#3 Journey Through Africa: Post Script

The bad taste party was fantastic. You should have seen some of the skimpy outfits that the guys had to wear. Pictures will follow, however the internet connections are quite measly here (plus I blew the fuse on the last campground twice by plugging in my laptop - all their computers died - my still worked just wouldn't charge), so pleace be patient in terms of photos. Maybe I'll have to post them from Canada.

Other than that, we packed up camp and left Lake Malawi behind us. We're currently at Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. Tomorrow we cross the border into Zambia. Unfortunately our houseboat trip got cancelled (we were to spend 3 days on a houseboat in Zimbabwe). Shortages of diesel and some other problems within the country are making that impossible. So our itinerary is changing a bit and I'm not too sure what it will be like. 6 of us were supposed to get our own truck on July 8th and head towards Johannesburg with just 6 of us. However, now that has been moved up to July 4th... we'll see how it goes.

I'll keep you posted - and defintiviely will tell you how the sky-diving at Vic Falls went!


Take care!


Kasia

Everything's good!

#2 Journey Through Africa: Zanzibar to Lilongwe

The last time I posted was from Stonetown in Zanzibar. We arrived there after having scorched ourselves on the beach throughout the entire morning. My first priority upon arriving was to go and see the sunset, for it definitively was a sight not to be missed. As the huge orange ball descended we meandered through the narrow alleyways out to the seafront and watched the silhouettes of the dhow boats as well as all the other fishing vessels out on the water. It was truly an amazing sight.

Couple notes about Stonetown. The whole island of Zanzibar, although part of Tanzania, is currently in the process of filing for independence. It is a primarily Muslim island (I think well over 90% of the population is Muslim). It has its own elections and its own president. Stonetown is its main city and is essentially a larger version of Lamu. Winding alleyways filled with various shops and stalls with women walking down the streets covered from head to toe and men dressed in the traditional white outfits with little hats on their heads. The kids look absolutely adorable dressed like this. I really loved it there and could get lost in the little streets for hours upon hours simply taking the town in one step and one corner at the time. Julita on the other hand wasn’t too fond of it – but it wouldn’t be the only time that we’d have a difference of opinion as to what we liked and what we didn’t.
After the sunset we headed to the local market for some fresh seafood. As usual, the eyes were hungrier than the stomach, for I ordered barracuda, shark, octopus, shellfish and some lobster (all pretty much on skewers). The food was delicious – although not as tasty as it sounds in writing – but I couldn’t even finish half of it. The guy behind the grill, when he came by to clean up our plates said that Julitia’s he’d throw away into the garbage, but my would be his dinner that night.
The next morning was spent roaming and shopping. With the power being out throughout the whole town there was no chance to use the internet, but then we also didn’t have the time for any of it. At 4pm we caught a ferry back to the mainland and for the ride we had at least 4 meter high swells that sent the large catamaran high into the air. Half way through the trip most of us were sitting outside on the stairs trying hard to keep ourselves from throwing up. Somehow, with the exception of one girl, we all managed to keep it in.

The night was spent at the campground in Dar es Salam and from there we headed south towards the Malawi border. The first night of the trip was spent at the Old Farm House an amazing little campground in the southern part of Tanzania. We had driven past amazing countryside and tones of baobab trees (or otherwise known as the upside-down trees – since they look as if they’ve been planed with their roots upwards). At the Old Farm House we got a fantastic meal of carrot soup and some very tasty ugali. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve truly grown to miss ugali. However there was also so much other stuff to eat that I couldn’t fit much of it in, not to mention the brownie that we were served for dessert. The neatest thing though about this site was the fact that it had no electricity. Everything was by candle light, including the showers and toilets. The bar reminded me of a large tee-pee with little stools and a fire in the middle. We all sat around drinking hot chocolate with Amarillo (like Baileys) and gawking up at the star-filled sky.

The next morning we hit the road bright and early and headed towards the boarder. However, truck problems still kept on pestering us and we had to stop for two hours to get some ball-bearings repaired. By the time that was done and by the time we got through all the border formalities, it was too late to continue on all the way to our intended campsite. So we stopped for the night at the northern end of Lake Malawi and decided to make it up in the morning.

Now a couple words about Malawi. Malawi is probably the most beautiful county that I have visited so far in Africa. However, it is also one of the poorest countries in the world (according to the last stats I saw it ranked 7th poorest). Only 10% of young people will find employment after completing their schooling. Corruption and deforestation is also a huge problem. Malawi is also supposedly well known for its wood carvings – and primarily for its Malawi chairs. I had held off on purchasing any statues in Kenya and Tanzania with the intention of doing so in Malawi – where the work was supposed to be much better and much cheaper. Well... I should have known better. When you see something you like, buy it and don’t wait. The carvings here in Malawi are completely different from anything we have seen in Kenya and Tanzania and the stuff that I liked there is completely non-existent here. Well, that’s Malawi.

We’ve spent the last two nights on the shores of this gorgeous lake. And it truly is stunning. It’s 500 km long with amazing blue waters. Due to its unpredictability and the weather conditions on it or something along those lines, it’s also classified as a sea and the waves sure make it seem as one. We roamed through the nearby village here, getting a tour from some of the locals. Most people here either farm or fish or are involved in the tourism industry. Malaria is the biggest health problem that they have here. Marriages used to be arranged originally, but now they can choose. However, it costs about 10,000 Kw for a man to marry a woman. If she lives with him and decides that he is a bad man and she wants to divorce him, then her family will have to pay back the 10,000 Kw (about $100 CAD). I guess it’s a kind of ‘satisfaction or your money back guarantee’. The local school here has 1450 students and 10 teachers – even worse off than anything we had seen in Kenya. However, as I said, the people are incredibly friendly and nice and the country is really beautiful.
We’re spending one more night here – having a bad taste party tonight (all of us purchased the ugliest piece of clothing we could find at a market - for a different member of the truck) and roasting a whole pig on the spit.
Tomorrow we head to Lilongwe (the capital city) and from there on to Zambia. The next time I’ll probably be able to post is from Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls. By then there will be plenty more to tell.

#1 - Journey Through Africa: Nairobi to Zanzibar

We’re now more than a week into our cross-Africa adventure and it truly had a rocky start. I must have been punished for leaving the kids behind in Kirengero because the day after I left them I came down with a horrible cold. At first I didn’t think anything of it, however by the end of the day I was burning up with a fever of well over 40 degrees. We met up with our overland truck ‘Tokolosh’ on June 15th and hit the road bright and early in the morning. I felt like a dead body just sitting and bumping along in one of the seats with absolutely no energy, no voice and a sore throat. However, since my fever had subsided I figured it would soon pass.

A couple words about my mode of travel at this point. I have never been a big fan of organized tours. Quite contrary I despise them and tend to stay as far away from them as possible. My one and only experience with an organized trip was in Egypt and it wasn’t that great. Hence I was very hesitant booking myself onto an overland truck filled with 25 other people for 40 days. First of all you are never certain of the tour company with which you’ll be traveling – some are better than others, some have a whole bunch of hidden charges, some guides are miserable and your whole experience is dependent on them. Furthermore, you never know who will end up on your truck. It could be a bunch of 18 year olds straight out of highschool that only want to get drunk every single night and are impossible to wake up the next morning or it could be a bunch of German birdwatchers in their khaki shorts and matching shirt which are always perfectly folded and lined up. Either one of these groups would not be ideal – it would actually be a nightmare to travel with them. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a good mixture of people and will end up making 25 new friends from all around the world.

So considering the fact that most of my travel has been independent travel where I have the freedom to do anything I want and to travel with whomever I want, I was very hesitant of this trip. However, so far it’s turned out quite good. Absolute Africa seems to be one of the most affordable overland companies out there (nearly $2000 cheaper than most other companies). Secondly, it’s trucks are quite comfortable – we really enjoy our truck. Thirdly, our crew – Tanya and Ben – are super nice, very approachable, fun and have done this trip a number of times hence know quite a bit about all the places. And finally our group is a mixture of older and younger couples and a bunch of individual travellers ranging in age from 17 (one girl) to what I would guess to be a couple in their early 40s. They seem to be a friendly bunch and quite a few of them have travelled extensively independently. They do like to party but they also will make sure that they’re out of bed at 4:30am if need be, so for now I think I’ve been quite lucky and don’t have much to complain about. We’ll see whether I still have the same opinion after the 40 days are over and done with!

But yeah... we crossed the border into Tanzania without any complications – just a matter of paying a $50 visa and you’re set. Our first day was primarily just a drive day with the only noteworthy stop being a Tanzanian gem store selling Tanzanite – a gem that is supposedly 100 times rarer than a diamond, that is only mined in Tanzania and that costs half a fortune anywhere outside of Tanzania. We had the option of purchasing some of it (primarily for investment purposes) but since it ranged in price from a minimum of $80 - $600 per carat, it was a tad bit out of my price ranger. The owner of the store, however, said that he grosses $1.3 million US per month just from the sale of these little rocks!!!! I truly don’t know why he is still working. $1.3 million per month in TANZANIA!!!

We set up camp just outside Arusha at a local campground. The place was quite nice, but by the evening I was starting to get really paranoid about my cold. My fever was back, not as intense as the night before, but nevertheless 39.9 degrees is not something you take lightly (along with a heart rate of 155), especially since a high fever is the primary sign of Malaria. We didn’t want to take a risk so Tanya and Ben took me in to Arusha to a local hospital for a blood test to make sure that it was not Malaria. If I had malaria there would be no Serengeti for me so I was a bit nervous, especially when the doctor reminded me that I was eaten alive by mosquitoes on Lamu. When the results came in I was relieved to find out that it wasn’t malaria but rather an infection of the upper respiratory track which would explain the incredible difficulty that I was having breathing and the intensely sore throat that prevented me from swallowing. I was however given some medication and told to take it with food. Since I had some crackers back in the tent I figured I would wait until we got back. However, when I got back in, the crackers were missing as were two sandwiches that Julita and I had placed in some plastic bags inside our tent. Nothing else was missing – just the food. I have no idea what happened or who would want to take food out of our tent and go through the effort of searching for it, but it was gone.

The next morning we set out on our three day safari into the Serengeti and Norongro Crater. The first day of it is a bit of a blur to me. I had absolutely no energy and couldn’t get myself to move, much less keep my eyes open. So I sat in our jeep and napped having instructed the other 5 people in the car to wake me if they saw anything worthwhile. Hence, every 20 minutes our so I would get up and take some photos of some giraffes, zebras, lions or leopards and then go back to dozing in my seat. The Serengeti truly was amazing and although I wasn’t feeling too great, it was a wonderful day with some phenomenal sightings. We spotted a leopard (which is quite rare) and also saw lions mating as well as a lion kill (the zebra was already dead, but the lionesses were still guarding it waiting for the male lion to arrive). Got some neat pictures and got to sleep in the middle of the Serengeti surrounded by wild howling animals and eating fantastic food.
On the second day we were up bright and early and headed out for another game drive. More lions, tones of zebras later, along with some hippos, wildebeests, giraffes, gazelles, impalas, hyenas, crown cranes, warthogs, buffalos and the list goes on... Unfortunately the wildebeest migration was already further north, but we saw the ruminants of it and that was still quite neat. Other than that we saw plenty of animals to keep us all happy then returned to our camp for lunch, packed up and headed towards the Norongoro Crater were we set up camp right on its rim. The night was freezing cold as was the morning and I must admit that our day spent in the crater was quite disappointing. All the books I had read had said that the Norongro Crater had the largest concentration of wild animals in all of Africa, so I was expecting herds of zebras, giraffes and all the other animals in mass quantities. Well, I should have known better than to expect anything. When you have expectations you always tend to be disappointed. But truly, we sometimes drove around for over half an hour without seeing a single animal. There was barely anything there. We did see some more distant lions, a lone cheetah that was barely visible against the grass and supposedly a black rhino, but it was so far away that even through super-power binoculars I had a hard time determining that it was in fact a rhino. However we did see some roaring hippos which were really neat and baby hyenas which looked adorable (although hyenas must be the ugliest animals out there).


So that was our safari. Overall a decent experience, but not that breathtaking as expected. The next day began with a 5:15am start so that the 10 hour drive day would finish quite early. However within a matter of 3 hours our truck broke down (something with the gear system) and we found ourselves being stuck onto another Absolute Africa truck (that was behind us) and an Acacia truck (another overland company that wasn’t too pleased at having a bunch of people loaded in with them). They day ended up being incredibly long with us arriving in Dar Es Salam nearly 16 hours after having left Arusha. To add to it we were welcomed by trenchal rains and my cold had progressed into a horrible sinus infection that plugged my ears making me completely deaf and giving me a killer headache. The others though had a good time unwinding from the long ride in the bar. One of Tanzania’s most famous rappers was filming a music video there (which supposedly was the most hilarious sight ever – Julita has it all on video). A bunch of people ended up staying up till nearly 5am drinking and were still drunk in the morning when it was time to get up and pack up our tents. And although somehow we managed to leave on time, it was of little use since because of the rains our ferry to Zanzibar was cancelled and postponed by an hour which later on turned into 5 hours.
Finally though we arrived in Zanzibar and were transferred up to the north to some fantastic beaches. The weather still wasn’t that great (nor was the food in the evenings), but we were nevertheless happy to be sleeping in bungalows, having access to warm showers, and having incredibly white beaches just outside of our front door. Our next day was spent relaxing, sun tanning and swimming in the crystal clear blue waters and today was spent shopping, waiting for two hours to be served some miserable seafood and avoiding the torrential rains. Tomorrow we have another morning on the beach (hopefully it will be sunny) and then it’s off to Stone Town.

After Zanzibar we start heading towards Malawi so the next set of postings will be from yet another country.

Only in Africa:
— Will a doctor measure your temperature by holding the back of his hand to your neck.
— Will it take you 2 months to have your very first hot shower. (I finally got to have my first hot shower of the continent on Zanzibar!)
— Will the laundry service at your hotel be dependent on the weather – washing machines and dryers do not exist.

And please do not assume that Africa is hot!!!! It’s a misconception that I myself had when packing for this trip – hence all the spaghetti strapped shirts and shorts that got packed and have yet to be worn. It’s no hotter than Argentina or Chile would be in their winter, especially when you’re at high elevations or when you’re travelling during their rainy season and heading all the way south to Johannesburg! Africa is not ALL sweltering hot.



Kasia


PS: My cold is almost gone – so don’t worry about me.
Julita is enjoying herself and happy with the trip – just regretting the fact that she didn’t book a trip all the way to Cape Town.
We’ve also met up with Lindsay (another one of the GVN volunteers) who reminds me of Kelly.