ONWARD HO!

Wow, how time is flying! I can't believe that it is already time for me to make my way to Jo'berg and to dare another trip on a bus. This time I plan to be prepared and make a quick stop in a KFC or maybe even the local Chicken Licken – well, OK, maybe not. Hopefully since it is a day trip and only 7 hours, I won't have the “welcome to the fast food grease pit” thing going on again.
So, what have I been up to the past few days...well after a second wonderful night in the Mantis and Moon Oasis, we got another early start and headed back to Umkomaas to do some more diving (Payson dived the day before). Ok, wait, before I go on, I am sure some grammar police somewhere is saying that I should use the word “dove” not “dived”, well after the dive in Zanzibar with the rest of my overlander friends, we got into a debate about this. The Canadians said “dove” and the American (me) said “dove” but the Brits said “dived”. Given that it was such a heated debate, one of the the Canadians went out and did a little research and discovered that when diving, as in scuba diving or diving off a diving board, one should say “dived” but in other instances the word “dove” is appropriate. Go figure. If anyone else has any other thoughts, please feel free to jump on in!

OK, back to my story, we headed to the dive shop to dive the Aliwal Shoal, about 60kms South of Durban off the coast of a little town called Umkomaas. Will and Payson both decided to do the shark dive, which entailed going out on a boat, chumming the water (dropping in a canister with some chopped up fish) and then waiting. Once the sharks appeared, they all jumped in and hovered at about 12 meters watching for as long as they wanted or as long as their air lasted. Payson said it was the most peaceful dive he had ever done, meanwhile Will said it was a bit freaky and that he was “on guard” the entire time. I opted out of the shark dive and went the more benign route diving just the shoal itself, which was still known to have a sharks running around (the ones that run off to check out the chumming), over a thousand different fish species and beautiful soft coral.

It was quite a frantic dive experience. Not sure how great the operator was as they didn't as a single one of us to see our dive cards. Sort of an important thing. Equipment getting was like running around a grocery store with unnamed aisles trying to pick up bits but not getting them the first time round. Basically they said, “OK, go back there and get your equipment” and a guy handed you part of it, but not all and then you had scavenge around to find the rest. Then there was getting the wet suit, which they seemed to be short of and kept insisting that super large ones would work just fine for some while cramming other people into suits one size too small. Will swears that when he peed, it had no way out of the suit and so he had to unzip under water and try to flush his suit out with water. I can only imagine what that looked like.

Once set, having put my equipment together completely unsupervised and unchecked, everything was loaded into a truck and taken down to the river mouth so that we could jump in the boat and shoot out to sea. They did not have a pier to launch from so we had to start in the river and time the waves that were crashing in to get out to sea. It was quite a wild ride and I am sure my sis would have been green in the face and proving the fishies with some food before we even made it past the first wave. It didn't get much calmer once we were out at sea and we were faced with big rolling, stomach dropping waves. Then, finally were were there and the following instructions were given, “Put on your mask, get in, and go!”. Normally the boat captain or dive master checks to make sure you are in the water OK before heading to the bottom, but well, before I knew it, all fins were in the air and we were heading down. I have never felt a current like this one. I think I sucked half my tank down in the first five minutes while trying to find something to grab on to so that I could orient myself. To speak in Sus' words (my first tent mate on the overland trip), “I had to take myself aside and have a little word with myself”. In this case, to convince myself that I could breath, it would be OK, and we were just waiting for everyone to get down, which was taking some time as someone had to go back up, and then we would float nicely along with the current and not fight against it. In these moments, I did also manage to think about the horror my dear auntie Jane would feel seeing nine people clinging to coral covered rocks at the bottom of the ocean. It was such a crazy current I am amazed that I was able to hold on as long as I did.

The coral did bite back, however, and now I have a few nice scrapes on my wrists and fingers that are reminding me again and again not to touch the sea life. I did mention to the dive master that I was surprised as most dive masters state very clearly that you are not to touch things and he agreed but also said that well, not too many people were out there so, it wouldn't do too much damage. Yeah, right, not too many people, just 7 dive shops that go out five times a day with six to eight people on each boat. Sigh...The rest of the dive was lovely though and we were whisked along the shoal almost from the top to the bottom in about an hour covering approximately 2.5km. Amazing, huge, fat starfish, a couple sea turtles (also fighting the current - to get food), and loads of fishies. No sharks though, as they were all down with the other boat at the far end of the shoal. Definitely a nice place to dive.

After that we grabbed a quick bite and headed up the coast toward Durban and the Hippo Hide. I am still amazed at all of the people standing on the side of the road trying to hitch somewhere or the other. They make signs with their hands or hold a piece of paper with a few letters on it to indicate where they are going. In many cases they hold out a bit of money to indicate that they are willing to pay for the ride. The roads are most packed during the morning commute and at those times, you often see people dressed as they are going in to office jobs. Will managed to flip one of them off, which was quite funny. The guy was holding up a finger to indicate where he was going and Will thought he was flipping us off so flipped him off. Payson and I were both a bit shocked and Payson said “What the hell was that for Will?” and Will replied, “Wasn't he giving us the bird?” We both burst into laugher and said, “ugh, no, he was indicating that he wanted a ride”. We all laugh about it now and every time we see someone holding up a finger, ask Will if he wants to flip that guy a bird as well.

Today was a bit of a sad day as my great adventure with Will and Payson has come to an end. Will hopped on his Baz Bus up to Swaziland this morning leaving Payson and I to wander around Durban until Payson also had to leave, heading for the airport to catch his flight back to the states. We had a great Indian meal last night as our “last supper” as Durban is known for having a bit of an Indian flair to it. Supposedly it has the largest Indian population outside of India. Whether or not that is really true, I don't know but by the looks of the people on the street and the people running the shops, I'd go for a “Yes”. It is a very strange city, the downtown almost completely black and Indian but surrounded by quiet peaceful areas full of little shopping malls and the more fortunate who live there. It is loud and dirty and chaotic but supposedly has beautiful beaches that people flock to in the summer (I haven't seen them yet).

And on that note, I am going to return to my book – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – don't ask....

AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES TO MANTIS AND MOON!

No - I have not completely lost my mind, the title is in fact the names of two of the hostels I have stayed at over the past week. I am currently at Mantis and Moon, which is on the Wild Coast section of South Africa about 100km outside of Durban.

I started this little jaunt with an overnight bus trip from Cape Town to East London. It qualifies as one of the more interesting bus trips I have ever taken. My first goal upon boarding the bus was to look for the skiniest person on board to sit next to (everyone seemed to be HUGE, OK, the women were huge). After I narrowed down the skinny part, my next qualifier was a person who was not carrying a bag, box, bucket or container of any sort that had fried fish, chicken and chips. Let me tell you, this was not an easy feet. The bus could have been a mobile Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think I was the only person (and the woman next to me) that was not carrying a grease oozing bag. Guess I didn't realize that this was the required meal for the trip and little old me only brought bread, cheese and olive tapenade.

The lady next to me and I were the only two white people on the bus, which I wasn't really suprised about. I had hoped to chat with one of the more African women and get a little more insight to the culture and history here but they either A. were HUGE and already smashing in their bloke against the window (why is it that the men are always small and the women boardering on hippodum?) or B. carrying a greasy bag of fried chicken or fried fish. She was quite pleasant and making the journey up to her mother's house for the holidays. We settled in for what we thought would be a fairly quiet journey. I pulled out the neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs and settled in for a restless night of sleep hopeful that I would at at least get a little rest. So looking like a right drooler (british term for idiot) I scrunched myself down in the seat and assumed a position that would not completely cut off all the circulation in my lower extremities.

However, In all the excitement for the holidays, a couple of blokes decided to celebrate their way through the night. Basically that meant that they drank and drank and ate and well, talked and talked and talked and talked and talked - you get the idea. It even made it through my trusty ear plugs. They also decided at about 11:00 that a movie might be in order. The sound didn't quite work and every time we hit a bump, the sound system cut out and changed and I couldn't figure out if it was people talking on the bus or actually was the movie, or just the loud guys three seats up. Half sleep haze is quite an odd thing and really my mind wandered all sorts of directions. So, finally at 6:30 am when we arrived at a gas station for the morning break, I gave up on the sleep thing. The guy was still talking and the woman next to me was LIVID and could not believe it was so bad. She had tried during the night to quiet them down but that just made it worse and he got louder. I belive he did take a nap around 10:00am for an hour or so but that was about it. So needless to say, it was not a restful night but also apparently not the norm for the journey.

Upon arrival, I hopped onto another shuttle and headed up to Away With the Fairies, a hostel up in Hogsback. The place was a childhood vacation spot for JRR Tolkein and I can see where he got all the ideas for the forest lands of his book. It was set up on a cliff overlooking the valley and the three mountains called, funnily enough, Hogsback 1, Hogsback 2 and Hogsback 3. The view were incredible when the mist was not blowing around the bungalows. Thought I might even bump into a fairy or two. I cannot describe how magical the place was and how mystic. We had a group meal in the cozy bar, played cards and prepared for our hikes the next day. The big draw here, besides the mountains, is the number of water falls around the area. It is covered in them. It had rained a bit the night before so the paths were muddy but that didn't stop us from tromping through and climbing up amongst the roots and rocks to reach the beautiful cascades of water coming down the cliffs and ledges. Had planned to go for a swim in one of the many rock pools but when Will came out with little worms on him, I decided that might not be such a good idea. It had been clear most of the day but by the time we climbed back out of the valley and to the top, the mist had blown back in and the entire town - wow, I made it sound substantial and I should have said, little hobbit-like village - was covered in mist. It was so thick that we couldn't make out the cows in the road until we were about 10 feet from them. Really gave you a feeling of isolation - but in a good way. Had another fun night of cards, beers and good conversation and prepared to head back down the hill to the coast again.

Back at the beach, I settled in for the Xmas celebrations at Buccaneers Hostel in Cintsa. I had already met a few of the people there along the road so had a good base of friends to celebrate with and then I met Anne, a sweet German girl, who also joined in. The hostel had a huge celebration planned with hors d'eouvres and cocktails (blue and green ones with a vodka base and that tasted a bit like toothpaste) overlooking the ocean follwed by roast chicken, lamb and ham with all of the trimmings. Every table had several bottles of champagne, party crowns and christmas crackers. There were over 90 people at the celebration with about 10 per table. My table consisted of a fellow american, germans, dutch, a south african, swissies and a belgian guy. We drank mightily of the champagne, stole it from other tables, and pulled more christmas crackers than even kids would know what to do with. It really was a grand time. After, everyone retired to the bar for more festivities and dancing late into the night. Christmas day was a bit of a recovery day for all but started off nicely with a champagne and orange juice (tang like stuff in this case) breakfast down by the pool. Many people picked right back up from the night before and continued to drink throughout the day but us more modest folk, enjoyed the mimosa's and hung out by the pool reading books for most of the day. In the afternoon, we did muster enough energy to go take a walk on the beach, which was fantastic. Got caught in a bit of a rain shower while we were out but the weather was warm and we didn't mind too much.

By the time we made it back to the pool for the evening braai (BBQ) , a bunch of drunk guys had taken over the pool and were playing naked beer and volley ball. We decided that they were the afternoon's free activity (the hostel had a free activity each night - the night before was wine and volleyball) and settled in to laugh a bit at them, and well, with them. They carried this on through the night, which was not suprising, and finished in the bar doing shots called Springboks, with their pants around their ankles.

The idea behind the Springbok shot (Amarula and peppermint schnapps) that sprinboks have white asses so, if doing the shot, one must bare their ass crack. Clearly the enthusiasm from these gentlemen was quite high as the pants seem to have made it a little lower than the ass crack. It did make for quite a laugh watching them with their hands held to their heads imitating antlers, looking left and right for lions, then jumping forward to the bar and leaning over to pick up the shots with their mouths (springboks have no hands). All in all, a very amusing Christmas!

On boxing day, Will (a Canadian I had met) made it back down from Away with the Fairies and met up with Payson (the american - also met at Away with the Fairies) and me. From there we hopped into Payson's car and headed down the coast to Mantis and Moon for a couple nights. Payson was heading my way to go diving and I told him about the place I was planning on staying and he decided it was a better bet than his original choice. Will also heard about it and was going to go with Payson as well so we all ended up at Mantis and Moon for a couple of night for relaxing and also diving. The place is fantatistic. It is nestled back in a rain forest with little wooden paths throughout and banana leaves the size of beach towels. There is a rock pool, a jacuzzi and a very cool bar/sitting area. Half of the bungalows are up in treehouses. Tomorrow we will go diving and hopefully run into a few sharks!

Well, I think I am exhausted after all that! Time to go and find the evening meal at the local Spar (we are going to give cooking a try!)

WHAT TO WHEN BEING ATTACTED BY AN OSTRICH

Well, it has been over a week since I have heard Charles’ “Don’t Waaaaiiiiit!!!!” cry for breakfast, lunch or dinner and I seem to be managing to maintain all the pudge I put on eating three massive meals a day and not getting much exercise. This, despite the fact, that I have been getting loads of exercise the past week. Jules I tackled every trail we could find and we even threw in a canoe trip for good measure.

So, after a few days in lovely, sunny, warm, brilliant Cape Town with the ocean breezes and many goodbyes to the other Overlanders, we packed up our things and jumped into a very small, and probably incredibly dangerous, little white car thing. Not sure if it was more qualified for Barbie or for us but as we have made it safely back to Cape Town again, I will give it credit for being a form of human transport rather than doll transport. Our plan was pretty simple – drive up the coast to Plettenberg Bay, relax there for a few days, head to Fairy Knowe in the Wilderness Park area (still on the coast), then go inland to Oudtshoorn to check out the ostrich farms and finally spend a couple nights in Franschoek enjoying the winelands.

Plett (Plettenberg Bay) was fantastic. Gorgeous sweeping beaches with crystal clear turquoise waters. We were floored by the many mansions dotting the hills around the bay and are still baffled at how the people here are affording them especially after seeing the townships (shanty towns) on the way out of Cape Town. We did, just for fun, check out the pricing on these gorgeous mansions with unparalleled ocean views (OK, I’ll give you that there are equally lovely places on the CA coast). It appears that you can get a pretty decent sized abode (starter that is – 3 to 4 bedrooms and an ocean view) for around US $500,000 or ZAR3.5 million. We did a couple day hikes in the Plett area – Robberg and Tstitsikama – both of which ran along the coast and provided great views of the surrounding area as well as dolphins and seals. The trails were most interesting and not just for the scenery. They sort of, well, disappeared on occasion and we had to do a bit of searching to figure out exactly where it picked back up. This meant that we took a slightly different route going out than coming back. In many cases, we were climbing along rocks on the beach searching for some footprint painted on a rock or scrambling across and down stream/creek beds looking for where it picked up on the other side. Of course, when you didn’t need a sign post or direction, there was one, and when you did, there wasn’t. Still, it was fun and I can’t say I have been on a hike before with such varied terrain.

In Fairy Knowe, we did pretty much the same thing but our destination on these hikes was to water falls rather than down and along the coast. They were quite nice and for one of them, we had a 3km canoe trip to get to the jumping off point for the trail. Sadly the water lacked crocs and hippos grunting at us but it did have some nice birds and the scenery was quite pleasant as well. Trails were equally interesting as in Plett, which made for good laughs as some other hikers tromped by in their flip flops and sandals. We topped our final day at Fairy Knowe off with a paragliding trip. Jorg, one of the workers at the hostel, was an instructor so we went out with him. It was incredible floating, or shall I dare say soaring, over the hills, beaches and water. Jorg was quite a laugh as well so it made for an enjoyable chat. Although, it did make me a bit nervous when he got excited about what he was explaining and used his hands to gesture, leaving the sail controls completely unattended. He obviously knew what he was doing since we did land safely back on the ground.

Oudtshoorn was out next stop – ostrich capital of the world and known for being a leaner, tastier dark meat than beef. It is, in fact, quite tasty and the skin does also make for some very nice purses. Our first venture in Oudtshoorn was to go see the Cango Caves and take on their “Adventure Tour” which involved crawling through incredibly small places from cave to cave with names like the Devil’s Coffin and The Post Box. The caves were beautiful with loads of stalactites and stalagmites that had been formed over millions of years and in a few instances, joined together to make one giant column. I think we reached about 150 meters below the surface and did a few kilometres worth of trekking. We topped the day off with an ostrich meal – as you have to do when in the ostrich capital of the world.

The next day started off with an ostrich egg breakfast (not so sure about the texture of the egg when scrambled but otherwise quite a nice mild taste) and then went on to a farm where we could learn more about these funny little creatures that dotted the hills around Oudtshoorn. The tour ended with the chance to sit on and also to ride an ostrich. Somehow I opted myself into the riding section of the group and got dumped on the poor little bugger first. Boy did he go! Thankfully, they have two “jockeys” who are versed in ostrich riding that run along side and made sure you don’t hurt yourself. Basically, they catch them by hooking their necks and then dumping a bag over their heads. They walk them, must like a prisoner going to execution, over to a blocked section/cage where they are held so that us humans can climb on top. When they are ready to be released, the guide takes the bag off their heads and well, they back right out and sprint off. Meanwhile, the rider holds on to the bones in the wings for dear life, and if possible wraps their legs around the front of the body. I think I lasted about 5 seconds. It is quite sad really and I don’t think I this is something we should be torturing the poor birds with. They did not look happy at all to be caught and ridden.

We wrapped up our trip with a couple of nights in Franschoek just enjoying the scenery, checking out the cute little shops, tasting wine and with me, having a few meetings and trying to get to know a few people in the industry here. Odd to actually have meetings again…think I was doing quite nicely without them – at least for now. Still having too much fun wandering about.

Now I am back in Cape Town. Jules left early this morning so we had a celebratory meal last night at a fun funky restaurant that would have cost at least a couple hundred in the US but came to around $70 here (a good bottle of wine included). It was sad to see her go and today is a slow day with me doing a bit of an admin as I have free access to a computer and internet (sigh). Tonight I’ll hop on an overnight bus up to East London for a few more days of coast time (working my way up) before I head into Jo’berg to meet my friend and then head off to Kruger for the New Year.

Oh, I think I forgot to address the title of the blog…apparently you are to lie down and play dead (this seems to be a theme when being attacked by some vicious creature). Once you have done that, it is likely that the ostrich will trample you and that it will be excruciatingly painful. Given that you will still have your wits about you (ha, ha) you are to grab one of the legs (not sure how since they will be trampling you) and pull the bird down. The ostrich will fall on his back and then you are to grab the neck and smack it on the head. A blow to the head will kill it and then you are safe and free to go on with your day.

So, if I don’t get to this blogging thing again in the next couple days, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Oh boy,do I really get to ride an ostrich?

photos of my overland group and paragliding view

TRUCKLESS AND LOST...or....

FREEDOM AT LAST! Well, I am off the truck now and have safely made it to Cape Town. Can't believe that it has been over 12 weeks that I have been on the road now...sigh...what a trip! Claudia is still within rock throwing distance parked in the back parking lot and every once and a while, I glance over at her with a small tinge of regret that I won't be getting back on her and heading on another adventure. Then again, I look at my Garden Route plans and the plans after that for going up the coast and on into Mozambique and I think, hell I can choose where I want to go and when I want to do it! Guess both options have their benefits and both options are equally fun, exciting and frustrating.

In any case, where did I last leave off...I am actually not really sure. I belive it was in Windhoek after our big game dinner of local beasts. After that, we carried on to an area where the unique and ever bizarre Quiver Tree is located. It is actually part of the Aloe family. The bark on the trees is similar to a gold lamay crocodile belt and the branches poke up and straight out with spikey little aloe type branches. We then wandered on to Fish River Canyon, which is supposed to be the second largest canyon after the Grand Canyon but apparently there is one in Peru that is also in the running. Regardless, it was quite spectacular. It was actually a canyon within a canyon and if you were really adventuresome, you could do an 85km hike through it. For all the bitching I have been doing about getting zero exercise, it was still a very unappealing offer. We did do a couple of shorter hikes and spent much of a day lazing around a hot spring. Quite ironic that when we finally do get hot water, and I do mean HOT, it is so warm outside that the only thing nice about getting in the hot water is the breeze that dries you off once out of the water. That said, the night swim under the stars and the swim first thing in the morning, were absolutely glorious.

We did a quick canoe trip down the orange river (just a day), then spent the evening in the hostel bar overlooking the water and chatting with a group of people who had just gotten off of a four day trip on the river. Figures that the one guy there "that was mine" - meaning an american - was from Boston and had only ever been out of the country once and that was to London...sigh...the stereotypes that I have to correct out here. I have actually been voted an honorary commonwealth by the aussies, kiwis, canadians and brits on the trip and several times have needed to apologize for "the ones that are mine" along the road. Thankfully there have not been too many.

So, onward we went to the wine country, Stellenbosch, where I was happily back in my element. Beautiful is about all I can say about the vineyards. The wine isn't too bad either. Jules and I rented a car and tooled around one of the days and had a grand ole time chatting with the locals. After a couple of good days of that, we arrived at our final destination - Cape Town. Wow, I cannot believe it. I am still reeling from the fact that I don't get back on the truck anymore and that all the people I have spent the past 10 weeks with (two of them 12 weeks) are peeling off one by one. It will be strange but I have no doubt that I'll adapt.

Past couple of days here have been spent poking around, touring the Cape of Good Hope and climbing Table Mountain. Have continually run into the truckies, so that has been nice and in many cases, have had a good laugh about a number of things and said "goodbye" again for the fourth or fifth time. Tomorrow, it really will be goodbye as Jules and I pick up our car and head to Plettenberg (sp). I am too tired at the moment to write too much or anything of wit, so off I will go. However, before I do, here is a pic of me finally there...

IS THAT REALLY A STOP LIGHT?????

Well, it appears that I have arrived back in civilization at last...gone are the drop toilets and red mud campsights. Welcome to clean, warm showers and nice grass to pitch the tents on. Actually there is still quite a bit of dust around and the random camp site with loads of ants that must be avoided (they bite). We spent five blissful days lazing around the town of Swakopmund (Swakop to those in the know) eating the most lovely game you could imagine. Had Kudu, Zebra, Springbock and my personal favorite, Oryx in a wine peppercorn sauce. It wasn't cheap by Namibian standards but by US standards we were getting a bloody good deal at around $10 for an appetizer and a huge piece of meat for the main. Swakopmund was just like being in a German seaside village - loads of good brown bread, sausages and weissbeer, which Jules and I managed to find and then consume loads of. On Thanksgiving, the two of us innocently stumbled upon the Brauhouse and thought, "gee, let's have a drink while we catch up in our journals". Four hours, four big HUGE weissbeers and a rump steak (each) later, we decided to consider ordering some apple strudel for dessert - that was until we saw the price of the beers and realized that they were $26 Nambian$ each (our rump steaks were the special of the day at $28 each). All we could do is laugh, comment on how fantastic the beer was (much better than the local stuff) and put it back into USD to realize the entire thing cost about $20USD each - not bad for a fab meal, four hours and great beer. Good way to celebrate Thanksgiving I think.

So after Swakop, we wandered on up to Etosha National Park (a little backwards in terms of travel as we are now heading back down). It is known for its fantastic night viewing at the wateringholes. We had one good watering hole night with two lionesses wandering around and drinking from the pool while the jackals ran around behind them and made whooping cries to warn the other animals. Nothing else came round that night, which really isn't all that suprising. The other two nights were fairly quiet with loads of springbock, frogs and a few wildebeest. The game drives were, again, fantastic. The scenery in the park is amazing with white salt pans in some areas and grassy plains in others (it is the beginning of the rainy season so a bit more green around than usual too). It was so beautiful to look at the zebra with the deep blue sky and white ground behing them. Loads of giraffe as well (always my fave). We saw another kill, a zebra this time, with about 9 lions eating off of it. Incredible as it was right on the side of the road. After that we stopped at a large watering hole and watched just about every animal you could imagine play in the water and roam the grasslands - we had lions, elephants, kudu, springbock, black faced impala, oryx and giraffe all in one go!
One baby elephant was having the time of his life playing with his trunk. It was like he had just discovered this thing hanging off of his face and was waving it around in the water and splashing everyone and running about with it flopping all of the place. I tried to capture the scene but well, couldn't quite get the camera to really get what I wanted...oh well.

Now we are off to Sesriem to do a bit more camping and climb up a massive dune for sunrise. Can't believe I only have two weeks left on the truck and then Jules and I are down the garden route for bit. Should be fun to see what mischief we can get up to.

SPITZKOPPE and THE SKELETON COAST

The last two days before arriving here in Swakopmund were spent hiking in Spitzkoppe and camping on the beach at km 108 on the skeleton coast. Landscape here in Namibia on the coast is absolutely desolate. There is nothing out there and you can, even today, understand why it was such a terrible place for a ship to wreck. There is absolutely no drinkable water around and you are miles and miles and miles from any sort of civilization.

Spitzkoppe is an amazing rock cluster shooting out of the flat lands with some great rock climbing and hiking. Jules and I went on quite the venture and climbed up to a pace called Bushman’s Paradise at the top of the rocks. Not sure how much of a paradise I would have called it but I guess in the rainy season it could be quite lush and green in the little valley at the top of the hill. Here are a couple pixs of the rock and jules and I hanging out. Note the truck in the bottom right corner of the rock picture for a sense of scale.

Oh, also, you will have to drop down to the Mighty Zambezi section to read in order as I have posted this all in one go!

PS - that is jules in the photo w/me

PROMISE THEY WON’T EAT ME? – Cheetah Park

Never thought I’d be head butted by a cheetah, but well, I was…Now back in Namibia, we camped in a place near Etosha National Park, that is known for saving cheetahs from the hands of the farmers (they get killed for killing the cattle) and released back into a semi-wild setting where they are given hunks of meat but for the most part live as they would in the wild. They actually have two pens, one with three “tame” cheetahs and one with 18 wild cheetahs. Our visit to the tame cheetahs involved staying at least 2 meters away from them unless one of the family/owners was present and then we could pet them. The cheetahs seemed to know the drill and as soon as we entered the cage, which was actually just the fenced in area of the family’s front yard (a large one) they came purring on up and we crowded around. Only two showed up and apparently the third felt a little left out as he too decided to make his entrance by coming straight into the back of my legs, pushing them apart and walking right through. I think I was too in shock to really realize that I had a cheetah walking through my legs – it was just like an every day cat going for a stroll – well, one that was about 3 feet in height and with very sharp teeth. He didn’t seem to take much notice at all and tossed himself down next to the other two and began licking his owner’s hands. They did get a bit snappy toward the end after having several of us pet them and a few teeth were barred but no blood drawn. Someone had the bright idea of asking if the owners thought any of the three would kill them and the answer came back, “One, for sure would not, but the other two…who knows!” Glad we were out of the cage at that point.

Of course we also saw the wild cheetahs and did a feeding with them and they were spectacular. They make the strangest sound, like a cross between a purr and a bird trill, high and chirpy but with a deep throaty undertone. When we first entered the park, there was nothing and we were all looking out into the brush hoping for the first sign and before we knew it, they were coming out of every corner, loads of them walking down the road following the truck and coming for their nightly meal. Not sure what delicacies were tossed at them but they seemed to enjoy whatever it was and immediately jumped in. A few, probably the ones that ate well the night before, just paced around the truck and looked at us. Maybe they weren’t actually full but trying to figure out how to get us out of the truck for a fun little chase and feast. They still have all their instincts and are by no means tame as they had taken down and killed a Kudu the night before that had wandered a little too close to the fence – took down the fence too! In some ways, I think it is sad that they are not in the wild, but if they had stayed in the wild, they would have been dead already

THE BUSHMEN

The next day, it was off to visit the Bushmen. It all sounds quite exciting to head out into the bush and camp with a local tribe that uses the click language still but unfortunately I think there are very few of those left. In reality we turned off the main road at a sign posting that said “Come experience a living Bushman village – 6km” with an arrow. We bounced down the dirt and sand road for the 6km only to arrive at another sign posting that said “Wait for your guide here.” and had a list of activities that could be done while in the “bush”. We were greeted by two men and a woman wearing western clothes and told to wait. About 15 minutes later, the same three returned wearing various animal skins draped over their bodies and carrying bows, arrows and crudely fashioned axes. They then took us on a little tour of the bush and showed us the plants that they use for medicine and to eat. It was actually quite interesting but still felt very contrived given that after the tour of the bush, we were invited, for a $7 USD fee, to visit the “Nowadays Village”, which is really how they live. There was a selection of other activities we could watch them do (jewellery making, hunting, marriage ceremonies) that afternoon as well, but all with a fairly hefty price tag attached so we all opted to enjoy a lazy afternoon of relaxing.

Had a fun night of watching the bushmen dance, or really, watching them shake their butt cheeks at us – looked like Jello being furiously jiggled – and toasting marshmallows over the fire. Hoping to sleep under the stars that night, Jules (tent mate) and I fashioned a very crude cover out of tent poles and mosquito netting. Just our luck, it started to sprinkle around 3:00am and we were up, along with everyone else, sorting out how to stay dry. While the camp area rang with people hammering in pegs for their rain covers, Jules and I simply picked up our contraption and carried it under the awning pulled off of the truck that had been put up for shade earlier in the day and fell happily back to sleep.

BACK ON DRY LAND AND OFF TO THE BUSH

The next day, it was back to dry land through the same means as we arrived in the Delta, although reverse order (obviously). Back in our camp, we were treated to an amazing local dinner – a stew cooked in a big cast iron, pot bellied pot type thing with potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice and veggies – and dancing by the locals. The dancing was a bit awkward. Basically, the entire town turned our, babies included, with a couple of drunk buddies on the drums who pounded away while the women folk, and a few courageous men, danced out two by two and did a little shake. One was apparently so excited to come out and do the dancing that she forgot to take her blue rollers our of her hair.

All cozy in our little tents, we had quite a surprise that night when we felt drops coming through our back screen and moments later a flash of lightening following by thunder. It took a few seconds to click and then Jules and I were up and out hammering down the fly sheet in an effort to keep dry. This, of course, was also the night following a big laundry day and as we climbed back into the tent, we though, hmmm, might want to get the laundry down, and off we stumbled to retrieve our clothes before they received a second washing. Didn’t help much that my glasses were back in the tent and after walking about 30 feet it clicked that well, I could not see much of anything but large objects, one of which could very likely be one of the hippos that wandered through the camp on a regular basis. The thunder was one of the most amazing things I think I have ever heard. It really was “rolling thunder” and started way off in the distance slowly getting louder until it sounded like it was right on top of the tents. Now it is easy to understand how someone came up with that description.

TRUCKS, SPEEDBOATS, POLERS AND BACK

We departed Chobe and headed back into Namibia and down the Caprivi Strip, which is now quite safe but only four years ago was considered quite a war zone with mines on the side of the road (don’t stop and go for a pee too far off the side) and possibly buried in the elephant dung on the road. Once through the strip, we headed back into Botswana to go to the Okavango Delta. We started our little adventure early in the morning and boarded a large lorry that was kitted out with bench seats in the back and a tarp like cover to kept he sun off. We took this truck from the camp site, across the boarder and into Botswana. From there, we drove out into a very desolate area where we finally stopped at a camp site/hostel on a river. Here we boarded a flat bottomed speed boat similar to what you would find in the swamp areas of Florida and bounced around on that out into the various channels of the delta. It was absolutely fantastic ploughing through these channels with walls of papyrus on either side so dense that there was nothing to see beyond them but more green and more papyrus. The channels were often narrow and twisty and we wound our way around for an hour and a half until we reached a house boat. For all I know, they drove around in circles and dumped us at a house boat 500 yards from the camp. Can’t quite figure out how and when they knew to take each various channel. Saw loads of Fish Eagles (phenomenal bird) and herons and other smaller birds as well as a number of crocs lazing in the sand. Once at the house boat, we settled into our little cabins for an evening of relaxation. When I say “little” cabins, I truly mean LITTLE – there was about six inches between the narrow beds and about a foot at the end of them for our stuff. One wall was a sliding glass door and windows so we looked right out onto the channel. Personally, I was just thrilled to have a proper pillow and pillow case as I have been using a pillow from United’s business class for the past 10 weeks (not that it is bad but hell, double the size doesn’t hurt!). Before completely settling in, we went for a nice sunset cruise through more channels of papyrus and enjoyed a very decent bottle of wine and watched several more fish eagles take flight. All sorts of birds were perched in the reeds and various trees we passed and as we went by, they scattered about, littering the sky with their bodies and calls to each other. Had a fantastic pasta dinner out on the deck with gas lamps and looked up at the stars, which were uninterrupted by the usual lights from various human buildings. I don’t think I have even seen stars reflect off of water and it was one of the most gorgeous things. The river was flowing by quite quickly (with occasionally crocs) and the stars lights rippled in the gentle currents. We couldn’t even pick out Orion very well as there were too many stars in sky to find it. Words cannot describe how lovely it was. Then again, most nights out here have been quite lovely in regards to clear sky and unbelievable star gazing. Slept like a babe that night with the sliding door and windows open, a nice breeze coming through and mosquito nets protecting us from the incessant buzzing of those little buggers that never seem to sleep.

The next day, we again boarded our flat bottomed speed boats and headed off to a little land strip somewhere along the delta. From there, we boarded another open topped, flat bed, bench seated safari type jeep and were taken across a very bumpy road and through a small mud and stick hut town to the edge of another swamp/river area. Here we boarded canoe type boats known as Mokoro (Mekoro if it is plural). Traditionally, these boats were made from the trunks of sausage or ebony trees but because of population growth and the ability for these trees to grow back quickly enough, they have switched to using fibreglass Mekoro fashioned in the exact shape of the tree truck ones. It felt a bit Disneylandesque as we were ushered into our various Mekoro and introduced to the man (Poler), for they are all men, who would be pushing us through the swampy reeds. Jules and my Poler’s name was Pointer (still not sure where they come up with these names). Pointer was a fairly short, sinewy young man with a broad flat nose and flared nostrils, shiny eyes and a lovely faded burgundy women’s velvet hat (including small bow). I must say, at this point, that some of the clothes they manage to find and wear are more than interesting. I think the entire world’s hideously outdated and never to be worn again clothing gets shipped to Africa. It is not uncommon to see a woman walking down the street in the middle of the day going about her shopping errands with a basket of something on her head in a pale pink satin (cheap type) slip dress with yellow plastic shoes or silk, sparkly evening blouse with an African print cloth wrapped around her waist as a skirt. And, clearly, as you can see from above, it is also not uncommon for a man to show up in a ladies hat, or even shirt for that matter. Well, after that rather large tangent, I shall return to Pointer and his poling prowess as we moved through the reedy channels of the swamp. Once settled into our fairly unstable feeling Mekoro and our seats of old school chairs with the legs cut off, Pointer pushed us off shore. Pointer’s role, as a Poler, is to power and steer the boat. He does this by standing in the very back of the boat and pushing us along with a 7+ foot stick with a fork in the bottom. The fork helps to keep the pole steady if there are lots of sticks and things at the bottom that the pole would otherwise slid off.

After a short 10 minute pole through the reed channels, which seemed to be getting smaller and narrower as we went, we arrived at our next camp on an island type area. The camp was quite charming – everything was open roofed and enclosed only by bamboo walls. The bathroom was an enormous open area with showers and sinks placed amongst the tree trunks, using limbs as holders for the towels or shower heads. We were each given cabin tents with cots tucked back behind bamboo walls for privacy. Once settled we headed back out for a tour of the area in our Mekoro. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon laughing and joking with each other as we were pushed by our Polers through the lilies, which were EVERYWHERE, and papyrus. Loads of birds flying about and calling to each other, my favourite is called the Go-Away bird because when he called is sounds like “Blaaaahhhh” and is quite funny, and of course, the ever present hippos.

These hippos though, were particularly amusing, enclosed in their small pool in the middle of the reeds, popping up and down, blowing water at as and eyeing us sceptically unsure if this should advance and scare us off or if we were OK and could stay a bit longer. They would pop up one or two at a time, make a big show of blowing water, twitch their ears, eye us and then go down with an equally loud gurgle only to come up again a minute or so later as if to say, “Are you still here?” It is quite a different feeling to be in a small boat next to them than it is in the larger safari boats, or even the canoes we had on the Upper Zambezi. This time we had no motor or swift wide river to help get us away.

MORE ELEPHANTS AND HIPPOS

My body happy and healthy again after a few days of uncertainty, we arrived at a camp just outside Chobe National Park in Botswana. Did a game drive in the morning and a boat/river safari in the evening and yes, as you can see by the title, saw many more elephants and hippos. The morning drive was fairly tame – one leopard in a tree, a handful of Kudu, loads of elephants, a lioness sleeping under a tree, and, oddly enough, a hippo sleeping under a tree (he didn’t look too happy and was very much so out of his element). The elephants were hilarious as there were several young that kept running out across the road and the larger mothers would dash (can an elephant dash? I think probably not, so lets say saunter at a very fast pace) out into the road, look at us and flap their ears. One mid size one even came out into the road, made a little song and dance of it while the baby jogged across behind him and into the bush. Once the baby was clear, he carried on and let us pass through. Thus far, this was probably the least eventful drive we had but does one ever tire of looking at elephants? Not yet for me….The evening’s events were comprised of a sunset cruise down the river back into the park. Tons of hippos were playing about in the water and mock fighting as well as grunting and laughing at us. A couple of them even took on the challenge of chasing us off, which I found quite humorous as we were thousands of times bigger than them. However, it is quite an amazing sight to see hippos launch themselves out of the water with great force and charge at you while grunting and carrying on. I am sure that in their little minds, they were quite positive that they were chasing us off rather than us already heading off.

Had a bit of an issue the next morning when the septic tank decided to overflow and run into our camp site. Jules (Sus, my previous tent mate left after Vic Falls) and I were in a somewhat safe zone but decided it was a good move to pick up the tent and move it elsewhere in case the issue got worse. Not a pretty smell and certainly not a nice thing to have running under the tent. Funny thing was, later in the day, another overland truck came through and camped right on the nasty sewage run off (smell had gone by then) and apparently didn’t care even after we told them.

THE MIGHTY ZAMBEZI

Wow, what a river! Brilliant rapids as well as fab names for the rapids such as Oblivion, Terminator, Seventh Heaven and Devil’s Toilet Bowl to name a few. Most were class 4 and 5 but there were a few class 3 rapids, which seemed to be tacked on to the larger rapids as 11a, 11b and 11c if you looked at them from a number standpoint. Given that, I have no idea exactly how many rapids we did go over but the official number was 21 in a 28 km stretch of the river. After walking a very broken stairwell and slippery rock face down into the canyon, we put in just at the end of Victoria Falls. The falls are low this time of year so it makes it possible, otherwise we would have missed rapids #1-4. For the most part, we stayed in the boat and only flipped once. Thankfully the one flip we did was not in the Devil’s Toilet Bowl as it really did earn the name, which supposedly was from the whirlpool in the middle that sucked people under for a bit and then spat them out, but in reality, I believe it was from the nasty stench in the pooling water off to the right at the end of the rapid. Everything that had come down the river seemed to have pooled there. Our one flip was, of course, incredibly gracefully – Renee, who was up in front, toppled back into me, smacking me in the mouth and dumping me into Todd, who fell out with the two of us right on top of him. Renee and Todd managed to clear the boat while, after three attempts, I still found myself under the boat in a gurgling, foaming dark cave. It did get a bit unnerving after coming up the third time and not quite knowing when to open my mouth, getting half water and half air and discovering that I was still under the darn boat. Thankfully I have a well rafted father who was good enough to take me on several trips with him, so I kept my wits about me, continued to reach for the rope and pulled myself out and clear. Ahh, fresh air never felt so good, well, maybe it did after I had jumped my 70 meters into the gorge and realized that the rope was still holding me. To top it all off, we saw several crocs hanging out on the rocks as we rafted by so you felt none too safe just hanging out in the water. Story is that these crocs fall off of the falls at a very young age, survive the massive fall, rocks and churning water at the base of the falls and then end up pushed down river a bit where they survive on smaller fish and don’t quite grow up enough to bother with us humans. They really didn’t look that big so we all comforted ourselves with that story – what do we know anyway? Supposedly there has only ever been one death off of Vic Falls as well but each story I heard was different so that pretty much gives it away that there has definitely been more than one. We finished the day with a very healthy (read strenuous) hike back out of the gorge, beers, sodas and an awfully chilly ride back to Vic Falls in an open top safari truck. Needless to say my body was less than thrilled with me after the adrenaline rushing gorge swing jumps and a day of being tossed about a river followed by a cold, wet, ride back to town.

Had phenomenal rain showers and thunder storms that night and we all cowered in various people’s rooms, the bar or the truck until it passed. So with the nice fresh crispness of the rain still hanging in the air, I turned in early to let my poor body repair itself with a good nights sleep.

back from bush

just back from the bush and a camp in Okavango Delta, which was fab but which I will have to tell you all about when I have more than 15 minutes...though I would post a fun photo...
lv.steph

BIG FAT UPDATE

Address: #1 ENRIQUE, PIECE OF GRASS, SOMWHERE IN AFRICA

So, here we are again…I have a few minutes and a loaner computer so thought I would jot down a little note. I realize I have said very little to nothing at all about my day to day life here but have loaded up with all the fun stuff I am doing. Guess that is because most of what is going on is quite fun and exciting and even the little day to day stuff that goes on can be amusing. We have had a load of really early starts and by early morning, I mean 5:00am or 5:30am breakfast and 6:00am departures. Often it is for fun stuff like safaris balloon rides or early ferries to places like Zanzibar but that is not to say that we have not had our share of getting up early for long drive days that involve boarders that may or may not be difficult. In these cases, we are in the truck for around 14 hours and eat lunch while driving. Boarders thus far have been a breeze and no one has been arrested or thrown out (yet) – just the usual waiting in line, passing a few pleasantries with the attendant and then getting a stamp, often on page 36 when there is plenty of open space on several pages well before page 36.

Home is a little green military looking tent (Enrique) and Claudia (truck) and whatever flat spot we can find at our camp site to pitch the tent. My roommate, Susanna (Sus), and I share the tent and have plenty of space to spread out and poke each other in the middle of the night should either of us require a bathroom break when bush camping with the lions, leopards and hyena. The one time I did have to wake her up, we scoped out the area, scanned the tall grass behind the tent with the flashlight and well, shortly after returning to the tent, a hyena came and marked his territory right where I did. Chook and Colleen, our tent neighbors that night figured that it has started raining until they herd the sniffing around of the hyena. Last night we had an elephant stroll through the camp. Never managed to see him but certainly herd his footsteps, sniffing and munching on the trees. Sus swears she saw little beady eyes in the dark.

We have divided the 19 people on the truck into cook groups and we rotate through the groups so that each group has a day cooking. This basically means we help our cook with the cutting up of fruits and veggies and whatever other prep work he needs done and then that we help with all the pots and pans and putting away of condiments at the end of the evening. We are pretty particular about getting everything put away at night so that baboons, monkeys, hyenas, elephants etc. etc. don’t come and raid the food and garbage, although this has happened one or twice. Each person does his/her own dish and then after, we all do what is calling ‘flapping’ where we wave our plates, bowls, knives, forks and spoons wildly in the air to help them dry faster. I am sure some of us have lifted off a bit during one of the flapping frenzies. As we have come south, the time required to dry the plate has shortened considerably. We do get quite a few stares though as 19 of us stand there waving blue, orange, and white plates about in the sun and occasionally throw in a few lunges or bird type flaps instead of waving back and forth.

On the road, toilets are al fresco and often on the side of the road. I am surprised no one has taken a picture of us girls lined up behind the truck when we have to stop in areas with no bushes. It is probably a good thing that the locals don’t own cameras cause they are certainly interested in what us crazy mzungu are doing and tend to appear out of nowhere. We can literally stop in the middle of nowhere for lunch or a break – no homes, no people, long stretch of road ahead and behind and within two minutes of us getting off the truck we have an audience. They just seem to ooze out of the shrubs and trees wherever we stop. The most unnerving part about it all is that they just seem to sit there are stare at us and not say anything or ask for anything or want to interact in any way. Guess that is how the animals in the parks feel as we all come barrelling down on them in our safari trucks.

Evenings are often spent having beers, tea and whatever else is around in the camp site if we are in the bush (under the stars of course) or in the local camp bars, which thus far have been quite fun as we get a chance to talk to other overland groups that pass through. Meals have been quite good and tasty, although not good for the waist line as I am doing very little exercise. Breakfasts consist of bacon, eggs, toast, cereal, fruit and yogurt (obviously you don’t have to eat it all). Lunch is often sandwiches, which means it will be a VERY long time before I will want to have another sandwich. The meat product is often quite suspect but hell, it tastes OK and hasn’t gotten anyone sick yet so I’ll continue to eat it. Recently we have had a lot of leftovers for lunch, which means we make up pasta salads with the dressing and spaghetti Bolognese sandwiches. Dinner is often soup, followed by chicken or beef and loads of veggies, which we all love. Our chef, Charles, is quite capable and does wonders with the veggies on our little two burner propane stove.

So, there is the mundane piece of my life, now on to something a little more exciting for next time.


MAS ANIMALES – SOUTH LUANGWA NATINOAL PARK

When I last left you I believe I was in Malawi at the lake and desperately avoiding the bilharzia. From there, we moved into Zambia and went on the South Luangwa National Park to stay at a wilderness camp on one of the oxbows of the currently very dry river. It was fantastic! The camp site was wonderful, the pool, while small, quite refreshing and with a view out over the river and the bar facing out toward the river for some excellent wildlife viewings. We did a couple of game drives there, one in the morning and one in the evening. The morning drive was quite good as we saw a couple of lions having their breakfast on the beach by the river – buffalo this time – again, lovely crunching and cracking sounds as he attempted to dislocate and gnaw off the from leg of the beat. Of course we had to watch for a bit. At one point someone banged something and the lion looked up at us, face all red, just like he had done a poor job of applying lipstick that morning before heading out for the day. Not sure why we have not seen many lionesses with the kills. The night drive was focused a bit on finding a leopard as they are more nocturnal. A tour of the park brought us to about 100 elephants milling about in the open grassland and blocking our path up the road. Two little babies were having a go at attacking each other, head-butting at full charge to see who could knock who off their feet. It was gorgeous to just watch them wandering about and putting at the trees. We had a lovely sundowner on a bank above an open area and watched more elephants, giraffe and zebra while we drank ice cold beers and sodas and then started off into the night to find out leopard. Very strange feeling to be driving around in the dark, the spotlight the only thing shining ahead and dust swirling about the open top truck. We did find two leopards but to me, it was quite a sad and shocking experience. At one point we had one of them completely surrounded by trucks and lights and he couldn’t quite figure out which way to go. Many of the drivers were speeding around to get their clients a better look and in doing so scaring the leopards and also probably their prey. I wish we could have just sat and watched which really is what we were supposed to do. Our driver said that he was going to report a couple of the other drivers as they are told not to do that and all have guiding licences that can be revoked for poor behaviour. On the way out of the park we came across a sick lioness sitting in the middle of the road. She didn’t even move when the truck came up and we parked right along side of her. I could have reached down (it was quite an open truck) and patted her on the head, which I would have quite liked to do but would most likely have lost a hand in doing. When she looked up, my soul just ached. Her eyes had such sorrow and intelligence in them. I will never forget her face looking up and also the fear that at any moment she could decide to move and go for one of us.

We have pretty much all rated this camp as our best camp since we had elephants come for a visit two of the three nights – and by visit, I mean walking right outside and sniffing at our tents – a couple of great safaris, fantastic viewing bar and a last night when an assortment of animals decided to come of a visit at the watering holes – hippos, elephants, impala and giraffes.


TEA WITH ELEPHANTS

After S.Luangwa we headed on our way to the Kafue River where we would stop for a canoe trip down the Lower Zambezi River. On the way, however, Claudia decided to throw a few fits and this time, quite a large one. After two leaky tires in the morning we finally got on the road and were well on our way when BANG, hmmm, that didn’t sound good, lets pull over…ugh…broken axel….everybody off, lunch here! We spent about four hours on the side of a very inhospitable road, cowering in whatever shade we could while Jase and Lucy worked out what our next steps should be. Turns out we were basically sitting in a graveyard of overturned truck and on a runaway ditch so not only were we in bad shape with the truck, we were in bad shape for our safety. Jase went off to arrange transport and by 5:00 in the evening we were loaded into a flat bed lorry and taken the remaining two hours on to our camp for the canoe trip. We were up early the next morning and got ready to braver the croc and hippo infested waters. As it was two night and three days of camping we were all quite loaded down and low to the water, which is a bit discomforting considering the stories we had heard about people being pulled out of their canoes by a croc because they had an elbow hanging out. It was a beautiful three days and the big bonus was that no one was eaten by a croc or tipped by a hippo! We even got in a bit of swimming. In one place we had just passed a croc an then the guide said, OK, we stop here for a little splash. We all thought he was crazy but jumped in anyway and had a lovely time playing in the water and cooling down. There were tons of hippos about (which in my book is better than a croc) and you could look down the river and see elephants drinking and splashing about. In fact, we had lunch with about 40 elephants. Here we were happily preparing lunch and napping on the river bank when a row of elephants wandered through. We got a thorough checking out and then on they went. About two seconds later, another group came wandering through, checked us out and kept going. This went on for about 30 minutes and we all just stood there thinking, aren’t these guys a little too close? It was especially freaky when a couple big guys (or gals) stopped, looked, flapped their ears forward and took a step in our direction. Hmmmm, run into the water and brave the crocs and hippos or brave the elephant? Not sure which is the better choice…however, they kept going and all splashed off into the water and across the channel to the other side. It was quite a site watching 40 elephants climb down the banks and then wade across, their bodies gleaming.

At night we camped on the islands in the center of the river and listened to the hippos call back and forth to each other. They sound like they are right on top of you even though they are way down river. They grunted at us during the day as well, especially if we got a little too close. Maybe they are just laughing at us for being silly and canoeing down the river when it is so much nicer just to laze about in the river.


FREE FALL DOWN A GORGE 70 METERS? ARE YOU CRAZY?

In Vic Falls now after having a successful canoe trip with all limbs intact and Claudie fixed and ready to go again. We are here for a few days and a bit of adrenaline as they offer all sorts of crazy blood pumping activities. I am opting to do the rafting (have to see which one is better – the Nile or the Zambezi) and just did the Gorge Swing. I still can’t believe that just this morning I was jumping off of a 120 meter cliff down a gorge just below Victoria Falls with nothing but a couple of climbing harnesses on and two climbing ropes attached to me (70 meters is free fall). In fact, I did it three times and every time I screamed like you would not believe. On the first one I did a hand stand off, the second one I just jumped (called a pin drop) and the third one I decided to go off backwards. Falling off backwards was definitely the hardest one to start off with as you don’t trust just falling back off a ledge but the front forward really got me to let out a blood curdling scream. About ¾ of the way down you start to think (OK well you aren’t really thinking but your body sure as hell reacts) that the rope hasn’t caught yet and you are falling straight down into some nice big black rocks with no hope of even trying to hit the water (not that that would be much better if you did hit the water). I started off with a nice yell and as I kept falling and falling and falling my scream got more and more panicked, then the rope caught and I swung out over the water laughing and screaming “that was amazing!” And, it truly was. I think now I am ok with the sensation and won’t need to add a bungy jump or any other nutty fall to my list of activities, although some of my group swears they are going to get me sky diving in Namibia over the desert. It was fun watching the people jump as well, especially their facial expressions. They would start off with a look of absolute horror and within a couple of seconds (it was on 4 seconds to the bottom) be laughing and smiling and screaming with joy. There was lots of whooping and quite a few “Oh Shits” as people went crashing down.

The backward one was definitely my favourite as you get a better swing out of it at the end. All in all a fantastic morning and I am ready for a nap – too much excitement for my poor little body!

Tomorrow I am off for the rafting – something like 23 rapids of class 4 & 5. Should be a good day!

DINNER WITH MEL GIBSON AND JULIUS CEASAR

Never thought you would hear that combination eh? Yes, in fact we did have dinner with Julius Caesar and his brother (cousin maybe) Mel Gibson. Apparently it is quite the fashion here to acquire a change of names and go with something, well, something…not sure if they really know what they have chosen as their statement name but they had quite a range. In the past four days I have met – Donald Duck, Dodgy Geeser, Sweet Talker, Fabulous Thief, Giraffe, Superman, Puff Daddy and many many more – not forgetting Julius and Mel. We did in fact have dinner at Mel’s house…not sure if Julius was there or not as we were eating by gas ship lantern type things out under the stars. It was a very basic meal of beans, rice, spinach/kale stuff, sweet potato soup and some sort of meat thing, which I passed off to one of the men on the truck, who was very happy to have it an obviously not as picky as I was. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was and it was sort of all attached together with other stuff that was also unidentifiable. Guess I reverted to my old ways for a moment – where is mom to cut my meat when I need her!

The night before that – Oh, we are at Lake Malawi in Malawi – we had a pig roast with one of the other trucks AND a bad taste dress party. My friend Jules decided it would be fun to dress me in a fairly godmother type outfit. It was a lovely shade of pint with gold lace sleeves and a gold cape to match. Can’t beat that now can you? In fact, it was in quite good taste for a Halloween costume but incredibly hot for a lakeside beach resort. The one bonus was that it kept all the midges (very small incredibly pesky flies) off of my arms. Didn’t help much with the face and hair but it was a small reprieve. Pig was a little bland but still fun as it was fresh slaughtered that morning and we (well not me) put it on the spits and spent the day turning it. Neeta and I conjured up some apple sauce to go with it so that was fun and it even turned out really tasty.

Lake Malawi is absolutely gorgeous. It is hard to believe you are sitting on a lake with its wide beaches and lapping waves. The color is a deep blue greed and just beautiful. One draw back is that it has bilharzia, a tiny worm that lives in snails in the reeds that digests itself into your skin and ultimately can do some un-repairable damage to your internal organs. It supposedly wasn’t in the area we were in but I wasn’t going to risk it. A few others did and we will have to see. Regardless it was a lovely place. Got some walks down the beach in to the local fishing village and us Mzungu challenged the locals to a soccer match on the beach for one of the evening’s activities. The match was great and I am happy to say that I can still play soccer. At first the guys on the other team were apologizing to me but then they realized us four girls that were playing were actually quite tough and did not need apologizing too – thus, out came the grabbing. We held our own though and actually won the game two to one. Go Mzungu!

So basically, as you can see, I have been sitting on beached and doing lots of relaxing the past week or so. We are now heading into Zambia to another game park where we will get in a couple of night drives…can’t wait!

All my love, Steph

ZANZILAND

After a hard days drive, a couple hours in the less than exciting and horribly dingy town of Dar, we jumped on the ferry out to Zanzibar, the Spice Island, where we settled in for a few days of complete R&R on the beautiful white sand beaches. Of course we did do a bit of an educational piece and went for a tour of the spice plantations as well as a quick stop at the old slave market. The fruit on the island is absolutely amazing and for lunch we devoured fresh picked and cut pineapple, jackfruit, oranges and coconut. Amazing the way they cut it with HUGE knives and barely miss their wrists. We were all nervous for them until they handed us the fruit and then we couldn’t stop asking them for more.

Beaches are absolutely gorgeous here and the Curio (tourist) Shop sales guys weren’t too overbearing either. Broke down and got a Henna done just for fun and well, cause I was sitting on the beach just having a cocktail anyway so, hell, why not! Spent one day just walking on the beach, playing in the water, reading and relaxing and the other day about 10 of us went out diving. We went out to a little island on the North East side of Zanzibar (the name fails me at the moment). Water was lovely, coral amazing and the fishies weren’t all that bad either J Saw a green turtle, loads of massive starfish, grouper etc. etc. etc. My favorite was the thing that looked like bad pale pink and off green parlor paper. Think it was a piece of coral. The third day was more of the same – relaxing and completely enjoying ourselves and then it was time to head back to reality and two days of driving to reach the shores of Lake Malawi.

WHAT IS FOR LUNCH?

Well, if I were a lion, I’d be having gazelle, wildebeast or buffalo, as a hyena, whatever I could find but buffalo seems to be the main option, and as the Leopard, I think I’d just climb up a tree with my tasty treat – preferably the gazelle. I think that pretty much describes the lunch menu I have seen in the past few days.

We just left the Serengeti where we had some great wildlife viewing. The Leopard was probably the most spectacular. We got lucky enough to arrive when he had come down the tree to take a pee or get some water or something so followed him along the side of the road and down to his tree. It is anazing how beautiful and graceful (and undisturbed by all the jeeps) that animal is. He sauntered slowly across the road, glanced about just for good show, then leapt up the side of the tree, hopped about up to the highest branch and then began munching on his latest feast. It was phenomenal, disgusting, fascinating and beautiful all at once. The sound effects were quite spectacular as well. Jules and I were sitting on the roof seats watching through our binoculars and constantly exclaiming “ugh, did you hear that? Oh, what was that?” then back up with the binocs, then “I think that might be the back bone, hmmm, maybe the skull?” then back up with the binocs. It sounds quite morbid and sick to admit having sat there and watched it all but so amazing and fascinating.

The lion we saw was equally impressive, although the brush was quite thick and we all thought poor Mr. Lion had a limp and was not doing too well. He had no lady friends around to help him hunt and just seemed to be wandering aimlessly. Well, so much for that, after a minute or so of wandering, he pounced and up he came with a gazelle. I think it was a fake out on his part…the poor sick lion trick, you know the one. Either that or the gazelle hadn’t quite woken up yet and was happily sitting there thinking, “no one can see me, I am hidden in the tall grass and completely invisible”. Oops, not quite! Out came the lion with breakfast in his mouth and then he proceeded to walk proudly across the road showing off his kill to us.

On the happier note, we have seen tons of fat hippos lazing about (and rolling over - quite a feat!) in big pools of water, elephants galore roaming huge vast open plains with amazing blue skies behind them (perfectly offset by the golden grass of the Serengeti), zebras happily dancing about and, my personal favorite, giraffes, blinking in confusion at our truck as we pass by and then placidly returning to their munching of acacia leaves. All beautiful in their own right (even the hyenas, which seem to be getting more and more prevalent as we move to the different parks).

Bathrooms continue to be, hmm, interesting shall I say? Surprisingly enough, when we bush camped in the Serengeti, we had semi-flush toilets (had to bring your own water for the flushing) but did not have showers. Maybe that explains the Hyenas that continued to come into the camp each night and sniff around out tents. Two of them were even so bold as to walk up while a couple people were still up and sitting around the fire. That’ll get you to the truck right quick. Figure we were so minging (British term for nasty, smelly, yucky) that they thought we were a nice ripe kill. Can’t tell you how fantastic the show this morning felt after three days without one…when we got back to a camp with showers it was mass chaos on who could get there first. We ended up with settling for putting our toiletries in line for the shower and going off to do other things like put up the tents, help get dinner going, have a beer and chat, the usual evening activities.

We did get a nice break in the bush though with some sundowners at the closest lodge. Beatiful sunsets over the plains with a nice crisp, cold bottle of S.African wine in hand. Does the soul good to feel civilized for a brief moment. That is not to say that it is bad being in the bush, but a sink and a western style toilet, along with running water in general is a really nice thing!

Now in Arusha – just left the Ngorongoro Crater (also beautiful and saw another attempted kill by the lions)– heading past Kilimanjaro, visit to a Maasai village and then on to Zanzibar. Then, four days of R&R and hopefully some great scuba diving.

SANDPAPER KISSES and WARRIOR ESCORTS

Arrived in Nairobi today and really learned what Africa time was all about…there is a saying here that things move according to Africa time, which they do, and which means that people are never where they say they will be and that nothing at all happens on time. Thus far it has been a standard 10-15 minutes tardy but today, well, it seemed to get stretched a little bit more. Our taxi driver, who was to be back in 20 minutes, showed up about an hour later and when we called to inquire where he might be, he informed us that he had ‘stopped quickly in the store’ and was just 300 meters away - as if that was quite normal. I think it was the longest 300 meters ever as it still took him another ½ hour to arrive. We spent the day playing around going to the elephant orphanage, the giraffe sanctuary and the market. The baby elephants in the orphanage were absolutely adorable. The ran right out up to their bottles, downed three of them each, chased the keepers around begging and screaming for more then proceeded to roll in and dump each other in the mud, slip, slide and fall and execute head stands in the muddy pools as they learned how their feet worked and how to stand up. Just like little children playing in the sand box. After that, we went over to the giraffe sanctuary where we fed, petted and kissed the giraffes. They have the most amazingly long, disgusting black tongues that they stick out as they try to grab the little food pellet out of your mouth. It feels like someone has taken a wet piece of sandpaper and run it across your lips. Oh boy, how nice would a giraffe French kiss be? Think I have come as close to that as I want to. In addition, and for good measure, they leave behind a bit of gooey antiseptic saliva on your face. It is actually so that they can get by eating off the nasty thorn infested Acacia tree but apparently they feel the need to share the wealth elsewhere..

On our way to Nairobi we went through the Maasai Mara National Park. Amazing! The Maasai tribe is still very much around and available to sell you whatever trinket you might like as you enter the park. They are drenched with beads and bracelets and blankets and are ready to strip off any of it to make a buck. Our truck was swarmed. They are known for being quite the savvy business people as well though and take us foreigners with the deep pockets for everything we have got. There are still many of them our herding their cattle though, and they can be recognized by the bright red plaid or striped blankets wrapped around their chests and their spears. It is a beautiful site to see them dotting the land as you drive by, their long legs stretching out as they run after, or stroll in many a case, their cattle. Several of them guarded our camp at night ‘just in case’, which made us feel oh so comfortable (hah! Hmmm, guess that means lions are around) and, of course, inspired the need in the middle of the night to go for a pee. This meant leaning out of the tent with the torch, flagging down one of the warriors, who promptly appeared torch in one hand and spear in the other to escort you to the bathroom. He then patiently waited a discreet distance away and walked you back. Very odd feeling at 3:00 in the morning to be walking next to a man whose body melted into the night sky wearing a red robe and carrying a lion spear. Did make me wonder that if in fact a lion did appear, would he actually be able to use the spear and kill it or would he use those nice strong, long legs to leave me for kitty food.

The park was great and we saw almost everything we wanted to – still missing the leopard, cheetah and rhino but think I will probably have a pretty good shot at the leopard and rhino in the next couple of weeks. We will see. We had numerous lion sightings with them in various activities. Saw them stalking and attempting to catch a wildebeest, playing in a little oasis next to a stream, sleeping all over and anywhere and guarding their most recent kill. Also saw plenty of giraffe, elephants, zebra, wildebeest, topi, and impala - the usual suspects. The highlight for me though was the balloon sunrise ride over the Mara. It was incredible to see the animals from above and watch the wildebeest stream across the plains in their migration. Watched a pack of hyenas finish their kill and then go on the hunt again and finished off our ‘float’ with a pack of lions. It didn’t hurt that we had a beautiful sunrise, incredibly clear day, a full hour and 20 minutes in the balloon and a delicious champagne breakfast at the end. The party was almost crashed by a stray wildebeest, who apparently was quite excited about the yummy smells. However, he was quickly headed off by a much larger beast, a Land Rover. So, after that, we headed to Nairobi, which is where I am now. Tomorrow morning it is off to Lake Naivasha (sp) where we will apparently be surrounded by hippos and other animals (in the camp that is). In a previous trip to this camp, a hippo tripped over one of the tent pegs and fell onto a girl in the tent. She was OK but quite heavily bruised. Hope one of those guys doesn’t feel the need to come share my tent!

TAKE A SPIN IN THE NILE MACHINE AND COME OUT CLEAN!

In Jinja now (Uganda) and getting ready to go to the Maasi Mara. Claudia is now mostly recovered. She did revolt one more time and decide that she just didn’t want to go into grears anymore. Lucy and Jase were able to fix the problem pretty quick but still we had a 15 hour day between. She just got her big overhaul so should be find for our next trek to the Maasai Mara tomorrow morning. Hopefully we are getting all this out of the way now and she will be in good shape for the rest of my trip.

Rafted the Nile yesterday – AMAZING!!!!! Huge water but ever so fun. I think the guide’s goal is to flip us as many times as they can, although our guide only managed once. It was a great day. Water was warm, sun was out, people were great and the rapids were soooo very much fun. Just massive. Another big bonus was all that dirt that was still stuck in my toenails (don’t think I have ever needed to clean under my toenails before) washed right out as I got tumbled through the rapids. I think my clothes even got a better cleaning in the river than they had in the buckets and soap we have been using. Showers in our camp are cold but have a great view out over the Nile. They only have three walls so open up completely and look through the trees to the river. Absolutely gorgeous. Tonight we will all relax at the camp and have a BBQ and most likely a few more beers. I think I have settled on Nile Special as my favorite. Seems to have a little more taste than the others.

The photo is out of the bar area in our camp ground and that is the nile behind me.

and on we go....

Went to the North part of Queen Elizabeth park and stayed in a lovely camp ground complete with hippos and hyenas. No, really, they were wandering all over the place. It was on the Kazinga Channel. It was surprising we got there though as the roads were all mud and sand and had huge ruts and basically we drove down the side of it almost tipping over and as soon as we got out of one side, we fishtailed over to the other side and slammed against it, then drove that ditch for a while and back across. Our drive said it was the most scared she had ever been driving.

Had a nice boat safari down the channel where we saw huge amounts loads of hippos, water buffalos, crocs and some amazing birds. Even saw a pink hippo – no really. He was an albino and quite cute. After that, we invaded the five star safari lodge at the top of the hill and had a few beers while watching the sun set over the channel. At night, after a fantastic Kenyan meal made by our chef, we headed off to the local bar for a few cheap beers (vs the ones at the lodge) and some pool. Very surreal coming out of the bar when it was dark with only a headlamp on and a giant hippo walking down the road. Made me wonder what they put in the drink but very cool to see. However, those adorable little creatures can apparently be quite nasty (number one threat to the local fishermen) so we stayed clear and let the hippo walk on by before heading into the road ourselves.

BLOW OUTS and BOGG DOWNS

It has been an eventful few days for our lovely little Claudia (Truck), we have run her through the paces and she finally gave up and said she needed a rest. After the Gorillas, we went back to Lake Bunyonyi for a night of R&R – although we didn’t get much time for that as we got in around 4:00. The lake is absolutely gorgeous. I took a quick walk around part of it with Aaron (another traveler on the truck). It would have been quite peaceful but for the throngs of children who decided to join us on our walk and talk incessantly and say nice things like “give me your watch”. They are all asking for money but also tend to just simply ask for a pen or pencil and notebook so that they can use it for school. They are quite poor but still seem to smile all of the time and wave enthusiastically at us as we pass by.

After Lake Bunyonyi we got an early start (5:30am for me as I was on cook assist duty) and headed to Queen Elizabeth II National Park. It was a long drive but when we arrived at our secluded campsite, we were rewarded with several hippos bathing themselves in the stream on the side of the campground and baboons playing in the trees and running around the campsite. It was a beautiful spot and had one of the most architecturally interesting loos that I have ever seen. It was a spiral shape and once around into the center of the spiral there was a flat piece of wood stuck to a stick. Lift up the stick and well, there was your long drop. Oddly enough it was one of the more pleasant bathrooms we have had on the trip.

We arranged for a safari in the late afternoon evening so see the tree climbing lions – Godfrey was to be our guide. Lovely idea until about 20 minutes in, we hit a massive stump on the side of the road and tore a huge hole in the side of our tire. We all piled out and baked in the sun while Lucy and Jase changed the tire. Our guide, being ever cautious (Hah!) wandered around with his rifle as if a lion was just going to wander on up. I really don’t think that the tree-climbing lion does exist…or really that Godfrey had any clue what he was looking for or doing. He spent the entire time chatting and looking around. Although, we did see thousands of Ugandan Kob, very beautiful but like pigeons of the park – EVERYWHERE! Also saw quite a few water buffalo, topi and thousands of birds. The park is apparently home to over 600 types of birds.

So to finish our day, Claudia (truck) decided she wanted to get a mud bath and politely stopped herself in the middle of a bog. This resulted in around 3 hours of us squishing about in mud in the dark, swatting at mosquitoes and trying as hard as we could to find sticks and shrubs without stepping on the acacia thorns that appeared to be in such abundance. We did ultimately get her out with a tow truck and then were happily on our way back to the campground for a 9:00pm arrival. Very long day but the group is good and we all came together as a team. Mostly, I think, we were happy to wash our feet before we went to bed.

BLOW OUTS and BOGG DOWNS

It has been an eventful few days for our lovely little Claudia (Truck), we have run her through the paces and she finally gave up and said she needed a rest. After the Gorillas, we went back to Lake Bunyonyi for a night of R&R – although we didn’t get much time for that as we got in around 4:00. The lake is absolutely gorgeous. I took a quick walk around part of it with Aaron (another traveler on the truck). It would have been quite peaceful but for the throngs of children who decided to join us on our walk and talk incessantly and say nice things like “give me your watch”. They are all asking for money but also tend to just simply ask for a pen or pencil and notebook so that they can use it for school. They are quite poor but still seem to smile all of the time and wave enthusiastically at us as we pass by.

After Lake Bunyonyi we got an early start (5:30am for me as I was on cook assist duty) and headed to Queen Elizabeth II National Park. It was a long drive but when we arrived at our secluded campsite, we were rewarded with several hippos bathing themselves in the stream on the side of the campground and baboons playing in the trees and running around the campsite. It was a beautiful spot and had one of the most architecturally interesting loos that I have ever seen. It was a spiral shape and once around into the center of the spiral there was a flat piece of wood stuck to a stick. Lift up the stick and well, there was your long drop. Oddly enough it was one of the more pleasant bathrooms we have had on the trip.

We arranged for a safari in the late afternoon evening so see the tree climbing lions – Godfrey was to be our guide. Lovely idea until about 20 minutes in, we hit a massive stump on the side of the road and tore a huge hole in the side of our tire. We all piled out and baked in the sun while Lucy and Jase changed the tire. Our guide, being ever cautious (Hah!) wandered around with his rifle as if a lion was just going to wander on up. I really don’t think that the tree-climbing lion does exist…or really that Godfrey had any clue what he was looking for or doing. He spent the entire time chatting and looking around. Although, we did see thousands of Ugandan Kob, very beautiful but like pigeons of the park – EVERYWHERE! Also saw quite a few water buffalo, topi and thousands of birds. The park is apparently home to over 600 types of birds.

So to finish our day, Claudia (truck) decided she wanted to get a mud bath and politely stopped herself in the middle of a bog. This resulted in around 3 hours of us squishing about in mud in the dark, swatting at mosquitoes and trying as hard as we could to find sticks and shrubs without stepping on the acacia thorns that appeared to be in such abundance. We did ultimately get her out with a tow truck and then were happily on our way back to the campground for a 9:00pm arrival. Very long day but the group is good and we all came together as a team. Mostly, I think, we were happy to wash our feet before we went to bed.

MZUNGU IN THE MIST (or gorillas, really)

MZUNGU = White person, which is what they call us around here (but not in a negative way).

Crossed the equator the other day and into Rwanda. Went through Kilgari, the capital, and then on to Ruhengeri, which is where we are now. Yesterday we did the treck up to see the gorillas. Got up at 5:00, had a quick bite, then hopped in a little taxi/bus and off we went. Met our guide at the base of the hill and off we went on our treck up the side of the hill and through the brush. First part was mostly a wet overgrown, jungle trail but when we reached the ridge and saw the gorillas for the first time (on the other side of a ravine), the guides broke out the machetes and began to do some serious bush whacking. We rapelled down a steep slope on a vine (no, I am not kidding) and literally cut away roots and bushes to make our trail and even then still had to climb under, over and around all sorts of other things that clogged our way. Needless to say our asses were all quite black by the time we came out on the other side where the gorillas were. I think we saw about 8 of them: a silverback, three babies and the mother gorillas. The babies were crawling all over each other and hitting each other and tumbling down the hill. Think the highlight was being charged by the silverback. Think I almost had heart failure as I was about three feet from him. Of course, I was cowering in the bushes trying to blend in and the guides were telling us to stand back up. I wasn’t too keen on standing up while three feet from a massive gorilla who was staring at me.

It was amazing to be so close to them. They were literally walking around us and popping up out of nowhere, just strolling through. I cannot describe how magical it was to be up there.

On the way back, out truck broke down, actually we found out later that it ran out of gas. Apparently something that is quite common around here. A bunch of kids pushed until we could get to a hill and the driver could get the car back to town. Meanwhile us muzungu got packed into a small flatbed truck and jostled down the bumpy road back to town. Finished the day with several primus beers and lots of laughs and amazement at the day we just had.
Tomorrow we are off to Queen Elizabeth NP, which also should be quite spectacular

For Cheap Dental Work, Come to Kampala

Well, I have arrived - in Uganda that is. Luggage also arrived (intact), however my tooth did not. An old filling decided that it was time to give in. Fortunately, I managed to meet just the people to help me fix the problem. Patrick, a guy doing research in a small city near by Kampala and his friend, Craig, got a reference for me. Then Suzanna appeared out of nowhere for breakfast and low and behold, she was a dentist (she was also on the same trip as me!). She took a quick look with the ever handy flashlight and determined that I probably should do something about it given the length of my trip. That led us all to Dr. Tom at the Pan Dental Clinic. Quite a vivacious man who flirted terribly with us and made jokes about drilling the wrong tooth or possibly extracting one he shouldn't (Suzanna offered to come with and make sure things went well). Dr. Tom also happened to have studied at the same place in England as Suzanna and under a teacher she knew quite well and who was highly respected. The outcome being that I got a nice white filling for $50 and an unforgettable experience in a detal chair - a bargain by any account. Funny how you can meet just the right people at just the right times!

Two hours latter Suzanna, Patrick, Craig and I settled in for a Ungandan meal of Krest (bitter lemon drink), Matoke (mashed cooked plantains), Maharagwe (bean) and goat meat. Can't beat that now can you! Then we wandered through the old taxi park - an insaine mess off minibuses, "matatu", people selling flourescent mosquito nets and all sorts of other wares. One man had a nice collection of goodies: framed picture of a rose with "I Love You" written on it, a battery powered fly swatter, a TV remote and a pair of shoes. Guess they can actually sell the stuff as there are enough of them doing it. How we found the right matatu I am not quite sure but we did. Stopped quickly for a "Maize" treat on the way (corn grilled over an open flame and, well, hard as a rock - good jaw workout) and then relaxed in the pleasant bar oasis of the hostel. Finished the day with a phenomenal Chicken Tika Masala and several beers in the local Irish pub - Bubbles O'Leary.

This morning (Sunday), met the rest of my Drago group and we boarded our beast of a truck. Claudia is her name and she is quite the machine with the drive train of a cement truck and tires that look like they are from a tractor (hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon). Think she is a bit out of sorts at the moment as Lucy and Jase (our fearless leaders/guides) have taken her off to get a tire replaced, and rumour has it, a clutch that won't cooperate. Thus, the rest of us, have been left to our own devices at the moment, which means tents are up, beers are in hand, internet, chatting and getting to know the 14 other people on the trip and otherwise having a lovely relaxing afternoon before heading out tomorrow for Lake Bunyonyi. Current schedule is to overnight there, then head off to see the Gorillas in Rwanda.

Off for another Club (local beer), unfortunately not quite as tasty as the local brews in the US but I imagine I'll survive), especially at the bargain price of $1.35.