TravelStream™ news feed for member maxieduncan on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/maxieduncan en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:04:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249484524/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249484524/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249484524/tpod.html Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:04:53 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Ngorongoro crater was created by the collapse of a massive volcano. The result is a large basin that is kind of sealed off from the rest of the world. On the drive up the hills were covered in thick green foliage and surrounded in mist, quite different than what I'd been expecting but really cool, like a lost world or something. The crater itself was full of animals although we managed to not see any of black rhino that are supposedly there. Still there was a diverse amount of scenery for such a small area with areas of bush, small lakes and rivers dotted over the plain and all surrounded by the steep sides of the crater.As soon as we got to the bottom of the crater we came across some Cheetahs then went off in search of some Rhinos. Although we never found the rhinos we did see Elephants, Flamingos, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Hippos, Hyenas and Lions. The last lion we saw was when all the safari vehicles were leaving and a Lioness was using them as cover to try and get a Gazelle, something it typically failed at.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249398111/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249398111/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249398111/tpod.html Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:19:59 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

This was one part of the trip that I was never going to miss. Going to the Serengeti is one of those things that I've always wanted to do. The Masai Mara which is actually part of the same park, just in a different country, has for whatever reason never had the same appeal.The ride out there was pretty rough as the road is corrugated insanely and the driver seemed to be going a lot faster than he had on the main roads. We'd had lunch at the top of Ngorongoro crater and I think that they take their time to get there as otherwise they'd arrive too early. The cool thing about this safari is that we were in proper land cruisers rather than the mini vans that seem to be used on all the others. It seems a lot more proper somehow.We did a drive for a couple of hours when we got there that night and saw a Leopard walking down the side of the road There were so many other jeeps around though that I didn't manage to get a decent photo of it until it walked of a fair distance. Still after 6 weeks I'd finally seen a Leopard so was quite stoked. The game drive the next morning was better than the one the night before. We saw another Leopard, this time sunning itself on some rocks and a male Lion making a pretty pathetic attempt as it turned out to catch a gazelle. There were also more Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Buffalo, Hippos, Monkeys and Antelopes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249311698/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249311698/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249311698/tpod.html Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:01:54 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Arusha, Tanzania

After another fairly long day sitting on the truck we arrived in Arusha and made our way to the campsite which is part of the snake park in Arusha. It's probably one of the cooler campsites that we stayed at as you can go for a walk and see all the snakes, crocodiles and birds that they keep there. They make a point of saying that the birds that they keep are there because they are either recovering, or are too injured to be released back into the wild. Had a good night at the bar but probably called it quits a bit early as we were heading off to the Serengeti the next day.
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Moshi, Tanzania

We had another transit stop just outside Moshi as we pushed on up to Arusha. Apparently you can get a view of Kilimanjaro from here but we didn't have any such luck, apparently Claire has never seen it yet.
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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The ferry crossing back to Dar was pretty rough and Fergal definitely suffered. We had to make our own way back to the hostel as Claire had headed off early with Margarita in the morning but she'd left pretty detailed instructions with Bruno on what to do. Georgie had stayed behind as she had three days to kill before her flight out and sensibly decided to head back up to Nungwi rather than stay in Dar.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249052455/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249052455/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1249052455/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:49:13 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Stone Town, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania

No one really wanted to head back to Stone Town but Margarita had to get back and so did the rest of us. It was actually pretty enjoyable as we went to the "fish market" in the evening which isn't really a market but a bunch of stalls with guys in chef outfits behind them cooking up skewers of seafood. There was quite a bit of choice and most of it was really good (I had one shell fish skewer that was so chewy I couldn't eat it).Margarita left early in the morning though us guys were pretty slack at saying by, Fergal and Bruno sleeping while I waved and mumbled bye.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248793246/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248793246/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248793246/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:44:30 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Nungwi, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania

Normally the first night is spent in Stone Town but because Margarita had to head back early the trip was changed a bit so that we headed straight up to Nungwi.We took the ferry from Dar across to Zanzibar in the morning and landed at Stone Town. The afternoon involved going on a spice tour which was actually really cool as it described what all the spices were and what they were used for. Quite a few didn't look at all like what you'd expect before they'd been processed. A guy also climbed up a coconut tree for us and they'd made some bags for the girls out of some kind of palm and hats and ties for the guys. We got to sample some spiced teas and sample a bunch of the local fruits which was great. After the spice tour we all jumped in the minivan and headed north to Nungwi, North Beach.Nungwi was fantastic. We spent three nights here and did nothing but eat, drink and smoke till late in the night. Brilliantly chilled out and relaxed time with a bit of swimming and sun bathing thrown in to give us something to do during the day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248706828/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248706828/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248706828/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:36:29 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

After an early start (about 4am) to avoid road works we made it to Dar later in the afternoon. I was able to change some of my travellers cheques which I needed to do since I'd lost my debit card and hadn't worked out that my credit card would give me cash just fine.At the campsite we met Laura the new trainee for Tucan who was going to finish off the rest of the tour with us. At last another kiwi.We'd all booked an upgrade because had sold the huts as being really cool and facing the ocean but the one that me and Fergal had faced back to the camp so we passed and went for the tents.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248620412/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248620412/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/7/1248620412/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:15:25 -0400 Cape Town to Nairobi

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Iringa, Iringa, Tanzania

We weren't looking all that forward to this stop as other trucks had told us that it would be freezing cold but wasn't that bad to be honest. This was just a stop on the way north and there was nothing to do, and no time in any case.Dinner involved quartering up some whole chickens that were apparently fresh off the farm. Pretty easy to do as it turns out.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/8/1252872125/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/8/1252872125/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/maxieduncan/8/1252872125/tpod.html Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:58:41 -0400 Scotland

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Liverpool, England, United Kingdom

So along the way Spindrift talked me into going back to SDG for a few weeks. So from Glasgow it was off to Liverpool, not London.
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