Nairobi - Dar es Salaam - Zanzibar - Rwanda (17-28 October)

We've got some ground to make up now, so you may see things get a little less verbose in this post!

On Friday 17 October we leave Nairobi at 6am for the four hour drive to a small village north-east of the city, to visit our sponsor child Purity. We've been sponsoring Purity for about five years through Compassion International, so we're both excited and nervous on the drive there. After the long drive, it's a surreal moment when we meet Purity. As expected she's quite shy, and only knows a few words in English, but over the course of the day she becomes more comfortable with us, and laughs and talks with us through an interpreter.
We spend a great day there at the development project, which is run in partnership with the local Anglican church. We see their income-generation initiatives including the introduction of milk goats and a fruit plantation demonstrating irrigation methods to villagers. Then we meet Purity's family at their home, where her father Francis proudly shows us his plot of land. Purity's mother Eunice tells us that she wanted to provide some food, but the harvest was not good so they cannot offer anything. When someone in Africa doesn't offer you food, you know it's really because they have nothing. We hope the food parcel that we give to them will provide some short-term relief. After a stop at Purity's school where she proudly introduces us to her classmates, we say our final farewells and head back to Nairobi. It's been an amazing day and not one we'll quickly forget.



On Saturday 18 October we head into the city of Nairobi in the afternoon with Molinter, the eldest daughter of the housekeeper Charles. We take a matatu (minibus), which costs us about AU$0.50 each, and the price means it screams through the city traffic in an effort to get to the destination as quickly as possible. Nairobi is a big, modern city, with some of the craziest traffic known to man. The government has cracked down on petty crime since the post-election violence at the start of this year, so it's now quite safe.
We head to Uhuru Park and the two of us hire a pedal boat on the lake, joining dozens of school-children on excursion. As we pedal away from the jetty we see the police dragging a man out of the water. A boy yells out to us that the man is a thief. The cops drag the thief up on the bank, and beat him viciously around the body and legs with long batons. A number of plain-clothes policemen who have been roaming the park come over to join the beating. We've heard of a zero tolerance approach here, and wonder if the thief will make it out alive. After a while though, he's led away in handcuffs to an unknown fate. The assembled crowd dissipates, and the children return to practising their English on us.

On the morning of Sunday 19 October we head to an English service at church with some friends of the family we're staying with. They're very hospitable and have arranged for us to go to the Nairobi National Park, a large wildlife reserve near the city, in the afternoon. We skip the main park as we've seen all the animals elsewhere in the wild, and instead head to the Animal Orphanage, a home for abandoned and orphaned animals. The highlight is being allowed to go into the enclosure with two young cheetah, a special privilege reserved for foreigners (who, like many places in Africa, pay 10 times the residents' entry fee). Before we pat the cheetah the keeper assures us that cheetah do not attack humans. That turns out, at least in our case, to be true.


Monday 20 October sees us pack up in Nairobi, say our farewells to our very hospitable hosts, and fly to Dar es Salaam where we'll be attending the wedding of Clara, a friend of Mariska's from World Vision, who worked in Australia for 8 months. We're staying with Clara's relatives Mary and Fred, and their two children Eliuter and Anna-Maria, and on our first night back in Dar they take us into the city for some authentic Swahili street food.

One night in Stone Town, Zanzibar a couple weeks back wasn't really enough, and Clara and the family are busy with wedding preparations, so we decide on Tuesday to head back to the intriguing town for a couple of nights. After the three-hour ferry trip we soon find a cheap hotel, and start exploring the maze of streets again. For dinner we head to the Forodhani Gardens street vendors, and buy some great seafood and a sugar cane juice from the crowded, colourful tables.
On Wednesday 22/10 we do some more exploring, and visit some of the buildings we missed last time: the Old Fort - a crumbling stone fort built in 1699, and the House of Wonders - the sultan's former palace, now housing a museum. But just wandering the streets of Stone Town is an attraction in itself - the maze of alleyways is addictive with its with playing children, chatting women, tall old buildings, carved wooden doors, hurtling motor scooters and welcoming calls of "Jambo". After some more wandering on Thursday we take the ferry back to Dar, still with many more streets to explore.


On Friday 24 October we head out to visit a World Vision development project near Dar es Salaam. We get to meet a classroom full of sponsored children writing Christmas cards to their sponsors, and we also visit the family of one of the sponsored children. The girl and her family express their gratefulness for WV's work in the community, and she proudly shows us her school books. The father sends the boys off somewhere, and soon there is a commotion as they chase chickens. A hen is then presented to us with its feet tied, which we have to accept despite knowing that this is a very generous gift for people with so little. We consult the project staff, and take the chicken to a different area, to a very needy family of five orphaned children living with their grandmother.

Saturday is the day of Clara's wedding to Benjamin, and true to 'African time' the 10am service starts at 11am! We understand very little of the Swahili service, but it doesn't matter - it's a privilege to be there. The service incorporates European and African elements, with the women dancing and singing around the couple once the formalities are concluded. The reception dinner is a great celebration, with lots of traditional singing and dancing, speeches, and traditional elements like the women of the groom's family dancing and singing around the bride's mother, as a symbol of respect and gratitude.


After a quiet day on Sunday with our hosts, by 4am on Monday 27 October we're in a tuk-tuk (yes, a tuk-tuk in Dar es Salaam), hurtling to the airport in pouring rain. Our first flight is to Nairobi, and we witness an amazing sunrise over the clouds, and then enjoy magnificent views of the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro from the plane!

After a few hours at Nairobi airport we take our flight to Kigali, Rwanda, and taking in the "Land of a Thousand Hills" is a beautiful sight from the air. This is a beautiful place; Kigali is set on rolling green hills, the gardens are perfectly manicured, and the people are extremely friendly. The people here are desperately trying to put the horrific events of 1994 behind them, and there is a very positive atmosphere, despite the pain which we know lingers for everyone.
In Kigali we're staying with some Australian girls working for World Vision here, and after work they take us into town to look around and grab some dinner. Andrew soon gets a chance to practice his French, which is the official language together with Kinyarwandan.

On Tuesday 28 October we're picked up by World Vision staff, who take us to an urban development project near Kigali. We see classrooms, toilets, water tanks and health centres built through the project, and it's great to see the effective partnership between WV and the local government administration. When the project wraps up it's the local administration who will ensure the effects are lasting.
In the afternoon we head into the city, and with the help of a tailor, André, Mariska buys some local fabric to be made into a dress and bag. The tailor suggests a matching shirt for Andrew. The suggestion is politely declined!

There is so much more to tell of each of these days, but you'll have to wait until we get back!

Today (Wed 29/10) we spent most of the day at the Gisozi Genocide Memorial Centre here in Kigali. If we even attempt to describe the experience, it will be in another post.

The Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater (10-16 October)

Friday 10 October, and we leave camp at about 7am in an attempt to beat the Dar es Salaam traffic. It doesn't work. The 500km journey to the base of Mt Kilimanjaro ends up taking us about 9 hours. There are numerous delays along the way, including a diversion where a new bridge is being constructed. While we wait for the traffic going the other direction, some opportunistic guys sell their wares up and down the queue through truck and bus windows. We buy a bag of local Tanzanian cashews for 2000 Shillings (~AU$2.50) before driving on.
As we approach our overnight stop at Marangu, our truck starts to climb uphill, and in the distance we can see the mass of cloud which covers the imposing peak of Mt Kilimanjaro - Africa's highest mountain. At dusk the cloud clears and we get a glimpse of the magnificent snow-capped summit, as we hear tales of painful ascents from fellow travellers, and Andrew fends off an attack of killer ants.

Saturday 11 October sees us drive to Arusha, Tanzania's third largest city and gateway to the safari circuit of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We spend some time looking around and pay a brief visit to the site of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, before driving on to our camp just outside Arusha, at Mesarani Snake Park. The Snake Park and campsite are separate thankfully, though the enclosure housing half a dozen huge Nile crocodiles is only 10 metres from our tent!

The next day we spend the morning visiting the local Maasai village. Of course we're hardly the first tourists to go through there, but it gives us an interesting insight into their culture. After lunch we hit the road in a new 4WD truck to handle the roads, and after camping for the night at Karatu, on Monday 13th we drive around the Ngorongoro Crater rim en route to the Serengeti. After lunch at the entrance to the Serengeti National Park, the game drive begins.

At first in the Serengeti there are few animals to be found, but the plains are amazing in their own right. Serengeti means "endless plains", and the name is apt. The grasslands seem to stretch on forever under the vast blue expanse of the sky, which seems even bigger for the endlessness of the plains. Soon we follow a couple other vehicles to a collection of rocks, where we find a lion and lioness sunning themselves. Nearby two males lie asleep on another rock. It is amazing to see these majestic animals in the wild. Not far down the road we're fortunate to see three cheetahs sleeping under a tree, five metres from the road! Driving on through the afternoon we see a leopard in the distance up a tree, more lions, giraffe, elephants, hippos, and herds of zebra, wildebeest and antelope.
Our camp for the night is at an unfenced campsite in the Serengeti. Our guides assure us that the animals don't usually come near the campsite, but also tell us stories of elephants walking through the campsite, and lions killing a zebra near the toilet block! During the evening a few hyenas sniff around the campsite for food, and at night we go to sleep to the sounds of animals in the bush beyond the camp.

On Tuesday the 14th we take another game drive around the Serengeti in the morning, before driving back on the ridiculously bumpy road to the Ngorongoro Crater. This is an amazing place for Mariska to spend her birthday! Our camp for the night is at Simba campsite on the rim of the crater, with a magnificent view of the large flat crater below. After dinner, with a glass of red wine, the group launches into Happy Birthday for Mariska, and the Danish girls sing a traditional Danish birthday song. Some armed guards walk past, and when we ask if they've had to shoot animals in this campsite before, they reply 'Many times'. The elephant near the showers decides to keep his distance though, and as far as we know some grazing buffalo and a cold wind are the only things to come through the camp that night.

The next morning we're up at 5:00am so we can get down into the crater early. The sun rises over the crater as we pack up our tent, before our group gets into three Land Cruisers for the steep descent into the crater. The Ngorongoro Crater is about 20km in diameter, and 125km around, and is a large flat expanse of grassland, with just a few patches of rocks and trees, one river and a lake. The Maasai people still inhabit the Conservation Area around the crater, and still venture into the crater to graze their cattle. Apparently the Crater has the highest concentration of predators in Africa, and we feel a little sorry for the zebra, wildebeest and antelope that we encounter - it's really a bit of a smorgasbord in this enclosed space! We spend a few hours driving around the crater, encountering lions, a cheetah in the distance, hippos in the river, flamingoes at the lake, hyenas, and vultures feeding on a dead zebra. In the afternoon we make our ascent out of the crater, and head back to our camp at Mesarani, near Arusha. Being the last night, the campsite staff cook dinner for us, and the group sits around recounting tales from the last four weeks.

The last day of the tour (Thursday 16 October) sees us up before 5am, and we're soon on the road for the 6-7 hour drive to Nairobi in Kenya. We cross the border once again without incident, and arrive in Nairobi just after lunch. Group photos are taken, email addresses exchanged, and the group disperses. It's been an amazing four weeks, we've seen some spectacular sights, met some great people, and had a lot of fun along the way.

After attending to a couple errands in Nairobi, the two of us make our way to our accommodation. We are staying at the home of the mother of a friend of Mariska's, and we're met with a hug by the housekeeper Charles before being treated to a great local dinner of ugali (maize porridge), beef stew, spinach and chapati.


Photos below: Zebras graze on the endless plains of the Serengeti; Lions of the Serengeti; The magnificent Ngorongoro Crater; Wildebeest/dinner in the Crater

Tanzania - Dar es Salaam & Zanzibar (3 - 9 October)

After a final stop in Malawi at Chitimba Beach on Friday 3 October, we cross into Tanzania on the 4th. Going through immigration is pretty painless as most of us have pre-arranged visas, and we're soon on our way heading north-east from the Malawi/Tanzania border. The lanscape in Tanzania is incredibly diverse - we drive through tea and banana plantations, then arid scrubby desert, then through plantations of pine and eucalyptus trees.
After an overnight stop at Iringa in central Tanzania, we get up about usual time (6:00am) and drive throughout the day to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city (but not its capital - for the trivia buffs, Dodoma holds that honour). It is a huge, hectic, bustling mess of a city, and is a very interesting place. Traffic is terrible, but we eventually reach our campsite by the Indian Ocean.

The next day (6/10) our truck dives into the city, where we spend some time wandering the rambling collection of concrete, dirt, rubbish and traffic that is central Dar es Salaam. At midday we make our way to the ferry for Zanzibar, on which we are shownto the 'VIP' section. The term is used loosely, but we find some old armchairs and a few honeymooners, and settle in for the three hour trip.

At Zanzibar Town we have to pass through immigration, as Zanzibar remains somewhat independent from the mainland (Zanzibar and Tanganyika having joined in the 1960s to form Tanzania), and then our group winds its way through narrow streets to our hotel. The two of us decide there's no time to lose in exploring this amazing place, so we head out into Stone Town, the old part of the city.
Stone Town is really an amazing place; a maze of narrow alleys, with tall old buildings on every side, with an equally confusing maze of culture. Africans, Arabs and Indians live side by side here, seemingly in harmony, and it's a fantastic experience wandering through the streets and markets. There are no street signs here, and no cars in the old alleys of Stone Town. Every so often a motor-scooter comes hurtling through the alleyway, sending locals and tourists scurrying. The blend of cultures, architecture, and people in this place is intoxicating, and we hope to come back when we return to Tanzania in a couple weeks.
Next stop is the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Stone Town, built on the site of a former slave market. After paying the entrance fee we make our way to the basement of a building where we find two of the original cells where slaves were kept before being sold. One cannot describe the emotion of being in a place where hundreds of slaves were crammed in barbaric conditions. We sit on the low platform where they would have squatted with no space to stand or sit, and touch the wooden beams above - perhaps touched by unfortunate hands over 100 years ago. It is devastating, and hard to fathom the evil of mankind that he could treat his brothers and sisters in such a way. Just as devastating is the knowledge that slavery continues today in many places.

The next two days (7-8 October) we split from the group, and the two of us go to Kendwa, in the north of Zanzibar. It's a beautiful quiet place with a beach of amazing white sand and sparkling turquoise water, and we spend time relaxing on the beach, swimming and snorkelling. Hopefully the photos will do the place justice. The time passes, and soon it's back to Zanzibar Town, on to the ferry and back to Dar es Salaam, where we spend another night before our trip to the interior begins.

To the Serengeti...

Just a quick update - we're in Arusha, Tanzania about to head off on the safari circuit through the Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti. Looking forward to seeing some lions!

Thanks to those who have sent emails or said hi on Facebook - it's nice to hear from home (not that we're missing it!!). Sorry that we don't have time to respond to everyone individually.

No time to post the details now, but since the last update we've been through northern Malawi, then travelled through Tanzania to Dar es Salaam. We took the ferry to Zanzibar and spent three amazing days there - exploring the maze of culture in Stone Town and relaxing on a stunning beach in Kendwa.
We then headed north-west through Tanzania and last night camped in the shadow of the imposing Mount Kilimanjaro - a spectacular sight.

No internet in the Serengeti I'm guessing, but we should be able to update when we get to Kenya on the 16th.

On a beach in the middle of Africa... (28 September - 2 October 2008)

In Livingstone our Intrepid group splits, and we join up with another group for the journey on to Nairobi. The new group have come from Cape Town through Namibia and then Botswana.

On Sunday 28th September we hit the road at about 7:30am in our big white Intrepid truck, heading for Lusaka, Zambia's capital. We drive for the whole day through Zambian country, villages and towns. For many people traditional semi-subsistence life continues here, and mud-brick thatched-roof huts are accompanied by animal pens, stands of banana trees and small maize crops. The truck stops to buy charcoal from a stall on the side of the road, where women with babies on their back gather around the bags of charcoal, eking out a living.

All along and on the road, a main highway, people walk and ride bikes, and our driver is constantly honking the horn to alert them. Children run out to the road and wave, and people stare as we pass. They know the overland trucks hold the few tourists that venture out here.

We camp for the night just outside Lusaka, a large city which seems to have had money poured into it in the 70s and 80s (judging by the concrete skyscrapers), but hasn't seen much investment since.
On Monday we hit the road again for another long driving day, and camp under the trees at Mama Rula's Camp at Chipata in Zambia, near the Malawi border.

Tuesday morning (30/9) we arrive at the Zambia/Malawi border early in the morning, and a crowd of boys and young men rush over to us carrying eskys full of cold drinks and trays of eggs, hoping for a sale. We get our exit stamp from Zambia, from an immigration official behind a makeshift sign reading "This is a Corruption-Free Zone". The power goes out but no-one bats an eyelid - this is also a computer-free zone. We then pass into Malawi without incident, and it's nice not to have to pay for an entry visa!

Driving on there are instant changes from Zambia. Most of the houses are made of brick, and in front of many homes are brick kilns. The towns and villages we pass are busy and vibrant, and the lanscape is green. We spend a little time in the capital Lilongwe, which is a bustling, quite modern city. Our time is spend visiting the Likuni Mission Hospital just outside town (see Livingstone entry), and it's encouraging to know that our consultation fee for the volunteer Dutch doctor at the private clinic will help provide treatment for those who cannot pay.

In the afternoon we drive to our camp at Senga Bay on Lake Malawi, which is a huge body of water, 500km long; the pride and lifeblood of Malawi. It is a beautiful place where the water stretches out to the horizon, and one can just make out the hills of Mozambique on the other side. Every so often a lone wooden canoe eases past, highlighted against the glimmering water by the fading afternoon sun. The group enjoys relaxing on the beach as the sun sets, with cold drinks including the local Kuche Kuche beer.

On Wednesday we pack up and head to the local craft markets, before heading up the west coast of Lake Malawi. Villages drift pass, as do the faces of hundreds of smiling and shouting children. In the afternoon the truck reaches our destination of Kande Beach, where we decide to upgrade to a beach chalet for the princely sum of US$13 a night!

Kande Beach is a great spot with a sensational long sandy beach. We'll spend two nights here, relaxing and taking in some of the local sights. The village of Kande Beach is right next to our accommodation, which is happily rustic and chilled. Locals play, fish, wash and swim in the Lake, where the water is clear and great for swimming (but not drinking!). This morning we went for a walk through the local village, school and hospital. We met some beautiful children at the school, though it's evident that they are used to tourists and soon ask for money and lollies.

We're just about to head off for a traditional dinner in the local village, though some in the group are concerned about whether their stomach can handle it!

So that brings us up to date. We're half way through this 4 week tour, and are enjoying every second of it. We feel so removed from Australia it's hard to believe we've only been in Africa two weeks.

It's been awesome seeing such diverse sights, and getting to know the others on the tour (a great bunch from Australia, Denmark, UK, Italy, Canada and USA). We're glad though that we have the couple weeks after the tour when we'll get to spend more time with the locals in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Some images below: Dinner in Livingstone with Maria & Trine from Denmark; Breakfast at Senga Bay; Kande Beach; Grade 1 at Kande Beach School.

Mosi-oa-Tunya - The Smoke that Thunders (23-27 September 2008)

Leaving Chobe National Park on Tuesday 23 September, we make our way to the Zambezi River ferry where we will cross from Botswana to Zambia. There is no bridge over the wide river here, and a huge line of trucks waits to cross. We join the crowd of locals waiting to cross on the bank, where music plays from someone's car, people stand around guarding loads of blankets, beer and electronic goods, and a breakfast kiosk of nsima (maize meal and water) is run out of the back of a Subaru station wagon.

Eventually we board the ferry, cross the mighty Zambezi, and pass through Zambia immigration. We are soon back on the truck and make our way to Victoria Falls, or as it is locally known, Mosi-oa-Tunya - the smoke that thunders. Even at low capacity (currently 15% as it's the dry season) the falls are a spectacular sight. Water cascades into the vast chasm which returns the water to the Zambezi. One positive of the low water level is that it enables us to capture some decent pictures - at full flow we'd be soaking wet looking over the falls. Seeing the Falls is a great experience, and we can hardly bear to leave.

The next few days are spent camping at The Waterfront on the Zambezi River, near Livingstone in Zambia. We get a chance to relax, do some washing, and spend some time in the town of Livingstone. There are plenty of tourists here, but up until about five years ago most people visited Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side, so the place is certainly not overdeveloped.

On the main street of Livingstone Andrew seizes his chance to obtain some souvenirs in the form of high face value Zimbabwean bank notes. Surrounded by about six guys, he picks out the best notes and negotiates a price. One of the guys tries to pull a swiftie by keeping some of the notes folded in his hand, but we call his bluff and he hands over the notes and leaves quickly! We walk away, holding 9 bank notes which total about 700 billion Zimbabwean dollars! A young boy of 9 or 10 approaches us and says "Excuse me, that money you bought, it's no good, it's worth nothing." He can't understand us handing over perfectly good Kwacha for worthless Zimbabwean currency. We thank him and explain we just want to look at it. His concern is somewhat placated, but he still seems a little perplexed.

The days in Livingstone include a white-water rafting trip on the Zambezi for Andrew, which includes grade four and five rapids. It is an awesome thrill, though he injures his knee when the guide takes the wrong line and the raft is hurled into a hole in one of the rapids. A visit to a doctor in Livingstone (and then a Dutch doctor later at a mission hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi) confirms that it's just a sprain to the medial ligament, and after some initial concern the recovery seems to be going smoothly. The doctor in Livingstone, a Lieutenant Colonel, bizarrely recounts skits from the Paul Hogan Show, which he used to watch in the middle of Zambia in the 70s and 80s!

Mariska chooses a safer option than the rafting and goes for morning tea at Livingstone Island at the top of Victoria Falls. The trip includes a swim in the Devil's Armchair, a deep pool literally on the edge of the falls! It is a beautiful sight from up there, and the sun paints spectacular rainbows in the mist from the falls.

We spend plenty more time relaxing in Livinstone before moving on, and our time there includes the surreal experience of watching the mighty Cats lose the AFL Grand Final at 7am on Saturday morning, overlooking the Zambezi. Disappointing result, but we're too far away to really care - plus, the Cats won it last year.

Next, it's off to travel through Zambia on our way to Malawi.