to Jollyboys for a swim in the pool and a lounge in the sun. Later that afternoon I headed out to a croc farm. The biggest guys weighted 1000lb. Fat bastard comes to mind! 3pm was feeding time and it was fun to watch them been thrown big chunks of meat.

Some guy we met at the hostel gave us a lift down to the Zambezi to watch the sunset. On the way back, in true African style, we ran out of petrol. Aparently this happens on a regular basis with taxis all over Africa, but this was the first time it had happened to me.

William, The driver, was on the phone to his friend who arrived 10 minutes later with a litre or so of petrol. They ingeniously, although probably something I'd recommend you don't do at home, smashed the bottom off an empty glass bottle on the road so they could us it as a funnel. Of course the remains just got left on the side of the road.

Got a tasty roast beef dinner that night and had a quiet relaxing evening. Chatted with Laura, an English girl I met in Lusaka and also Maria, Helle and Anne, the 3 Danes I also met in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania.

Found out one of the reasons that evening why the Zambia is quite expensive. The election are in September and typically all the previous elections in Zambia have been disasterous. In the last 6 months the exchange rate had dropped from 5200 per dollar to 3200 per dollar. The rate is expected to revert to normal on sucessful elections!

Livingstone, Zambia
Apr 18, 2006

A very cool day where I signed up to do a combo adventure sport day. Absailing, Flying Fox and Gorge Swing, all of which was in a spectacular canyon running just off the Lower Zambezi.

Emmanual who I think owned the place came to pick us up that morning. I had shared a beer with him the previous evening and the guy was huge. I think his biceps were the size on my thighs!

Besides the adrenalin stuff, everything else about the day was excellent. Our fee also included breakfast and free sodas and beers.

First was the absail down a steep 50m cliff. I did it pointing forwards, first time absailing in that direction.

A hike back to the top and then it was the Flying Fox. A wire was strung out across the canyon, they would attach a clip on your back to the wire then you run down a ramp and shoot across the canyon like, yes you guessed it, a flying fox.

One of the guys with us was extremely scared so the instructor took him down to the edge to have a look before just pushing him off! Another guy who was even more petrified held on to a metal support that was holding the wire up, before the instructor clipped himself on to the same wire and pulled them both over the edge. All very entertaining to watch.

Lastly was the Gorge Swing, this was what I'd really been waiting for. Again a wire was attached across the canyon, with a swing rope attached half way. After stepping over the canyon edge you would free fall 54m in 3.5 seconds, hitting 100mph before leveling out and swinging like a pendulum and then being lowered to the canyon floor.

I was determined not to scream like a girl (an like all the people before me), but when you can see the canyon floor getting closer my body didn't give me any choice. I enjoyed the first fall so much I went back for seconds!

Late afternoon and I went to watch the Danish girls on their microlites before we all headed out to dinner. My last night in Zambia and I had gone against every thing I'd said earlier and booked on to an overland tour the next day that meant I need to get to Zimbabwe the next day.

I liked Zambia and the people. It seemed like the 'real Africa' and similar to Malawi and Uganda to a certain extent. I have to admit though my time in Zambia wasn't that cultural, I'd hung out with other Westeners, drunk too much beer, seen the Falls and taken a microlite flight. The last 2 of those activities probably been 2 of the highlights of my trip.

The overland tour I'd booked onto only had 6 people, between the ages of 20 and 35 I was told. I was hoping they were going to be decent and this was going to be a good trip. I was also hoping after travelling solo for so long, I'd be able to handle a group situation for the next 3 weeks. Either way getting me used to people again would surely be a bonus for Erica when she meets me in South Africa.

Chobe National Park and a dug out canoe would be the highlights in Botswana. Atosha National Park, the Namib Desert and the Fish River Canyon would be the highlights in Namibia. With Stellenbosch and the vineyards been the highlight in South Africa before arriving in Cape Town. In the end I'd figured if I went solo I'd end up having to do tours to all these places anyhow and this would work out more expensive. Time will tell, but either way this section of my trip is something that was near the top of the list since leaving Boston.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Apr 18, 2006

Up early to complete booking my overland tour and to get some more US $ for the rest of my trip. Travellers cheques can be difficult to use in some of the countries going forward apparently.

Took advantage of the full English on the menu, very nice sausage by the way, before taking a minibus to the border with Zimbabwe.

Good views back to Vic Falls for the tall bridge crossing the Lower Zambezi. I also got to look down over the drop the bungee jumpers take on the 3rd highest jump in the world, all 111m of it. Border formalities were a doddle, but like Zambia, the Zimbabwians also didn't like the English and stung me for $55.

I arrived at the shoestring backpackers in Victoria Falls town for 11:30am to find out that my driver and assistant were still fast asleep in bed.

Met James, Charlie and Liam, 3 gap year students who I would be sharing the trip with. The other people were Kate, a 26 year old Kiwi, Nina, a German practicing law in NY for the last 7 years and Jackie and Byron, 2 Americans from Washington living in Liberia for the last 2 years. They all seemed nice enough.

Ordered an ostrich burger for lunch, very much like beef, and changed my $30 US into Zim $. I got over $5m in a wad that was over an inch thick.

In Zim the largest currency in the $50,000, but in reality there aren't that many of them and the $20,000 is what you usually get. A beer cost $150,000, so you need at least 8 notes to pay for it. Go out for an expensive meal and you need a wheel barrow! The new notes, such as the $20,000 are funny. They must have been made in such a hurry to cope with the massive inflation they look more like monopoly money and were just about blank on the backs!

Checked out the overland truck, it was a monster Scania truck with high up seating area attached to the back. It does look like a pretty cool truck for travelling in though.

On a whim I booked what was billed as a walk with the lions for that evening! All the money raised goes to a program to re-introduce lions into the wild. Their numbers have dropped for 250,000 in the distant past to 20,000 a few years back with an estimated 8000-15000 left today.

The idea was that you walk with the lion and are part of their pride and help them with their evening hunt!




Out lions had caught a baboon the previous evening and were stuffed. The didn't really want to walk and preferred to just lay there and digest their food from the previous night. Still a fantastic experience as you were able to get up close and stroke them and the guides would get real close and play with them, pulling out their claws and sticking their fingers in their mouths to show off their teeth. Based on some conversation and the scars of the guides it became apparent that these lions often sunk their claws in to humans! This made me happier that they had eaten baboon for dinner the previous night and were now feeling docile!

Overall a fantastic experience and highly recommended.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Apr 19, 2006

Signed up for a safari on top of an elephant this morning. Not a huge amount of game. Giraffe, impala, waterbuck, warthog and some nice red billed hornbills. The highlight really was the ride on the elephant.

My elephant was called Jock, who weighted in at 2.5 tones and had 24 year of age. After the safari we had them eating out of our hands, an interesting feeling to have their sucker grabbing hold of your hand!

After the ride we also had to sit though the obligatory photos and DVD that they tried to sell to us. Every activity around Vic Falls does this and I really can't think of anything worse than showing your friends a video of yourself with 20 strangers marching around the bush! I was amazed how quickly they put these videos together though, the editing was great and looked very professional for something that took them about 30 minutes.

In the afternoon I went to see the falls from the Zimbabwe side. You can only actually see about a quarter of the falls from the Zambia side and in the summer they totally dry up on the Zam side.



Victoria Falls are so impressive, I love them and they have to be one of the highlights of my trip so far. The amount of water coming over them is immense, just to give you some idea at this time of year over 3 times the amount of water of Niagara Falls comes over them.

Livingstone Point was my favourite spot, from here you can look all the way down the chasm, well as far as the mist will allow, into which the falls flow. The gap between the falls across the chasm from where I was stood was mighty narrow, about 25m at it's closest points!

I'm always surprised how long some people spend at the falls, I'd watch people come up to the viewpoints, look over the edge and move on. Other people would even look, they would wait for their partner to take the 10m walk down to the viewpoint before deciding whether it was worth the trip themselves!

Walking back to town, about a 500m walk, I looked to the left and saw a rather large elephant staring at me from the bushes. I stopped and stared, but one he started flapping he ears, a sure sign of agitation, I thought it best to move quietly on!

Walking back though Vic Falls town I thought how much it reminded me of Banff. It really was just a clean, little town catering for tourists, with lot of souvenir shops and tour agencies. They even had a Wimpy - I though these guys had gone bust in England a long time ago!

Had my first communal dinner with the truck that evening. A whole BBQ came out and Moses cooked steaks, vegetable stew and maize flour with soup as a starter. I hadn't eaten so much since leaving England - pretty good really.

Watched Arsenal beat Villa Real that night in the Champions League while trying the local brews. Zambezi, Lion and Bolinger. None of them would win any awards, but I haven't decided on a favourite yet. A little more taste testing is in order first!

Next day was a quiet one and all I wanted to do was get out of Vic Falls before cabin fever set in and while I still had a little money left in my pocket. For some reason my trip with Overland Club was already getting delayed by a day, but nobody had an answer as to why.

Despite the fact I would be another expensive activity I decided to book another flight for the next morning over the falls, this time on a Tiger Moth. The range of activities in the Vic Falls area really is fantastic, but each one will easily set you back at least $100 - it's easy to blow a wad of cash.



4 of the guys went fishing that afternoon and came back with a good catch of 5 or 6 bream and a catfish. Nobody wanted to cook them, so I volunteered myself and BBQ'd them. It was a very tasty, soft, moist fish with not half as many bones as I expected. The rest of the crew headed out to some nightclub that evening, I, on the other hand took it easy and was in bed by 11:30.

Kasane, Botswana
Apr 21, 2006

Said goodbye to Steve and Nadja, who were leaving the truck in Vic Falls. They were lining up a year and a half on the road and after a few months in Africa their next destination was the USA.

I was picked up that morning and taken back over to Zambia and Livingstone airport for the flight. The plane was a 1941 Tiger Moth. The wings were made of cloth and wood. The body was wood and aluminium and it had been used by the South African air force in a previous life.




Takeoff was amazingly quick and it didn't seem like we had much speed at all before we left the ground, probably due to the planes lightness! On the ground one person could pick this plane up by the tail and maneuver it to where ever they wanted it was so light.

Great views, flew over Livingstone and managed to spot Jollyboys. We followed the same road I'd taken from Vic Fall to Livingstone and the views from up here across the plains seemed to go on for ever!

The plane was a lot shakier than the microlite and was prone to sudden drops where you would find your stomach in your mouth. At this height our top speed was only 90mph!




It goes without saying, but the views of the falls were magnificent and as I've already mentioned the falls were definitely a huge highlight of my whole trip. Very impressive also was the bridge we could see over the Lower Zambezi canyon. Built by the British in 1903, it must have been a huge engineering feet when built way back when.

The landing was also very interesting, from very high in the sky and above the runway we seemed to drop out of the sky the way a helicopter would for what was a very soft and smooth landing. The huge width and length of the runway also made it almost comic like as we used less than one hundredth of the possible landing space! Yet another great experience.

I loved Zimbabwe in the same way I loved Zambia, which was without really discovering anything of the real country! The lion walk had been a spur of the moment decision and not something I'd heard of until I arrived. The tiger moth was something I only did because I had the extra time. Both these activities rank as some of the best things I did on my whole trip.

What I won't miss from around here is the one-up man ship that seems to occur when you speak with some of the more affluent tourist and they describe what they saw to other tourist. Most people really didn't seem that interested in what anyone else had to say, they just wanted to recount their own stories.

So finally, that afternoon, we got started on the overland tour and I had my first experience of the truck! It was basically a Swedish Scania truck with a raised up box on top for the passengers. It could hold 22 passengers, but given there were only 8 of us total, it was super comfortable.

Before getting on the road we were able to roll the plastic windows up, which made of a great experience. Travelling across the huge endless plains, great views, wind blowing through the truck with Paul Simon playing on the Ipod. A bit of a different experience to public transport.

Botswana must have been the quickest border crossing I'd had, not even a form to fill in! The real bonus though was a free visa!

Coming into Kasane I could see we were leaving what I would call the real Africa and moving into a more western environment. Hell they even had dustbins on the street, if this wasn't a sign of civilization, I don't know what is!

We changed some money. It's definitely nice having the truck and not having to change money with the dodgy money changes on the border. 5 Pula to the dollar. Pula in the local language, Setswana, means rain. The smaller denominations are called Thebes, this translates to raindrops. Cool names for currency!

Here I could smell that fantastic smell of freshly baked bread, so off I went in search of the source where I was able to purchase a lovely jammy donut and what was billed as and looked like a Cornish pasty. Not a real Cornish pasty, but it would definitely have passed as a very acceptable meat pie.

Another bonus of Botswana was we were back in a country that sold the fantastic Stoney Tanganika ginger beer. The drinks here seemed like a mix of Western and African drinks and besides the Coke and Fanta Orange, they also had Iron Brew, Cream Soda and Pinenut (a pineapple and coconut mix).

We stayed in the Thebes River Camp that night. James and I were on cooking and washing duty. We whipped up a salad with BBQ chicken and fried potato. It turned out to be real easy as everyone else from the truck chipped in and helped. It all made for an enjoyable evening.

Patrick, the driver, also gave what was the pre-departure speech - a bit too late really. It turned out to be a real yawner and he when on repeating himself and telling us nothing we already didn't know. I'm glad I had a bottle of Windhoek beer in my hand to pass the time! Windhoek was from across the border in the ex German colony of Namibia and it was very German in it's taste. Similar, I would say, to Becks.

The camp was right next to the beautiful Chobe river that flowed into the Zambezi and was actually surrounded by an electric fence to keep out the animals! There were 4 overland trucks in the camp altogether, one which played loud music into the wee hours. I guess I'm now on the party route!

Kasane, Botswana
Apr 23, 2006

Chobe is meant to be one of the best game parks in the whole of Africa. We left our campsite at 5:45 and were in the park for just after 6am.

The safari was very lame compared to Tanzania and the elephants and hippos that the park is famous for were none existent! The driver/guide wasn't up to much either. I asked him what the primates we could see were and he replied monkeys! He wasn't even correct on that generalization either as they turned out to be baboons.





We did see a sable, my first sighting in Africa, and a very impressive animal it was. Other animals included lots of impala, buffalo, banded mongoose, cylinder mongoose, baboons, crocs and tree squirrel. Birds included ground hornbill, red billed hornbill, fish eagle, martial eagle, whistler geese, Egyptians geese, blacksmith plover, sand grouse and the same lilac breasted roller we saw all over the Ngorongoro Crater.



Took a trip to an Internet cafe and the supermarket in late morning. I have to say the Spar supermarket was as well stocked as many in the US or UK. We managed to persuade Patrick to stay for the afternoon so we could do a sunset boat safari that evening and then have a full days drive to Maun the next day. He wanted to start that afternoon and do it over 2 days which seemed like a bit of a waste of our time to me.


The boat trip was great and I think everyone was chuffed we ended up staying to do it. What I've loved about all the boat trips I've done so far is they give you plenty of time to view the wildlife and things never seemed rushed or cramped. Boat trips also seem to produce lots of sightings and the ability to get close to animals, the sparse vegetation here also helped.




On this trip we saw hippos, crocs, elephants, buffalo, baboons, my first kudu, impalas and a fantastic water monitor walking along the shore.

There was the usual array of water birds. Cormorants, pied kingfisher, swifts and eagles.

Great food on the trip so far, I've been pretty impressed - it's certainly exceeded expectations. Tasty sausage for dinner. Breakfast had been coffee, cereal, scrambled egg and toast. Any weight I've lost on the trip so far will surely be put back on at this rate by the time I get to Cape Town!

Hygene also seems a high priority. Before serving, preparing or eating you have to wash your hands in 3 bowls. #1 soap and water. #2 detol. #3 rinse water. The same system, with the addition of a pre-scrub, also existed for the washing up the pots and pans.

Now on to the important stuff. Tried 2 Botswana beers that evening. Lt. Louis and Hansa. What a load of crap. No offense to Bud drinkers, but this stuff really did taste like Bud! I'll be sticking to Windhoek in future. Still I managed a few beers during the course of the evening. A sign of things to come maybe!

We had to listen to once of Patricks stimulating talks again that evening. This time it was on the Okavango Delta, our next destination. Every sentence ended with 'blah, blah, blah' or 'etc' where he would pronounce each letter one at a time E. T. C. I don't know how many more of these little talks I can take.

Maun, Botswana
Apr 23, 2006

Everyone packed up camp pretty efficiently and we were on the road for our 9 hour drive by 7am. The totally flat savanna and bushy scrub reminded me of what I had thought Tanzania would look like and what I would describe as the real Africa. There was not a soul on the road and I don't think we saw one other person before we arrived in Nata, our lunch spot. Thinking back in the whole 5 hours I only remember passing through one small village. Botswana is so sparsely populated. 1.6m people in a country the size of France!

We did however spot wildlife on route, elephant, ostrich and donkey. Cattle were also plentiful in the none game areas. Cattle is Botswana's main farming product as the arid dry soil make most areas not that suitable for much else.

We stopped for lunch and had a very big plate of what was shredded beef brisket, served up with a big dollop of sorghum and corn flour porridge.


After lunch it was onwards to Maun. There were a number of places on the way to Maun where you crossed in and out of huge fenced areas as you crossed between the game parks and farm land. We would sometimes have to get out of the truck and walk on top of a detol sponge walkway, the solution to stopping the spread of foot and mouth disease.

We stayed in a very nice campsite in the Sedia Hotel. A rather posh hotel, with a fantastic pool and bar area. It seemed rather too up market for a frugal backpacker such as myself!

Maun, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Apr 24, 2006

Off to the Okavango Delta. The Okavango is Southern Africa's third largest river, flowing through Angola, Namibia and rather than flowing into the sea, it hits the desert in Botswana and stops, producing a huge lush green inland delta. 15000sq km all together!






After our 2 hour transfer by 4WD we arrived at the delta proper where we jumped into Mokoros. These are wooden canoes, carved, typically out of sausage trees. Nowadays to stop tree felling many of them are made of fiberglass.

For some reason my preconceptions of the Okavango Delta had been somewhere that would be a lot more wooded with open areas of water in the middle of the trees. It turned out to be not so wooded and as we canoes up thin channels, we passed reeds with lots and lots of water lilies floating at the waters edge.

We didn't see too much in the way of wildlife on the way to camp apart from some open billed storks and a whole bunch of catfish that some fisherman had caught in traps.

After a rest at camp, a swim and a shot at paddling the Mokoros (very hard BTW) we went out for a walk in some of the land that was surrounded by the myriad of waterways. We didn't see a whole lot apart from some zebra and giraffe. We did see a lot of animal tracks and dung. There were also holes all over the place left by ardvaaks and spring hare. There were a couple of baobab trees and we tried some of the fruit that had fallen from one of them. It had a very citrusy taste.

The sunset on the walk was fantastic, especially with all the palm trees that were silhouetted against the sky. I think this one and the one from the Chobe boat trip must have been the most spectacular ones I'd seen in Africa.

That evening we had catfish that we purchased from the fishermen seen earlier that was boiled in the traditional way. This was whole with a very long boil time and with lots of salt added. I don't know if it's because of the way it's cooked but this fish had a much stronger taste than the fried catfish I usually get back in the USA. The guys cooked up some Ugali, or Mieliepap as it's known in Botswana for our side dish.

That evening a herd of elephants walked up the channel 10m away from our camp. We could also hear lion making some sort of groaning noise from what seemed like real close by. Eman assured us they were a long way away!

That evening was pretty chilly and I had to sleep with my bag zipped up most of the way. Very nice sleeping weather though. Botswana has been very cool on the evenings.

So far this trip seems to have been very well run. Eman the guide has done a great job.

Okavango Delta, Maun, Botswana
Apr 25, 2006

Up at 5:30 for tea and cereal before heading off for what was a very long 6 hour game walk. Very cool indeed, the highlights were getting within about 15m from a giraffe and 5m from an elephant. The elephant eventually started flapping it's ears and raising it's trunk, a sure sign it was ready to charge and a wake up call to us that we needed to move on!

The Africa big 5 are what everyone comes to see. Leopards, lions, elephants, buffalo and rhino. Each of these has an equivelant, or so I learned that day, called the little five! We got to see the Red Billed Buffalo Weaver that day, one of the so called little five. The other 4 were the elephant shrew, leopard tortoise, ant lion and the rhino beetle!

We also got to see giant eagle owl, francolin, plover, long tailed shrike, wilderbeast and a heard of zebra that we stopped to observe for a good 40 minutes.

Eman gave us an interesting talk about the termite mounds saying they lasted for up to 85 years and telling us all about the queens and workers. He really was a great guide with lots of knowledge and interesting facts.

It was a long tiring walk back to camp in the miday sun and we were very happy to have lunch waiting for us on our return. More of the delicious catfish.

Later that afternoon we swam and tried paddling the Mokoros again, yet another complete disaster. Charlie capsized twice, I spent more time in the reeds than in the actual channel.


Early evening and the mokoro driver took us out and showed us how to do it. We took a couple of beers and headed out to a nice spot to watch the sunset.

That evening we sang 'row row row your boat' to the polers, although some may debate whether the words coming out of my words were actually singing. They sung some traditional songs, before one of them very cleverly attached burning embers to himself and came in to camp as the legendary 'Okavango Ghost'. It really was quite a display.

Okavango Delta, Maun, South Africa
Apr 26, 2006

Today is the start of 5 months on the road! Up for an early start again and another bush walk. Baboon, hippo, giraffe etc. A few new things we saw included Steenbok, a small antelope who was very curious and not as skittish as I would have expected. There were the green coloured little bee-eaters and the swallow tail bee-eaters. We also saw some Meyer's Parrots hanging out under a sausage tree that Eman was giving a talk about.

Wild sage and asparagus were 2 plants we saw that also interested me.

During these walking safaris it really had felt like we've had to use all 5 senses.

Sight - Amimal spotting and footprint tracking
Hearing - All the animals including our first indication of the elephants that allowed us to approach them from the angle we wanted to
Touch - Feeling elephant leaves that were like velvet
Taste - Baobab fruit
Smell - Dung smell for freshness, allowing us to tell how recently the animals had been by. Plus all the plants, for example the Sage

Back to camp and after brunch we packed up, jumped in the Mokoros and were in the 4WD and Maun for 2pm. Kate's foot had swollen up to the size of a balloon and we went to the pharmacy and the guy said it was probably infected from the water in the delta. Funny because Eman had told us that the water was totally free from any disease. In fact the water coming from Angola all got filtered as it passed through the delta and was safe to drink he went on to say. I was beginning to regret the 2 litres I'd necked when I'd run out of water on the last day!





That afternoon we did a scenic flight over the delta. Money well spent. There was not a hill in sight for the whole one hour journey, just flat expanse! We were flying at 500ft and got to see elephant, antelope, giraffe and some cool looking fat hippo in one of the pools. It seemed so low though and we could easily make out individual lily pads. The delta looked just as fantastic from the air as it had done below. Lots of animal tracks, waterways and swampy areas. We actually followed the Boro Channel that we had canoed up and got to see out camp from the air. What a fine way to see the delta.

Patrick told us that evening that we were going to be delayed for a day. Kate was leaving as part of her deal (assuming she could walk on her foot!) and was meant to get escorted to Jo'berg. They hadn't been able to arrange transport for her in the 3 days we were in the delta. What a set of muppets. So because of that we were all delayed for a day that meant we would probably miss some sights further down the road.

Nobody was very happy with the situation and it reeked of incompetence. It also meant because of our extra day in Vic Falls we were now 3 days behind the official schedule from the Internet!

That evening we got a free meal at the Sedia Hotel as a thanks for booking the tour with them. Everyone was intent on ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, hey we were all backpackers! Unfortunately they only had 3 full chickens left and I ended up with 'The Complete Burger'. We were also running short on Botswana Pula so with about as much decorum as a bunch of baboons we also dragged all our own beers into the restaurant hidden in a cooler under the table. It was Kate's last night so needless to say it was in order for us all to get hammered, unfortunately poor Kate was in bed by 9pm because the pain in her foot was getting too much!

Rundu, Namibia
Apr 28, 2006

Stuck in Maun for the day and everyone was bored to tears. We seemed to spend most of the day on the truck and did a trip into town.

I was working on the hangover by drinking fruit juice and beer and was also indulging on some tasty curried beef and peppered steak pies from the local Shoprite supermarket.

I took Kate to the hospital. Things were looking pretty serious and there was now a whole load of bruising to go with the swelling. They wanted to keep her in the hospital overnight, but in the end she made do with some strong antibiotics and some cleaning solution.

Patrick gave one of his boring speeches again that evening. Poor Byron was fast asleep in Jackie's arms by the end of it. He does actually have some interesting information, he just lacks a bit on the delivery. 'Sour Sour' or something along those lines was another one of his Swahili catch-phrases he slipped in all the time where we may have said OK. The other big phrase was 'are we together?' that he muttered to us every other phrase.

My thoughts on Botswana include, and I know I'm always saying this but it was fantastic and again because of the diversity. We ended up doing activities and seeing sights here that were totally different to anything I'd seen in the other countries.

The trip on the Mokoros, the scenic flight were all superb. On the down side of things we were moving into a western culture and I had the feeling I wouldn't be experiencing the sorts of things that happened in east Africa anymore.

Next day and it was back on the big green monster for the trip to Namibia. Patrick, our glorious leader, was up late, he'd been on the booze the previous evening and had closed the bar so we did end up leaving a little late.


We drove up the western side of the Okovango Delta. All very dry and bushy with plenty of acacia trees. Like everywhere else in Botswana there seemed to be cattle and donkeys all over the road and taking shade under the acacia trees. We also passed by fields of sorghum on the long road that seemed to stretch out for ever into the distance.

The border crossing into Namibia was a piece of cake. This overland truck business seems a bit easy after what had happened in east Africa.

Once in Namibia we continued in our nice comfortable truck, sprawled out over 4 seats each, a bottle of beer in hand and the Ipod blaring.

The area we entered Namibia in was called the Caprivi Strip. A thin piece of land that intersects Botswana and Angola and connects Namibia to Zambia and Zimbabwe.

We arrived in Rundu, did some shopping and got to our camp site around 6:30. From the campsite on the Okavango River we could see Angola, 20m across the water. N'Kwawi Lodge was the name of the camp. Lovely place and location.

Had a nice evening and met some more overlanders on a reverse tour to ours with Nomad. Unfortunately they said there was not too much to see in Etosha NP, our next stop.

Etosha is famous for the water holes where all the animals congregate in the dry season. It seemed like there had been more rain than usual this year, making the wildlife difficult to spot.

One South African guy at this campsite moaned about our truck, in much the same way I would have done if I saw an overland truck a few months earlier. This guy asked up directly what time we would be getting up in the morning. I really wanted to say 4am, but refrained myself. He also instructed us not to walk through his campsite on the way to the toilets and told us exactly which route he believed we should take to get there, which was well away from his tent! That evening Liam also overheard a rather posh British lady saying 'oh no the overlanders have arrived'. As I said a few months earlier I would have been the same, now I was one of them!

Etosha Nationl Park, Namibia
Apr 29, 2006

Finally off to Etosha. One thing I knew I'd hate about the overland truck was the whole organization factor. For example this mornings 6:30 departure turned into a 7am departure, and even though we'd been to the supermarket the previous evening we had to do another trip there this morning! Our scheduled 20 minute stop this time lasted for over an hour. I really can't imagine how things would be if we had a bigger group!

One thing with Northern Namibian people that I've noticed is there are a lot of outstretched hands, people begging and asking for dollars. I wondered if that was maybe due to all the South African coming up this way and giving out handouts.

After Rundu it was back on those long straight roads again for our 6 hour trip to the park.

As we moved away from the Okavango river things started to dry out and we passed by what seemed to be miles and miles of mud hut villages, sorghum fields and bushy plains. There were also lots of little stores dotted along the road selling carvings.

Eventually we crossed what was another huge fence, this like the ones in Botswana was used to keep out diseases. Once we moved to the disease free side there was a remarkable change from poor villages to large ranches from where beef was considered safe to export.

We passed through the funny sounding town of Grootfontein at lunchtime and I saw some hills on the horizon, probably the first I'd seen in about 3 weeks since leaving Malawi! Lot of nice trees and colours on route also as the tree changed yellow for the autumn.

Patrick managed to get a ticket that afternoon. 84 in and 80. He managed to bargain his $200 Namibian dollar ticket down to a $100 bribe!





We were in the park for 2pm ready for some game drives. Saw lots of Oryx, or Gemsbok as they were called in Southern Africa. I was happy, as I'd been wanting to see these for my whole trip. Other animals we saw included giraffe, kudu, black faced impala, dik diks, klipspringers, springbok, zebra, wilderbeast, lion, jackal and warthog. We also saw lots of beautiful red-billed hornbills and crowned plovers.

Away from the watering holes were huge plains - these had some unusual red plants growing on them, that along with the yellow grass and blue sky made for a nice contrast.

Etosha is famous for all the watering holes where you can just park up and observe the wildlife coming and going. It was very relaxing to stop at these places especially given how high up we were in the big green monster.


We stayed in the Namutoni rest camp. Like all the rest camps in Namibia it had a watering hole right there in camp. The sunset over the watering hole that evening was stunning. At night they would illuminate the whole area and you could go to the viewing platform, beer in hand and watch the comings and goings of all the animals.

The camp was also teeming with jackals that tried to steel anything they could that evening.

Etosha National Park, Namibia
Apr 30, 2006

Banded mongoose were all around the camp, as I lay on my front to take a photo, one inquisitive the little blighters came face to face with my lens!










The wildlife was much the same as the previous day. Lots of Gemsbok - these must be one of the most elegant antelopes I've seen. Plenty of lilac breasted rollers, another colourful bird with a green head, white around the eyes, a lilac beast and a turquoise underbelly. Secretary birds were an interesting ground bird. The have these weird dangle things hanging off their head that wobble all over the place as they strut around the plains.

Moses had told us the names of two birds of prey we saw but none of us could quite understand what he was saying as the names were sort of similar and we weren't sure which words belonged to which bird. I think they were Duck Hunting Bushawk and chanting goshawk, although I'm now back at home and in front of goggle I can't find any bushhawks.






Watering holes, as I mentioned earlier one of the great things about this park. We spent a great 45 minutes by one today just watching all the comings and goings of the zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and warthogs.

Lunch was at a rest camp called Halili, before we got back on the road again that afternoon. The afternoon was devoid of wildlife, as we drove over miles and miles of vast savanna. A few things we did see were black male ostrich together with their gray female counterparts. We also saw some blue cranes and a Kori Bustard, the world's largest flying bird.

The annoying thing about the green monster was the difficulty communication with the cab. We had to bang on the truck and shout, by which time it was too late or what we had spotted had seen us and hightailed into the distance. Luckily Patrick and Moses spotted most things.


Later in the afternoon we got to a place on the plains were there were just thousands of springboks. Very funny to watch as they bounce a few feet in the air, almost like kangaroos as they run. Also got to see a few jackals coming to camp. For a wild animal they always look so presentable.

Our campsite that evening was Okaukuejo

Otjitotongwe, Cheetah Farm, Namibia
May 1, 2006

A May Day national holiday in Namibia today, just like most places in the world. We did a sunrise game drive that was very nice, although we failed to spot rhinos and the only elephants we saw were 2, briefly the previous day.

The level of enthusiasm for the game drives seemed to have dropped on the truck. Most people slept or read for most of the drive. Not really my idea of how to spend a game drive, I was prone to spending most of my time with my head stuck out of the window scanning the landscape.







We got some great views of a kestrel and a chanting goshawk very close by. We also saw 5 spotted hyena that got mightily close to the truck and a group of ostrich as the sprinted full pelt across the plains. We also saw a great sight of 3 jackals as the play fought over a stick.

A couple of trees we passed had these huge nests made by the sociable weaverbirds. Very impressive indeed at about 2x2x2m in size.





There were a couple of ground squirels hanging out back at camp while we packed up. I enjoyed Etosha and would love to come back some time in the future, during the dry season when the watering hole are packed with animals.










We stopped at Outjo for lunch, the town seemed like a ghost town. Kamanjab was where we were heading and the cheetah farm called Otjitotongwe. At 4:30 we all piles on the back of a pick up truck with a bucket full of donkey meat and headed into the reserve. It was one of my best experiences so far. We could see the cheetahs in the grass stalking the truck until we stopped when they got within 2ft of us. John, who was working here for a while as part of his round the world trip threw chunks of meat at them. As soon as they had grabbed their meat they would shoot back in to the bush guarding their prize from the fellow cheetahs.

After the feed John gave me a sneak preview of what was going to happen the next day. We went down to the farm where they had cheetahs roaming the yard with farm dogs! I the house I could see one perched on the wall taking a nap. When John said 'here boy', not only would the dogs come over but so would the cheetahs where you could pet and stroke them! It was a bit of a surreal experience. John said they were just like domestic cats, if they wanted attention they would just come over and demand it like your moggy at home. The only difference I noted was I didn't think I'd feel comfortable turning these cats away!

Twyfelfontein, Namibia
May 2, 2006

The campsite at Otjitotongwe was full of interesting things. They had a pool, a tower that we climbed to watch the sunrise, lots of birds around the grounds such as red billed hornbills and white crowned sparrow weavers. The bar had some interesting trophies. A warthog butt and a stuffed elephant trunk and penis. I ended up buying a warthog tusk that had been made into a bottle opener, definitely my favourite souvenir to date. All the water in the camp came from underground and like a lot of places in the area there was a windmill pump that bought it up from and underground reservoir.




After breakfast we wandered down to the farmhouse to see the Cheetahs. It's amazing how these guys just treat them as pets and I think everyone was amazed at how we could interact with them and how everyone could just stroke them. Their purring sound was just like a small car engine! When not chasing each other around the yard the would often chase the poor Jack Russell dog, picking him up with their teeth.

Back in the truck and our first stop was in the town of Kamanjab for a little shopping. This seemed more like how the real Namibia should be, dusty and run down. The Herero women here still wore these huge, often colourful, Victorian dresses and headgear from a long time passed.


As we drove south west the scenery became very barren and turned into a red rock desert area. There were small hills poking up from the ground they looked more like piles of boulders. Much of it reminded me of areas of Arizona and the Joshua tree NP that I had driven through.


Our destination was Twyfelfontein and some rock engravings that are believed to be up to 6000 years old and also some rock paintings. I have to say things like this don't excite me too much, but they were amazingly well preserved. Everyone else seemed to like them but I spent most of my time looking for lizards and scorpions.

It has to be said our guide was up to the usual African standard, and was therefore bloody useless. So lethargic and with a set spiel, any question over and above the speech they had memorized would be met with blank stares. I guess this place did provide some work for the local people though.



There were 2 main rock paintings very close to each other, but for your $5 you were only allowed to go and see one. We chose the dancing kudu as oppose to the lion man. Close to the rock painting we also visited an interesting rock formation called the organ pipes. With a name like that I will leave it to your imagination of how they looked.

We drove that night until after dark and set up camp for what was to be our first bush camp. What a great location, tucked in behind one of the big red boulder hills with a fantastically clear view of the Milky Way up above. Liam and Charlie decided to sleep under that stars, much to the concern of Patrick who warned them about all the scorpions and snakes in the area.

Swakopmund, Namibia
May 3, 2006

We got up early and climbed a rocky hill for sunrise. Great views across the plains as the sun came up. We could also see the large granite massif of Brandberg Mountain sticking up from the desert. At 8000ft (2500ft) it is Namibia's tallest peak.

As we all drove towards the Atlantic Ocean, the landscape became even more barren and devoid of life. All we could see was sand and gravel stretching out to the mountain that could be barely seen out on the horizon.

We knew we were at the ocean long before we could see it. All of a sudden we hit some really cold air, caused by wind blowing off the sea. The cold came from the waters of the Benguela current that came up from Antarctica. With this air we could also smell the sea and eventually we descended down into the mist that forms off the ocean here. We had the plastic windows on the truck pulled down. Everyone was freezing and wrapped in hats gloves and sleeping bags.

We arrived at Swakopmund and went straight to a place called Desert Explorers where we could book numerous activities. Swakop is a popular Namibian seaside resort and adventure center.

I booked onto the Living Desert Tour with Tommy's Tours that afternoon.

After checking in to the nice Dunes Hotel and getting a real bed for the first time since Vic Falls I went to check out the town along with all it's kitsch shops, German looks and tourists.







Later that afternoon Tommy came to pick me up for what was a real interesting tour in a Landrover across the sand dunes. We stopped and caught a Namib Sidewinder Adder almost immediately. They bury themselves in the sand so only their head and eyes are showing and wait for their victims.

We saw lots of Tenebrionid Beetles. These little guys wait on the tops of sand dunes with their bodies tilted waiting for the mist to come in. When it does the moisture settles on their bodies and runs down their undercarriage allowing them to get drinking water. Apparently they can consume up to 40% of their own body weight each day in water doing this.

Tommy kept stopping the truck and running off and digging in the sand with his hands at certain points. At one point he caught a legless burrowing skink. Totally blind and very smooth to touch.


Shovel Snouted Lizards are one of the few things that can walk on the sand once it's temperature reaches 70C. They do this by running extremely quickly and balancing on 2 feet at a time before switching feet to the opposite ones, in what looks like a strange dance. Once these little guys bite you they don't let go. Tommy's party trick was to let this guy bite his ear lobe and walk around with a lizard earring. He was quite a character.


Next we caught a Namaqua Chameleon that would hiss and snap at us if we moved our hands too close. Tommy tried to feed it some beetles so we could see it shoot it's tongue out to catch them, but the mist had just come in and this little guy was now just a little too cold to want to have to catch and then digest this food.


After all these animals we checked out a White Lady Spider Tommy had in a jam jar before having a bit of a fun drive around the sand dunes. It turns out that the other people in the car were Tommy's family and friends who were visiting from out of town, so I think we ended up going off the tops of some of the steeper sand dunes to try to impress/scare them.

That evening we went to the Germanic Swakopmund Brauhaus that was meant to brew it's own beer, unfortunately it had stopped. We moved on to the Lighthouse Pub for dinner that was fantastic. My seafood platter had some of the tastiest, softest calamari I had ever tasted. It was served with sole, shrimp, oyster and mussels.

Oryx was also on the menu. Byron got some of this and let me try some. Very tasty and not too gamey. A bit like a dry beef.

Swakopmund, Namibia
May 5, 2006

Excellent fun packed day. We signed up for a quad bike/sand board combo. After a quick ride on out semi automatic quads we stopped for about 40 minutes at a place where we sped down a steep dune on a thin veneered polished piece of plywood. Judging by the look on peoples faces on some of the photos it must have been exhilarating! The bikes were definitely exhilarating, doing arched shaped drives up to the tops of steep sand dunes before getting close to the top, turning sharply and coming back down the same way. We jumped over the tops of sand dunes and also had fun with over steering them to kick up big sprays of sand behind for the next rider to contend with.

It was all great fun, but one of the funniest moments was when I looked over the top of a dune and saw Charlie's leg sticking out from underneath his sand dune! While Steve was rescuing Charlie, James was practicing his donuts turns, only to end up in the same position as Charlie!

This tour was billed as ecologically friendly, but based on what Tommy had told me the previous day about what the quads should not do this was definitely not eco friendly!

In the afternoon I had a trip to the local aquarium, the huge tank with a tunnel through it was great for watching the shark feeding. The poor scuba diver who was in there handing out fish seemed to spend most of his time fighting off the turtles that were trying to bite any part of him they could.

Fell asleep that evening TV blaring, beer in hand - brought back a few memories of my snowboarding days!

Sossusvlei, Namibia
May 5, 2006

Scheduled for a 10am departure to make the sand dunes of Soussuvlei for sunset. We arrived at the truck to be told we were delayed until 11:30. Patrick said they needed to fix a tyre, Moses said they were waiting for some money from then bank! As always Patrick muttered his favourite words - flexi flexi! Why they hadn't been able to do this in the last 2 days was beyond me. They owed Liam 1600 rand they had borrowed off him in Etosha when they ran out of money and it turns out this was what they were waiting for. The shredded tyre, that really did need fixing, wasn't getting fixed at this point either, I think the Overland Club thought it would be cheaper to wait until they got back to Tanzania!

In the end it was 1:30 before we left, due to general ineptitude it looked like we wouldn't make it to Namibia's top tourist attraction that evening!

We went the first 30km down the coast to Walvis Bay, this place was occupied by the South African's right up until 1994 as it was the only decent port on the way from Cape Town to Luanda in Angola. The whole drive down had 100m sand dunes to the left and the Atlantic Ocean to the right.

At Walvis Bay, which apparently was where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were staying, we took a turn inland to the east and started heading passed some of the most spectacular scenery I'd seen on my whole trip. It was plains of bright yellow grass, clear blue skies and mountains on the horizon. The grassland was also full with Springbok and Ostrich.

Eventually we entered some rolling hills, again covered with yellow grass. Unfortunately, no time to stop as we were still racing in the hope we'd make the sand dune of Soussuvlei. Of course we never did make it.


I gave Patrick a mouthful at camp. His reply was it wasn't this problem, he was only the driver and I would have to take it up with the head office. Went top bed in a bad mood that evening.

Fish River Canyon, Namibia
May 6, 2006

Another cold night in the desert, we were up and waiting at the entrance gate to Soussusvlei for when they opened at 5:30am.











We did the 45km to Dune 45 and climbed most of the way to the top for sunrise. I was barefoot and the sand was freezing. It was a tough old climb.

The dunes were an apricot colour and absolutely beautiful. To add to this the sky was a brilliant blue and the valley was a light green. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I'd seen on my whole trip. The valley also contained trees, that seemed for the most part dead. It didn't take long for my bad mood from the previous day to disappear.

After breakfast we were back on the road for 9:30. Not nearly enough time to appreciate Soussusvlei.

Again we were racing through some more fantastic scenery to reach Fish River Canyon for the sunset. We should have had extra time here and camped halfway along the road to the canyon, that was if we hadn't of wasted the extra day in Maun.



In race mode we really didn't feel like we could ask the truck to stop and admire the views as we were in such a rush. In the end we were forced to stop as our shredded tyre became so bad it burst. At that point we knew we would not make it to the canyon for sunset.

The roads here, and the population were scarce. In the 90 minutes it took to fix the puncture only 2 cars passed and we could count the number of houses we'd seen that day on our fingers (and maybe toes). Eventually we moved into cattle and sheep country and eventually arrived at the canyon for just after 7pm. 2 hours after sunset!

Noordoewer, Namibia
May 7, 2006

Up at 4:50am for sunrise over the canyon, although not too sure why we got up at this time as sunrise was not until about 6:30!



We get to the canyon at 5:30 and stand in the dark waiting for things to lighten up a bit. Sunrise and the canyon were very nice, but I really feel like I'm on a Japanese tour bus at the moment where everyone jumps out, takes a photo and then gets back on the bus! 5 minutes after sunrise that's exactly what everyone wanted to do and get back to camp for breakfast. I'd have liked to stay a while and walked along the rim.


I guess I knew for certain now what I was fairly sure about before the trip started, organized tours were not for me and in the future, where ever possible, I would be steering well clear of them. They are great for getting around the sites, but you miss out on so much adventure and lose all your flexibility. I'll be very happy to meet up with Erica soon and stop wherever and when ever I want.




On the way back to camp we saw a number of desert growing Quiver Trees. An interesting Aloe species.

Saw an interesting sight on the way to Noordoewer and the Orange River. A bunch of cyclist were on the road, but 3 of them were stark bollock naked! A strange sight for the middle of the desert!




As we drove down towards Noordoewer we could see South Africa across the Orange River. I had mixed emotions at this point, it was certainly a big leg of my trip coming to an end and meant Cape Town was only a day away!

Cape Town though was where I was meeting Erica, and I was looking forward to that.

In Namibia we stayed at Felix Unite, a very nice campsite on the Orange River.

Namibia is bigger than Botswana that in turn is the size of France. 2 weeks in this amazing country is nowhere near enough. I love the desert scenery, and I could well seem myself coming back here in the future for a longer trip. I think 2 months should do it!

I'd like to take a 4WD up to Kaokoland and Damaraland and explore the scenery and the tribes there. I'd like to come back and hike in Fish River Canyon and try a few of the other fantastic hikes dotted around the country. I'd like to go at a slower pace and stop to admire some of the scenery and I'd like to go to Luderitz, the old Germanic coastal town.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 8, 2006

Click here for Cape Town photos

Overland Club decided to change the plan for us one more time, instead of our door to door transfer to Cape Town were now going to get up at 1am and be driven to the border where we would be put on a so called luxury bus to Cape Town!

It turns out there weren't even enough seats on the bus and Jacki and I didn't get our seats on the bus until 5am!




We were the only whites on the bus, I guess South African whites don't go for public transport.

We passed through a whole range of scenery on the way down. In the north it seemed like mainly sheep farming with the odd vineyard and orange grove. Everything was very rugged as we drove passed the Cederberg Wilderness Area. They looked like some truly spectacular mountains for hiking in.

We stopped at a petrol station, it was just like been back in the USA. Hotdogs, hamburgers and meat pies were all on the menu.



South Africa seems to have an enormous variety of Cadbury's chocolate. They have whole shelves devoted to Cadbury's with flavourings such as Turkish delight to caramel. All in all at least 20 different flavours.

The other thing that we saw everywhere was Biltong, coming in beef, kudu, springbok and a whole host of other game meats, it was much the same as jerky in the USA.

I tried a Nestle Bar One. It was suspiciously like a Mars Bar.

Round about 9am we came to a pass and looked down into a plain that was bright orange due to the soil colour. It had been perfectly ploughed. All this was so different to anything I'd seen in the last 5 months. All fantastic scenery.

About 50km away from Cape Town and still surrounded by fields Cape Town appeared in the distance. We moved into the grape growing heartland, and eventually came to a town called Paarl. I was suffering from a bout of culture shock by this point. Paarl was full of neat and tidy streets, clean white washed housing and the sort of shops I'd expect to see back at home. It was all a bit or a surreal experience. Oh and the mountains around here were also spectacular.

Table Mountain looked so imposing as we drove into Cape Town. I knew at one I was going to fall in love with this place.




Our transfer from the bus station to the hostel didn't turn up and we had to call for a cab. One more mark against Overland Club. Nina had so much luggage we needed 2 cabs, I had no idea how she was going to get all this on the plane - it was going to be an expensive flight for her!

We took a Rikki's taxi. These were tiny vans where 6 to 8 people can fit in the back on benches. We arrived at the very nice Sunflower Stop Hostel, very close to the Victoria and Alfred docks.



After settling in I took a walk down to the docks where there was a trendy shopping center. What a fantastic setting. The mountains, the trendy shops and the old battered fishing boats, along side the snazzy cruise ships. I love this place.

That evening we all headed out to the Buena Vista Club, a Cuban restaurant, where we sampled some of the local wine and seafood. By the end of the night I think I had sampled one glass too much!

Cape Town, South Africa
May 9, 2006

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Up remarkable early all things considered. I walked up a steep 1 hour climb to Signal Hill, right behind the hostel. What can I say, more fantastic views of the mountains, the city and down the coastline onto an area know as Seapoint.



Next I went for a wander into an area called Bo-Kaap, a very interesting area of town where all the houses are painted a bright colour. I then rented a moped and headed down the coast towards the Cape of Good Hope.



I stopped at Camps Bay where there were fantastic views of the 12 Apostles with Table Mountain towering above. Further on I came to the tolled Chapman's Peak Drive, for one of the most hair raising cliff roads I've ever driven on.

There was a township half way down. It looked like it was from a different world to everything that was around it. There really is a massive disparity between the rich and the poor in this country. Despite the fact Cape Town must be the most beautiful city I've ever seen, I think I'd find it hard to live here due to this disparity and huge crime rates.

Eventually I made it down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope where I could see where many sailors had passed by in years passed.



This place seemed to have black lizards all over the place. There were great view of a lighthouse and some of the tallest cliffs in the world. The beaches and bays I could see from the tops of the cliffs were also very picturesque.

I came back via the motorway. I'm not too sure if my little moped was legal on the motorway, but I never saw any cops, so I survived. Back at the Sunflower Stop all I could manage was some take out food and beer and catching up on my journal before turning in.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 10, 2006

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Up early and took my scooter the 30km around the bay to Bloubergstrand. This is where most of the postcard pictures are taken of Table Mountain and it gives a truly spectacular view of Cape Town from across the bay. Took the motorway again and got away with it.



That afternoon I'd arranged to go paragliding. I'd expected we were going to head out to a place called Lion's Head, just above Cape Town and a place where you paraglide down to Camp's Bay. The wind conditions weren't great so we ended up going east on N2 for about 40 miles to Sir Lowrey's Pass. We passed miles and miles of township along the way. Wooden shacks with tin roofs mainly, but most would use any possible material imaginable. They really did look like dirty places.



The views from the top of the pass were superb. We set off for our first flight, unfortunately the thermals weren't fantastic and we only stayed up for about 20 minutes. We completed a second flight as the first wasn't too long and this time the machine that beeped to tell us if we hit a thermal, didn't beep once the whole way down, it was just a float to our landing spot really.





All in all thought it was a great experience. I particularly liked it when we drifted close to the road that was cut into the hillside that went up to the pass. You could look through the car windscreens and see the drivers looking at you.

Ian was my pilot, but Richard was the guy who gave me a ride out to the place. On the way home we decided to stop for a few beers and pool in Stellenbosch.

A few beers turned into a gallon and along with the Tequila shots I was I bit the worse for wear by the time we were thrown out at 3am. A good night out though in this big student town.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 12, 2006

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Didn't really want to get up at 7:30am for our 9am boat to Robben Island. This was where Nelson Mandela was locked away at for 20+ years.

I have to say the tour wasn't great, nothing like Alcatraz. The views back onto Cape Town though were absolutely stupendous. The interesting part of the tour for me was the ex-prisoners who showed you around. They tell you a little about why they were put behind bars. The two who I met were not at all bitter and their main reason was they just wanted reconciliation. It was a great example and fantastic to see.



Parts of the tour around the island were almost a game drive. Besides ostrich and antelopes there were also herds of Caledonian deer that had been introduced.






Back on the mainland we went for some tasty donuts followed by a pint of bitter at Mitchell's Brew Pub. I could smell the brewing beer and it reminded me of many of my home brewing exploits.

4pm and Liam and James came round to the hostel and we headed off up Signal Hill for the sunset and to watch the nearly full moon rise over the city.

A steep climb up and a very nice sunset. The bit I liked was the way the sun lit up Table Mountain with a red glow as it set.



That place is mobbed with cops around sunset. I have to say I didn't feel very comfortable coming down the hill, I'm sure I would have made a great robbery target with all my camera equipment and cash.






We made it down safely though and headed to Mitchell's to celebrate with calazone pizza, a milk and honey ale (very strong stuff) and a raven porter.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 12, 2006

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Wandered through the harbour, up Long St. and Kloot St. on the way to the cable car up Table Mountain. Managed to get a bit lost in a maze of houses and ended up bushwhacking the final path across some desolate land that had been ravaged by forest fire.



The cable car was packed and when it started to revolve some poor old dears got very confused and started falling into everyone. It was mayhem!

The views in every direction from the top were magnificent, although the place was a zoo! I especially liked the view down the 12 apostles and down to Camp's Bay.



The good news was 10 minutes walk from all the sandal clad tourists and concrete walkways and there wasn't another sole. I walked all the way over to the other side of the mountain and didn't see one other person the whole way across. From here there were some nice views down to the eastern suburbs, the huge False Bay and the mountain around Stellenbosch.

After heading all the way back into town for some lunch, I turned around and headed up the 2,300ft Lion's Head, another peak overlooking the city, Camp's Bay and view of Table Mountain. Again truly fantastic views.



I was going to stay up here for sunset and also to watch the full moon rise, but the clouds ended up coming in. By 5pm I decided to head back to the hostel. I was thoroughly knackered and dehydrated by the time I got there and the two Windhoek beers I quickly sank were truly blissful.



I joined Byron and Jacki for an all you can eat sushi that evening. Not particularly good, a bit lacking on variety really. I was in bed early for my early start the next morning and the shark cage dive!

Cape Town, South Africa
May 13, 2006

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Up at 4:30am for the 5am pickup. Nobody turned up until 5:50. Oh well, it's only sleep. We were soon on the road for the 120km drive to Gansbaai for our shark dive! We drove through the seaside town of Hermanus on the way. It looked very picturesque with the mountains rising up behind it. At Gansbaai we were split into 2 groups for breakfast. We got cheese sandwiches while the other group got muesli. We found out that the other group had paid 1200 rand for this privilege. Twice what we paid!



The cage on the boat looked flimsy and battered, maybe the sort of thing that may keep a hedgehog off you lettuce patch!



The boat headed out to Dyer Island and an area known as shark alley. The puking started early and by the time we got out to where we were going a quarter of the boat had their heads hung over the sides.



We had 14 people on our boat which could take up to 40 people. I can't imagine what this trip would be like with a full boat!



This whole trip again turned out to be another amazing experience. The water was chummed with small bits of fish and oil and then they threw in some huge tuna heads. As the sharks came towards the bait they would pull it towards the boat and hoist it out of the water before the sharks could get it.



Just the views of the shark from the boat was fantastic and we saw at least 10 different ones with sizes up to 4m (12ft) long. Most of them would circle around and come for the bait on multiple occasions.


When I was in the cage we saw at least 6 sighting under water all with in 2ft of the cage. The 'highlight' though has got to be when a 3m long one came straight at the cage and jammed his head through the bars. It came in so far I had to step all the way to the back of the cage, even from the back of the cage it was inches from my chest and well over a foot into the cage. All the guys on the boat though it was so close it had actually hit me in the chest!


It I'd though ahead a bit it would have been very easy to touch it, but to be honest at the time that was the last thing on my mind. The cage is attached to the back of the boat, but unlike the ones you see on National Geographic it is not totally submerged, you only put your head under the water when the sharks come. The cage also rocks a lot with the waves, and thinking about it afterwards, I though how easily it would have been to fall into the shark if I lost my grip on the top bars! The good news was that even though the cage did look rather flimsy, it did hold out pretty well. I'm surprised they don't have any injuries from doing this in the past! Although the tour operators said to be as 'lucky' as me and have the shark hit the cage usually only happens one a month!


After a couple of hours spent baiting the sharks we went to the islands, a rocky outcrop really, and there were the 35,000 reasons the sharks liked it here. Perched all over these rocks were masses of sea lions.

Back into town and we all got split up for lunch again, the rich and the poor, before we got driven back to Cape Town. It must have been a tiring experience as I don't think one person was awake on the minibus back to Cape Town.

That evening we headed to a tourist restaurant, Mama Africa, where they play traditional music. The service was horrendous and the food was OK. I got a mixed grill that consisted of kudu, ostrich, crocodile and venison sausage. Very interesting to get to taste some of these meats. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 14, 2006

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Left at 8:45am for a wine tour with a guy called Robbie and three other tourists, Steve, Richard and Diane. What an excellent day out, and Robbie himself was a wealth of information.



Our first vineyard was in Paarl and was called Fairview where they taught us the 4 stages of tasting -
1) Colour- the darker the older
2) Aroma - swilling the wine around to bring out the smell
3) Taste - rinse in the mouth and suck air through
4) Aftertaste - The longer the better.

One of the wines was called Pinotage, this one is unique to South Africa. I have to say this wasn't my favourite red at any of the vineyards. We also got to taste some very nice cheeses, from blue cheese to camembert, to goat cheese.



The next vineyard was in Franschock area. This was the area where some persecuted French Protestants came and there were still a lot of French names floating about.



The scenery around here was fantastic. Colourful fields from all the different coloured vines with imposing rocky mountains all around.

We stopped in the very picturesque town of Franschok at a chocolate shop for a tour of the chocolate making facilities followed by a chocolate tasting before heading to Stellenbosch and the Tokara vineyard.



Perched on a hill in a beautiful location it was owned by the 6th riches man in South Africa as a hobby!

We had a late lunch as at a place owned by Robbie's cousin. The food was fantastic, we had chicken schnitzel and a nicer bottle of Pinotage. After this we visited a cheetah farm before Robbie bought us a cheap bottle of sparkling wine for our trip back into Cape Town.

Nice sunset again.

One of my nicest days out yet!

Cape Town, South Africa
May 15, 2006

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The day of Erica's arrival and the first time I'd seen her in 5 months. It was all a bit of a disaster, I'd arranged to meet her at the airport, but eventually she ended up turning up at the hostel.

We headed down to a very nice deli, with crap service where I got my best latte since arriving in Cape Town together with a nice custard pastry.



We had a quick wander around the waterfront at Alfred and Victoria docks and watches the Cape Fur Seals. Funny they looked more like sea lions to me that seals!



Erica had been on the road for a long time and slept for a good chunk of the afternoon. We returned to the waterfront that evening for a sunset harbour cruise on an old schooner boat before heading to the Cape Fish Market for some nice seafood.



Later we met Jacki, Byron and Nieme (sp?) for Belgium beers in Den Ankers. A real treat for me. We tried another bar later that sold Leffe, but unfortunately that was closed!

Cape Town, South Africa
May 16, 2006

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Today we rented a car, very cheap, $25 including insurance! We drove down passed the beautiful Camp's Bay and down to the penguins at Boulders Beach. That was pretty cool and we spend a good hour there checking out all the African penguins (although I prefer to call them by their old name, Jackass). Lots of little babies there that looked only a few days old. Some looked pretty funny as their mothers had managed to cover them all with sand. After we popped into Simon's town for some tasty fish and chips. The fish was hake and they even had salt and malt vinegar!



Back to the Cape of Good Hope in the afternoon and our first stop were some tidal pools. They were marked in the park guide as a top attraction, but we saw nothing in them! The tide was at least half way in though, so maybe that was why! Saw a couple of nasty looking Chacma baboons while driving through the park!



Back up to the Cape of Good Hope to see the magnificent cliffs and lighthouse and then on to the Cape of Good Hope.



The waves were starting to whip up against the shore of the Cape of Good Hope and it was looking very bleak and windswept. There was a bunch of people there with their bikes after having cycled all the way from Cairo over the last 4 months - maybe that will be a good trip for next year!



Went out for what was an OK pizza and a nice bottle of Pinotage at a restaurant close to our hostel in Sea Point that evening.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 17, 2006

Off to the famous Kistenbosch Botanical Gardens. We took Charlie and two Canadians, Jason and Ryan, along.

The rain started coming down on the way there. Kirstenbosch is on the backside of table mountain and judging by the size of the houses it must have been an affluent area of town.

We went straight to the conservatory that had an interesting display showing desert and alpine plants of the area.

When the rain eased off a bit we wondered over to a cafe where I tried the Rooibos tea, this is a speciality South African tea that is very tasty..


After our tea break we headed out to see the gardens proper. Fynbos is one of the 6 worldwide floral kingdoms that is unique to the Cape. The gardens had plenty of protea, ericas and restios from this kingdom.

Later we headed to Stellenbosch where I took the guys to Spiers, the cheetah place I'd been to on my wine tour. We did a wine tour there before checking out the cheetahs and the birds of prey they had there. It's a bit touristy but nice.

We did a quick tour of the lovely Stellenbosch before heading back to the hostel.

It was Champions League final night, but before watching Arsenal lose to Barca we headed down to the reasonable priced Buena Visa Social Club for some grub.

Cape Town, South Africa
May 19, 2006

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Rain and gray skies again. I was going to do the shark dive again with Erica, but unfortunately it was cancelled because of the weather.



We ended up going to the world of birds. This place was a huge mish mash of birds and animals from around the world. It was all very interesting and it must have contained most of the major birds I'd seen from around Africa + many more.



There were also meerkats, an animal I'd been wanting to see my whole trip.



We thought we'd spend an hour in the place and ended up staying for 4. What a fantastic place, God only knows why this is not in the Lonely Planet guidebook.



Robbie who I did the wine tour with recommended Khaya Nyama (house of meat) for a good restaurant to try game meat. This place beat Mama Africa hands down. Besides the price the quality of the meat was on a different level. I had a starter of smoked meats including springbok, ostrich, crocodile and kudu. Main course was springbok, croc, eland and ostrich. I have to say I loved the springbok, it was so tender it fell from the bone.



Eland was also a nice steaky meat.




If you ever go to Cape Town check out this place and give Mama Africa a miss.