It's raining in paradise

I am currently sitting in the Island 'paradise' of Zanzibar and it's cloudy and rainy...oh good, just like home! I'm a bit disappointed with this bit of Zanzibar actually. Stone Town (the capital) was awesome - loads of tiny little streets and little shops which you could wander around for hours and get lost (which we did, many times). There was also this great night market there were they sell Zanzibar pizzas in all flavours (basically an omelette wrapped in a really thin pancake) and loads of barbequed meat and seafood. They also had this sugar cane juice which was super sweet but tasted great. We also went to a spa there and pampered ourselves with full body scrubs in preparation for the beach. I'm in the north now and as I said it's raining. We're staying in a really cool little hut right on the beach which is cool but the beach is not as great as I was expecting. I guess we had really high expectations as everyone talks about Zanzibar being paradise but I have definitely been to better beaches in Greece and Vietnam. Oh well, I shouldn't complain - I could be on the beach at home (or even worse, just at work) right now!

So anyway, back to Kenya. There were only a few of us who didn't go to Nakuru National Park so we decided we might as well take advantage of there not being many people around and made a roast for lunch (this is a REALLY big deal on the truck as we don’t have an oven so we have to use a makeshift one and there's no way you would be able to do it for 30+ people ) which was awesome.

We spent the next 3 nights by Lake Navaisha at a really pretty campsite with electric fences around to keep the hippos out (yes I thought they were joking as well until we got an early morning visit by an interested visitor!). It was nice weather so I spent two days relaxing at the lake. The big draw about Naivasha is Hells Gate National Park which is unique as you can walk/cycle around it even though there are (apparently) lions there. The park was really cool, we didn't see any big predators (which was probably for the best....we did see big cat footprints which freaked us out a bit) but there were loads of zebra, giraffes, warthogs (PUMBAS!!) and antelopes and you could get really close so it felt better than the big game driving where sometimes I feel you're just chasing a lion in a van. There was this big gorge there as well which we climbed down and burnt ourselves in the hot springs at the bottom. It was really impressive though and apparently Tomb Raider 2 and the Lion King were both filmed there (yes, according to our guide, the Lion King, the animation, was filmed there). The cycle back to camp was hard, long and uphill so we were pretty exhausted by the time we returned. That afternoon we went to the Joy Adamson memorial which is at her old house on Lake Naivasha. Joy Adamson is the 'born free' woman and basically spent her whole life working with big cats, doing rehabilitation and releasing them back in the wild. You can go to her old house and there's a little museum and documentary you can watch about her and then you get all you can eat afternoon tea on the grassy lawn. Obviously it was no Betty's but I managed to fill myself up on scones, cakes and biscuits. Awesome. The next day we left early and drove to the Masaii Mara arriving around lunchtime. We did an afternoon game drive, we were in a separate van with Mandy driving as there wasn't enough space in the truck which worked out quite nicely for me as I got to sit in the front. We saw all the usual stuff (zebras, giraffes, elephants, warthogs and wildebeests) and then we found two male lions chilling out under a tree which was cool as they were the first male lions I'd seen in the wild. That night we stayed in a Masaii campsite which was cool although nowhere near as good/authentic as the place we'd stayed in Samburu. We were up early again the next morning for another game drive...this one was a bit more successful as we saw loads more lions (one female sitting next to her kill which we just missed, a family gauging on a wildebeest and a female stalking some wildebeests) and cheetahs which was cool as I hadn't seen them before (one lot were just lazing under a tree but we saw one in the middle of nowhere who was still out of breath as he had just caught an antelope).We left the park satisfied and drove to Narok to camp on the grounds of a nice hotel.

We arrived back in my favourite place, not, Karen Nairobi on Saturday lunchtime, we spent the afternoon hanging out at the mall sending post and getting waxes etc. That evening, it was Amy's birthday so we ordered pizza and then headed to Simba (mzungu disco place) which was alright but the music was rubbish and it wasn't a patch on local discos we'd been to in the past. The next day we didn't do a lot (which is basically all there is to do in Karen) although in the evening me, Alice, Charly and Steph went to the local Indian restaurant which was awesome. It was really weird being back in Karen as the last time we had been there it had been to say goodbye to Briar, the twins, Scott and Tris and Kate and Chris so we went back with mixed feelings wishing all those guys were back on the truck.

The next day we crossed the border to Tanzania with no dramas, the borders in Africa have been nowhere near as bad as I was expecting which is good because it was something I wasn’t looking forward to - there are no huge queues and long walks across no-man’s-land like there always seemed to be with borders in Asia. We drove all day and arrived in Arusha late afternoon. The camp we were staying at was actually out of the main town which was cool as there were way more locals around than previous mzungu places we had been staying. The majority of the group went to the Serengeti for 3 days but a few of us stayed behind (I decided it wasn't worth the money - I didn't come to Africa for the animals and I feel I’ve seen all the animals I wanted to see) and chilled out at the camp.

One day me, Amy, Louise and Katie decided to take a camel ride from our camp to the local village. Riding a camel was on my top five things to do in Africa so I was super excited although everyone warned me that it would be incredibly uncomfortable. Apart from feeling like I was going to fall off it was very pleasant and the village was cool as I don't think many mzungu try to go there and for once they actually didn't try to sell us anything. We also went to this really sinister Masaii museum which had loads of creepy lifesize Masaii models doing stuff like building houses and hunting. There was a snake farm as well which was quite random but we were allowed to hold the snakes (the lamest grass ones which don't even bite), turns out I'm pretty scared of snakes as I freaked out when it came close to my neck...I'm glad I did it though. That afternoon Amy and I went into town which was fun as there are loads and loads of second hand stores so we passed quite a few hours searching through all the western clothes (which were mainly knitted jumpers and Primark stuff) and then just wandered around the markets. We also found a great ice cream place where we had fudge sundaes and it was probably the best ice cream I've had since Egypt. The final day we tried to go to the UN tribunal for the Rwandan genocide (it's held in Arusha because the African court of human rights is here), but after a pretty long journey (in a mattatu which was so busy a random lady picked me up and sat me on her knee so we would have more space!) we were told they were on holiday at the moment so the trials weren't on for the next month...oh well TIA.
We also had to say goodbye to our truck in Arusha which was sad as I'd been living on it for the past three months but it was good because we got a new truck which is much bigger so there's much more space for us all. We had two long driving days from Arusha (we stayed overnight in a very unremarkable campsite with mosquitoes all over the place) and arrived in Dar es Salaam (the capital of Tanzania) late Saturday evening. We took the very uneventful ferry (although we did see whales and sharks on the way) to Zanzibar Sunday morning which is where I am now.

Beautiful, beautiul Rwanda and a few days away from the truck in North Uganda

 

Although Rwanda isn’t in the itinerary of our tour we were so close to the border that we couldn’t resist taking a trip there, also we had planned to stay for 4 nights in Jinja, Uganda which is an adventure sport place so we figured we could skip that bit and go to Rwanda instead. A decision I am so happy we made.

 

African Trials had organised mini buses to  the capital for a day trip but Alice and I decided we a) wanted to do the trip on our own b)wanted to go for longer than a day and c) thought it would be much cheaper to get local transport.

 

We got a taxi from Kable to the border and then crossed the border which was easy and completely hassle free. Straight over the border we hopped on a local bus and enjoyed the beautiful scenery during the 2 hour drive. We arrived in Kigali late afternoon and had the largest beer I’ve ever seen (720ml is the standard size in Rwanda) before finding a hotel (thanks Lonely Planet for sending us all over town!), having dinner and then heading early to bed.

 

The next morning we took moto taxis to the Genocide Museum which was horrific but very well done. It’s amazing to think that it was only 16 years ago, and within my lifetime, that it all happened. They have so many bodies buried there in mass graves and apparently they are still finding people all over. It was weird as well afterwards as we were walking round the capital knowing that everyone over the age of 15 has either killed someone, watched someone be killed or been affected in some other way by the genocide. I don’t’ know how a country recovers from something like that but I guess you just have to look forward and educate people so that it never ever happens again.

 

In the afternoon we went south to a church where one of the massacres took place. Apparently lots of people hid out at churches to avoid getting killed but that just meant that the people went to the churches and killed everyone there at once. The government decided that they would keep it how it was so that people remember what happened and to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again. They have put all the clothes of the people inside the church which was so weird and the memorial contains loads of bones and skulls from the victims. There was a lady at the church who was one of the only 6 people who survived there and she had to watch her whole family be massacred. She now just stays there every day now just because she doesn’t know what else to do…so sad.

 

That evening we met up with two other girls on our truck who had decided to stay longer than just the day and went for an awesome Chinese meal which was good and we got motos back which was pretty exciting driving through the city so fast late at night.

 

The next day we took a matatu (a local mini bus) to Ginsenyi which is a town on Lake Kivu in the North West of the country. The bus ride was entertaining as they basically just squash as many people as possible on board. Also, the locals were amazed that us mzengus (white people) were getting on a local bus and they just stared at us the whole 4 hours, one woman was even stroking Claire’s leg, I guess she wanted to see what white skin felt like. We spent the afternoon and next day lazing on the beach next to the beautiful lake (which was so big it looked like the sea), and eating some awesome food. We were running out of time so that night we took a night bus back to Kampala, Uganda. For some reason the bus went via Kigali (seriously look at a map, it was about a 6 hour detour) but this is Africa and when we asked why the driver just said ‘why not?’ The border was quick and easy although Alice and I had a crazy lady who had been sitting next to us on the bus who kept pushing us out the way and stepping on our feet which was quite random. We arrived in Kampala early in the morning (far too early…like 4am), the bus was actually not too bad and I think I managed to get a few hours of sleep even though I couldn’t reach the floor so I had nowhere to put my feet. We weren’t sure what to do as it was so early but we found out that we got breakfast included in our tickets so we headed to the office to get that and found loads of locals sleeping on a mat on the floor…if you can’t beat them, join them! I think I slept better on the hard floor than some nights in the tent and I only woke up when this old lady decided she wanted to share my bag to use as a pillow and proceeded to lay down next to me and cover me with her scarf.

 

After a breakfast of cakes (we found a good bakery!), we hopped on a matatu heading north as we were spending our last night away fom the truck in a rhino sanctuary run by some awesome South Africans. The place was really luxurious and we had a three course dinner (with steak!) and sat round the fire with some beers before heading to bed. The next morning we set out on foot with our guide to go and find some rhinos. It was great because it only took about 20 minutes of walking before the guide pointed out a huge rhino that was just eating some grass next to us. I couldn’t believe how big it was, it’s back was probably at least 6 foot and its arse was huge. There were 3 rhinos in the family we saw (mum, dad and baby) and we just sat and watched them for an hour (they were stood about 2m away from us) or so before we had to return. That afternoon we took another matatu back to Kampala, this one was probably the most entertaining one we had taken yet – when we got on there was a chicken just running around the floor (pretty standard) but half way back we had to stop for petrol, the chicken obviously knew its fate and pegged it straight out the door, we then had a good giggle watching the driver running around the petrol station trying to catch the bloody chicken, eventually he did though and he tied its legs together and shoved it under my seat. I spent the rest of the journey trying to avoid it pecking my foot and me stamping on its head which was difficult as we were so cramped. When we got to Kampala finally as well, the man pulled out the chicken from under the seat and it had laid an egg on the journey…only in Africa.

 

We walked across town to go to a bagel place at the flash mall which was awesome and then took our last matatu (which was probably the most squashed one yet) back to Jinja to rejoin the truck.

 

Today we are in Nakuru National Park, almost all the truck have gone on a game drive today but I’m giving this one a miss so we’ve just been sunbathing, eating and doing laundry. We are heading to the Masai Mara in a few days though so I don’t think I’m missing out too much as I’ll see my fair share of animals there.