Monday, October 10, 2011
Map
By popular demand, here is a map of where traveled for three months in southern and eastern Africa...!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Kenya
LAKE NAKURU and the RIFT VALLEY
We rented a car at Nairobi International airport for the last 8 days of our trip in Africa. We hadn't seen enough Rhinos (only one in Kruger, South Africa) - so we headed first to Lake Nakuru National Park where we were practically guaranteed to see white rhinos with a good chance of seeing black rhinos (rare). We sat in Nairobi traffic for an hour - Charles has really become proficient at aggressive driving on these huge round-abouts in the cities...it's like a big game of chicken. So we stayed a day in Nakuru town (Charles had his first pick-pocket attempt) and then headed to Lake Nakuru and camped the second night. After seeing 4 tree-climbing lions within a mile of camp - and earlier seeing aggressive baboons and vervet monkeys - we were most comfortable sleeping INside the picnic cage which was JUST big enough for our tiny tent. Phew.
At Nakuru, we were seeing sparring rhinos, lions right next to the road eating a zebra (what? yeah!) and mating giraffes - this place was probably the most jaw dropping for crazy wildlife sightings in quick succession.
RIFT VALLEY TO DESERT
From Nakuru, we drove north to see if we could see Mt Kenya (nope, socked in for days). We decided rather than go through Nairobi (traffic) again, we'd try to take a short cut to the northern coast area of Lamu. The road looked good on the map...but...
I guess we should have known by the reaction of the locals we asked. Each had a different way of getting to the road we wanted. Eventually we started descending into this dry desert area off of the lush fertile rift valley. We know now that this was a huge mistake and it was probably dangerous for us to visit this area. Not only the roads and the car/tires we had, but we had heard about 'shifters' or Somali pirates that operate in the area. Awesome (not).
After an hour on an insane 'dirt' road - mostly small boulders, sand, and washboard - we came upon a police-type check point at a village. We were asked if we could give a volunteer a ride - sure. Yoseph told us about the drought that lasted for 4 years already, how livestock and people were starving, and explained the caravans of camels and mules we were seeing were groups of the Burundi tribe trying to find water. What? But, we'd just come from the lush valley where it was raining all around Mt Kenya....to here. This was crazy. No water for 4 years, the road was terrible, more loose sand and stones - top speed was 14 miles an hour. Nobody in sight on these roads except the occasional caravan of camels/mules. Dry dry... dead standing trees and shrubs. No green leaves in sight. At one point, we saw pavement - underneath sand that had blown over the road. Everywhere else, you'd never know there was pavement once before (or if there ever was). This place was surreal - we could not comprehend it.
After hours, we reached Garba Tula, a pretty large village, bone dry. Wow - how do people live here? This desert village was near an intersection of another dirt 'main' road - we decided we were going to change plans and go straight back up hill to pavement and go all the way around - and not continue to the coast the back way. Our little car had taken a beating...not sure how the tires were going to last either. Sharp rocks...every stone that was kicked up to the undercarriage (which was about every 5 seconds) made us hold our breath. We came to the intersection, there was a young woman waiting to get a ride to a village in the direction we were now heading - so we picked her up (glad we did). It was 4 p.m. and Tosa had been waiting since 8 or 9 a.m. for a ride... and we were the first car that passed the entire day. What?
An hour later, we're still driving and the road was worse. We were getting close to a small village, Pochi (half-way to her village), when we almost ran INTO 4 cheetahs...literally. They scattered off the road and turned to stare at these crazy people. Less than one kilometer later we rolled into the village on a flat tire. We could still see the cheetahs. Talking with the locals there, we were told that the road beyond Tosa's village is 'bad' and we better go back the way we came - that's the best way to get up and out of the desert. No f'ing way - we are not driving back on those roads (we were stuck between terrible roads and more terrible roads - great). Tosa told us she knows some men in town who can fix our tire - we only had 1 spare...(not good)..and there is one hostel in the village we can stay the night. Deal. So we changed the flat tire within site of the cheetahs, and proceeded through another police checkpoint and ...on a crappy spare we drove an even worse section of road to her village...for another hour.
It was getting dusk at this point and the only thing we could do was hope and pray - I think I actually prayed - that we'd make it to her village OK. All of us were holding our breath as the car scraped bottom and crawled over sharp rocks/stones and through bouldery sand ...and with no spare... we were 100% insane.
After dark, we arrived at her village. The police checkpoint guy was pretty animated at how lucky we were to not have run into any shifters...and how crazy we were to have driven this car. And that we should go back because the road is only worse going up to Isiolo, where the pavement was (about 5 hours away). It was either him or another man in the smaller village we passed who said this was the second small car they'd ever seen on these roads...in their lifetime. (i...n...s....a...n...e...)
Lucky for us - very lucky for us - her family operated the only hostel. They had a room for us (some family member they kicked out for the night) and fed us dinner. We met and instantly befriended her english-speaking brother, Abdulahi. He wanted to know all about us and our education (he had completed a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry, spoke perfect english, very smart...and out here... what?). Again, surreal. This is a dry dry village, no leaf on any trees, crazy roads you hope to survive (you don't want to think about what would happen if you were broken down out there), pit toilets, sponge bathing/no shower, no electricity and pitch blackness except 1 million stars. We were eating dates while listening to the Muslim call to prayer, chickens, camels...and here he was, speaking almost perfect english and asking us about school and our travels. He and about 5 young men were working on our tire for a while and...in the morning we saw their solution (to our tire which was a tubeless tire - big problem): they put a bike patch on the outside wall of the tire - where the gash was. Oh...noo. Bike patch on the outside of the tire - that should last about 2 minutes. But that's all we had so we put that tire on, had a plan B to send a motorbike to get a new tire if it didn't work - but the air seemed to hold. So we loaded up the car. Abdulahi arranged the night before that he'd accompany us - great! - but the 2 other young brothers were a last minute add on...and so were the live chickens! But we made do and moved things around to get everyone in the car. So, going 10-14 miles an hour, tension every second waiting for the tire to puncture, remarkable driving by Charles, good conversation - we miraculously made it 4 hours before the bike patch failed and the skid plate was almost totally detached and dragging.
Another village, another police checkpoint, unloading the car, chickens, bags to the get to the spare, change the tire, wire the skid plate on, and we were off...more slowly now. But in higher spirits the closer we got to pavement.
And we made it. I swear I've never come close to tears so happy to see pavement ("tarmac road"). We did it. Good driving Charles - you are the BEST. Of course, at the elevation of Isiolo and the pavement road, it was raining and green and fertile. Rivers actually had water in them. Surreal again.
For both of us, this experience proved to be the most memorable of our three months in Africa. Sitting before our lamb and chapati dinner the night before at the family's house/motel, eating dates and listening to chickens and the call of prayer under a million stars. We we got to Isiolo - the pavement town, we loved having lunch that day with all the brothers and a town friend - eating communally while digging in with your hand to eat rice and meat stew. Messy, delicious. The tire and skid plate were fixed in this small town. Only some paint scratches but we didn't care. The car made it!
We got out of Isiolo after lunch - thanking our lucky stars. We made it to Nyeri where a real hotel bed and a hot shower were tear jerkers. This experience will stay with us for a while.
We got an text from Abdulahi a few days later that during his absence from home (he'd gone to Nairobi for a few days to go to a peace conference where he was representing that area/larger set of villages) that all the family's camels had been raided.
MOMBASA AND WASINI ISLAND
We drove from Nyeri, through Nairobi, and on to Mariakani, a large Swahili town 2 hours from Mombasa (which we made it to the following day). The traffic on this 2-lane highway was horrible - high speed cars passing slow trucks and buses passing broken cars - all while narrowly missing oncoming traffic doing the same thing. I think Charles got a little more grey on this road. We agreed once we got to Mombasa that we'd pay whatever we needed to to drop the car in Mombasa and fly from there to Nairobi.
In Mombasa, My sister Kateri knew people at nearby Wasini Island area from when she lived there for a year about 15+years ago...they still remembered her - gave us a deal on a snorkel trip even. We drove to Diani-Tiwi Beach for the remaining 3 days of the trip and camped at a lovely spot right on the beautiful coast. We set up our camp hammocks and had a perfect piece of paradise with campfire meals and amazing sunrises.
The last day getting out of there and to Mombasa airport was insane - a memorable way to end the trip in Africa. We powered up our laptops and camera/phones and realized when it was time to leave we had a dead car battery. Crap! A well-intentioned camping neighbor put the positive on negative while giving us a jump and proceeded to blow out several car fuses. Ugggh. Now we were were starting to panic - being late for a plane would make us miss our international flight to Spain later in the evening. So a German couple (who drove from Germany!) drove us into town and got some fuses. 20 minutes back to the tarmac road, the car was acting funny and died right as we reached the main road...luckily. We got the nearest taxi to race Charles into town to get an 100amp alternator fuse (didn't see this was blown earlier). After three shops we found one that...might...work. Got back to the car and yanked out the blown fuse. The metal posts were stuck in the fuse box (good!). Then I (Charles) examined the fuse I bought. Got lucky. The fuse I had was the opposite. So I bent the posts and jammed them into the new fuse. The taxi driver pulled out a couple miscellaneous wires to jump the battery and boom, we're in business, but running 2 hours late. We'll never make our Mombasa to Nairobi flight. We still had a slow ferry (and waiting for the ferry was nothing short of excrutiating). Our rental car driver met us at the other side to the ferry and hopped in the drivers seat. 10 minutes to get through Mombasa traffic and to the airport - ain't gonna happen. But the driver was screaming through traffic (this was the most insane driving experience EVER) and I (Kristi) was in the back seat calling the airline and begging them to make the gate wait for us. 'No way'. We got the airport, the gate had closed we were out of luck. Perhaps begging and then after 15 minutes giving up and going next door to buy a ticket at another airline made them change their mind? But 1/2 hr AFTER the flight was supposed to depart, we were told 'yes', got the fast lane through security and boarded the plane as the doors were closing. Totally wet with sweat and anxiety, parched, and shaking with tension...we...were...going...to ...make...the...international...flight. Thank goodness.
Once in Nairobi, it was smooth sailing. We checked in on Qatar airways, a beautiful airline company, stopped over in Doha (midnight temps were scorching hot), changed planes and headed on to Madrid, Spain.
We made it to Madrid Spain and met Mom and Chuck and Sara and Ed - we were all there to watch and support Sara swim the Strait of Gibraltar, which she did successfully in just under 5 hours on September 11. A victorious day and an end to a trip we'll not likely forget for a very... very long time.
We're glad we had this amazing amazing experience...but we're so happy to be home!
We rented a car at Nairobi International airport for the last 8 days of our trip in Africa. We hadn't seen enough Rhinos (only one in Kruger, South Africa) - so we headed first to Lake Nakuru National Park where we were practically guaranteed to see white rhinos with a good chance of seeing black rhinos (rare). We sat in Nairobi traffic for an hour - Charles has really become proficient at aggressive driving on these huge round-abouts in the cities...it's like a big game of chicken. So we stayed a day in Nakuru town (Charles had his first pick-pocket attempt) and then headed to Lake Nakuru and camped the second night. After seeing 4 tree-climbing lions within a mile of camp - and earlier seeing aggressive baboons and vervet monkeys - we were most comfortable sleeping INside the picnic cage which was JUST big enough for our tiny tent. Phew.
At Nakuru, we were seeing sparring rhinos, lions right next to the road eating a zebra (what? yeah!) and mating giraffes - this place was probably the most jaw dropping for crazy wildlife sightings in quick succession.
RIFT VALLEY TO DESERT
From Nakuru, we drove north to see if we could see Mt Kenya (nope, socked in for days). We decided rather than go through Nairobi (traffic) again, we'd try to take a short cut to the northern coast area of Lamu. The road looked good on the map...but...
I guess we should have known by the reaction of the locals we asked. Each had a different way of getting to the road we wanted. Eventually we started descending into this dry desert area off of the lush fertile rift valley. We know now that this was a huge mistake and it was probably dangerous for us to visit this area. Not only the roads and the car/tires we had, but we had heard about 'shifters' or Somali pirates that operate in the area. Awesome (not).
After an hour on an insane 'dirt' road - mostly small boulders, sand, and washboard - we came upon a police-type check point at a village. We were asked if we could give a volunteer a ride - sure. Yoseph told us about the drought that lasted for 4 years already, how livestock and people were starving, and explained the caravans of camels and mules we were seeing were groups of the Burundi tribe trying to find water. What? But, we'd just come from the lush valley where it was raining all around Mt Kenya....to here. This was crazy. No water for 4 years, the road was terrible, more loose sand and stones - top speed was 14 miles an hour. Nobody in sight on these roads except the occasional caravan of camels/mules. Dry dry... dead standing trees and shrubs. No green leaves in sight. At one point, we saw pavement - underneath sand that had blown over the road. Everywhere else, you'd never know there was pavement once before (or if there ever was). This place was surreal - we could not comprehend it.
After hours, we reached Garba Tula, a pretty large village, bone dry. Wow - how do people live here? This desert village was near an intersection of another dirt 'main' road - we decided we were going to change plans and go straight back up hill to pavement and go all the way around - and not continue to the coast the back way. Our little car had taken a beating...not sure how the tires were going to last either. Sharp rocks...every stone that was kicked up to the undercarriage (which was about every 5 seconds) made us hold our breath. We came to the intersection, there was a young woman waiting to get a ride to a village in the direction we were now heading - so we picked her up (glad we did). It was 4 p.m. and Tosa had been waiting since 8 or 9 a.m. for a ride... and we were the first car that passed the entire day. What?
An hour later, we're still driving and the road was worse. We were getting close to a small village, Pochi (half-way to her village), when we almost ran INTO 4 cheetahs...literally. They scattered off the road and turned to stare at these crazy people. Less than one kilometer later we rolled into the village on a flat tire. We could still see the cheetahs. Talking with the locals there, we were told that the road beyond Tosa's village is 'bad' and we better go back the way we came - that's the best way to get up and out of the desert. No f'ing way - we are not driving back on those roads (we were stuck between terrible roads and more terrible roads - great). Tosa told us she knows some men in town who can fix our tire - we only had 1 spare...(not good)..and there is one hostel in the village we can stay the night. Deal. So we changed the flat tire within site of the cheetahs, and proceeded through another police checkpoint and ...on a crappy spare we drove an even worse section of road to her village...for another hour.
It was getting dusk at this point and the only thing we could do was hope and pray - I think I actually prayed - that we'd make it to her village OK. All of us were holding our breath as the car scraped bottom and crawled over sharp rocks/stones and through bouldery sand ...and with no spare... we were 100% insane.
After dark, we arrived at her village. The police checkpoint guy was pretty animated at how lucky we were to not have run into any shifters...and how crazy we were to have driven this car. And that we should go back because the road is only worse going up to Isiolo, where the pavement was (about 5 hours away). It was either him or another man in the smaller village we passed who said this was the second small car they'd ever seen on these roads...in their lifetime. (i...n...s....a...n...e...)
Lucky for us - very lucky for us - her family operated the only hostel. They had a room for us (some family member they kicked out for the night) and fed us dinner. We met and instantly befriended her english-speaking brother, Abdulahi. He wanted to know all about us and our education (he had completed a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry, spoke perfect english, very smart...and out here... what?). Again, surreal. This is a dry dry village, no leaf on any trees, crazy roads you hope to survive (you don't want to think about what would happen if you were broken down out there), pit toilets, sponge bathing/no shower, no electricity and pitch blackness except 1 million stars. We were eating dates while listening to the Muslim call to prayer, chickens, camels...and here he was, speaking almost perfect english and asking us about school and our travels. He and about 5 young men were working on our tire for a while and...in the morning we saw their solution (to our tire which was a tubeless tire - big problem): they put a bike patch on the outside wall of the tire - where the gash was. Oh...noo. Bike patch on the outside of the tire - that should last about 2 minutes. But that's all we had so we put that tire on, had a plan B to send a motorbike to get a new tire if it didn't work - but the air seemed to hold. So we loaded up the car. Abdulahi arranged the night before that he'd accompany us - great! - but the 2 other young brothers were a last minute add on...and so were the live chickens! But we made do and moved things around to get everyone in the car. So, going 10-14 miles an hour, tension every second waiting for the tire to puncture, remarkable driving by Charles, good conversation - we miraculously made it 4 hours before the bike patch failed and the skid plate was almost totally detached and dragging.
Another village, another police checkpoint, unloading the car, chickens, bags to the get to the spare, change the tire, wire the skid plate on, and we were off...more slowly now. But in higher spirits the closer we got to pavement.
And we made it. I swear I've never come close to tears so happy to see pavement ("tarmac road"). We did it. Good driving Charles - you are the BEST. Of course, at the elevation of Isiolo and the pavement road, it was raining and green and fertile. Rivers actually had water in them. Surreal again.
For both of us, this experience proved to be the most memorable of our three months in Africa. Sitting before our lamb and chapati dinner the night before at the family's house/motel, eating dates and listening to chickens and the call of prayer under a million stars. We we got to Isiolo - the pavement town, we loved having lunch that day with all the brothers and a town friend - eating communally while digging in with your hand to eat rice and meat stew. Messy, delicious. The tire and skid plate were fixed in this small town. Only some paint scratches but we didn't care. The car made it!
We got out of Isiolo after lunch - thanking our lucky stars. We made it to Nyeri where a real hotel bed and a hot shower were tear jerkers. This experience will stay with us for a while.
We got an text from Abdulahi a few days later that during his absence from home (he'd gone to Nairobi for a few days to go to a peace conference where he was representing that area/larger set of villages) that all the family's camels had been raided.
MOMBASA AND WASINI ISLAND
We drove from Nyeri, through Nairobi, and on to Mariakani, a large Swahili town 2 hours from Mombasa (which we made it to the following day). The traffic on this 2-lane highway was horrible - high speed cars passing slow trucks and buses passing broken cars - all while narrowly missing oncoming traffic doing the same thing. I think Charles got a little more grey on this road. We agreed once we got to Mombasa that we'd pay whatever we needed to to drop the car in Mombasa and fly from there to Nairobi.
In Mombasa, My sister Kateri knew people at nearby Wasini Island area from when she lived there for a year about 15+years ago...they still remembered her - gave us a deal on a snorkel trip even. We drove to Diani-Tiwi Beach for the remaining 3 days of the trip and camped at a lovely spot right on the beautiful coast. We set up our camp hammocks and had a perfect piece of paradise with campfire meals and amazing sunrises.
The last day getting out of there and to Mombasa airport was insane - a memorable way to end the trip in Africa. We powered up our laptops and camera/phones and realized when it was time to leave we had a dead car battery. Crap! A well-intentioned camping neighbor put the positive on negative while giving us a jump and proceeded to blow out several car fuses. Ugggh. Now we were were starting to panic - being late for a plane would make us miss our international flight to Spain later in the evening. So a German couple (who drove from Germany!) drove us into town and got some fuses. 20 minutes back to the tarmac road, the car was acting funny and died right as we reached the main road...luckily. We got the nearest taxi to race Charles into town to get an 100amp alternator fuse (didn't see this was blown earlier). After three shops we found one that...might...work. Got back to the car and yanked out the blown fuse. The metal posts were stuck in the fuse box (good!). Then I (Charles) examined the fuse I bought. Got lucky. The fuse I had was the opposite. So I bent the posts and jammed them into the new fuse. The taxi driver pulled out a couple miscellaneous wires to jump the battery and boom, we're in business, but running 2 hours late. We'll never make our Mombasa to Nairobi flight. We still had a slow ferry (and waiting for the ferry was nothing short of excrutiating). Our rental car driver met us at the other side to the ferry and hopped in the drivers seat. 10 minutes to get through Mombasa traffic and to the airport - ain't gonna happen. But the driver was screaming through traffic (this was the most insane driving experience EVER) and I (Kristi) was in the back seat calling the airline and begging them to make the gate wait for us. 'No way'. We got the airport, the gate had closed we were out of luck. Perhaps begging and then after 15 minutes giving up and going next door to buy a ticket at another airline made them change their mind? But 1/2 hr AFTER the flight was supposed to depart, we were told 'yes', got the fast lane through security and boarded the plane as the doors were closing. Totally wet with sweat and anxiety, parched, and shaking with tension...we...were...going...to ...make...the...international...flight. Thank goodness.
Once in Nairobi, it was smooth sailing. We checked in on Qatar airways, a beautiful airline company, stopped over in Doha (midnight temps were scorching hot), changed planes and headed on to Madrid, Spain.
We made it to Madrid Spain and met Mom and Chuck and Sara and Ed - we were all there to watch and support Sara swim the Strait of Gibraltar, which she did successfully in just under 5 hours on September 11. A victorious day and an end to a trip we'll not likely forget for a very... very long time.
We're glad we had this amazing amazing experience...but we're so happy to be home!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Serengeti Safari
SAFARI TIME!
We found a good regional air ticket to fly us from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro/Arusha (gateway to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater). We couldn’t hire our own vehicle there for less than a fully catered Safari so the choice was easy. Loads of safari trucks, businesses and tourist are on the move in Arusha town. We bargained for a great safari deal – but it turns out this business was a bad one…long story. But, we DID get an amazing 7-day safari and we saw a ton of cool stuff (photos below) and met cool people.
We started at Tangarire National Park: tons of zebras, impalas, lots of elephants, 3 lionesses right off the road, a tree-climbing lion asleep in a tree, wow! We camped at Panorama camp overlooking Lake Manyara that night and headed out early to Serengeti. Long dusty drive…uugh. We finally got in the park in the afternoon and did a game drive that afternoon, camped (no fence...listening to lions, watching 10 hyenas near our tents - yikes!). An all-day game drive the next day, and then ½ morning the following day. Serengeti was a-mazing. Hippos, giraffes, lions and lionesses within very very close range, cheetahs – we saw both lions and cheetahs on the move hunting. Crazy! The best sighting were the leopards though I think – a mother and her cub in a tree. Very cool. Elephants and their babies – this was awesome! Tons of buffalo – so we saw the BIG FIVE here in Serengeti.
After Serengeti, we drove 2-3 hours to Ngorongoro Crater to have dinner and camp. That night a lion came in the camp and looked in the kitchen (to the surprise of some safari cooks!) and a very thirsty and aggressive elephant came into camp later that afternoon as we were packing up/driving off. (crazy). Earlier that morning we toured Ngorogoro Crater – very very cool place. Spent about 6 hours on a game drive in the crater (driving crazy steep roads in/out) and saw the BEST views of 2 male lions very close to the road, and 3 lionesses hunt some warthogs. Loved it - we were IN on of those Discovery channel wildlife documentaries.
Next stop, we safari'd Lake Manyara and continued the last day at Arusha National Park. We took a walking safari there, got almost too close to buffalo and giraffes! Always though: "hakuna matata!" A 7-day unforgettable safari - and these pictures are only a few of hundreds we could bore you with!!
We head next to Kenya on a 5-hour bus from Arusha to Nairobi (international airport). We’ll hire a car this time and check out the sites in the central interior/rift valley and end at the sea side near Mombasa.
BIRD LIST
OTHER WILDLIFE
[coming soon]
We found a good regional air ticket to fly us from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro/Arusha (gateway to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater). We couldn’t hire our own vehicle there for less than a fully catered Safari so the choice was easy. Loads of safari trucks, businesses and tourist are on the move in Arusha town. We bargained for a great safari deal – but it turns out this business was a bad one…long story. But, we DID get an amazing 7-day safari and we saw a ton of cool stuff (photos below) and met cool people.
We started at Tangarire National Park: tons of zebras, impalas, lots of elephants, 3 lionesses right off the road, a tree-climbing lion asleep in a tree, wow! We camped at Panorama camp overlooking Lake Manyara that night and headed out early to Serengeti. Long dusty drive…uugh. We finally got in the park in the afternoon and did a game drive that afternoon, camped (no fence...listening to lions, watching 10 hyenas near our tents - yikes!). An all-day game drive the next day, and then ½ morning the following day. Serengeti was a-mazing. Hippos, giraffes, lions and lionesses within very very close range, cheetahs – we saw both lions and cheetahs on the move hunting. Crazy! The best sighting were the leopards though I think – a mother and her cub in a tree. Very cool. Elephants and their babies – this was awesome! Tons of buffalo – so we saw the BIG FIVE here in Serengeti.
After Serengeti, we drove 2-3 hours to Ngorongoro Crater to have dinner and camp. That night a lion came in the camp and looked in the kitchen (to the surprise of some safari cooks!) and a very thirsty and aggressive elephant came into camp later that afternoon as we were packing up/driving off. (crazy). Earlier that morning we toured Ngorogoro Crater – very very cool place. Spent about 6 hours on a game drive in the crater (driving crazy steep roads in/out) and saw the BEST views of 2 male lions very close to the road, and 3 lionesses hunt some warthogs. Loved it - we were IN on of those Discovery channel wildlife documentaries.
Next stop, we safari'd Lake Manyara and continued the last day at Arusha National Park. We took a walking safari there, got almost too close to buffalo and giraffes! Always though: "hakuna matata!" A 7-day unforgettable safari - and these pictures are only a few of hundreds we could bore you with!!
We head next to Kenya on a 5-hour bus from Arusha to Nairobi (international airport). We’ll hire a car this time and check out the sites in the central interior/rift valley and end at the sea side near Mombasa.
BIRD LIST
OTHER WILDLIFE
[coming soon]
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
ZANZIBa(aaaaaahhhh)r
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania
We're here on Zanzibar Island - we can hardly believe it. We are in love with this place! Off the 2-hr ferry from Dar es Salaam to here - rich in history and culture, beautiful place, blue-green water, and fast moving taxis. We spent our first couple nights in Stone Town - very very cool place. Tall/skinny alleyways that you could - and wanted to - get totally lost in. Ramadan now, so barely any restaurants open during the day. BUT the city park after sunset is filled with food vendors selling DELIcious food.
We went on an all-day Spice tour – one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. We walked around communal agricultural plots, learned about dozens of plants and spices, sampled a variety of spices, flowers, and vegetables, sat down to taste several spices in local cuisine (communal lunch), tasted 10 varieties of fruits, swam in the sea, and visited ruins (baths and a slave cave). At night, there was a huge food/fish bazaar – buy a stick of BBQ lobster, squid, octopus, snapper, whatever you want and naan, samosas, ‘zanzibar pizza’ (favorite is banana nutella with chocolate –OMG) and wash it down with fresh cane juice with ginger and lime. Holy bajole.
We hired a car for a few days and took off south and east to check out Jozani forest (and monkeys) and find a sailboat to take us snorkeling and relax on the beach. The east side was pretty cool – although during low tide you’d have to walk 5-minutes+ out to get into knee-high water. Tide pools were awesome and local fisherfolk were working hard. We found a fishing village and hired a dhow sailboat to take us all-day snorkeling, BBQ lobster lunch on a secluded beach. Sick, really. How can a place be this incredible?
Back to Stone Town to work – we found our ‘office’ (a bar with free internet) and camped out there for hours while working on classes. (It seems criminal though to look out on such blue water and be working…uughh). We went north for a couple days to this really nice beach in Kendwa. Kendwa is by far the best swimming beach with consistent level of water to swim. Incredible colors, sand like flour - we were in heaven. If you ever come to Zanzibar, do exactly what we did (minus the work, of course) - this is a place you must see. We loved it.
Useful phrases:
Mambo (Mambo is Zanzibar, Jambo is Swahili): Hello
Poa: Good, cool
Caribou: Welcome/come in
Asante (sana): Thank you (very much)
Harari: How are you
Snorkel = snorkel
Kristi: “Mamboooo”
Street vendor: “Mambo. Poa… Caribou”
Kristi: “poa, poa…Asante sana”
Vendor: “Harari”
Kristi: “Fine, asante, you?” (then usually it’d downshift totally to English or nonverbal gestures)
:) Spending a few extra days here and then on to Arusha in northern TZ border with Kenya. But Zanzibar...it's so nice...hmmm, maybe a few MORE days of beach time is a good idea... Yes....lovely lovely Zanzibbbbaaaaar.
We're here on Zanzibar Island - we can hardly believe it. We are in love with this place! Off the 2-hr ferry from Dar es Salaam to here - rich in history and culture, beautiful place, blue-green water, and fast moving taxis. We spent our first couple nights in Stone Town - very very cool place. Tall/skinny alleyways that you could - and wanted to - get totally lost in. Ramadan now, so barely any restaurants open during the day. BUT the city park after sunset is filled with food vendors selling DELIcious food.
We went on an all-day Spice tour – one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. We walked around communal agricultural plots, learned about dozens of plants and spices, sampled a variety of spices, flowers, and vegetables, sat down to taste several spices in local cuisine (communal lunch), tasted 10 varieties of fruits, swam in the sea, and visited ruins (baths and a slave cave). At night, there was a huge food/fish bazaar – buy a stick of BBQ lobster, squid, octopus, snapper, whatever you want and naan, samosas, ‘zanzibar pizza’ (favorite is banana nutella with chocolate –OMG) and wash it down with fresh cane juice with ginger and lime. Holy bajole.
We hired a car for a few days and took off south and east to check out Jozani forest (and monkeys) and find a sailboat to take us snorkeling and relax on the beach. The east side was pretty cool – although during low tide you’d have to walk 5-minutes+ out to get into knee-high water. Tide pools were awesome and local fisherfolk were working hard. We found a fishing village and hired a dhow sailboat to take us all-day snorkeling, BBQ lobster lunch on a secluded beach. Sick, really. How can a place be this incredible?
Back to Stone Town to work – we found our ‘office’ (a bar with free internet) and camped out there for hours while working on classes. (It seems criminal though to look out on such blue water and be working…uughh). We went north for a couple days to this really nice beach in Kendwa. Kendwa is by far the best swimming beach with consistent level of water to swim. Incredible colors, sand like flour - we were in heaven. If you ever come to Zanzibar, do exactly what we did (minus the work, of course) - this is a place you must see. We loved it.
Useful phrases:
Mambo (Mambo is Zanzibar, Jambo is Swahili): Hello
Poa: Good, cool
Caribou: Welcome/come in
Asante (sana): Thank you (very much)
Harari: How are you
Snorkel = snorkel
Kristi: “Mamboooo”
Street vendor: “Mambo. Poa… Caribou”
Kristi: “poa, poa…Asante sana”
Vendor: “Harari”
Kristi: “Fine, asante, you?” (then usually it’d downshift totally to English or nonverbal gestures)
:) Spending a few extra days here and then on to Arusha in northern TZ border with Kenya. But Zanzibar...it's so nice...hmmm, maybe a few MORE days of beach time is a good idea... Yes....lovely lovely Zanzibbbbaaaaar.
Tanzania
TRAIN TO DAR
We spent a night in Lusaka (a surprisingly really nice capital city - chill even) and then a bus north to catch the Tazara train from Kapiri Mposhi (north of Lusaka, Zambia) to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The train was...shall we say...an advenure! We heard a tip to purchase a whole train cabin (versus buying one seat and sharing a cabin with other strangers) and ...since this is a 48+ journey, we though having some space was a good idea. Turns out it was a very very very good investment! Our cabin had 6 bunks in it (second class) but it was just enough room for Charles and I to feel comfortable. (I cannot imagine 6 people in this space.) Check out the video below of how bouncy and shaky the train was - insane! The train stopped about 20 times for villagers to sell foods and drinks. (Corn, samosas, drinks, suspect chicken and other non-identifiable things). We had a great time though and met some cool people - a cool adventure!
49 hours later we were in the coastal city of Dar Es Salaam. Crazy insane train station, crazy insane non-moving traffic and a crazy insane taxi driver. Beer thirty. Awesome outdoor sidewalk BBQ (next to the hotel) with ammmaaaazing BBQ and indian curry. We are in the land of spice...yes!
We spent a night in Lusaka (a surprisingly really nice capital city - chill even) and then a bus north to catch the Tazara train from Kapiri Mposhi (north of Lusaka, Zambia) to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The train was...shall we say...an advenure! We heard a tip to purchase a whole train cabin (versus buying one seat and sharing a cabin with other strangers) and ...since this is a 48+ journey, we though having some space was a good idea. Turns out it was a very very very good investment! Our cabin had 6 bunks in it (second class) but it was just enough room for Charles and I to feel comfortable. (I cannot imagine 6 people in this space.) Check out the video below of how bouncy and shaky the train was - insane! The train stopped about 20 times for villagers to sell foods and drinks. (Corn, samosas, drinks, suspect chicken and other non-identifiable things). We had a great time though and met some cool people - a cool adventure!
49 hours later we were in the coastal city of Dar Es Salaam. Crazy insane train station, crazy insane non-moving traffic and a crazy insane taxi driver. Beer thirty. Awesome outdoor sidewalk BBQ (next to the hotel) with ammmaaaazing BBQ and indian curry. We are in the land of spice...yes!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
VICTORIA FALLS
From Kasane/Chobe, Botswana, we got a 1+hr transfer to Vic Falls through the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. Vic Falls - the town - is in Zimbabwe (although there is a lot of lodges on the Zambian side as well in response the to economic situation in Zimbabwe.) Zimbabwe...never thought we'd be here... Clearly Vic Fall was a once-thriving and now-struggling place. The economy has recently been 'dollarized' due to insane inflation ... it was pretty strange seeing the old dilapidated dollars on the street. People were pretty aggressively trying to sell us information, crafts, old Zimbabwe money, anything. We bought a few trillion and billion dollars notes for a few bucks. OK...and some bracelets too, sure. We ended up camping at the "rest camp" in town. Surprisingly nice, quiet and calm and within walking distance of restaurants, town stuff and Vic Falls/park. We could hear the falls from the camp - pretty cool.
When we first arrived, we walked the gauntlet (past guys selling stuff) across the Zim/Zam border bridge to see one part of the Falls. Awesome site! We watched some bungee jumpers from the border bridge, saw a dozen tourist helicopters, safari trucks...lots of tourism (but it seems for only a few outfits).
We went inside the Vic Falls National Park and walked the trails overlooking the falls. Amazing amazing amazing views! Surprisingly hot here so the falls spray/drenching on the trail was very nice. Went back to our shady hammocks at camp...sooo glad we brought the camp hammocks!
We're now 11K north of Vic Fall sitting here in a coffee/espresso shop in Livingstone, Zambia. Clearly a much better economy in Zambia - amazingly clear. Grocery stores are 10x more stocked, people are friendly and say hello/offer to help with information. In Zimbabwe we learned to avoid eye contact or say hello for fear of getting hassled every 10 feet to buy carvings or bracelets or old money. They have to work really hard for their money in Zimbabwe. We were a little tired of that scene so coming here to Zambia was a relief. As a visitor, it feels more calm/relaxed in Zambia.
(We're heading to Lusaka tomorrow and onto the express train (46 hours) to Tanzania next...)
From Kasane/Chobe, Botswana, we got a 1+hr transfer to Vic Falls through the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. Vic Falls - the town - is in Zimbabwe (although there is a lot of lodges on the Zambian side as well in response the to economic situation in Zimbabwe.) Zimbabwe...never thought we'd be here... Clearly Vic Fall was a once-thriving and now-struggling place. The economy has recently been 'dollarized' due to insane inflation ... it was pretty strange seeing the old dilapidated dollars on the street. People were pretty aggressively trying to sell us information, crafts, old Zimbabwe money, anything. We bought a few trillion and billion dollars notes for a few bucks. OK...and some bracelets too, sure. We ended up camping at the "rest camp" in town. Surprisingly nice, quiet and calm and within walking distance of restaurants, town stuff and Vic Falls/park. We could hear the falls from the camp - pretty cool.
When we first arrived, we walked the gauntlet (past guys selling stuff) across the Zim/Zam border bridge to see one part of the Falls. Awesome site! We watched some bungee jumpers from the border bridge, saw a dozen tourist helicopters, safari trucks...lots of tourism (but it seems for only a few outfits).
We went inside the Vic Falls National Park and walked the trails overlooking the falls. Amazing amazing amazing views! Surprisingly hot here so the falls spray/drenching on the trail was very nice. Went back to our shady hammocks at camp...sooo glad we brought the camp hammocks!
We're now 11K north of Vic Fall sitting here in a coffee/espresso shop in Livingstone, Zambia. Clearly a much better economy in Zambia - amazingly clear. Grocery stores are 10x more stocked, people are friendly and say hello/offer to help with information. In Zimbabwe we learned to avoid eye contact or say hello for fear of getting hassled every 10 feet to buy carvings or bracelets or old money. They have to work really hard for their money in Zimbabwe. We were a little tired of that scene so coming here to Zambia was a relief. As a visitor, it feels more calm/relaxed in Zambia.
(We're heading to Lusaka tomorrow and onto the express train (46 hours) to Tanzania next...)
Friday, August 5, 2011
Kasane, Botswana - Chobe National Park
HOLY CHOBE!
From Maun, we headed for Kasane - a border town of 4 countries: Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Really interesting town – very laid back and touristy with Safari trucks every 5th car. Right on the Chobe River at the edge of a gi-normous national park only accessible by 4x4. Large resort hotels on the Chobe river and then walk 20 feet and tour information shacks, craft displayed on the ground, women carrying babies on their backs – an interesting mix but it seems to work pretty nicely. People are happy and relaxed – a good vibe. The only problem is, we could not find an available 4x4 to go in/out of Chobe on our own. Not one 4x4 for hire - what?! Camp sites inside the park were booked a month in advance (so we camped in town). It’s the busy season and Chobe requires when we don’t have- good planning! (So far, we’ve been winging it, keeping a few days ahead in planning. But Chobe is different – there's a lack of resources like 4x4s and a lot of people wanting to go to the park.
At least we were able to visit the park by boat - the Chobe river is beautiful! We’d heard in Maun to go on a river safari after 3 p.m. because that’s when all the wildlife heads to the river. TRUE - wow! Once on the river, we were stopping every 20 feet to look at crocs, hippos, birds, tons of elephants, several varieties of ungulates, buffalo, giraffe, etc. The whole list below is from a 3-hour boat trip on the Chobe river. You can’t describe it…this safari was some of the most impressive we’ve seen in Africa so far. We were actually seeing elephants (many with young young babies) swim across the river – wow. One young baby elephant (pictured below) was less than 2 weeks old. The guide said you can tell the baby’s age because he was bending all the way down to use his mouth to drink water – he hadn’t learned to use his trunk yet. (Awwwww!) We watched the mama, baby and (probably) an older sibling intermittently for an hour as they walked on the river bank and finally swam across – helping ferry the baby across to the other side. Meanwhile, we were getting amazing close up views of hippos, crocs and a ton of birds. Seriously – a must do if you’re in this part of the world.
Now, we’re on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for couple days, then more of the falls and the upper Zambezi River from the Zambia side…and eventually making our way north to catch a 40+ hour train ride which starts north of Lusaka going straight to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Cool!
CHOBE BIRDS
Reed Cormorant
Darter
Goliath Heron
Grey Heron
Yellow-billed Egret
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Great White Egret
Squacco Heron
Blackcrowned Night Heron
Black Stork
Yellowbilled Stork
Marabou Stork
Saddlebilled Stork
Openbilled Stork
African Spoonbill
Sacred Ibis
Spurwinged Goose
Egyptian Goose
Redbilled Teal
Whiteheaded Vulture
African Fish Eagle
Helmeted Guineafowl
African Jacana
Redwinged Stilt
Crowned Plover
Blacksmith Plover
Common Sandpiper
Greyheaded Gull
Meyer’s Parrot
Grey Lourie
Pied Kingfisher
African Skimmer (nesting)
Whitefronted Bee-eater
Carmine Bee-eater
Swallowtailed bea-eater
Grey Hornbill
Redbilled Hornbill
European Swallow
Forktailed Drongo
Blackeyed Bulbul
Yellowbellied Bulbul
Heuglin’s Robin
Orangebreasted Bush Shrike
Glossy Starling
Black Sunbird
Whitebellied Sunbird
Swamp Boubou
OTHER CHOBE WILDLIFE
Bushbuck
Water Monitor
Nile Crocodile
Vervent Monkies
Baboons
Giraffes
Elephants
Hippos
Warthogs
Impalas
Kudus
Buffalos
Waterbucks
Red Lechwes
Sable Antelope
From Maun, we headed for Kasane - a border town of 4 countries: Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Really interesting town – very laid back and touristy with Safari trucks every 5th car. Right on the Chobe River at the edge of a gi-normous national park only accessible by 4x4. Large resort hotels on the Chobe river and then walk 20 feet and tour information shacks, craft displayed on the ground, women carrying babies on their backs – an interesting mix but it seems to work pretty nicely. People are happy and relaxed – a good vibe. The only problem is, we could not find an available 4x4 to go in/out of Chobe on our own. Not one 4x4 for hire - what?! Camp sites inside the park were booked a month in advance (so we camped in town). It’s the busy season and Chobe requires when we don’t have- good planning! (So far, we’ve been winging it, keeping a few days ahead in planning. But Chobe is different – there's a lack of resources like 4x4s and a lot of people wanting to go to the park.
At least we were able to visit the park by boat - the Chobe river is beautiful! We’d heard in Maun to go on a river safari after 3 p.m. because that’s when all the wildlife heads to the river. TRUE - wow! Once on the river, we were stopping every 20 feet to look at crocs, hippos, birds, tons of elephants, several varieties of ungulates, buffalo, giraffe, etc. The whole list below is from a 3-hour boat trip on the Chobe river. You can’t describe it…this safari was some of the most impressive we’ve seen in Africa so far. We were actually seeing elephants (many with young young babies) swim across the river – wow. One young baby elephant (pictured below) was less than 2 weeks old. The guide said you can tell the baby’s age because he was bending all the way down to use his mouth to drink water – he hadn’t learned to use his trunk yet. (Awwwww!) We watched the mama, baby and (probably) an older sibling intermittently for an hour as they walked on the river bank and finally swam across – helping ferry the baby across to the other side. Meanwhile, we were getting amazing close up views of hippos, crocs and a ton of birds. Seriously – a must do if you’re in this part of the world.
Now, we’re on to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for couple days, then more of the falls and the upper Zambezi River from the Zambia side…and eventually making our way north to catch a 40+ hour train ride which starts north of Lusaka going straight to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Cool!
CHOBE BIRDS
Reed Cormorant
Darter
Goliath Heron
Grey Heron
Yellow-billed Egret
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Great White Egret
Squacco Heron
Blackcrowned Night Heron
Black Stork
Yellowbilled Stork
Marabou Stork
Saddlebilled Stork
Openbilled Stork
African Spoonbill
Sacred Ibis
Spurwinged Goose
Egyptian Goose
Redbilled Teal
Whiteheaded Vulture
African Fish Eagle
Helmeted Guineafowl
African Jacana
Redwinged Stilt
Crowned Plover
Blacksmith Plover
Common Sandpiper
Greyheaded Gull
Meyer’s Parrot
Grey Lourie
Pied Kingfisher
African Skimmer (nesting)
Whitefronted Bee-eater
Carmine Bee-eater
Swallowtailed bea-eater
Grey Hornbill
Redbilled Hornbill
European Swallow
Forktailed Drongo
Blackeyed Bulbul
Yellowbellied Bulbul
Heuglin’s Robin
Orangebreasted Bush Shrike
Glossy Starling
Black Sunbird
Whitebellied Sunbird
Swamp Boubou
OTHER CHOBE WILDLIFE
Bushbuck
Water Monitor
Nile Crocodile
Vervent Monkies
Baboons
Giraffes
Elephants
Hippos
Warthogs
Impalas
Kudus
Buffalos
Waterbucks
Red Lechwes
Sable Antelope
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