Marvellous Malawi

We spent five nights in Zanzibar and got the ferry back to Dar (which was ridiculously choppy and we all got seasick) where we were staying for one night before heading south. That night I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with one of my friends from uni who is working as an engineer out here (with a good job and an even better wage….maybe I should start investigating). We went out for dinner at this great Thai place and then on to some bars and the casino (turns out I’m pretty good at blackjack…. I came out about $35 on top) and finally rolled into bed about 4am. It was fun though and it was nice to see someone other than the people who are on my truck for a bit. 


The next two days were just driving and very uneventful - we stayed the first night in a pretty nice campsite in the middle of nowhere but they had comfortable sofas so I was happy (it’s the small things). The next night was our first bush camp since Samburu (over 5 weeks!) which was really exciting (well it was for me, Charly and Alice, most of the people who had joined us in Nairobi just looked a little scared and bewildered). It’s weird, I never appreciated bush camping when we were doing it all the time as it was just what we did, but now we haven’t been doing any I realised how much I missed it. This wasn’t the best site (it was no quarry that’s for sure) as it was next to a rather ominous forest but still, the sunset was amazing and it was awesome to be out in the middle of nowhere in the silence again. 


It was a good job it was so quiet as we had a ridiculously early start the next day (even earlier for me as I had to do breakfast) as we headed south/west to the Malawi border. Again, the crossing was stress free and the nice border official even asked me where I would like the stamp in my passport (which was great as I am very quickly running out of blank pages). Immediately as we crossed over the landscape changed (it is amazing how this happens) from lush green trees in Tanzania to brown wasteland with sporadic trees in Malawi. 


We are whizzing through Malawi as there’s not actually that much to see here other than the lake and the landscape. The first camp we stayed at was in a beautiful location on the lake surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately we only stayed there for 2 nights, I could have easily stayed longer as there was loads to do there with the local people. One day me, Alice, Amy, Daniel, Johan, Steph and Keith went to wood carving school in the local village (Malawi is famous for carved stuff) which was fun, although we were more like the entertainment as people came from miles around to watch us (one kid told me he’d walked 2 hours when he’d heard that we were there). The carving was much more difficult than we’d expected although we all managed to make something (Alice & Amy - masks, Keith - leopard, Johan - hippo, me & Steph - keyrings and Daniel - a man) with a little help from all the locals/kids/chickens that were gathered around. I actually got offered a baby by his sister, I held him for a while until he tried to pull down my top so I would feed him….I had to draw the line there as it was getting a little freaky. 


That evening me, Charly, Keith and Galbyn (and a few others) did what we do best and headed out to find a local disco. We semi succeeded, in that we found a bar with music but there was no disco ball unfortunately. Also, when we arrived they decided to play the two songs they know westerners like (Wavin Flag and Waka Waka - google them if you don’t know them, they were played incessantly here during the world cup) which was great, except they just had them on a loop so after the 7th time we were going a little crazy. We also learnt some new dance moves (the bird dance and the synchronised leg kick) to add to our repertoire so I’m sure we will be bringing out at some point in the near future (I will try and upload a video). We also got to try the local brew Chubuku or Shake Shake as the locals call it (so called as it’s so gritty you’ve got to shake it up pretty well before you drink it), it was probably the weirdest local drink we’ve tried as it comes in what looks like milk cartons and it’s made from white maize, it’s thick, sour and gritty and after about 3 mouthfuls I was beginning to think the Simien Mountain brew wasn’t so bad at all (I think the best way to describe it is if you went out drinking all night, came home, drunk a litre of milk and spewed it up into a old milk carton…lovely). We did manage to finish one though (with a little help from the locals), and we were back drinking our trusty Carlsberg (they own all the breweries in Malawi…very strange). I think the only thing missing was the prostitutes, other than that it was a great night.


The next day we stopped at this carving market, it was pretty crazy even though there were only 11 stalls the people were ruthless, literally trying to swap the clothes of our backs for wooden stuff they’d carved. They had some pretty nice stuff (coffee tables, chess sets, bowls etc.) but it’s difficult to imagine how stuff would look at home, especially as I won’t have a house when I get back. In the end I swapped the England shirt I had bought in Sudan for a mini Malawi chair which was pretty cool and a wooden ring. I actually got a scarf out of the day as well as Alice was about to swap this really nice one she’d bought in Turkey until I said I would buy it from her, in the end I swapped it for my wooden ring. Result  J




We spent the next two days chilling at Kande Beach on the lake although after the first morning I was going stir crazy as there were so many people there (we counted 9 other overland trucks at one point!) and we were right in the middle of nowhere so there was no local village/people to go and see (just an expensive tourist craft market). In the past I would have just sunbathed/listened to my ipod/read a book but when you spend so many hours doing that every day on the truck you want to do other stuff. The second day we hired a paddle boat to go out to this Island about a kilometre away where there was supposed to be good snorkelling. The whole thing was a bit of a disaster, the snorkels we hired let water in, the boat we hired let water in and both Amy and Tash don’t like open water. We managed to get there alright (although we couldn’t snorkel because of the masks), and moored up the boat (although we couldn’t get off as the rocks were way too slippery) and started playing scrabble (scrabble is a bit of truck obsession). After about twenty minutes we realised that we were actually sinking as the boat had let so much water. We all jumped off and basically had to swim back to the beach towing the boat - funny now, but it was a bit stressful at the time as there was quite a strong current and as I mentioned Tash and Amy aren’t that keen on water. When we got back we found out that the guy shouldn’t have even been renting out boats anyway and he was using someone elses boats and pocketing the money. Only in Africa. After that expedition, reading in the sun didn’t seem like such a bad option so I spent the rest of the day doing that. 


I’m currently on the truck on the way to the Zambian border. The people hate Madonna here which I think is hilarious, we actually passed through the village where she bought one of her kids from, she’s built a school there but no one wants to send their kids there. Stupid rich famous people. I’ve really enjoyed Malawi but I feel like we’ve rushed through a bit, I guess that’s the issue with being on a truck.Oh well, I guess its an excuse to come back!


Apparently there are elephants wandering through the campsites in Zambia....awesome :)

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.

Um bongo, um bongo I went to the Congo....oh and we saw gorillas and they were freaking awesome

Because the Congo is so dangerous we weren't able to camp there so our expedition there started early in the morning. We drove teh 14km to the border and crossed the border (which incidentally was a wooden fence with a big truck tire for a gate) with ease. We met two men (johnny Walker and Joe), who were very persistent in trying to sell us old Zaire banknotes but that was basically our only troubles. We then hopped in this awesome military style vehicle and drove for about 2 hours up a very bumpy road past loads of locals and villages. About 5 minutes into the drive some kid, who was about 13 years old, pointed at me and then did a cut throat action (deadly serious and a number of times), excellent, what a great welcome to one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we had the usual mzundu, mzundu and kids running from all over the place to see us in the truck. Even the adults here seemed happy to see us which is nice because in Uganda the majority have been throwing rocks at the truck.

We arrived at the start of the trekking site (again surrounded by curious locals) and started walking towards the jungle. The scenery was spectacular and was so not what I was expecting (it reminded me so much of Vietnam). After about an hour we broke off into smaller groups and headed into the dense jungle.The walk was pretty cool but our guides were going at a pretty quick pace and it was all uphill and we were basically walking on fallen trees, roots, plants and insects. The jungle was so dense and the guides at the front had to use their machetes to cut it back so we could get through. Within about 10 minutes we heard all this rustling an there was a gorilla and its baby just sitting in an opening...our guides ushered us on as this wasn't the family we were heading for. The walk took about an hour and a half but as we chopped away at a tree and saw a gorilla sleeping with her baby it was all worth it. She did try and charge at us which was so scary but the guides can communicate with them so she eventually settled down. There were 4 in the family all together - mother, 2 babies and a huge (and I mean HUGE) silverback. It was pretty amazing - we just watched and took photos, and laughed at how human like they are. We were only allowed to spend an hour with them so all too soon we had to head back through the jungle and home. Something really cool though, on the way back we stopped at a second family - here there were about 15 gorillas, we were only allowed to stay there for 5 minutes (as the regulations to protect them and pretty strict) but it was really awesome to see such a big family.From there we were back in the truck and home, exhausted and sore (you should have seen my feet - I will try and upload a picture) but really happy after such an awesome day and well worth to $550 we had to pay. There are only 720 mountain gorillas left in the world.

oh yeah, thats a gorilla

my foot after the walk...look at my white toes!!!

Luxury Campsites in Uganda

Probably the highlight of our 4 days in Nairobi were the giraffe and elephant sanctuaries we visited. The giraffe one was probably cooler as there were less people and we got to get right up close to the giraffes. Some of them were HUGE it was crazy, the biggest ones head was almost the same size as my body! The elephants were awesome as well - they were all orphaned (by poaching etc.) as babies so they have lived their whole lives in the sanctuary, you could pet them and stuff but there were loads of people there so it wasn't as easy to get to the front. The other awesome thing we found out was that it was impossible for us to get gorilla permits for Uganda so we are going to cross the border into Congo to see them there instead. The rest of our days in Nairobi were spent chilling out, going to the cinema and going shopping. It was quite weird as 8 of the group headed to Mombassa to teh beach for a few days, Kate and Chris headed to the Masai Mara and Scott and Tris left to their volunteer project so there were hardly any of us left on the truck. We were all pretty sad as well as it meant this leg of the trip was over and Alice and I had to say goodbye to Briar who had been our tent buddy for the whole trip.

Sunday was my birthday and, after having cake for breakfast, we watched the Lion King (Alice has never seen it!) which was cool although the dvd kept skipping so Briar and I had to fill Alice in with the songs/dialogue. After that, the three of us got a taxi to the airport as Briar was leaving, Alice and I were also going to meet teh twins there as they were flying back from Mombassa and then all get a taxi back to Karen. We weren't allowed into the airport so we had a tearful goodbye at the door and then Alice and I wandered around like lost puppies for a while before we found a bar so we stopped to have a drink and wait for the twins. About ten minutes later Briar walked around the corner...she'd got the date of her flight wrong so she actually had 3 more days...awesome! We had some drinks whilst we waited for the others and then headed back to camp and out for dinner.




The next morning we had to say all our goodbyes again as we were leaving on the next leg of our trip. Briar, Chris, Kate, Tom and Phil (and Scott and Tris) we miss you guys! The next four days were bascially just spent meeting all the new people (16 people joined us in Nairobi) and driving in the truck all day. We stayed in some pretty flash campsites though with toilets and hot showers and stuff...very strange after so many bushcamps - I hope people aren't going to expect me to shower every day now though!


We have now arrived in Kosoro, Uganda which is right next to the DRC border which we will be crossing tomorrow to go and see some gorillas and I can't wait!!

Elephant!

School kids fascinated by the white girl

Briar being a giraffe...obviously

Hello!

Birthday cake breakfast

The story that is so good it deserves its own blog post/the night we got arrested/the night we didn’t break the mirror

So, this story actually happened over a month ago now in Bahir Dar in Ethiopia. I probably won’t do it justice, or make it seem anywhere near as funny as it actually was (Tom actually wrote a song about the whole night which I will try and upload once I get better internet). Also, (mainly for mum), before you read it keep in mind that these were just Ethiopians trying to scam us because we were Western (and therefore rich) and nothing bad actually happened.

The night started out pretty uneventful – we watched/drowned our sorrows for the England game at a fancy hotel in town (we actually won the game but the quality of football was appalling), half watched the Australia game and enjoyed the expensive vodka (45 birr a glass, about 2.25, which is expensive compared to a 6 birr beer!) at the nice hotel and then a couple of us (me, Alice, Niall, Kiwi, Tom, Phil and Keith) headed to a local bar/club. We danced and drunk more nice vodka and people started heading home until there was only me, Tom, Alice and Keith left. We decided to call it a night and Tom and I left the club just ahead of Alice and Keith. After we got halfway down the road we looked back to find Alice and Keith surrounded by Ethiopians arguing and pushing them. We went back to investigate and turns out they were accusing us of breaking one of the mirrors which were all along one side of the dancefloor. Now we were drunk but all confident we didn’t break the mirror, we made them take us back into the club to show us and the mirror had obviously been broken for a while. The argument in the street continued and was getting more heated as we were getting pushed and shoved around, we weren’t paying for something we hadn’t done so we decided to just walk away. We walked to the next bar and decided to hide out in there for a bit whilst things were calming down, they were playing Mysterious Girl so I was obviously quite happy on the dancefloor there until the door flung open and this guy grabbed Alice and dragged her outside, we followed them out and the argument was still going on, worse this guy was still holding onto Alice (although I think she was alright – “if you touch me again, I’ll fucking kill you” or something along those lines was what came out of her mouth), the ‘owner’ of the club (we never actually found out if he was the owner or not), obviously realizing that we weren’t going to pay threatened to get the police involved. I think he did this to scare us into paying but it backfired on him as we were like “alright then, take us to the cop shop”. We were bundled into a mini van, and Alice dragged the guy who was accusing us as well (“get in the back with the dirty criminals where you belong”), then two guys with rifles hopped in the front. This was the only point in the night when I actually was thinking what the hell are we doing, we should just pay the money and be done with it. A two minute ride later and we were at the police station, the police (of course) were asleep so the guys woke them up. We then proceeded to spend about an hour in the police station trying to explain the story to two cops who clearly didn’t care and just wanted to go back to sleep and this guy who was apparently ‘on our side’ and just ‘wanted us to have a good impression of Ethiopians’ (well yeah, maybe we would if you didn’t just try and get money out of us because we were Western) who was doing most of the talking/translating.  Highlights included Toms ‘aggressive’ hand movements which Alice had to restrain, them asking us for ID (Alice and I handed in our photocopies of our passports, Tom decided to hand in his fake student card), the cops only listening to the boys (even though Alice and I were making infinitely more sense) and Tom saying “we are but humble travelers” in a sentence which just made us all piss ourselves. Meanwhile there were at least 5 guys having an argument outside which wasn’t helping the matter. Eventually after much futile arguing the translator guy decides that he will just pay on our behalf (“let him pay!” said Tom which the guy heard and got very offended about so Tom actually got down on one knee to apologise which), we all had to thank him, he paid the guy and we were allowed to leave. As we were walking out we saw the guy handing the money back to the translator (which just proved that the whole thing was just a stupid setup to try and get money from us). We ran home and then proceeded to draw all over the side of the truck so we wouldn’t forget it all in the morning, highlights of that included “Tom broke the mirror, nor did Keith or Alices or Tom”, “Karl and Mandy rock”, “Alices are awesome”, “Karl heart we” (I can’t really recall what that one was about”, “Unbreakers” and “we are innocent” it also involved a great picture (including disco ball) showing us not breaking the mirror which was so good it could basically be used as evidence.

 Ethiopia – 0, UK (and Australia) - 1

Oh and about 3 weeks later, Kiwi said she might have broken the mirror.

Huge update from Nairobi

So I am finally in Nairobi where the Internet is fast (i might even be able to upload photos!!), and there are supermarkets and malls and stuff. I even had a hot shower yesterday which was just amazing, it's quite sad though as some of our group are leaving (Tris, Scott, Briar, Tom, Phil, Chris and Kate) as their trips end here but the upside of this is that we are getting a load of new people on the truck as well. Alice and I are going to take Briar to the airport tomorrow as we've all been sharing a tent for the whole time - it's going to be weird not having her around but she'll be happy as she'll no longer get woken up at night by me sleep talking!



Anyway, so back to Ethiopia...From Lalibella we had two bushcamps and two very long days in the truck before we arrived in Harar. Both bushcamps were in disused quarries, the first was pretty cool although half way through the night some locals were wandering around shouting ‘oh my gott….I’m sorry’ for about 15 minutes, it was pretty funny. Alice, as usual, slept through the whole thing (which is good, because that means she never wakes up when I’m sleep taking!). The next day we blew a tire in the middle of nowhere – it was cool as there were loads of tribes people around (we later found out they were from the Afra tribe), they had huge knives and kept spitting at us but they seemed friendly enough although they were scared of our cameras.


We eventually arrived in Harar in the evening, got ice cream and chilled out, next day we took a tour of the old town which was cool as it was all little alleyways and really brightly painted, we were followed by loads of (super cute) local kids/goats (not so cute)/chickens/dogs etc. that night we went to a Harar tradition which is feeding hyenas mouth to mouth, it was very weird, apparently these guys do it every night, it wasn’t very scary even though they are officially wild hyenas, I did crap my pants a little when the hyena snapped at me though, they are pretty big and their teeth are huge – I was also one of the first to go (figured I should get it out the way), most of the group did it though which was cool. The next afternoon a few of us took a tour of Harar brewery which was awesome (and much better than the Dashen brewery) and obviously afterwards we took advantage of the cheap, unpasteurised beers and bought some cool t-shirts in the shop. That night we went back to the hyenas (we wanted better pictures now we’d done it once and knew what the score was) but it wasn’t as cool as the first night as we went later so they were full and lazy.


We drove all day from Harar and stopped beside a river just outside Awash for a bushcamp. Karl managed to get the truck bogged so we (I say we, Alice, Briar, Charly, Jackie, Tris and I sat on a rock and watched) had to dig it out which took quite a while, much to the amusement of some locals who came to have a look. There were crocodiles in the river so we unfortunately couldn’t swim. We went to bed early and got up early for another long day on the road.


We arrived in Addis in the afternoon, we were staying out of the town in what Karl kept joking was a brothel (turned out it actually was) but there was some nicely kept grass and somewhere secure to park the truck, they had beers on tap and they were cheap as well (5 birr, less than 10p). Briar and I took a walk on the first day but there wasn’t much around. The next day we headed to the markets which were pretty cool although the bartering to get there was so frustrating (they basically times the price by 10 for white people), we stayed in town all day, had some beers (it was pissing it down – there wasn’t much else to do) and then went to a very strange deserted bar where they played the demo track from a keyboard over the loudspeaker (until I asked them to turn it off and the guy got very offended). The next day we went back into town to go to the Hilton (there was a super nice spa there and we heard the internet was fast) but on the way three guys tried to pickpocket Tom and there were loads of shady people hanging outside the Hilton so we were a little weary. We used the internet and watched the tv/read newspapers in the Sheraton for a while and then found a shop which sold cheese (seriously it’s the little things you miss!) and watched a movie back at the truck (just avoiding the rain) and then went to watch the football.

We had a nice drive from Addis to Lake Legano, the drives through Ethiopia are always entertaining – lots of random people all over the place, trucks full of people, trucks full of camels, donkeys/sheep/cattle wandering in the road, some very sketchy driving (only occasionally by Karl!), and then locals all over the place staring at the truck shouting ‘yououououououou’, ‘foreinger’, ‘forenge’ etc. which basically means ‘white people’, sometimes they throw rocks as well but generally people are happy to see westerners (although they also usually thought we were bringing food – they still get weekly rations of oil and rice from an American company, USAID).


The place we were supposed to be staying (i.e. where Karl had stayed before) had closed down so we ended up setting up camp on the side of the lake which was very nice, we had a quick (cold) swim, hiked to the posh hotel next door to use the toilets and get some beers (pretty much our only priorities in Ethiopia!) and then watched the football that evening. The next morning we ignored all the advice and had breakfast before taking the tent down, which meant that we got absolutely soaked as right at the end of breakfast the heavens opened. Everyone else seemed to enjoy watching us getting soaked and taking out tent down from the dry of the truck!


Since there wasn’t a lot to do at the lake we decided to head off a night early and drove the short drive to Lake Hawassa. We stopped at Sashamane on the way there which is this random Rasta town where we got offered weed every 5 seconds. I was guarding the truck so spent an hour or so sunbathing (or guarding if Karl reads this!) on the spare wheels. Some guy tried to marry me, saying that he loved me, Tom (who could have easily diffused the situation by saying we were married) just watched and laughed and encouraged him but it passed the time nicely. We arrived at the lake early afternoon to be greeted by loads of monkeys who live in the trees all around the campsite – we couldn’t swim in the lake (hippos and crocs) but there was a swimming pool which was really exciting although there seems to be some sort of swimming lesson going on so we had to steer clear for a while. The next few days were spent sunbathing, swimming, playing scrabble (it is a bit of a truck institution) and doing chores such as laundry and internet. We did go to the ‘circus’ one night which was actually just a kids youth group, they were great gymnasts though (the kids were probably aged 5-15) and they made us join in with some Ethiopian dancing. It was good fun and it was so nice to see children here actually being children and enjoying themselves rather than asking for food/money on the streets.


The next day we drove to Moyale where we camped on a very well manicured lawn and watched the world cup final which was a pretty boring game to say the least and I was annoyed as I wanted Holland to win. It was our last night in Ethiopia so we took advantage of the cheap beers for the last time.

The next day it was time to leave Ethiopia and move onto Kenya – I think everyone was pretty sad to leave as we’d had such a great time in Ethiopia but we’d been there for almost 4 weeks so we were excited to see what the next country had to offer. The border was fairly quick and simple (especially by African standards) and we were soon on our way on one of the worst roads in Africa! Seriously it was bumpy, dusty with potholes and rocks all over the place. We were driving at a pretty steady 30km/hour and we were getting thrown all over the place (especially Troy, Jackie and I as we were at the back), it was quite fun though and there were animals on the sides of the road and cool landscapes to keep us entertained. We bushcamped in the middle of nowhere and played cards watching the stars. Alice and I were the last to bed and we completely freaked ourselves out as just as we had locked the truck and were headed to our tent we could just see these eyes staring back at us – it was a hyena! We jumped back in the truck and hid out there for a while giggling until the coast was clear and we could run to our tent.

We were up early the next day for another day of driving on the shoddy road. After about 4 hours we were blessed with a beautiful tarmac road…for about ten minutes until we had to return to the dust road for the rest of the trip. We arrived in Marsabit after lunch and spent the afternoon chilling out in our nice campsite and nursing our sore knees. The next day we went on our first game drive to Marsabit national park which was a bit of a disaster as we hardly saw any animals, but the scenery was cool and the car ride was pretty much like a rollercoaster. Mid afternoon, our 4x4 got stuck on a hill and they had to spend a good 2 hours digging it out (which was possibly the most dangerous thing I have seen) while Tom, Keith and I played hangman in the sand trying to spot some animals. That night, we went for a few beers at a local bar and then Charley, Galbyn, Briar and I headed to the local disco. It was frecking awesome, and we had such a good time. It was basically just a disco ball in a corrugated iron section of a room, behind what looked like a working mens club. There were loads of locals there doing some crazy dance moves (including some awesome strutting to the dance floor), they were playing cheesy 80s music so we danced the night away and had such a great time. 

The rest of our time in Marsabit was spent just reading, doing chores, showering (my first wash for over 5 days) and sunbathing and we headed on the road again to Samburu. We stopped for a bush camp outside this village where some Samburu tribes people live, it was really cool and the Samburu people wear loads of brightly coloured jewelry and red blankets – some of them tried to help us put up the tent but they were more of a hindrance really. The next day we went on an awesome game drive, it was cool because we got to go on the truck (and therefore didn’t have to be on a shoddy 4x4 which would break down all the time), we saw tons of animals including elephants, reticulated giraffes, warthogs, lions, zebras, kudu, impalas, and loads of random antelopes. The best thing of all though was we saw a leopard kill a gazelle from a sleeping position in a tree, it was absolutely awesome – the leopard was just so quick and the poor gazelle had no chance. The landscape there was cool as well and so much like the Africa I had imagined. That evening we participated in some traditional Samburu dancing (basically jumping up and down so the beads on your neck bounce up and down) and had roasted goat which was awesome. We had a tour of the village as well which was pretty interesting and it was cool to see how some real African tribes people live.


From Samburu we headed to Mount Kenya where we stayed in a lovely YHA hostel and just chilled, watched movies and sunbathed the whole time. It was really nice to relax for a bit in the beautiful settings (and watch other people attempt the mountain) and have our first hot showers for god knows how long. The next day we were back in the truck (hungover – Tom, Keith, Phil and I devoured two bottles of vodka the night before) and on our way to Nairobi which is where I am now!

playing with the locals in Lalibela

lunch stop!

Harar old town

haha, these poor goats should really stop hanging around at the butchers!

yes, that is a fully wild hyena I am feeding there

stuck truck!

The girls offering a hand

Arriving in Kenya

Alice and I being very respectful with a dead camel

Waterhole at Marsabit National Park

Before we found out the brakes didn't work

Samburu warriors helping (hindering) Alice and Briar to put up the tent

Beautiful Samburu NP

Lions!!