Firstly thankyou to those of you
who sent birthday greetings. Since e-mailing in Vic Falls I have seen some more
amazing stuff including the falls itself which was in full flood. First I saw it
from the air from a small plane. En route we saw a herd of about one hundred
elephants, a herd of about the same number of buffalo, about thirty sable and
some other bits. It was great to see the falls from the air before seeing it
from the ground, I think it makes it even more impressive, the way the broad
Zambezi drops over a hundred metres, a kilometre wide into a narrow gorge that
then zigzagsonward through Zimbabwe. Good stuff, seeing it from the ground was
also great it is surrounded by a microcosm of a rainforest, constantly raining
in bits due to the spray generating permanent clouds.
After vic falls a few of us went down to Bulawayo by overnight train, catching
up with the truck in the morning. That gave us an extra day in vic falls and
made things a bit more relaxed.
In Bulawayo we went to the
Rhodes Motopo game park, saw several different animals the best being a mother
and baby rhino, the baby being only ten weeks old. We were able to walk within
about six feet of it, marvellous. We also found leopard tracks but not the
actual leopard, Klippspringer, Kudu, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Rock Hirax, impala and
others. Three of us from the group then went off to the Rhodes grave site which
is in a great setting, which is why he asked to be buried on top of the mountain
where he is.
From Bulawayo we went onto Gweru, there we stayed at a lion farm. Made good
friends with a Rottweiler I named Rodney, who's a bit of a nutter. The following
morning we went for a walk with Bernie and Muzza, a couple of lion cubs 4 and 8
months respectively. They weren't on leads or anything, we were free to stroke
and pat them, absolutely gorgeous, little Bernie was adorable rolling on her
back to have her stomach scratched like a dog. Muzza is getting quite big but
he's also quite friendly. It was something really rather special to get that
close to little lions. Once sexually mature (16 months) they become pretty
unapproachable still we were able to get very close to some of the males aswell.
After Gweru we went onto Masivingo to the great Zimbabwe ruins, from where the
country took it's name, very interesting place. Yesterday we arrived in Harare,
the capital of Zimbabwe. Last night was the last night for most of the group and
we went out for a meal at a game restaurant, there was live entertainment
including music and zulu dancing etc. which was interesting if a little cheesy.
I decided to be a bit experimental with my food had crocodile tail to start
with, slightly fishy but not bad, then had the game platter which was Ostrich -
nothing special, Kudu - quite nice, Wildebeest - slightly coarse and livery
tasting, and Zebra - not too keen, funny texture. Still it was all quite
interesting.
This morning I met the new folk joining the truck to Nairobi as it is only
Franziska, Martin and I from the original group carrying on. The new ones are
two Norwegian girls and a Canadian. Seem okay so far we shall see.
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Now I will attempt to bring you up to speed on events since departing Harare.
Most of the folk on the truck jumped ship in Harare which left us with two
Swiss, Franziska and Martin and three new additions, Guro and Marit Norwegians
and Erin a Canadian. All new arrivals are perfectly decent folk, or seem to be
thus far. Ziska's okay if a bit serious at times and Martin is a bit of a self
opinionated tosser. Anyway, so this merry band set forth from Harare to Kariba,
one of the biggest damned lakes in the world (A lake created by a damn that is).
On Kariba we spent three nights on a houseboat having our food prepared, beds
made etc. which was a welcome break from tents and cooking etc. furthermore
there was a jacuzzi and swimming to be had, as well as game viewing when we saw
a plethora of hippos and elephants, snake eagles, impala, great birds,
crocodiles and a pride of lions. Very nice indeed.
From Kariba we crossed into Zambia, the damn actually forms the border, which
one drives across. On to Lusaka, the first central African city we saw. Leaving
the white, southern Africa behind. There appears to be a stark contrast,
although the previous countries are not so affluent, it seems that we slipped
several rungs on the ladder of wealth in the space of a few miles. Zambia was
essentially a transit as it poured continuously (as Toto said "I guess it
rains down in Africa" - too bloody true) which makes some of the game
viewing impractical. From Zambia we crossed to Malawi and Lilongwe - the
capital. Did some shopping, namely for ciggies and a football as the previous
one got punctured. The following day we drove on to the lake which the country
is based around, bloody big lake at that. In Salima we chilled a lot, bought
some carvings and chilled some more, it;'s a hard life. After a couple of days
there, we went further up country to Kande Beach home of the inimitable Dave
Barton, for those of you who have the discovery channel, there is a program
called "Africa the hard way" which features him and his truck. Chilled
some more and then from there went up to the Nyika plateau, a region 2,500metres
above sea level that looks like Dartmoor or something similar, with antelope,
jackals, hyaenas and leopards. Saw all but the leopards - elusive buggers that
they are. From there back to the lake and a really nice bar, that ruined me in
one night, for the next couple of days on Malawi Brandy. Not bad going down, but
unfortunately not great the morning after. I can honestly say that I was a
victim of the hospitality of the house as I stopped buying drinks at 10.30 but
whenever I attempted to leave John, the barman thrust another glass of brandy
into my hand until about 2 in the morning. It may not sound lat, but considering
that we get up at the crack of dawn every day and most of our group are often in
bed by about 9 p.m. it wass pretty late, especially with a 5.30 start the
following day. My head seemed to have the trooping of the colour going on inside
it, only the elephant back version, whereas it felt like I had hippos performing
a trapeze act in my stomach. I still don't feel entirely recovered.
From Malawi we have essentially driven for three days across the width of
Tanzania to the Indian Ocean where Zanzibar awaits. The place we stopped last
night was in the middle of Baobab valley, for those of you who don't know, a
baobab is a huge tree that can be several thousand years old that looks as
though it has been planted upside down, it was an interesting sight to see these
for as far as you could see. We also saw hartebeest, little elephants, giraffes
and more warthogs en route to Dar.
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Well, I have arrived in Nairobi, Kenya end of the truck part of the journey and
beginning of the real bit. Going on the truck was good but had its limitations,
namely very little local interaction and not being able to spend longer in some
places. Still you can't have everything. Since Dar - which I misrepresented as
the capital of Tanzania, it's actually now Dodoma, although it is Dar for all
intents and purposes. - Went to Zanzibar which was nice and relaxing, had some
great curries, did a spice tour which was interesting and generally vegged. Then
back in Dar went to the National museum which was kind of interesting, had some
of the Leakey stuff. From there we headed north (En-route had a great view of
Kilimanjaro, for those of you who don't know - the tallest mountain in Africa
and largest free standing mountain in the world) to Mto-wa-mbo. A village just
near lake manyara. The lions around there have taken to climbing trees during
the day to keep away from Tetse flies - apparently unique amongst lions. Did a
village tour with one of the locals which was interesting, he showed us how the
locals live and work etc. all about the local agriculture and the social
systems. Not at all touristy, which was nice. The food we had for lunch was
really not to my liking at all, but interesting to try the local stuff.
The following day we went to
Ngorogoro crater, a national park inside a crater about 20kms in diameter with a
very diverse ecosystem. Most types of African landscape (savanna, pasture,
forest, desert and lakes) are represented in a small area. This makes it
possible to see a great concentration of game as they don't migrate out the
crater. We saw thousands of gnu (wildebeest), thompsons and grants gazelles, lot
of cokes hartebeest, lions, elephants and black rhinos. It was nice but too many
other jeeps rushing around. That evening drank and played Tock in the bar at the
camp site and watched crap TV. There was a great competition where you could win
a trip for two to Lagos (for those of you who don't know Lagos, Nigeria is one
of the most dangerous places on the planet. People have been killing each other
in a semi-all out war for years, at the football matches every week they have
full scale riots) it didn't say anything about it being a return trip or not,
probably not, no point.
Following day went to the market and swapped a torn pair of trousers and a split
football (that I bought in Lilongwe, Malawi) for a crappy masai shield, bloody
fools. From there we went on to Tarangire Nat. Park. Saw hyenas, rock hyrax,
baboons, monkeys, elephants, gazelles, waterbuck, impala, crested eagles, read
and yellow barbets, white helmeted shrikes, superb starlings, marabou storks,
black shouldered kites, bateleur and a whole bunch of other stuff over the
course of two days. My favourite bits were the five legged elephant (it's
breeding season at the moment) and at night we could see and hear hyenas all
around our camp, just out of the fire light, but when you shone your torch into
the brush you could see a whole pack of them twenty yards away just staring at
you. They were also laughing and cackling through the night, good fun.
Anyway from there we headed to Arusha, not much to say about that (sorry Sanj).
Then from there to Nairobi. On the way we have seen more and more Masai folk
wandering around. I unfortunately didn't have my camera on me for what would
have been a great photo of a couple of Masai guys cycling along the horizon, in
full regalia with their spears over their shoulders.
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So, spent a few days her in Nairobi, I'd like to say it was a beautiful town
complete with friendly people and beautiful tree lined avenues, smells of sweet
spices down every street and the cars and people expel marvellous odours as they
pass you by. Unfortunately as you may have already presumed this is not the
case. I haven't been mugged yet, which is promising and the toxic fumes haven't
yet killed me. So, there is a lot to be positive about. Since being here I have
managed to some posting, cost too bloody much, but too bloody much to carry.
(Dave / Moose bits arriving surface mail in April or May.) Got my visa for
Ehiopia again bloody expensive but c'est la vie. Ate more interesting animals -
Hartebeest - very nice, Impala - also very nice, more Wildebeest - much better
this time, Crocodile again - my advice is stick to just the tail it isn't so
fatty. Talking of eating - some useless trivia, there are only three countries
in Africa with McDonalds (South Africa, Morrocco, Egypt) basically in a triangle
across the continent, so they don't have the world domination people think they
do. Nandos however is all over the shop which is good as I prefer it anyway.
Otherwise, got my sandals stitched, arranged for passage to Kampala (capital of
Uganda) - leaving tonight at 8. Went to the national museum which is very good
with some excellent fossils and the skulls the Leakeys found in Olduvai gorge.
They also have just about every bird found in Africa stuffed, in display cases.
Kind of not nice, but also rather a good way of looking at those feathered folk
I've seen all over the shop without having them fly away.
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