Saturday 26th May 2007 Murchison Falls Camp
This morning we got up early and caught a ferry across the Nile (quick and efficient!!!) and drove around the reserve on the north side of the river. Hundreds of Kobs ( buck the size of a rietbuck, very similar to impala) (Nev says that’s where kob-webs come from!), thousands of Oribi slightly different to ours, elephants, and buffalo. There were lots of different interesting birds and some tsetse fly too, he he he.
Then we drove back Murchison Falls and saw them from the top. Wow!! They were spectacular. The whole of the massive Nile River is funneled through a chasm 7m wide and 45 m deep in a thunderous turbulent white frightening roar of rushing water. Nothing prepared us for the feeling, even having seen it and the spray from the bottom. We are sleeping tonight right near the top of the falls.
Dave has been a bit off colour, but otherwise everyone is fine. We are all getting along fine.
Friday 25th May 2007 Chili Pepper
Last night I woke up with the sound of the regular movement of a vehicle’s springs……… but as I peered out of the tent in the moonlight to check the noise I couldn’t see anyone’s vehicle moving. Then a huge hippo and its baby came around the corner of a rondavel and chomped its way up to, around and past our landy going chomp chomp chomp chomp at the short grass without a break, not ever even picking up its head. It gently bumped our table on its way past. The next morning the warthogs were skoffeling around the campsite and had to be chased off when they wanted to sit on our chairs. I didn’t whether I was meant to serve them breakfast or not as they looked very expectant.
We went bird watching in the morning, and identified them using my new book bought in Kampala called Birds of East Africa. Birds here are slightly different and some new ones. In the afternoon we took a boat cruise up the Victoria Nile towards the actual falls. There were lots of animals and birds on the shore and in the water, including massive crocs waiting in an eddy below the falls awaiting easy prey of fish stunned or killed by the force of the water. The falls were quite impressive from the distance we saw them.
Thursday 24th May 2007 Chilli Pepper Camp
We traveled to Murchison Falls on yet another rather potholed, but this time a bit better road and arrived at the Chili Pepper campsite near the bank of the Nile River I Murchison Falls National Park. Uneventful day except we had lunch at Masindi Hotel, famous for Ernest Hemmingway’s recouperation after is second, bad aircraft crash in three days while filming in the area. The bar there is named Hemmingways Bar. (Three more punctures on the way, one each - not us so far. Maybe we should mention at this point that we are the only ones with tubeless tyres and wrap-around tread Coopers STT. The punctures lately have been caused by hitting potholes and pinching the tube against the rim.)
We met up with other SA campers whom we had seen on two previous occasions in Kenya. They farmers from Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape and knw the Haupts from Craig Ewan. They are driving through East Africa with two Isuzu bakkies and trailers. When Nev asked what they thought of the roads they pointed to the trailer which they had broken clean in half and had welded up with angle iron, a real make-do job, heavily reinforced and now weighs twice as much, but hopefully won’t break again. They say it is impossible to dodge potholes with trailer. Nev can imagine the trailers bouncing half a meter off the ground behind the bakkies.
Map of Africa
Our route
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Entebbe
Wednesday 23rd May Kampala
We decided to go to Entebbe 40Km away to explore!! Maureen came with us in the Landy to try to find where the 1976 raid occurred. After getting security clearance, and paying our dues, we were taken all around the airport, showing us EVERYTHING, even stuff we would have regarded as being top security. We were taken to the “old airport’ where the Israeli rescue occurred. (Briefly: an Air France airliner was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. The non-Israeli passengers were released and the Israelis held in the plane for ransom of release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli paratroopers, at 10pm, did a surprise rescue, shot all the military personnel at the airport base, shot up the tower, tied up all the airport personnel in the ‘new’ airport and rescued all the Israelis. All the Palestinians were shot, and the Israelis were out of there within 45 minutes. Idi Amin had been there, but had escaped just before the raid. Only an elderly Israeli lady, Dora Bloch, who was in hospital at the time was not rescued, and she disappeared without trace.) It so happened that the driver who was taking us around was one of those who had been tied up in the New Airport. The tower has not been used since, and still has bullet holes in the walls and broken windows. It is going to be turned into a museum.
We then went to a “zoo”, which they rather like to call an animal rescue centre, as none of the animals had been captured from the wild. There we saw the ‘rare and illusive Shoebill stork’. In fact three of them and took millions of photos. We had an overall enjoyable day.
The road and lakeshore from Kampala to Entebbe is continuous houses and shops. It is very developed and has up-market houses and higher middle class houses, more than we have seen anywhere in Africa outside SA as yet. We feel that development is way ahead of the other countries we have been through so far. The other countries do have smart suburbs, but not nearly like Uganda. The city itself is neater, cleaner and even the markets are more orderly and smart. We leave tomorrow for Murchison Falls in the North-west of Uganda.
Uganda has recently increased its milk production from 30,000 l/day to 75,000l/day. They have secured a market of 50tonnes of honey to the EU, but have no honey to sell!! We have been at this house for 5 days now and they have had only 1hour’s water supply in the last 3 days, and have had to buy a tanker of water to fill their reservoir. The electricity has been off every day for at least 12hours per day. They have a huge generator which takes over at these times.
Tuesday 22nd May 2007 Kampala
We have read three newspapers here in Kampala and the only thing mensioned bout SA is that Thabo Mbeki doesn’t believe HIV results in AIDS, and Jacob Zuma believes taking a shower protects you from contracting HIV.
We tried for Ethiopian visa, and told it to collect tomorrow afternoon, so we are stuck in Kampala with itchy feet for another day. Maureen was looking like death so I went to the “International Hospital” with her to see a doctor. Six hours waiting later it turned out she needed more Eltroxin – thank goodness it was only that!! Nev went to shop with the men and went to the butcher with a sign “The only European shopping center in Kampala”, where they bought fillet steak @ R45/Kg, some chickens and some fish.
We decided to go to Entebbe 40Km away to explore!! Maureen came with us in the Landy to try to find where the 1976 raid occurred. After getting security clearance, and paying our dues, we were taken all around the airport, showing us EVERYTHING, even stuff we would have regarded as being top security. We were taken to the “old airport’ where the Israeli rescue occurred. (Briefly: an Air France airliner was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. The non-Israeli passengers were released and the Israelis held in the plane for ransom of release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli paratroopers, at 10pm, did a surprise rescue, shot all the military personnel at the airport base, shot up the tower, tied up all the airport personnel in the ‘new’ airport and rescued all the Israelis. All the Palestinians were shot, and the Israelis were out of there within 45 minutes. Idi Amin had been there, but had escaped just before the raid. Only an elderly Israeli lady, Dora Bloch, who was in hospital at the time was not rescued, and she disappeared without trace.) It so happened that the driver who was taking us around was one of those who had been tied up in the New Airport. The tower has not been used since, and still has bullet holes in the walls and broken windows. It is going to be turned into a museum.
We then went to a “zoo”, which they rather like to call an animal rescue centre, as none of the animals had been captured from the wild. There we saw the ‘rare and illusive Shoebill stork’. In fact three of them and took millions of photos. We had an overall enjoyable day.
The road and lakeshore from Kampala to Entebbe is continuous houses and shops. It is very developed and has up-market houses and higher middle class houses, more than we have seen anywhere in Africa outside SA as yet. We feel that development is way ahead of the other countries we have been through so far. The other countries do have smart suburbs, but not nearly like Uganda. The city itself is neater, cleaner and even the markets are more orderly and smart. We leave tomorrow for Murchison Falls in the North-west of Uganda.
Uganda has recently increased its milk production from 30,000 l/day to 75,000l/day. They have secured a market of 50tonnes of honey to the EU, but have no honey to sell!! We have been at this house for 5 days now and they have had only 1hour’s water supply in the last 3 days, and have had to buy a tanker of water to fill their reservoir. The electricity has been off every day for at least 12hours per day. They have a huge generator which takes over at these times.
Tuesday 22nd May 2007 Kampala
We have read three newspapers here in Kampala and the only thing mensioned bout SA is that Thabo Mbeki doesn’t believe HIV results in AIDS, and Jacob Zuma believes taking a shower protects you from contracting HIV.
We tried for Ethiopian visa, and told it to collect tomorrow afternoon, so we are stuck in Kampala with itchy feet for another day. Maureen was looking like death so I went to the “International Hospital” with her to see a doctor. Six hours waiting later it turned out she needed more Eltroxin – thank goodness it was only that!! Nev went to shop with the men and went to the butcher with a sign “The only European shopping center in Kampala”, where they bought fillet steak @ R45/Kg, some chickens and some fish.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Kampala
Sunday 20th May 2007 Kampala
In Tanzania the ‘taxis’ are standard mountain bikes, or Chinese bikes whose lean and fit drivers peddle away while the passenger sits on the metal carrier at the back. Women sit side-saddle (with their babies, groceries or wares on their laps), men sit astride. But in Kenya this mode of transport has evolved somewhat and they have included colourful padded seats (with fringes of multi-coloured plastic tassels) on the carrier to increase the comfort of the passenger. Some have added decorations in the form of lots of mirrors, wheel mud-flaps with catchy slogans written on them, and other brightly coloured decorations.
Give an African a bicycle and he turns it into a truck!! Everything and anything is piled high and strapped securely onto his carrier. We have seen everything from milk cans, charcoal, cattle fodder, furniture and corrugated iron roofing to crates of eggs, bags of tobacco, and sugar cane. Some piled so high and wide that you cannot see the bike itself. We estimated that some loads must weigh up to 200Kg. Make-shift bicycle repair shops are everywhere of course to cater for this widespread need.
Saturday 19th May 2007 Kampala,
The road between Jinja and Kampala was a comparative breeze!! Of course there were lots of bicycles here too. Tropical forests containing the odd 60m high straight trees (the kind exported to Germany to extract a chemical for prostrate cancer) border the road, interspersed with commercial cane and of course the subsistence farmers. Mini markets of colourful fruit and vegetables are set up at frequent intervals (either side of walking distance) and villages with their roadside shops line the road most of the way. Here in Uganda there is a neatness lacking in Kenya.
We are now at the gracious home of Terry and Rita Esterhuizen, friends of Brian and Maureen. Everyone except Maureen and me (I had a headache and didn’t feel like it) went to watch the Sharks vs Bulls rugby final in a pub in Kampala. I got rid of the headache, while the rest either celebrated or drowned sorrows, depending on whether they were Bulls or Sharks supporters because the Bulls beat the Sharks by one point after full time. Nev chatted to some South Africans who said we should definitely try to get into Rwanda. Most of the ex-SAs still speak Afrikaans, love it here and live the high life of colonialists. Most of them have chauffeurs, luxurious houses, many servants including the 24hour guards who open the gates to their high-walled properties, and state they would never go back to live permanently in SA again. They say corruption is rife, especially with the Chinese. The SAs being the ‘quality controllers’ (for the road constructions) are offered massive bribes to pass sub-standard work. The Chinese skimp on cement for the bridges, culverts etc whenever they think they are not going to be checked up on. Apparently the local Ugandans and Kenyans find it impossible to reject sub-specification work and tell people to do it again.
The road into Kampala was congested but orderly, and not jammed like Dar or chaotic like Nairobi. The roads are being upgraded for the commonwealth summit at the end of the year. New hotels are being built and the city cleaned up. According to the local saying, the ground is so fertile that even if you plant a banana tree upside down it will grow. Temperatures in Kampala are mild mostly between 12 and 26.
Friday 18th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We woke up to rain (again) which had started several hours before and we arranged to go white water rafting on the Nile River just as it comes out of Lake Victoria at Jinja (near the camp, which overlooks the massive river Nile). Fish Eagles call all the time. Willy and Maureen elected to stay in camp so six of us took the leap of faith.
Twelve rapids, four of them grade 5, five flips, laughter, near drownings, huge adrenalin rushes, courage-testing experiences were not for the faint-hearted. Ingrid was really afraid to go and it took lots of courage for her to come along. The first rapid was the worst for me. It was only a grade 3, but tipped four of us out and Brian and I came up underneath the boat. We had been briefed as to what to do: get into the ‘roast chicken’ upside down position and crawl along the underside of the boat till you reach the side. Well, the raft kept swiveling and by the time I got to the side, panic and claustrophobia had set in and my throat had closed and when I breathed in there was this terrible rasping sound which scared everybody including me. I was hauled safely on board and weak and breathless, I took a little time to recover. Then we tackled the rest of the course including a 3m high waterfall which we negotiated successfully. The last rapid, we girls elected to miss, as it was VERY strong. From the vantage point on the bank we saw the raft approaching the rapid. The oarsman threw his oar away, which looked like a matchstick, leaped out the raft and swam for the bank, and our men disappeared into the wave. Dave and Brian came up and were sucked into the next wave and the raft came up with Nev hanging on for dear life. The raft then pitched and flipped, and Nev disappeared for a long, long time and popped up on the other side of the second wave. Dave was sucked down and his cozzy got sucked off and when he was rescued he had nothing on, but he managed to retrieve his cozy somehow from the water. All were rescued safely and agreed that the girls had made a wise decision to miss that one. Afterwards Nev said that while under the water he was thinking about:” wondering how long he could hold his breath, what do we do for fun? What it would be like to drown, Shame, Lorraine will have to drive the Landy home by herself”, and other stupid things, but his life definitely didn’t flash in front of him and it was quite peaceful. We shared the cost of the video, so wait for it.
A South African from Eshowe, Jon Dahl, runs the camp and says he knows the Rosewalls and the Wijnbergs from Eshowe. Again, isn’t it a small world? Has been here 10years and loves it.
Thursday 17th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We went on a guided walk birdwatching and left at about 11am for Uganda. At Kakamega we had 3 punctures fixed from the damage of the potholes from the previous day (not ours- we haven’t had a puncture yet) which delayed un an hour. We took a shortcut on a side road which was far better than the main road but had to meet the main road again. The nightmare journey dodging trucks and heavy vehicles on the bad road was horrific. The over-laden vehicles had made the road sink into two parallel deep tracks and it was difficult to drive as the sump nearly touched the middelmannetjie and the tracks were a bit wider than those of our vehicles so it was hard driving, apart from the potholes.
We went through the border having already got our visas in SA, but had to pay $90 road tax which hurt!! Very friendly border officials. We were very glad to be on a lovely road again in Uganda…… for 50Km. Then WOW!!!. We will not describe this road as it is inexplicable and the traffic was impossible. Well, we survived that adventure and arrived at the campsite in the dark with three women hoarse from shouting WAAAAAAAAAAA at the close shaves and the three men couldn’t stop talking about the chicken runs they had to make when passing slow moving vehicles on eroded, (often, and unexpectedly, only to a single lane) tar with sharp edges and deep, potholed ditches on either side. Dave and Beryl in their Landcruiser with 4.6l petrol engine had zoomed in front, leading the way and our little Landys just didn’t have the acceleration required to pass the heavies safely in the face of oncoming maniacs who wouldn’t give way at all. They were quite cool about everything and couldn’t relate to our hair-raising experiences.
Wednesday 16th May 2007 Kakamega Forest camp
This morning we were visited by many different people before we packed up camp. Some pleaded with us to stay with them and advise them on farming, some wanted us to stay a year. The old man owner of the land insisted that Nev went to see his cattle when he heard that we farmed. He was full of questions and eagerly absorbed the info and advice Nev gave him. He wanted Nev to judge his cows which were small but had potential. The genetics are lacking, and they don’t feed them enough. This area seems to be a very intensive subsistence dairy area because as we traveled away we saw all sorts of containers from plastic containers to milk cans, with milk on the side of the roads being transported by donkey cart, wheel barrows, bicycles, heads and whatever could go (almost like the way we used to do it in the 1950s). This area has unbelievable potential for all kinds of farming because the climate, soil and rainfall are perfect. The colonialists planted a lot of wheat in this area but everything grows here from maize, sugarcane, bananas etc. There are no seasons, and mealies will grow at any time of the year. We see maize at all stages of growth. Some is 4m high at flowering.
Dave and Beryl took photos of the families and printed them out for them on their printer. The rest of us gave them odd gifts, and Brian and Maureen gave the children toys. We eventually managed to tear ourselves away and proceeded to Kakamega Forest, one of the last vestiges of natural forest left in Kenya with huge trees, blue, colobus and red tailed monkeys and over 350 different species of birds. We were right on the equator, had torrential rain in the afternoon and again during the night. We expected it to be warm on the equator with lots of warm rain. But the rain is cold (thank goodness) and it rains every night. (EVERY NIGHT!!!) at this time of the year.
Tuesday 15th May 2007 Farmer’s Camp
Left to go to Kakamega Forest but found Elementeita Lake covered in pink and white areas which through binoculars sowed us they were hundreds of thousands of flamingoes. We stopped there for a while and got a guide to take us nearer the alkaline shallow lake (max depth 1m). Apart from the algae, and flamingoes, nothing else lived in it. Here was a remnant of a small explosive volcano with pyroclastic rocks around. These rocks are full of holes, like fizzy cooldrink relieved fro the pressure of the bottle, the lava had the holes made from the release of the gasses as the volcano suddenly exploded. I couldn’t help but pick up a rock to add to my collection. There was also a little hot spring there.
We proceeded along the main road towards Uganda. Potholes in the tar and off the road made the condition of the road almost impassible and because t getting dark Nev insisted we made camp instead of driving at night I Kenya. Brian had a blowout which sealed the decision and while they were changing their wheel we had to find a safe place to camp.The area was heavily populated with subsistence farmers so we went down a side road and met a young farmer. When he heard that we were looking for a place to sleep he offered us his house. We explained to him that we only needed a piece of ground and he said we could park anywhere on his 20Ha property. The rest of the group joined us and we set up camp and before long we had 30 flabberghasted but friendly spectators, who were immensely interested in us. Everyone responded very positively towards these hosts of ours and it was difficult to cook. Fortunately a sudden very heavy thunderstorm got them scuttling for home, and we had a good night there
In Tanzania the ‘taxis’ are standard mountain bikes, or Chinese bikes whose lean and fit drivers peddle away while the passenger sits on the metal carrier at the back. Women sit side-saddle (with their babies, groceries or wares on their laps), men sit astride. But in Kenya this mode of transport has evolved somewhat and they have included colourful padded seats (with fringes of multi-coloured plastic tassels) on the carrier to increase the comfort of the passenger. Some have added decorations in the form of lots of mirrors, wheel mud-flaps with catchy slogans written on them, and other brightly coloured decorations.
Give an African a bicycle and he turns it into a truck!! Everything and anything is piled high and strapped securely onto his carrier. We have seen everything from milk cans, charcoal, cattle fodder, furniture and corrugated iron roofing to crates of eggs, bags of tobacco, and sugar cane. Some piled so high and wide that you cannot see the bike itself. We estimated that some loads must weigh up to 200Kg. Make-shift bicycle repair shops are everywhere of course to cater for this widespread need.
Saturday 19th May 2007 Kampala,
The road between Jinja and Kampala was a comparative breeze!! Of course there were lots of bicycles here too. Tropical forests containing the odd 60m high straight trees (the kind exported to Germany to extract a chemical for prostrate cancer) border the road, interspersed with commercial cane and of course the subsistence farmers. Mini markets of colourful fruit and vegetables are set up at frequent intervals (either side of walking distance) and villages with their roadside shops line the road most of the way. Here in Uganda there is a neatness lacking in Kenya.
We are now at the gracious home of Terry and Rita Esterhuizen, friends of Brian and Maureen. Everyone except Maureen and me (I had a headache and didn’t feel like it) went to watch the Sharks vs Bulls rugby final in a pub in Kampala. I got rid of the headache, while the rest either celebrated or drowned sorrows, depending on whether they were Bulls or Sharks supporters because the Bulls beat the Sharks by one point after full time. Nev chatted to some South Africans who said we should definitely try to get into Rwanda. Most of the ex-SAs still speak Afrikaans, love it here and live the high life of colonialists. Most of them have chauffeurs, luxurious houses, many servants including the 24hour guards who open the gates to their high-walled properties, and state they would never go back to live permanently in SA again. They say corruption is rife, especially with the Chinese. The SAs being the ‘quality controllers’ (for the road constructions) are offered massive bribes to pass sub-standard work. The Chinese skimp on cement for the bridges, culverts etc whenever they think they are not going to be checked up on. Apparently the local Ugandans and Kenyans find it impossible to reject sub-specification work and tell people to do it again.
The road into Kampala was congested but orderly, and not jammed like Dar or chaotic like Nairobi. The roads are being upgraded for the commonwealth summit at the end of the year. New hotels are being built and the city cleaned up. According to the local saying, the ground is so fertile that even if you plant a banana tree upside down it will grow. Temperatures in Kampala are mild mostly between 12 and 26.
Friday 18th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We woke up to rain (again) which had started several hours before and we arranged to go white water rafting on the Nile River just as it comes out of Lake Victoria at Jinja (near the camp, which overlooks the massive river Nile). Fish Eagles call all the time. Willy and Maureen elected to stay in camp so six of us took the leap of faith.
Twelve rapids, four of them grade 5, five flips, laughter, near drownings, huge adrenalin rushes, courage-testing experiences were not for the faint-hearted. Ingrid was really afraid to go and it took lots of courage for her to come along. The first rapid was the worst for me. It was only a grade 3, but tipped four of us out and Brian and I came up underneath the boat. We had been briefed as to what to do: get into the ‘roast chicken’ upside down position and crawl along the underside of the boat till you reach the side. Well, the raft kept swiveling and by the time I got to the side, panic and claustrophobia had set in and my throat had closed and when I breathed in there was this terrible rasping sound which scared everybody including me. I was hauled safely on board and weak and breathless, I took a little time to recover. Then we tackled the rest of the course including a 3m high waterfall which we negotiated successfully. The last rapid, we girls elected to miss, as it was VERY strong. From the vantage point on the bank we saw the raft approaching the rapid. The oarsman threw his oar away, which looked like a matchstick, leaped out the raft and swam for the bank, and our men disappeared into the wave. Dave and Brian came up and were sucked into the next wave and the raft came up with Nev hanging on for dear life. The raft then pitched and flipped, and Nev disappeared for a long, long time and popped up on the other side of the second wave. Dave was sucked down and his cozzy got sucked off and when he was rescued he had nothing on, but he managed to retrieve his cozy somehow from the water. All were rescued safely and agreed that the girls had made a wise decision to miss that one. Afterwards Nev said that while under the water he was thinking about:” wondering how long he could hold his breath, what do we do for fun? What it would be like to drown, Shame, Lorraine will have to drive the Landy home by herself”, and other stupid things, but his life definitely didn’t flash in front of him and it was quite peaceful. We shared the cost of the video, so wait for it.
A South African from Eshowe, Jon Dahl, runs the camp and says he knows the Rosewalls and the Wijnbergs from Eshowe. Again, isn’t it a small world? Has been here 10years and loves it.
Thursday 17th May 2007 Nile River Explorers Camp
We went on a guided walk birdwatching and left at about 11am for Uganda. At Kakamega we had 3 punctures fixed from the damage of the potholes from the previous day (not ours- we haven’t had a puncture yet) which delayed un an hour. We took a shortcut on a side road which was far better than the main road but had to meet the main road again. The nightmare journey dodging trucks and heavy vehicles on the bad road was horrific. The over-laden vehicles had made the road sink into two parallel deep tracks and it was difficult to drive as the sump nearly touched the middelmannetjie and the tracks were a bit wider than those of our vehicles so it was hard driving, apart from the potholes.
We went through the border having already got our visas in SA, but had to pay $90 road tax which hurt!! Very friendly border officials. We were very glad to be on a lovely road again in Uganda…… for 50Km. Then WOW!!!. We will not describe this road as it is inexplicable and the traffic was impossible. Well, we survived that adventure and arrived at the campsite in the dark with three women hoarse from shouting WAAAAAAAAAAA at the close shaves and the three men couldn’t stop talking about the chicken runs they had to make when passing slow moving vehicles on eroded, (often, and unexpectedly, only to a single lane) tar with sharp edges and deep, potholed ditches on either side. Dave and Beryl in their Landcruiser with 4.6l petrol engine had zoomed in front, leading the way and our little Landys just didn’t have the acceleration required to pass the heavies safely in the face of oncoming maniacs who wouldn’t give way at all. They were quite cool about everything and couldn’t relate to our hair-raising experiences.
Wednesday 16th May 2007 Kakamega Forest camp
This morning we were visited by many different people before we packed up camp. Some pleaded with us to stay with them and advise them on farming, some wanted us to stay a year. The old man owner of the land insisted that Nev went to see his cattle when he heard that we farmed. He was full of questions and eagerly absorbed the info and advice Nev gave him. He wanted Nev to judge his cows which were small but had potential. The genetics are lacking, and they don’t feed them enough. This area seems to be a very intensive subsistence dairy area because as we traveled away we saw all sorts of containers from plastic containers to milk cans, with milk on the side of the roads being transported by donkey cart, wheel barrows, bicycles, heads and whatever could go (almost like the way we used to do it in the 1950s). This area has unbelievable potential for all kinds of farming because the climate, soil and rainfall are perfect. The colonialists planted a lot of wheat in this area but everything grows here from maize, sugarcane, bananas etc. There are no seasons, and mealies will grow at any time of the year. We see maize at all stages of growth. Some is 4m high at flowering.
Dave and Beryl took photos of the families and printed them out for them on their printer. The rest of us gave them odd gifts, and Brian and Maureen gave the children toys. We eventually managed to tear ourselves away and proceeded to Kakamega Forest, one of the last vestiges of natural forest left in Kenya with huge trees, blue, colobus and red tailed monkeys and over 350 different species of birds. We were right on the equator, had torrential rain in the afternoon and again during the night. We expected it to be warm on the equator with lots of warm rain. But the rain is cold (thank goodness) and it rains every night. (EVERY NIGHT!!!) at this time of the year.
Tuesday 15th May 2007 Farmer’s Camp
Left to go to Kakamega Forest but found Elementeita Lake covered in pink and white areas which through binoculars sowed us they were hundreds of thousands of flamingoes. We stopped there for a while and got a guide to take us nearer the alkaline shallow lake (max depth 1m). Apart from the algae, and flamingoes, nothing else lived in it. Here was a remnant of a small explosive volcano with pyroclastic rocks around. These rocks are full of holes, like fizzy cooldrink relieved fro the pressure of the bottle, the lava had the holes made from the release of the gasses as the volcano suddenly exploded. I couldn’t help but pick up a rock to add to my collection. There was also a little hot spring there.
We proceeded along the main road towards Uganda. Potholes in the tar and off the road made the condition of the road almost impassible and because t getting dark Nev insisted we made camp instead of driving at night I Kenya. Brian had a blowout which sealed the decision and while they were changing their wheel we had to find a safe place to camp.The area was heavily populated with subsistence farmers so we went down a side road and met a young farmer. When he heard that we were looking for a place to sleep he offered us his house. We explained to him that we only needed a piece of ground and he said we could park anywhere on his 20Ha property. The rest of the group joined us and we set up camp and before long we had 30 flabberghasted but friendly spectators, who were immensely interested in us. Everyone responded very positively towards these hosts of ours and it was difficult to cook. Fortunately a sudden very heavy thunderstorm got them scuttling for home, and we had a good night there
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday 14th May 2007 Crayfish Camp Site.
We went off on our own, exploring and came across a flower farm and went to the gate and asked to visit their geo-thermal power station. After some sweet-talking (They NEVER allow this!!) the GM agrees, and took us around himself. It was interesting to hear they get steam from 2.15Km beneath the earth and pipe the heat thus generated all around the estate to heat the roses in the tunnels. He then took us to the power station which 2,05Km deep where they extract the steam at 143deg C, at 6bar pressure, and heats pentane liquid to drive the turbines and generates 1,3MegaWatts of electricity which is all used on the farm to drive the pumps and fans and cool rooms etc. The whole place including the tunnels are computer controlled. The power station cost R100mil to set up and they hope to pay it off in 4,5 years.
We continued our drive around Lake Naivasha, unfortunately parking under some roosting cormorants to watch the flamingos and other game, and drove off with a polka spotted tent which smelled like fish!!
We found another small game reserve with water in the extinct crater lake. It’s pH11.5 is very alkoline and the Maasai name for it is ‘castrated bull’, because it is as useless, not having any fish. However the flamingoes love the spirollina algae which cause the water to be emerald green. Continuing around the lake we found commercial dairy, crop and flower farms with many pivots irrigating from the lake. Back at camp we found the rest of the group had spent the whole day in camp. The evening was spent bird-watching on the tranquil lake shore until we had to leave as the hippo wanted to come shore to graze, and we had to make way.
Sunday 13th May 2007 Crayfish Camp Site
We went through the border into Keya, with a transit visa costing US$20 each with no problems. Kenyan side looked like a young Transkei with the overgrazing causing erosion and desertification already setting in. Apart from the very potholed road we arrived at Nairobi and were amazed at how much construction was going on. Kenya is obviously a much wealthier state than Tanzania which is better than Zambia. The traffic is another thing altogether. We though Dar es Sallaam was bad. In Nairobi they were creating 4 lanes in one direction on a two-way road! Traffic approaching, just had to wait. This was a Sunday afternoon and we had never seen so many large trucks on the road, ever! We arrived at Lake Navaisha at Crayfish Camp Site.
Lake Navaisha is part of the Rift Valley Lakes 2000m above sea level and half a degree South of the equator, and very cold. The Lake is surrounded by huge Cut-flower exporting commercial farms. There are thousands and thousands of tunnels with mostly roses, carnations, lizianthus and other flowers.
Today was first day since leaving South Africa that the sun did not shine at all, all day.
Saturday 12th May 2007 Marerani
We were only allowed to stay in the crater for a maximum of 6 hours to prevent congestion and disturbance of the animals, but it was sufficient time to see everything. The crater floor is 23Km diameter and averages 600m deep from the rim, has over 20 000 grazing animals and the largest concentration of predators per Ha in the world. It didn’t disappoint us. As the animals are habituated to vehicles, we could get really close to them without disturbing their activites.
We arrived back at Barry’s place just in time to watch the rugby. Barry and Lynne had not only looked after our vehicles for us, but had spit-braaied wildebeest and warthog for us, and we all celebrated the Shark’s win that evening. Barry and Lynne still support the Sharks and listen to Radio Jakaranda all the way from SA.
Friday 11th May 2007 Gorongoza Crater Lodge
After an early hearty breakfast we set off further north into the Serengeti which means “endless plains” in Maasai. This was where the expected teaming herds of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest had migrated on their way to the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya following the grass. The continual calls from the gnus and zebras filled the air. The the radio told us about the leopard so off we wizzed to a large yellow Fever tree in which the leopard was supposed to be. It must have been funny to see 8 people sticking out of the top of the Cruiser staring at a blatently vacant tree. Within minutes there were four other vehicles with their occupants doing the same thing. Eventually I spotted the leopard in a nearby green tree, almost invisible between the leaves. It was a positive spotting and lots of jokes were thrown around about it being a painting of a leopard. Livingstone said we were lucky that we had visited the park out of season because those four other vehicles would have been 200 in a matter of minutes during peak season.
After lunch we traveled to Ngorogoro Crater Lodge which was just as spectacular as the previous hotel. Every room overlooked the whole crater floor. We were lucky to see the view because the next morning it was totally covered in mist and was drizzling and very very cold. The was a huge very welcome roaring fire in the fireplace.
Thursday 10th May 2007 Seronera Lodge
Bright and early the driver/guide “Livingstone” arrived in a Toyota Landcruiser with 8 passanger seats. We couldn’t believe, once we had set off that Landcruisers had such low power, although it had a 4.2l diesel engine!! It took us a full morning to the entrance to the Serengeti Conservation area which included Ngorogoro Crater and a huge Maasai pastural area. The Maasai cattle were allowed to graze in the conservancy and even water their cattle in the crater. The conservancy area is overgrazed, of course due to the pressure of the cattle and goats. Having had our minds geared for hot weather, being 4 degrees from the equator and having always thought that this was a hot area some of our crew only took shorts and it was unbelievably cold!!!
After the hype about Serengeti we were disappointed in the amount of game we saw. We had to make a huge paradigm shift from the usual looking FOR game to looking AT game!! All the drivers I the park are in radio contact and we were surprised to be told “Now we go to see lion/cheeah/leopard etc” We were peering through binoculars at a group of rocks for the expected cheetah which we couldn’t see there until someone turned round and it was on the other side of the vehicle in the grass with two little cubs. Then off we shot to find the ‘lion in the rocks’ and found it hiding in the bush on the rocks. Then Nev spotted a single lion in a ditch, but Livingstone wasn’t interested because he had been told there was a group of lions next to a water hole a little further. So we sped off to see those instead. Once we changed our attitude it was quite fun saying ‘what are we going to see next Livingstone?’
Finally we arrived at the lodge, a magnificent hotel built around and into the rocks on a koppie. This was pure luxury for us after having camped for two months. After a full buffet dinner we suffered from bloat.
Wednesday 9th May 2007 Meserani
We met up with the other four who had located a friend from South Africa, Barry and Lynne Bales who run a campsite 30Km outside Arusha. They have a wonderful Maasai museum and excellent snake park there, and Barry also has a workshop where he maintains the vehicles for overland safaris. Our spare wheel holder had cracked and Barry fixed it, and while talking to him we found that he had farmed at Donnybrook, and had gone to Weston!!! When he found out Nev had also gone to Weston he refused payment for the work done because Nev was also and old Weston boy. Brian and Willy had both bad experiences in Arusha when someone had broken three of their door locks while were shopping. Nothing was stolen, miraculously. Dave and Bryl went to the internet café in Arusha in the afternoon and someone started to remove their 4-wheel-drive hub while Beryl was sitting in the car!! They had taken 5 of the 7 bolts off before a policeman disturbed them.
Barry persuaded us to go on an organized safari to Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater and it would be much cheaper than doing it on our own because we had foreign registered vehicles. We reluctantly agreed and prepared to leave the next morning.US $390 each. However, it turned out for the best, as we would never have seen what we did see, and it would have cost us twice as much. on our own.
Tuesday 8th May 2007 Colobus Camp
We left Merangu with Dave and Beryl and went to Arusha National Park. We were still fascinated by the rapid contrasts of Marandgu’s Tropical flora of huge bananas, pineapples, tomatoes etc where is rained almost every day during the night and was extremely fertile and lush, and 5Km away the mealies were all shriveled from drought and there is virtually Karroo vegetation. Marangu was at 2000m above sea level, and the drought area was at 1400m.
We continued via Moshi to Arusha park and noticed mountains being’ carved out’ and on closer inspection we discovered that the local people make their own concrete blocks by carving them out of the soft red stone of the mountains for building their houses.
$110 for 24hours was the asking price to enter the reserve. We saw a lot of animals and saw our first troop of black and white colobus monkeys. They have long white hair on their backs which, combined with their white hairy tails looks like they have a snow white hairy blanket on their backs. We have subsequently seen other colobus monkeys (including a little albino baby) and they were not nearly as stunning as those in Arusha Game Reserve. We then drove up a steep rocky road to a viewing point at 2500m half way up Mt Meru, the 5th highest peak in Africa. Looking towards where Mt Kilimanjaro was covered in cloud we felt on top of the world……until we turned and looked behind us at the mountain towering another 2000m above us. Elephant buffalo and bushbuck live up there, and although 4 degrees South ie 4 deg off the equator, it was very cold. We vivisted the extict volcano in the park, a miniature Ngorogoro 3Km across with some buffalo on the crater floor.
We went off on our own, exploring and came across a flower farm and went to the gate and asked to visit their geo-thermal power station. After some sweet-talking (They NEVER allow this!!) the GM agrees, and took us around himself. It was interesting to hear they get steam from 2.15Km beneath the earth and pipe the heat thus generated all around the estate to heat the roses in the tunnels. He then took us to the power station which 2,05Km deep where they extract the steam at 143deg C, at 6bar pressure, and heats pentane liquid to drive the turbines and generates 1,3MegaWatts of electricity which is all used on the farm to drive the pumps and fans and cool rooms etc. The whole place including the tunnels are computer controlled. The power station cost R100mil to set up and they hope to pay it off in 4,5 years.
We continued our drive around Lake Naivasha, unfortunately parking under some roosting cormorants to watch the flamingos and other game, and drove off with a polka spotted tent which smelled like fish!!
We found another small game reserve with water in the extinct crater lake. It’s pH11.5 is very alkoline and the Maasai name for it is ‘castrated bull’, because it is as useless, not having any fish. However the flamingoes love the spirollina algae which cause the water to be emerald green. Continuing around the lake we found commercial dairy, crop and flower farms with many pivots irrigating from the lake. Back at camp we found the rest of the group had spent the whole day in camp. The evening was spent bird-watching on the tranquil lake shore until we had to leave as the hippo wanted to come shore to graze, and we had to make way.
Sunday 13th May 2007 Crayfish Camp Site
We went through the border into Keya, with a transit visa costing US$20 each with no problems. Kenyan side looked like a young Transkei with the overgrazing causing erosion and desertification already setting in. Apart from the very potholed road we arrived at Nairobi and were amazed at how much construction was going on. Kenya is obviously a much wealthier state than Tanzania which is better than Zambia. The traffic is another thing altogether. We though Dar es Sallaam was bad. In Nairobi they were creating 4 lanes in one direction on a two-way road! Traffic approaching, just had to wait. This was a Sunday afternoon and we had never seen so many large trucks on the road, ever! We arrived at Lake Navaisha at Crayfish Camp Site.
Lake Navaisha is part of the Rift Valley Lakes 2000m above sea level and half a degree South of the equator, and very cold. The Lake is surrounded by huge Cut-flower exporting commercial farms. There are thousands and thousands of tunnels with mostly roses, carnations, lizianthus and other flowers.
Today was first day since leaving South Africa that the sun did not shine at all, all day.
Saturday 12th May 2007 Marerani
We were only allowed to stay in the crater for a maximum of 6 hours to prevent congestion and disturbance of the animals, but it was sufficient time to see everything. The crater floor is 23Km diameter and averages 600m deep from the rim, has over 20 000 grazing animals and the largest concentration of predators per Ha in the world. It didn’t disappoint us. As the animals are habituated to vehicles, we could get really close to them without disturbing their activites.
We arrived back at Barry’s place just in time to watch the rugby. Barry and Lynne had not only looked after our vehicles for us, but had spit-braaied wildebeest and warthog for us, and we all celebrated the Shark’s win that evening. Barry and Lynne still support the Sharks and listen to Radio Jakaranda all the way from SA.
Friday 11th May 2007 Gorongoza Crater Lodge
After an early hearty breakfast we set off further north into the Serengeti which means “endless plains” in Maasai. This was where the expected teaming herds of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest had migrated on their way to the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya following the grass. The continual calls from the gnus and zebras filled the air. The the radio told us about the leopard so off we wizzed to a large yellow Fever tree in which the leopard was supposed to be. It must have been funny to see 8 people sticking out of the top of the Cruiser staring at a blatently vacant tree. Within minutes there were four other vehicles with their occupants doing the same thing. Eventually I spotted the leopard in a nearby green tree, almost invisible between the leaves. It was a positive spotting and lots of jokes were thrown around about it being a painting of a leopard. Livingstone said we were lucky that we had visited the park out of season because those four other vehicles would have been 200 in a matter of minutes during peak season.
After lunch we traveled to Ngorogoro Crater Lodge which was just as spectacular as the previous hotel. Every room overlooked the whole crater floor. We were lucky to see the view because the next morning it was totally covered in mist and was drizzling and very very cold. The was a huge very welcome roaring fire in the fireplace.
Thursday 10th May 2007 Seronera Lodge
Bright and early the driver/guide “Livingstone” arrived in a Toyota Landcruiser with 8 passanger seats. We couldn’t believe, once we had set off that Landcruisers had such low power, although it had a 4.2l diesel engine!! It took us a full morning to the entrance to the Serengeti Conservation area which included Ngorogoro Crater and a huge Maasai pastural area. The Maasai cattle were allowed to graze in the conservancy and even water their cattle in the crater. The conservancy area is overgrazed, of course due to the pressure of the cattle and goats. Having had our minds geared for hot weather, being 4 degrees from the equator and having always thought that this was a hot area some of our crew only took shorts and it was unbelievably cold!!!
After the hype about Serengeti we were disappointed in the amount of game we saw. We had to make a huge paradigm shift from the usual looking FOR game to looking AT game!! All the drivers I the park are in radio contact and we were surprised to be told “Now we go to see lion/cheeah/leopard etc” We were peering through binoculars at a group of rocks for the expected cheetah which we couldn’t see there until someone turned round and it was on the other side of the vehicle in the grass with two little cubs. Then off we shot to find the ‘lion in the rocks’ and found it hiding in the bush on the rocks. Then Nev spotted a single lion in a ditch, but Livingstone wasn’t interested because he had been told there was a group of lions next to a water hole a little further. So we sped off to see those instead. Once we changed our attitude it was quite fun saying ‘what are we going to see next Livingstone?’
Finally we arrived at the lodge, a magnificent hotel built around and into the rocks on a koppie. This was pure luxury for us after having camped for two months. After a full buffet dinner we suffered from bloat.
Wednesday 9th May 2007 Meserani
We met up with the other four who had located a friend from South Africa, Barry and Lynne Bales who run a campsite 30Km outside Arusha. They have a wonderful Maasai museum and excellent snake park there, and Barry also has a workshop where he maintains the vehicles for overland safaris. Our spare wheel holder had cracked and Barry fixed it, and while talking to him we found that he had farmed at Donnybrook, and had gone to Weston!!! When he found out Nev had also gone to Weston he refused payment for the work done because Nev was also and old Weston boy. Brian and Willy had both bad experiences in Arusha when someone had broken three of their door locks while were shopping. Nothing was stolen, miraculously. Dave and Bryl went to the internet café in Arusha in the afternoon and someone started to remove their 4-wheel-drive hub while Beryl was sitting in the car!! They had taken 5 of the 7 bolts off before a policeman disturbed them.
Barry persuaded us to go on an organized safari to Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater and it would be much cheaper than doing it on our own because we had foreign registered vehicles. We reluctantly agreed and prepared to leave the next morning.US $390 each. However, it turned out for the best, as we would never have seen what we did see, and it would have cost us twice as much. on our own.
Tuesday 8th May 2007 Colobus Camp
We left Merangu with Dave and Beryl and went to Arusha National Park. We were still fascinated by the rapid contrasts of Marandgu’s Tropical flora of huge bananas, pineapples, tomatoes etc where is rained almost every day during the night and was extremely fertile and lush, and 5Km away the mealies were all shriveled from drought and there is virtually Karroo vegetation. Marangu was at 2000m above sea level, and the drought area was at 1400m.
We continued via Moshi to Arusha park and noticed mountains being’ carved out’ and on closer inspection we discovered that the local people make their own concrete blocks by carving them out of the soft red stone of the mountains for building their houses.
$110 for 24hours was the asking price to enter the reserve. We saw a lot of animals and saw our first troop of black and white colobus monkeys. They have long white hair on their backs which, combined with their white hairy tails looks like they have a snow white hairy blanket on their backs. We have subsequently seen other colobus monkeys (including a little albino baby) and they were not nearly as stunning as those in Arusha Game Reserve. We then drove up a steep rocky road to a viewing point at 2500m half way up Mt Meru, the 5th highest peak in Africa. Looking towards where Mt Kilimanjaro was covered in cloud we felt on top of the world……until we turned and looked behind us at the mountain towering another 2000m above us. Elephant buffalo and bushbuck live up there, and although 4 degrees South ie 4 deg off the equator, it was very cold. We vivisted the extict volcano in the park, a miniature Ngorogoro 3Km across with some buffalo on the crater floor.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Mt Kilimanjaro
Monday 7th May 2007 Marangu Hotel Camp
Today we were woken by an excited Dave who had risen early to check the cloud cover over Mt Kili. It was clear so we put on the first clothes we could grab (Nev put on my jacket which was miles too small) and trotted out in the dewy-wet morning with our cameras to record the lucky event. At this time of the year with the rains and clouds we were very lucky to see the glistening white glacier at the summit of the 5895m high Uhuru mountain peak. The jaggered right hand 5149m high Mawenzi looked higher, but that was because it was closer.
We took a guide to show us the way to the extinct crater lake of Lake Chala. It is 3Km diameter and filled with turquoise crystal clear water. The surrounding 90 degrees forest-covered cliffs drop at into the bottomless fathoms. It is an amazing oasis which drops unexpectedly into the dry acacia and Euphorbia covered landscape where subsistence farmers eke out a living from the fertile, but dry Karroo-type soil.
The next part of our trip took us up the slopes of Mt Kili again through tropical forests of bananas with wild Busy-lizzies flowering on the damp moss covered roadsides. Our destination, a huge, stone, 106 year old Catholic church with beautiful stained-glass windows.
Then we went down the mountain to see the colourful Marangu market where we stocked up with six eggs at R1 each, two avocado pears at R1.50 each and four tomatoes for R1.50.
Our heavy-duty LHS back spring suddenly broke on the way, so we carefully drove around and after a drink at the local tavern with our friends, went off to Moshi to repair the damage. We had to fit two light-duty springs, as the nearest supply of heavy-duty ones was in Nairobi. The Landrover place replaced the brake-pads while they had all the wheels off Tsh250000 ($200) for the lot. The spring had a weak, corroded spot about 1/3 of the way through which had caused it to break.
Sunday 6th May 2007 Marangu Hotel Camp
While waiting for Dave to get his brakes fixed we went to the lovely Kinukamori waterfall and cultural display of sculptures depicting local folklore. It was very well done and, although not spectacular, well worth supporting the community who are running it. A trip to Moshi to see the country around Mt Kili revealed the stark difference between the cool, lush and fertile slopes of the mountain and the hot, dry acacia Karroo landscape on the flats surrounding it.
The group re-united having had problems with Brian’s Landy when the prop-shaft fell off!! No serious damage, but had to drive in2-wheel drive till he was able to fix it. They had an interesting but exhausting 5-hour walk in the steep, lush and spectacular Usambara mountains, taking in the spectacular but chilly scenery in the mountains and thrilling views across the plains.
Saturday 5th May 2007 Marangu Hotel camp
The long road to Marangu was uneventful except for Dave having another puncture. We listened to book tapes to relieve the boredom of hot dry acacia-filled flats, while avoiding the maniacal, crabbing, center-pin-less busses intent on suicide and wiping us out while doing it, whether approaching at break-neck speed or side-swiping us while overtaking. The many police road-blocks with police in crisp, snow-white uniforms were busy checking the passing busses and did not bother with us at all.
Friday 4th May 2007 Lily Pad Quarry camp
Morning saw us getting our Landy cleaned at a car-wash to get rid of the caked-on mud. Every time they sprayed my door I got a foot-wash because Landys aren’t very water-proof. Then we spent two hours getting across Dar to find the BP depot to get our gas cylinders refilled. It took us the whole afternoon because of the go-slow as Nev refused to bribe the man with the requested Tsh5000, (R30). Driving west at 5pm into the sun out of Dar was rather uncomfortable, and we made slow headway. On the road to Chalinze after dark we found a quarry with ponds of water-lilly pads and Dave, Beryl and we made camp there that night with the sound of traffic all night long. During the night I heard a “motar bomb” exploding and on our way out we found two trucks had collided head on, which explained the noise.
Our friends stayed at Dar to complete their repairs, intending to go to Lushoto in the Ushabara mountains before meeting us in Marangu.
We made our way to Tanga, a Tanzanian surprise! It is one of the few places we have seen which is prospering. There is a cement factory and huge sisal plantations which have started to bring money into Tanga. Instead of dhows in the harbour there was a yacht club with expensive ski boats and yachts anchored in the mangrove-surrounded bay. New homes and renovations were being done in the ‘elite’ peninsular. We stayed in the up-market Kiboko Hotel grounds where a fat little Swiss bod who had been there for 25years welcomed us with genial hospitality.
Thursday 3rd May 2007 Silver Sands
Hope the others can complete their repairs as we are looking forward to leaving Dar. Shopped and found an internet café and slept the night in the same place waiting for completion of vehicle repairs.
Today we were woken by an excited Dave who had risen early to check the cloud cover over Mt Kili. It was clear so we put on the first clothes we could grab (Nev put on my jacket which was miles too small) and trotted out in the dewy-wet morning with our cameras to record the lucky event. At this time of the year with the rains and clouds we were very lucky to see the glistening white glacier at the summit of the 5895m high Uhuru mountain peak. The jaggered right hand 5149m high Mawenzi looked higher, but that was because it was closer.
We took a guide to show us the way to the extinct crater lake of Lake Chala. It is 3Km diameter and filled with turquoise crystal clear water. The surrounding 90 degrees forest-covered cliffs drop at into the bottomless fathoms. It is an amazing oasis which drops unexpectedly into the dry acacia and Euphorbia covered landscape where subsistence farmers eke out a living from the fertile, but dry Karroo-type soil.
The next part of our trip took us up the slopes of Mt Kili again through tropical forests of bananas with wild Busy-lizzies flowering on the damp moss covered roadsides. Our destination, a huge, stone, 106 year old Catholic church with beautiful stained-glass windows.
Then we went down the mountain to see the colourful Marangu market where we stocked up with six eggs at R1 each, two avocado pears at R1.50 each and four tomatoes for R1.50.
Our heavy-duty LHS back spring suddenly broke on the way, so we carefully drove around and after a drink at the local tavern with our friends, went off to Moshi to repair the damage. We had to fit two light-duty springs, as the nearest supply of heavy-duty ones was in Nairobi. The Landrover place replaced the brake-pads while they had all the wheels off Tsh250000 ($200) for the lot. The spring had a weak, corroded spot about 1/3 of the way through which had caused it to break.
Sunday 6th May 2007 Marangu Hotel Camp
While waiting for Dave to get his brakes fixed we went to the lovely Kinukamori waterfall and cultural display of sculptures depicting local folklore. It was very well done and, although not spectacular, well worth supporting the community who are running it. A trip to Moshi to see the country around Mt Kili revealed the stark difference between the cool, lush and fertile slopes of the mountain and the hot, dry acacia Karroo landscape on the flats surrounding it.
The group re-united having had problems with Brian’s Landy when the prop-shaft fell off!! No serious damage, but had to drive in2-wheel drive till he was able to fix it. They had an interesting but exhausting 5-hour walk in the steep, lush and spectacular Usambara mountains, taking in the spectacular but chilly scenery in the mountains and thrilling views across the plains.
Saturday 5th May 2007 Marangu Hotel camp
The long road to Marangu was uneventful except for Dave having another puncture. We listened to book tapes to relieve the boredom of hot dry acacia-filled flats, while avoiding the maniacal, crabbing, center-pin-less busses intent on suicide and wiping us out while doing it, whether approaching at break-neck speed or side-swiping us while overtaking. The many police road-blocks with police in crisp, snow-white uniforms were busy checking the passing busses and did not bother with us at all.
Friday 4th May 2007 Lily Pad Quarry camp
Morning saw us getting our Landy cleaned at a car-wash to get rid of the caked-on mud. Every time they sprayed my door I got a foot-wash because Landys aren’t very water-proof. Then we spent two hours getting across Dar to find the BP depot to get our gas cylinders refilled. It took us the whole afternoon because of the go-slow as Nev refused to bribe the man with the requested Tsh5000, (R30). Driving west at 5pm into the sun out of Dar was rather uncomfortable, and we made slow headway. On the road to Chalinze after dark we found a quarry with ponds of water-lilly pads and Dave, Beryl and we made camp there that night with the sound of traffic all night long. During the night I heard a “motar bomb” exploding and on our way out we found two trucks had collided head on, which explained the noise.
Our friends stayed at Dar to complete their repairs, intending to go to Lushoto in the Ushabara mountains before meeting us in Marangu.
We made our way to Tanga, a Tanzanian surprise! It is one of the few places we have seen which is prospering. There is a cement factory and huge sisal plantations which have started to bring money into Tanga. Instead of dhows in the harbour there was a yacht club with expensive ski boats and yachts anchored in the mangrove-surrounded bay. New homes and renovations were being done in the ‘elite’ peninsular. We stayed in the up-market Kiboko Hotel grounds where a fat little Swiss bod who had been there for 25years welcomed us with genial hospitality.
Thursday 3rd May 2007 Silver Sands
Hope the others can complete their repairs as we are looking forward to leaving Dar. Shopped and found an internet café and slept the night in the same place waiting for completion of vehicle repairs.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
070503 Dar es Salaam
Wednesday 2nd May Silver Sands
We all spent an interesting and frustrating day battling the traffic (it took us 2 hours to get into Dar to the Landrover gararge). Our problem was loose bolts in the suspension and had to do a service. Willy had brake, suspension and tyre problems. Brian had brake master cylinder problems. Dave’s Landcruiser had no brake linings left and is still having overheating problems caused by wiring faults. The soup we had travelled through, and overuse had caused the brake problems. Hehehe, our brakes were fine because of Nev’s method of driving using the correct gear rather than brakes, like one would drive a 10tonne truck. Hope this method carries on working. Willy has gone through two sets of brake linings already and messed up his drums.
We have torrential rains several times a day with the sun shining hotly between the squalls. The drainage system in the city cannot handle all the water and the streets and pavements are continually being flooded. Everyone arrived back in camp in foul moods, Nev muttering “Give me mud and potholes rather than this traffic” as it took us 2 hours to travel the 15Km. It was with relief that we found that there were no exceptions to this, and we could all laugh about our experiences.
The drivers here are different to in SA. If you want to enter the traffic from a side road you put up your hand and just go. The other cars, patiently give way. It is not odd to drive up the pavement, and if you are really in a hurry you put your flashing lights on and drive on the opposite side of the road with no problem.
Pedestrians and bicycles are everywhere. Walking is faster in most places than cars.
There are stalls on the side of the road selling roasted mealies, boiled eggs and pealed oranges. Fast food Tanzanian style! For the health conscious, other fresh fruit: mangoes, pawpaws and bananas. There are very few overweight people in Tanzania and most are lean and healthy looking. They walk briskly despite the heat, if they aren’t sitting around. We passed a group of young men milling around looking like they were going to pick up litter. The got into a line, crouched down and suddenly took off, racing each other at a sprint. We don’t know what happened after that as we were going in the opposite direction, but it was really funny to see.
Although the vehicles have been imported from SA, vehicles are 25% are cheaper here than in SA. Spares are cheaper, and labour charges are half the SA price. Cell calls are almost free. South Africans are being ripped off!!!
Tuesday 1st May 2007, Silver Sands Camp, Dar es Salaam
We walked to a community conservation turtle sanctuary. Very poor. The lighthouse on the tip was not allowed to be photographed for an unknown reason. We went for another quick and painful ride around the lodges on the northern coast and decided that our camp had the best beach. We headed back to the harbour to catch the ferry. This one was smaller and the sea was really rough. The ferry was leaping like a horse through water, and corkscrewing over the swells. The passengers were getting seasick, including Dave and Maureen, but we were fine. I thought the movement was great fun and sat up riding the waves like I would a horse.
We found our vehicles and headed for the campsite Siver Sands on the northern shore of Dar. It was nice to be back in our little ‘home’, although Zanzibar is wonderful.
Monday 30th April 2007 Zanzibar
Next day we went for a snorkel off the shore. I was just about to comment that every focus was a “wow!” moment when I started to feel uncomfortable pricking sensations on my arms and legs. We were being stung by some jelly fish things which looked like a string of actively swimming frogs’ eggs. No lasting damage, but we left that area to snorkel elsewhere. Visibility in the water was close to 20m, unbelievably clear. The sands on the beaches are pure white (originating from limestone), brochure book examples with dhows and mocorros making a beautiful picture.
We hired a motor bike and toured the north eastern shores and interior of the island. All the cattle are tethered to the sides of the road while most of the land is cropped with rice, cocoanuts (tall for oil and cooking, short dwarf ones for the milk), bananas, spices (which we didn’t see), a rubber industry and many other things. The baobabs were very short as there was stone all over the island and they cant get their roots down. On the lower east coast they were clearing the bush and planting trees which they cut for building their houses. Most of the houses were mud and limestone with palm-leaf thatched roofs. They were cutting out and destroying hundreds of 3m high cycads which made us cry as they must have been hundreds of years old. It rains here several times a day, hard for about 15 minutes, then the sun comes out. So we got soaked through and then blow-dried in minutes. The rain doesn’t phase the locals who just carry on with their lives unperturbed. By the time we were half way back our backsides were numb and raw from the uncomfortable seat.
Back on the beach we saw a snaking water spout over the sea that lasted for 10 minutes, about at least 1Km high into the swirling black clouds. We could see how it was sucking the water out of the sea. Someone must have had salty rain somewhere when it eventually came down.
Sunday 29th April 2007 Zanzibar
Our group separated for the morning and we explored Stone Town at our own pace. Stone Town is a living village inhabited by people going about their everyday business, not a town especially for tourists. A guide found us and took us on a tour of the Town, explaining the history of the buildings and the local culture. We were taken into a Hindu Temple where a young scholar explained the gods to us, the museum, Portuguese fort from 16th century, the last slave market, Sultans mansion from 14th century. The Arabic doors were made of solid wood with huge brass knobs and intricate carvings. The more elaborate the door, the higher the status of the owner. The brass knobs were a fashion originally from the Arabian method of protecting their houses against attack by war elephants. The best part for us was the market area. There were literally hundreds of tiny shops selling everything from spices and kangas, to hardware and shoes. In fact, everything except motor cars and electrical goods. We watched the daily catch being auctioned at the fish market. The chicken market had live chickens in baskets right there next to the plucked fowls displayed on the counters. All kinds of locally grown fruit and veges were displayed by their growers. We tasted the delicious Jack Fruit cut up with great dexterity by a man with a huge dagger. At the meat section you could choose your favourite cut from the quarters of cattle and goats lying on the concrete counters in front of you. There was an atmosphere of bustling organized chaos. Do you think Africa will ever change? Why would we want it to?
Just before lunch we all met up and were taken on a “Spice tour”. Lunch at the farm consisted of Pilau Rice (spiced rice) with two types of sauces, made from the locally grown ingredients and natural spices, and casava tips as a green vegetable. The yellow sauce (made with cocoanut milk) on the rice was voted the most delicious. We were then taken around the spice, herb and tree garden “African style” (no paths) with everything scattered and growing amongst the weeds. Our guide showed us and explained the uses of some forty different plants while the youngsters continually surprised us with gifts of baskets, hats, ties, rings and necklaces they were weaving for us out of palm leaves while we toured the 2Ha area.
We then proceeded to our hotel 40Km north of Zanzibar Town to the very northern tip of the island, Nungwe. This was also a 1-star hotel where we found someone fast asleep in our allocated bedroom. We responded angrily by telling them to change the sheets, curtains and paint the place out – joking, but they did change the sheets. The mozzie nets had holes so we added the net from the other bed to try to prevent being eaten, but we still had to do mozzie hunting a few times in the middle of the night, unfortunately leaving blood splattered marks around. It never ceases to amaze us that the showers are almost dircly over the toilets. The toilets get soaked and going to the toilets involve getting wet feet wherever you go. The are no walls around the shower to contain the water. It could be time saving as one could do two jobs in one.
Saturday 28th April 2007 Coco De Mer Zanzibar
We drove around the water inlet at Dar es Salaam rather than going over the ferry, and encountered the filth and slum area of Dar. Unbelievable stench from rotting human detritus! The traffic was so slow moving that the pedestrians were walking faster than the traffic was moving most of the time. We kept passing the same group of people, who kept passing us again. I covered my head with a scarf (Muslim style) as I started to feel like the men were gawking at me. At a roundabout all the traffic came to a complete standstill for 15 minutes while we wondered what had happened and eventually Nev walked up to see whether there was an accident. Just then a cavalcade of police escorting some dignitary whizzed past with sirens blaring and lights flashing. We got to the harbour to arrange the ferry crossing and accommodation in Zanzibar. The touts mobbed us, all trying to earn their commission by getting customers to their travel and hotel accomodation agent. The books warn of unscrupulous dealers who overcharge or rip you off so we were very very suspicious and wary. I sat sweltering in the car while Nev and some others went to book. I was continually approached by people selling wares and they wouldn’t go away until I started to speak to them in Swahili and then they were greatly amused and very much more respectful and friendly and stopped trying to sell, instead chatted about BafanaBafana, 2010, and South Africa!
Meanwhile Nev and them were bargaining for hotel accommodation on Zanzibar, and sorted it out, not knowing really what we were in for. We then left to park the cars at Brian’s cousin’s firm’s place (previously arranged) and got lost. We had to load a local friendly bod who kindly took us there. We caught taxis back to the harbour and eventually left on the high-speed luxury” ferry Sea Bus III” at 4.30pm, one hour late. The crossing was uneventful except Maureen got seasick. We arrived in Zanzibar in the dark wondering how we were going to get to the hotel.
We were amazed and surprised when we were met at the harbour by a taximan who took us to the hotel, a 1-star Coco De Mer, clean sheets, hot shower, and aircon, situated down a dingy lane in Stone Town.
York in Britain, is nothing compared to Stone Town, with its wiggly maze of little lanes made by three story buildings of a mixture of Arabic, English and German architecture. Some of the Lanes are so narrow that it was difficult for 2 people to pass. We continually got lost and had to ask locals to guide us out, which they gladly did for a small fee. That night we went to the sea front where they have a highly atmospheric open air fish braai market with a variety of raw seafood displayed, lit by paraffin lamps. Everything from the display of the food, to the cooking methods to the eating, paying, and garbage disposal would have been condemned by the hygiene standards in any first world country, but it all contributed to a wonderfully ethnic, vibrant and exciting atmosphere with delicious selection of locally caught seafood. Crab, prawns, crayfish, calamari, octopus, squid and sea fish were on offer at ridiculously low prices. The choice was grilled on open fires. We loved the sugar cane juice which was produced by crushing the cane through two rollers by a sweaty man turning a handle while the other fed the cane stalks through the mangle. The juice dripped into a bucket of ice and was scooped up with a cup, sieved and served in a glass with a squeeze of lemon – deliciously refreshing. Zanzibar pizzas were another hit with us, made with great alacrity and speed by another few men working as a team frying the savoury pastry tartlets which they couldn’t make fast enough. Handling the grubby money, kneading the dough and spreading the ingredients with the same hand, but they were delicious. It was all a bit of a whirlwind, almost like being at a fairground, but better. The next day to our surprise none of us were the worse for ware.
Friday 27th April 2007 Kim Beach Camp
We left early (after being fed by Patrick and his crew) for Dar Es Salaam. Three of our crew had runny tummies from the food cooked at the camp from the night before, but no lasting problems. The road started off as a nice tar road and guess what? It deteriorated into a single track of humpy wet muddy slosh. We couldn’t see how deep the holes were, as they were full of water, and the traffic had churned the sand up into soupy mud. Luckily there was a low clay content so it was relatively hard beneath the slosh. One cannot believe that it is the main (and only) road south from Dar. We drove along this unbelievable road for 5 hours averaging less than 20Km/hr. It was with great difficulty that we had to squeeze pass heavily laden trucks busses and taxis all traveling south. The taxis were so loaded that the passengers were standing up squashed together in ‘spoon’ positions, some hanging out the open door holding on with one hand, others had their bottoms sticking out the windows. Some places had thick bush on either side consisting of diverse trees such as mahogany, acacia, palms, mangoes and cashew nut trees. And then suddenly it turned into a beautiful 1st world tarred road again. We did the 300Km trip in 7 hours and found another camp site right on a white sandy beach with the ubiquitous lapping waves again! At least there is a nice lot of clean water this time brought to us in buckets by the camp managers. We had showers outside our Landy but had to ask the guard to move so we could have some privacy. I am learning to say a few words of Kiswahili which is coming in very handy. The palm trees are right to the water’s edge and our Landy is parked 10m from the water. The locals just don’t realize they live in paradise. Farming consists of millions of coconut palms all the way with cassava, maize, sweet potatoes and citrus, bananas and pawpaws half a meter long and delicious. One pawpaw cost us R2.50, and the bananas cost 15c each. We passed through one of the villages where they were making furniture out of beautiful mahogany. We wished we had a furniture van to take it home. The forests are of course being deforested by this, as well as the charcoal makers.
There are numerous police road blocks in Tanzania, but most just wave us through. So far we have had no trouble at all.
Thursday 26th April 2007 Kilwa Dreams camp site.
We arrived at Kilwa quite early and wanted to visit Kilwa Kisiwani Island and found out it was a public holiday so everything was closed. Our Camp manager, Patrick, went out of his way to make sure we were happy. He went to find the officer at his house, who had to put on his uniform and get to the office to issue a permit. Then he had to organize a dhow to take us across to the island. We were about to leave at around noon when it started to rain and everyone wanted to cancel and go tomorrow. Nev insisted that we wait for 30 minutes before making a decision because we have found that the rain, although it does come down hard, does not last long, and then the sun comes out again. Like squalls come over and then go. After 20 minutes the rain cleared and we boarded the dhow and crossed the 2Km in 30 minutes. It was slow, quite and peaceful under the large, patched triangular sail. We sat on the ballast of sand bags with the wet sails dripping slowly onto us.
Kilwa Kisiwani is a 20SqKm island 2Km off the mainland which was occupied by a series of Arab Sultans from the 13th to the 15th century. Then the Portuguese bombarded Kilwa and moved the headquarters of the gold and slave trades to Mombassa. Kilwa was the main gold trading centre with the gold mined as far afield as Zimbabwe. The Sultans became extremely rich and built extravagant mosques and houses for themselves out of the coral which they mined right there off the shore. All is now in ruins, and it reminded us of walking around all the Roman ruins in Britain, (Hadrian’s Wall and the various cathedrals). There are about 1600 mainly Muslim people who live there by fishing and a bit of agriculture. The Portuguese took over the Island in 1512, but most died of malaria and they abandoned it. We had great fun clambering about the ruins, so much so that we got left behind by the rest of the group and got lost!! We walked around for about 30 minutes before luckily meeting up with them again.
After arriving back at the camp we had a lazy late afternoon. The tide was out and we had to swim in 1/2m deep water or else walk for 500m to get to deeper water. We still cannot get used to there being no waves in the sea. The waves in the Lakes Tanganyka and Malawe were bigger than these. We are longing for some great big strong waves to crash onto the beach instead of these weak things that lap the shore.
Wednesday 25th April 2007 Quarry Camp
The Lodge we stayed at was called Rovula Safari Lodge, which we left and proceeded north towards Kilwa on some disgusting roads. (Note the adjectives have changed from bumpy and wet to disgusting, depending on our mood). The Chinese are at present tarring this 400Km section but they are doing the whole sections at once instead of starting from one end so in places we were going half a meter deep in muddy slosh. The Chinese are having an uphill battle trying to cope with the rain while hardening their new road. It is also obvious that there are no environmentalists around as they are bulldozing huge baobabs down in sections. Also in their quarried, they clear and push the logs into the streams and don’t concentrate on one area, but have 5Ha quarries, abandon them and move onto the next one.
We slept in one of these quarries in one of the few sparsely populated areas so far in Tanzania.
We all spent an interesting and frustrating day battling the traffic (it took us 2 hours to get into Dar to the Landrover gararge). Our problem was loose bolts in the suspension and had to do a service. Willy had brake, suspension and tyre problems. Brian had brake master cylinder problems. Dave’s Landcruiser had no brake linings left and is still having overheating problems caused by wiring faults. The soup we had travelled through, and overuse had caused the brake problems. Hehehe, our brakes were fine because of Nev’s method of driving using the correct gear rather than brakes, like one would drive a 10tonne truck. Hope this method carries on working. Willy has gone through two sets of brake linings already and messed up his drums.
We have torrential rains several times a day with the sun shining hotly between the squalls. The drainage system in the city cannot handle all the water and the streets and pavements are continually being flooded. Everyone arrived back in camp in foul moods, Nev muttering “Give me mud and potholes rather than this traffic” as it took us 2 hours to travel the 15Km. It was with relief that we found that there were no exceptions to this, and we could all laugh about our experiences.
The drivers here are different to in SA. If you want to enter the traffic from a side road you put up your hand and just go. The other cars, patiently give way. It is not odd to drive up the pavement, and if you are really in a hurry you put your flashing lights on and drive on the opposite side of the road with no problem.
Pedestrians and bicycles are everywhere. Walking is faster in most places than cars.
There are stalls on the side of the road selling roasted mealies, boiled eggs and pealed oranges. Fast food Tanzanian style! For the health conscious, other fresh fruit: mangoes, pawpaws and bananas. There are very few overweight people in Tanzania and most are lean and healthy looking. They walk briskly despite the heat, if they aren’t sitting around. We passed a group of young men milling around looking like they were going to pick up litter. The got into a line, crouched down and suddenly took off, racing each other at a sprint. We don’t know what happened after that as we were going in the opposite direction, but it was really funny to see.
Although the vehicles have been imported from SA, vehicles are 25% are cheaper here than in SA. Spares are cheaper, and labour charges are half the SA price. Cell calls are almost free. South Africans are being ripped off!!!
Tuesday 1st May 2007, Silver Sands Camp, Dar es Salaam
We walked to a community conservation turtle sanctuary. Very poor. The lighthouse on the tip was not allowed to be photographed for an unknown reason. We went for another quick and painful ride around the lodges on the northern coast and decided that our camp had the best beach. We headed back to the harbour to catch the ferry. This one was smaller and the sea was really rough. The ferry was leaping like a horse through water, and corkscrewing over the swells. The passengers were getting seasick, including Dave and Maureen, but we were fine. I thought the movement was great fun and sat up riding the waves like I would a horse.
We found our vehicles and headed for the campsite Siver Sands on the northern shore of Dar. It was nice to be back in our little ‘home’, although Zanzibar is wonderful.
Monday 30th April 2007 Zanzibar
Next day we went for a snorkel off the shore. I was just about to comment that every focus was a “wow!” moment when I started to feel uncomfortable pricking sensations on my arms and legs. We were being stung by some jelly fish things which looked like a string of actively swimming frogs’ eggs. No lasting damage, but we left that area to snorkel elsewhere. Visibility in the water was close to 20m, unbelievably clear. The sands on the beaches are pure white (originating from limestone), brochure book examples with dhows and mocorros making a beautiful picture.
We hired a motor bike and toured the north eastern shores and interior of the island. All the cattle are tethered to the sides of the road while most of the land is cropped with rice, cocoanuts (tall for oil and cooking, short dwarf ones for the milk), bananas, spices (which we didn’t see), a rubber industry and many other things. The baobabs were very short as there was stone all over the island and they cant get their roots down. On the lower east coast they were clearing the bush and planting trees which they cut for building their houses. Most of the houses were mud and limestone with palm-leaf thatched roofs. They were cutting out and destroying hundreds of 3m high cycads which made us cry as they must have been hundreds of years old. It rains here several times a day, hard for about 15 minutes, then the sun comes out. So we got soaked through and then blow-dried in minutes. The rain doesn’t phase the locals who just carry on with their lives unperturbed. By the time we were half way back our backsides were numb and raw from the uncomfortable seat.
Back on the beach we saw a snaking water spout over the sea that lasted for 10 minutes, about at least 1Km high into the swirling black clouds. We could see how it was sucking the water out of the sea. Someone must have had salty rain somewhere when it eventually came down.
Sunday 29th April 2007 Zanzibar
Our group separated for the morning and we explored Stone Town at our own pace. Stone Town is a living village inhabited by people going about their everyday business, not a town especially for tourists. A guide found us and took us on a tour of the Town, explaining the history of the buildings and the local culture. We were taken into a Hindu Temple where a young scholar explained the gods to us, the museum, Portuguese fort from 16th century, the last slave market, Sultans mansion from 14th century. The Arabic doors were made of solid wood with huge brass knobs and intricate carvings. The more elaborate the door, the higher the status of the owner. The brass knobs were a fashion originally from the Arabian method of protecting their houses against attack by war elephants. The best part for us was the market area. There were literally hundreds of tiny shops selling everything from spices and kangas, to hardware and shoes. In fact, everything except motor cars and electrical goods. We watched the daily catch being auctioned at the fish market. The chicken market had live chickens in baskets right there next to the plucked fowls displayed on the counters. All kinds of locally grown fruit and veges were displayed by their growers. We tasted the delicious Jack Fruit cut up with great dexterity by a man with a huge dagger. At the meat section you could choose your favourite cut from the quarters of cattle and goats lying on the concrete counters in front of you. There was an atmosphere of bustling organized chaos. Do you think Africa will ever change? Why would we want it to?
Just before lunch we all met up and were taken on a “Spice tour”. Lunch at the farm consisted of Pilau Rice (spiced rice) with two types of sauces, made from the locally grown ingredients and natural spices, and casava tips as a green vegetable. The yellow sauce (made with cocoanut milk) on the rice was voted the most delicious. We were then taken around the spice, herb and tree garden “African style” (no paths) with everything scattered and growing amongst the weeds. Our guide showed us and explained the uses of some forty different plants while the youngsters continually surprised us with gifts of baskets, hats, ties, rings and necklaces they were weaving for us out of palm leaves while we toured the 2Ha area.
We then proceeded to our hotel 40Km north of Zanzibar Town to the very northern tip of the island, Nungwe. This was also a 1-star hotel where we found someone fast asleep in our allocated bedroom. We responded angrily by telling them to change the sheets, curtains and paint the place out – joking, but they did change the sheets. The mozzie nets had holes so we added the net from the other bed to try to prevent being eaten, but we still had to do mozzie hunting a few times in the middle of the night, unfortunately leaving blood splattered marks around. It never ceases to amaze us that the showers are almost dircly over the toilets. The toilets get soaked and going to the toilets involve getting wet feet wherever you go. The are no walls around the shower to contain the water. It could be time saving as one could do two jobs in one.
Saturday 28th April 2007 Coco De Mer Zanzibar
We drove around the water inlet at Dar es Salaam rather than going over the ferry, and encountered the filth and slum area of Dar. Unbelievable stench from rotting human detritus! The traffic was so slow moving that the pedestrians were walking faster than the traffic was moving most of the time. We kept passing the same group of people, who kept passing us again. I covered my head with a scarf (Muslim style) as I started to feel like the men were gawking at me. At a roundabout all the traffic came to a complete standstill for 15 minutes while we wondered what had happened and eventually Nev walked up to see whether there was an accident. Just then a cavalcade of police escorting some dignitary whizzed past with sirens blaring and lights flashing. We got to the harbour to arrange the ferry crossing and accommodation in Zanzibar. The touts mobbed us, all trying to earn their commission by getting customers to their travel and hotel accomodation agent. The books warn of unscrupulous dealers who overcharge or rip you off so we were very very suspicious and wary. I sat sweltering in the car while Nev and some others went to book. I was continually approached by people selling wares and they wouldn’t go away until I started to speak to them in Swahili and then they were greatly amused and very much more respectful and friendly and stopped trying to sell, instead chatted about BafanaBafana, 2010, and South Africa!
Meanwhile Nev and them were bargaining for hotel accommodation on Zanzibar, and sorted it out, not knowing really what we were in for. We then left to park the cars at Brian’s cousin’s firm’s place (previously arranged) and got lost. We had to load a local friendly bod who kindly took us there. We caught taxis back to the harbour and eventually left on the high-speed luxury” ferry Sea Bus III” at 4.30pm, one hour late. The crossing was uneventful except Maureen got seasick. We arrived in Zanzibar in the dark wondering how we were going to get to the hotel.
We were amazed and surprised when we were met at the harbour by a taximan who took us to the hotel, a 1-star Coco De Mer, clean sheets, hot shower, and aircon, situated down a dingy lane in Stone Town.
York in Britain, is nothing compared to Stone Town, with its wiggly maze of little lanes made by three story buildings of a mixture of Arabic, English and German architecture. Some of the Lanes are so narrow that it was difficult for 2 people to pass. We continually got lost and had to ask locals to guide us out, which they gladly did for a small fee. That night we went to the sea front where they have a highly atmospheric open air fish braai market with a variety of raw seafood displayed, lit by paraffin lamps. Everything from the display of the food, to the cooking methods to the eating, paying, and garbage disposal would have been condemned by the hygiene standards in any first world country, but it all contributed to a wonderfully ethnic, vibrant and exciting atmosphere with delicious selection of locally caught seafood. Crab, prawns, crayfish, calamari, octopus, squid and sea fish were on offer at ridiculously low prices. The choice was grilled on open fires. We loved the sugar cane juice which was produced by crushing the cane through two rollers by a sweaty man turning a handle while the other fed the cane stalks through the mangle. The juice dripped into a bucket of ice and was scooped up with a cup, sieved and served in a glass with a squeeze of lemon – deliciously refreshing. Zanzibar pizzas were another hit with us, made with great alacrity and speed by another few men working as a team frying the savoury pastry tartlets which they couldn’t make fast enough. Handling the grubby money, kneading the dough and spreading the ingredients with the same hand, but they were delicious. It was all a bit of a whirlwind, almost like being at a fairground, but better. The next day to our surprise none of us were the worse for ware.
Friday 27th April 2007 Kim Beach Camp
We left early (after being fed by Patrick and his crew) for Dar Es Salaam. Three of our crew had runny tummies from the food cooked at the camp from the night before, but no lasting problems. The road started off as a nice tar road and guess what? It deteriorated into a single track of humpy wet muddy slosh. We couldn’t see how deep the holes were, as they were full of water, and the traffic had churned the sand up into soupy mud. Luckily there was a low clay content so it was relatively hard beneath the slosh. One cannot believe that it is the main (and only) road south from Dar. We drove along this unbelievable road for 5 hours averaging less than 20Km/hr. It was with great difficulty that we had to squeeze pass heavily laden trucks busses and taxis all traveling south. The taxis were so loaded that the passengers were standing up squashed together in ‘spoon’ positions, some hanging out the open door holding on with one hand, others had their bottoms sticking out the windows. Some places had thick bush on either side consisting of diverse trees such as mahogany, acacia, palms, mangoes and cashew nut trees. And then suddenly it turned into a beautiful 1st world tarred road again. We did the 300Km trip in 7 hours and found another camp site right on a white sandy beach with the ubiquitous lapping waves again! At least there is a nice lot of clean water this time brought to us in buckets by the camp managers. We had showers outside our Landy but had to ask the guard to move so we could have some privacy. I am learning to say a few words of Kiswahili which is coming in very handy. The palm trees are right to the water’s edge and our Landy is parked 10m from the water. The locals just don’t realize they live in paradise. Farming consists of millions of coconut palms all the way with cassava, maize, sweet potatoes and citrus, bananas and pawpaws half a meter long and delicious. One pawpaw cost us R2.50, and the bananas cost 15c each. We passed through one of the villages where they were making furniture out of beautiful mahogany. We wished we had a furniture van to take it home. The forests are of course being deforested by this, as well as the charcoal makers.
There are numerous police road blocks in Tanzania, but most just wave us through. So far we have had no trouble at all.
Thursday 26th April 2007 Kilwa Dreams camp site.
We arrived at Kilwa quite early and wanted to visit Kilwa Kisiwani Island and found out it was a public holiday so everything was closed. Our Camp manager, Patrick, went out of his way to make sure we were happy. He went to find the officer at his house, who had to put on his uniform and get to the office to issue a permit. Then he had to organize a dhow to take us across to the island. We were about to leave at around noon when it started to rain and everyone wanted to cancel and go tomorrow. Nev insisted that we wait for 30 minutes before making a decision because we have found that the rain, although it does come down hard, does not last long, and then the sun comes out again. Like squalls come over and then go. After 20 minutes the rain cleared and we boarded the dhow and crossed the 2Km in 30 minutes. It was slow, quite and peaceful under the large, patched triangular sail. We sat on the ballast of sand bags with the wet sails dripping slowly onto us.
Kilwa Kisiwani is a 20SqKm island 2Km off the mainland which was occupied by a series of Arab Sultans from the 13th to the 15th century. Then the Portuguese bombarded Kilwa and moved the headquarters of the gold and slave trades to Mombassa. Kilwa was the main gold trading centre with the gold mined as far afield as Zimbabwe. The Sultans became extremely rich and built extravagant mosques and houses for themselves out of the coral which they mined right there off the shore. All is now in ruins, and it reminded us of walking around all the Roman ruins in Britain, (Hadrian’s Wall and the various cathedrals). There are about 1600 mainly Muslim people who live there by fishing and a bit of agriculture. The Portuguese took over the Island in 1512, but most died of malaria and they abandoned it. We had great fun clambering about the ruins, so much so that we got left behind by the rest of the group and got lost!! We walked around for about 30 minutes before luckily meeting up with them again.
After arriving back at the camp we had a lazy late afternoon. The tide was out and we had to swim in 1/2m deep water or else walk for 500m to get to deeper water. We still cannot get used to there being no waves in the sea. The waves in the Lakes Tanganyka and Malawe were bigger than these. We are longing for some great big strong waves to crash onto the beach instead of these weak things that lap the shore.
Wednesday 25th April 2007 Quarry Camp
The Lodge we stayed at was called Rovula Safari Lodge, which we left and proceeded north towards Kilwa on some disgusting roads. (Note the adjectives have changed from bumpy and wet to disgusting, depending on our mood). The Chinese are at present tarring this 400Km section but they are doing the whole sections at once instead of starting from one end so in places we were going half a meter deep in muddy slosh. The Chinese are having an uphill battle trying to cope with the rain while hardening their new road. It is also obvious that there are no environmentalists around as they are bulldozing huge baobabs down in sections. Also in their quarried, they clear and push the logs into the streams and don’t concentrate on one area, but have 5Ha quarries, abandon them and move onto the next one.
We slept in one of these quarries in one of the few sparsely populated areas so far in Tanzania.
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