Zanzibar!

Zanzibar (“the spice island”) is a great place! Very different from everywhere else we’ve been in Africa. We spent one night in Stone Town, which is the main port town on the island. The streets are narrow and the buildings are old, whitewashed Arabic design. On Sunday we took a tour of one of the spice plantations, getting to see the plants that make clove, vanilla, nutmeg, cardamom and Todd’s favorite, ginger. Some of the local kids followed us on our tour and made all kinds of souvenirs from the plants. Sunday night we took a taxi to Nungwi Beach and we’ve been enjoying ourselves here since then. The beach is beautiful and the water is perfect. This is a great way to end our vacation! This is our last post from the road, as we leave for home on Thursday. See you all soon!

More Serengeti...

The Maasai Tribe

We got to go to a local tribal village, just outside of the Ngorongoro Crater and got to see one of their tribal dances, as well as go inside of one of their homes. The Maasai tribe is still very prevalent in southern Kenya and most of Tanzania. Their entire being and worth is based on the cow. The Maasai do not have anything if they don’t have their cows. Money has no value to them, except to buy more cows. They live out in the wilderness and build their own villages from sticks and acacia branches, sometimes leaving it all behind if they need to get to a place that has water. They eat only beef and a mixture of cow’s milk and blood. A man’s worth (and the number of wives he may take) is based on how many cows he has. At around age 16, the boys are sent away together to “become men,” and must fight a lion in order to gain status as a Maasai warrior. Recently, the Tanzanian government restricted the Maasai to only killing the lions if they or their cows are placed in immediate danger. The supposed new rite of passage is to get a swatch of hair from the tail of the lion, but we were told by some of the Maasai men that the initiation still requires a boy to kill a lion and that it very much is still standard. The Maasai dress traditionally – the men primarily in red and the women in blue. (This photo is all women.)

More Serengeti Pics

Serengeti Pics

Amazing Week

Since we left Nairobi last Monday, we've been on a real "safari." We took a 3 day trip into the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, two of Africa's biggest game preservation parks. We came up close to all of the animals we'd ever dreamed of seeing, including lions, elephants, wildebeest and cheetahs. Many people go on safari and never see the leopard, because they are noctural, sneaky and elusive. We saw two in the Serengeti, including one who was eating her kill (a gazelle) up in a tree. Amazing! Now we are in Zanzibar, spent one night in the port town, which is called Stonetown and took a Spice Tour yesterday. Zanzibar is almost entirely covered in spice plantations and grows about 80% of the worlds spices. Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Nungwi Beach, a friendly beach on the northern tip of the island. The bungalows here are basic but the beach is clean, beautiful and the drinks are cold. We'll relax here before heading back home on Thursday.

Monkeys Galore!

I've ALWAYS wanted to be in a place where monkeys truly just roam free. I had heard Costa Rica, some people say that other places in the Caribbean have monkeys just hangin' out, but I have never seen it! Here in Africa, you'd better make sure you zip your tent and close the bathroom door, because they really are EVERYWHERE! I thought of you, Gail, when I was freaking out over this, because I know you are nuts about monkeys too!

Gorilla Pics

Back in Nairobi

The first official leg of our journey is complete! We got back to Nairobi today about an hour ago and are back at the campsite. Since we last wrote, we've mainly been on the road. Our last day in Jinja we spent laying beside the pool at the 4-star Jinja Nile Resort. (Don't tell anyone, but we also splurged on one night's accomodations there at the hotel!) It was right next to our campground, so we definitely took advantage of it. For lunch on Friday, we ordered baked Tilapia (not to miss when you are at the Nile) and it was fresh - caught that morning. They don't take skin, head, tail off the fish, so it was a surprise when it came to the table. :) Saturday we drove all day - back across the border into Kenya. We stayed another night at this campsite called Raj's Place. Owned and operated by 2 Indian guys (cousins? friends?) named Raj and Ash. They apparently own the entire town of Eldoret and can do pretty much what they want. They have a fortune and are spending it building the most beautiful campground and backpacker's place imaginable! It costs about $5 to upgrade to a dorm room with hot showers, so we all did that. He has this huge underground stone tunnel (waterfalls running off the walls) leading to a large, beautiful underground bar. They have 16 dogs between the two of them and grow lots of "Malawi Gold." It's always a good time at Raj's Place! Today we left Eldoret early (the 3 Germans had a 5pm flight out of Nairobi) and are planning to go out to dinner tonight to a place called "Carnivore." It's a "don't miss" in Nairobi - all you can eat meats, including some of the more exotic game meats. We'll try anything once! Tomorrow, 4 of us head out to Tanzania. Apparently our guide for the next leg of the journey is on the far end of Tanzania right now with a truck that exploded today, so we are going to have to improvise. Debs is being a real sweetheart and taking us by shuttle van to the border town of Arusha tomorrow where an independent tour operator will pick us up on Tuesday for our 3-day Serengeti adventure. We probably won't post again until Dar Es Salaam, so signing out for about a week. Peace!

Hello from the Nile River!

A lot has happened since we last posted! On Monday of this week, we went into the Congo and tracked the mountain gorillas! It was a thrill - possibly the biggest adventure of either of our lives. We woke at 5 am (the 3rd or 4th time on this trip already!) and were taken by van to the Congo border. Since we're really not legally supposed to be in the Congo, a "special arrangement" was made, allowing us to pass through for the day in order to do this hike. We split into 2 groups and were driven to the base of the mountain (Virunga) by 2 Toyota Land Cruisers. The roads were rougher in this part of the Congo than any we'd traveled so far. It took us about 1.5 hours to go 10 miles! When we got to the base of the mountain, our guide Martin was waiting for us, along with 3 armed guards. Todd and I were in the group that was headed to track the family that was a long hike into the jungle. We were told that the gorilla family was about a 3 hour hike away the day before. (They track the movement of the gorillas daily by checking out the trails they leave, of poop and bamboo scraps, which is what they eat.) When we got to the spot where they'd been the previous day, we started to get really excited! The guides were showing us the "evidence" they'd been there, and they split up in different directions to go find their trail. Well, we ended up hiking another 2.5 hours to find them. As exhausted as we were, all was forgotten when we heard the screeching of those animals. The first one we saw was the Silverback. He's the male gorilla, the man "in charge." And, WOW, was he intimidating! A massive animal, and not one you want to mess with, as he is very protective of his family! There were 11 in this family, several females, several adolescents, one female with a very young gorilla (only 5 days old) and, of course, the Silverback. We followed them through the brush, Martin cutting the way with his machete. We did get charged by the Silverback a couple of times. Talk about skid marks! The key is NOT to run, but rather to fall on the ground in submission. I certainly did that!! Getting off the mountain was also an adventure, as it was almost 5:00 when we started to head back. Our guides were lost, and all arguing in some Ugandan tribal language about which direction we'd need to go to get back! Martin did have a GPS, but of course, the only coordinates he had on it were the ones for the gorillas!! (Not the base camp!) Dark came about 7pm and we were still up on the mountain. We got back to our van about 9:30 pm, exhausted and glad to be alive. Since the borders back into Uganda had closed, we had a tricky time getting out of Congo, but we did it and were back at our campground about midnight.......Whew! Since that day, we've traveled east back through Uganda, stopping at a beautiful lake called Bunyoni and another brief stop in Kampala. We rafted the Nile yesterday in Jinja and are staying here for a total of 3 nights. It's nice to stay still for a bit. Today we are spending a day by the pool (our campground is right next door to a 4 star resort which allows you to pay to use the pool) and tomorrow we get back in the truck to go back to Kenya. I wish we could post more photos, but if we are lucky enough to find a computer with internet access, it's almost always been dial-up and posting a pic is impossible. We'll try again from Nairobi, as we have some fantastic shots to share.

Our Home for 2 Weeks.........

This is a picture of our truck and Debs (our guide) at the “kitchen.” This is a pretty typical Overlanding vehicle – plenty of space for people, tents, food, etc. All of the windows roll open and some of the seats have little tables. This truck seats about 20 people, so the 12 of us can really spread out. It’s also a real advantage to be quite high up in the air (see my blog comments on changing money at the border).

Farm in Nakuru

We got the chance to tour a local farm in Nakuru. It was adjacent to the camps where we stayed. There were a lot of baby cows (Todd says they are actually called "calves," but I call them baby cows.) and horses, etc. The coolest part was that we got to tour the worksite of the Kinana Knitters, a Kenyan women's community knitting group that now distributes their products to the US, Canada and Japan. They pull the wool off their own sheep, dye it using organic Dahlia and beet root from the farm and clean it, dry it and knit it right there. The women also get the opportunity to take computer classes, learn English and make some money for their families. It was amazing to see and I wish I'd have had the chance to buy something from them. Maybe on the way back through. In the meantime, Google them. Kinana Knitters - Nakuru, Kenya.

Setting up camp

This is me, setting up our tent! I know how to do it now, am a real pro!

"Somewhere between 10 minutes and an hour..."

Hello everyone! Sorry for being incommunicado - it turns out there really aren't many ways to get on a computer in Kenya! We have been having a great time - Africa is amazing! We are a group of 12 - 3 from Germany, 4 from Spain, one from Ireland, one from S.Africa and another American (plus the two of us). Our guides - Timo (our fearless driver) and Debs- have been taking great care of all of us. We've gotten used to camping, but I don't know that I'll ever "get used to" hearing the sounds of hippos, monkeys, and other wild animals around the tent while I sleep! We passed into Uganda yesterday and arrived in the capital today. A beer is about a dollar and a taxi ride to town about the same. The city of Kampala is quite advanced in relation to everywhere else we've been, although crazy just the same. We've seen some wildlife earlier this week - we did a walking safari in Naivasha (Kenya) and got within 5 meters of many giraffe, zebras, gazelle, baboons and other assorted monkeys, and Africa's smallest and fastest antelope, the Dik Dik. Wednesday we did an early morning game drive (up at 5am!) in Nakuru National Park (also in Kenya) and saw some White Rhino, Waterbuck, and many other animals in addition to the above. After narrowly escaping an attack by an angry mama baboon, we headed back to the campsite and hit the road for Uganda. Driving the 8 hours to Kampala yesterday was almost as adventurous! The roads are very rough, if they even exist and border crossing was CRAZY! The money changers (hundreds of them) come right up to the windows of the truck, waving money at you, everyone screaming. Counterfeiting US money is very common here, so there are some specific rules for changing money. NEVER give your bill first. You confirm the rate of exchange (about 1800 Ugandan schillings to $1), tell them how much you want and then they give you the money and you count, use a calculator and count again, and then count a third time. When you are satisfied, you pass your money out the window. No matter what, you never take the bill back, because if you do, they've already changed it for a counterfeit US bill from their pocket. There are a lot of tricks! Tomorrow we cross over the equator into the southern hemisphere and move a little closer to Kisoro, which is where we'll see the mountain gorillas early next week. After staying in Kisoro for 2 nights, we'll come back this way and stop in Jinja for two days. We'll raft the Nile and spend another day touring the town on some quads. Once we get back to Nairobi (~9/25, I think), we'll get a new truck, new guides and only 4 of us on the current tour will continue on to Tanzania. We'll probably pick up some new travellers as well. Our campsites have all been fantastic so far (a little sketchy in the bathrooms and showers, but that's Africa) and the cooking is superb! No danger of starving out here. I'll leave you with a great quote by Timo, our driver, that really summarizes the way of life and the speed with which things move. When someone on our truck asked how much longer until we arrived at the next town, Timo said, "Somewhere between ten minutes and an hour." We have slowed down our pace and are enjoying this fabulous continent! Miss you all.

We are here!

After about 30 hours of travel, we finally arrived in Kenya yesterday about 9pm local time (which is about 2pm EST). Our transfer bus at the airport was waiting and we had no problems getting our visas and getting into the country. Everyone is very nice and we've met a few other people (Aussies, Irish and one other American woman who has been living and working in Nigeria) who will be travelling with us. We had a beer at the bar last night and talked it up with some of the Kenyans. The conversation was friendly, but did tend to get political. They don't seem to think much of Bush, although they "like Americans." They are party people here and the music was going on long after we crashed. By the time we laid down in bed, we'd been up for about 36 hours. I wish I could say we slept well, but we have plenty of time for that. I guess when we get TIRED ENOUGH, we will fall asleep, right? We had an egg and a good coffee today and are laying low at the campground for the day. The tour leaves tomorrow morning at 9am. We'll post more from the road. Oh, and our GPS coordinates: S 1 degree 21.321' E 36 degrees 45.671'. Elevation 5889 feet. And it's chilly. Love from Africa!

We're Off!

Well, we have stuffed everything into our bags and are headed out the door! We had to post one picture of our sweet dogs, mostly so we could "visit" with them while we're gone! Next time we post, it will be from the ROAD!

Safe Travels

Well, as you all know, there have been a lot of unfortunate developments regarding traveler safety in light of the terrorist busts last week out of London. We are scheduled to fly through London in both directions for our trip. Up until yesterday, it was forbidden to carry anything at all on the plane, so we were trying to decide how to get our cameras to Africa. Thank goodness they've made some changes. Our first priority is obviously safety, but we sure do want to take some photos while we're there! That's it for now.

The Perfect Shoes!

I (finally) found the world's most perfect shoes for a month-long trip to Africa! They are the Merrell Chameleon II Stretch GTX. They are waterproof, have nice rugged soles, and, best of all, they are super comfortable! And they are only moderately ugly. Yay! I previously bought and returned 2 other pairs (Salomon Amphibian - not comfortable and the Merrell Chameleon without Gortex - not waterproof). I knew if I didn't get waterproof shoes, I'd end up getting in the mud sometime during the first couple of days and, for the rest of the trip, I'd be the one with the really stinky shoes! For a girl who has been known to take up to 5 or 6 pairs of shoes with me for one weekend, finding ONE pair to take for a whole month has been a real search. Happiness = shoe perfection!

Flatulence

Well, I did some research on the medicine we've been given to take with us in case we pick up a case of traveler's diarrhea. It's called Xifaxan...It's pretty new and good for areas of Africa with resistance to Cipro. Not absorbed systemically, it carries the benefit of having very few drug interactions or systemic side effects. But, look out for some local GI side effects. Some of my friends suggested using this recreationally (think "fart contests") or to get revenge on someone who has made you mad. Whether I end up NEEDING to use it (for either medical or recreational purposes), I'll be sure to let you all know if I'm in the lucky 11.7%.

Shots, shots and more shots...

Well, we got our vaccinations this week, including Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, typhoid, meningococcal meningitis, tetanus and polio. Many of the shots are actually required to go between countries (so that YOU don't infect the people there), but the others are recommended for OUR own safety. Todd already has some of them from his last trips to Africa, but I have to get them ALL! We are busy getting supplies and trying to find the ideal packing list. Still waiting on our passports...

Counting Down...

We leave soon for Africa! We've definitely started thinking about what to pack (very little, but enough). Although the weather will be mostly hot (70s-80s), it could get cold (mid-upper 30s) at night, especially at some of the higher elevations. We also need medical kits, bug spray, sunscreen, cameras, binoculars, sleeping bags, clothes and toiletries. There is no room on this trip for a hair dryer or more than 1 pair of shoes! We both need immunizations before we leave - yellow fever, meningitis, typhoid, Hepatitis A, polio and tetanus. We'll also need to start taking our anti-malarials a couple weeks before we go. Our dear neighbor and friend has agreed to watch the dogs and the house when we're gone. I hope she knows what she is getting herself into! We get more excited by the day...