We only have 1 week left in Africa before we visit friends and family in England and we are looking forward that.
Luckily I made it to Morocco, after some minor visa issues in Tunisia. About the time of my last blog, Nick was reading through my passport and realised that I had only been given a 7 day visa and it had already expired...oops! All the info we had about Tunisian visa's had suggested Australians are granted a 3 month tourist visa on entry, so I didn't think to check it at the airport when we arrived. We travelled by louage (a form of public transport in Tunisia, which are minivans) the whole way around Tunisia and every now and then we were stopped at police checks where everyone on the louage had to had over their ID. At one of these stops, before we found the problem in my passport, we were questioned by one of the policemen about where we were going and how long we were staying. We were wondering why they were so interested, but it all became clear when Nick read my passport a few days later. Anyway, they let us go without too much concern at the time. So after some calling around and getting the run around, I got some info by emailing the Canadian embassy. As suggested I visited the police station in Jerba to arrange a visa extension, but I couldn't sort this out as they couldn't process it until the day before we were to fly to Morocco. The laid back policeman said I could just sort it out in Tunis when I arrived there. When I did arrive a few days before we were to fly, we went straight to the police station to sort it out and they weren't concerned at all and told me it would be fine. So I just rocked up to the airport immigration with my out of date visa. The immigration official noticed and after some questioning and agreeing to pay for an extension they took Nick off to pay for it, while I waited off to the side. Soon after they returned with the extension in my passport and through we went. No problems, I'm glad it wasn't like Australian immigration!
Between visiting the various police stations of Tunisia we also managed to fit a bit more sight seeing. We stopped at an old Colosseum from the days of Roman occupation during the Roman Empire times, in a place called El Jem. It was cool, you could explore up into the stands and under the false floor where all the gladiators, wild animals etc were kept before the performances and executions took place.
Tunisia was great and the culture is an interesting mix of Traditional Berber, Arab and French etc from years of various occupation while various empires rose and fell and other countries invaded and left. Islam took a strong hold on the people and still does today across all northern Africa. We got to witness the lead up to an important Muslim event, which involves the sacrifice of a sheep. We saw a huge weekly animal market in the town of Douz where men traded their sheep, horses, donkeys, chickens, goats, camels etc. It was quite a sight and I was glad we had just bumped into a French Canadian girl we had met in Tozeur, so I wasn't the only female weaving our way through the mayhem. On this occasion sheep were the main item of trade.
When we arrived in Casablanca, Morocco, we decided to head straight to Marrakesh as there wasn't much of interest to us in Casablanca. Unfortunately, we travelled on the day before the Muslim sheep sacrifice day and this meant we were crammed onto the train with all the people needing to head home to be with their families for the day. We didn't manage a seat on the train for most of the 3 hour trip, so we had to stand in the vestibule area, me right next to the toilet. Nice! At one point I nearly ended up in the toilet as I lent on the door handle and opened the door suddenly. I think some of the men here have ants in their pants and can't sit still, some spent much of the time wandering around the train...to the toilet and the next carriage etc..which was fun on a packed train. I think all the stimulants in their system could be the reason, with all the smoking and tea and coffee they drink. Some tried to smoke in the vestibule area, but not for long, as Nick pointed to the non smoking area sign and told them off. Our new found vestibule buddies were a bit shocked at first, but glad he had.
Marrakesh was very quiet for us, as the Muslim event took place the first day we were there, but it was nice to wander through the souks without any of the normal hassle as everything was shut. We did get to see some woollie heads being BBQ-ed. I think the head must be the pick of the sheep to eat. The following day we walked past an elderly couple struggling to lift the left over sheep into their cart, to take to the butcher, so Nick gave them a hand. The head was missing. You can actually buy them to eat in the main square where there are numerous food stands. One night Nick and I tried some yummy chocolate looking treats from a tea stand, except they weren't so yummy. I couldn't even give it away to the lady begging near us.
After visiting Marrakesh we spent a few days in Essaouira, a fishing town on the Atlantic coast. This was a nice relaxed place. Then we came back via Marrakesh before heading to the High Atlas Mountains, which were stunning! I have written enough for now though, so I'll write more about that later.
It's 5 days till Christmas now, so I hope everyone has a good Christmas day, for those that celebrate it. Nick and I will probably be spending it in the Rif Mountains.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Saharan Recipes, Star Wars and Roman Ruins
We are in Tunisis now, on a island called Jerba. Tunisia has been great, I have really enjoyed it.
Tunisia is all about Roman riuns, Star Was sets and really warm, generous people.
We have seen some really impressive Roman Ruins at Carthage and some at a place called Bulla Regia. The ruins here were well preserved and had the most elaborate mosaics in homes that had been built by the Romans under the ground to escape the heat of the summer.
We have been to a few of the Star Wars sights. We stayed in the home of Luke Skywalker at a hotel called Sidi Driss in Matmata, that was cool. It is built under ground by the local Berber tribes. I can see how much inspiration George Lucas got for the films here. A lot of the men here wear big coats that make them all look like Obi Wan and some of the place names are the same as the movies.
We have met some very nice, generous Tunisians, especially down in the South at a place called Tatouine. We spent an afternoon there having cups of tea given to us as we chatted to some of the local guys, not that we understood much of the French. We had shop keepers giving us sweets for nothing and random people offering us food on the street etc, etc. It has been really nice.
We spent some time camel trekking through the desert South of Douz, I know Nick talked about the overnight trip but I wanted to provide you with some recipe's from the trip.
Dinner - Veggie and Mutton/Goat Couscous
Ingedients
We are off to Morocco next on the 7th Dec.
Tunisia is all about Roman riuns, Star Was sets and really warm, generous people.
We have seen some really impressive Roman Ruins at Carthage and some at a place called Bulla Regia. The ruins here were well preserved and had the most elaborate mosaics in homes that had been built by the Romans under the ground to escape the heat of the summer.
We have been to a few of the Star Wars sights. We stayed in the home of Luke Skywalker at a hotel called Sidi Driss in Matmata, that was cool. It is built under ground by the local Berber tribes. I can see how much inspiration George Lucas got for the films here. A lot of the men here wear big coats that make them all look like Obi Wan and some of the place names are the same as the movies.
We have met some very nice, generous Tunisians, especially down in the South at a place called Tatouine. We spent an afternoon there having cups of tea given to us as we chatted to some of the local guys, not that we understood much of the French. We had shop keepers giving us sweets for nothing and random people offering us food on the street etc, etc. It has been really nice.
We spent some time camel trekking through the desert South of Douz, I know Nick talked about the overnight trip but I wanted to provide you with some recipe's from the trip.
Dinner - Veggie and Mutton/Goat Couscous
Ingedients
- Potato
- Carrot
- Onion
- Garlic
- Unknown vegetable, add your own varieties
- Salt
- Tin of Tomato paste
- Meat...I have no idea what our guide used maybe mutton or goat??
- Water
- Couscous
Method
- Chop vegetables and place all ingredients except couscous in a big pot
- Cook in the pot on an open fire, until cooked
- Cook couscous separately, fluff it around with your hands until it's light and fluffy
- Mix in a bowl and serve with spoons
- Tuck in
- Finish off with a maderine and some drumming and singing on the tom tom
P.S. Don't forget the washing up, thanks to one of the camels
Breakfast - Bread Saharan Style with Fromage (cheese)
Ingredients
- Flour
- Salt
- Water
- Camel slobber
- Sand
- Ash/coals
Method
- First ensure the fire is cracking
- Then get your camel cleaned bowl from previous night
- Mix the the flour, water and salt into the bowl and make a dough
- Make a small mound of sand about the size of a pizza
- Place your hessian sack over the mound and sprinkle some flour onto the sack
- Kneed your dough so it's flat and about the size of a pizza
- Spread your coals out in the fire
- Place the flattened dough onto the coals
- Cover the dough with more coals, ash and sand
- Wait a while then turn the dough and repeat the coal, ash and sand process
- Wait a while longer then remove the cooked bread from the coals
- Beat it with your blanket to remove all the ash, sand and coals
- Serve with triangles of soft cheese
P.S. But hold on the tea, it's full of leaves and very bitter, so bitter you can't taste the piles of sugar you have put in to disguise the taste.
I haven't made this sound very appertising but believe me it tasted very good. So simple.
Anyway, times up I hope you are all well and looking forward to Christmas.We are off to Morocco next on the 7th Dec.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Egyptians and their Antiquities
Today is our last day in Egypt before we head to Tunisia, so we excited about exploring a new place.
We got back from visiting Alexandria the other day and are now in Cairo. Alexandria was one of my favourite spots in Egypt. The people there seemed a lot more friendly and genuine, and more importantly, don't try to rip you off anytime you try to buy something. We were in a restaurant one night looking over the menu and we were so amused that I wanted to share it. The English on the menu must have been lost in the translation from Arabic, plus there was a good bit of Engrish...(if you can call it that here??). So here are some examples.
In the pie section there was:
Meat collection pie (one for Paulie and Lee not doubt:))
My favourite was
Hot dag pie (doesn't sound very nice to me though)
In the pizza section there was:
Margreta vegetables pizza
Shrimps and souid pizza and
Roast boof pizza
There were some interesting items in the sandwich section:
Brain fillet sandwich (I decided to give that one a miss)
Cheese and eeg burger and
Chips (maunize-Katshub)
The salad section was the most amusing though, with items such as:
Clau slo
Patato maunize
Patato bakduns
But our favourite items were
Authority beets and
Pickle problem???
We should have gone back and ordered some just for interest.
Egypt has been enjoyable but also hard work at times....mostly in the touristy areas of Luxor and Aswan. We really got sick of having to haggle for every little thing we bought. Not a day would pass in these areas where someone didn't try to rip us off in one way or another. The people in these area constantly try to short change you, waiters try to give you the wrong amount on the bill and they give you the wrong amount of change. Or there were various taxes added on in varying amounts, it was always different. Prices varied wildly from 1 L.E. to 15 L.E for a cup of tea!! We were constantly in arguments with the Egyptians....I think they like arguing here!
It wasn't all bad though....I found the Egyptians that didn't work with tourists on a day to day basis to be such lovely people, so friendly and helpful. We wouldn't have gotten past the airport without them....before we knew what the Arabic numbers looked like we struggles to get onto the buses.
We saw some really cool stuff here. The pyramids of course, they were so impressive and didn't disappoint. We visited the Egyptian museum, which was chock-a-block full of ancient Egyptian treasures. Tutankhamen's galleries were a sight to see! We also saw the royal mummies collection. We visited the valley of the Kings, Queen Hatsheput's Temple, Habu Temple, a light and sound show at the Temple of Karnac etc, etc. All impressive to see. We also visited the Western desert via Dakhlar and Farafra Oasis. I felt a little out of place in Farafra, I felt like the only woman around the town...it was full of men sitting around smoking their sheesha and drinking coffee or tea all day. The women stay home all day and you rarely see them out and about. We ended up in our safari guides home one day drinking tea and eating their dates etc. They were a Bedouin family, his family was originally from Libya, while his wife must have been local to Farafra...she had studied law in Cairo, I can't imagine there is much need for lawyers in Farafra. At one point our guide went off to pray at the local mosque, we stayed with his wife and 6 month year old, plus the other members of his family were there also. His wife ended up playing us some Bedouin music and then put on their wedding video. Bizarre but interesting!
The food here in Egypt has been much more interesting than sub-Saharan Africa. So we have been making the most of that....I'm sure things will get much more interesting as we head west to Tunisia and Morocco though, bring it on.
We got back from visiting Alexandria the other day and are now in Cairo. Alexandria was one of my favourite spots in Egypt. The people there seemed a lot more friendly and genuine, and more importantly, don't try to rip you off anytime you try to buy something. We were in a restaurant one night looking over the menu and we were so amused that I wanted to share it. The English on the menu must have been lost in the translation from Arabic, plus there was a good bit of Engrish...(if you can call it that here??). So here are some examples.
In the pie section there was:
Meat collection pie (one for Paulie and Lee not doubt:))
My favourite was
Hot dag pie (doesn't sound very nice to me though)
In the pizza section there was:
Margreta vegetables pizza
Shrimps and souid pizza and
Roast boof pizza
There were some interesting items in the sandwich section:
Brain fillet sandwich (I decided to give that one a miss)
Cheese and eeg burger and
Chips (maunize-Katshub)
The salad section was the most amusing though, with items such as:
Clau slo
Patato maunize
Patato bakduns
But our favourite items were
Authority beets and
Pickle problem???
We should have gone back and ordered some just for interest.
Egypt has been enjoyable but also hard work at times....mostly in the touristy areas of Luxor and Aswan. We really got sick of having to haggle for every little thing we bought. Not a day would pass in these areas where someone didn't try to rip us off in one way or another. The people in these area constantly try to short change you, waiters try to give you the wrong amount on the bill and they give you the wrong amount of change. Or there were various taxes added on in varying amounts, it was always different. Prices varied wildly from 1 L.E. to 15 L.E for a cup of tea!! We were constantly in arguments with the Egyptians....I think they like arguing here!
It wasn't all bad though....I found the Egyptians that didn't work with tourists on a day to day basis to be such lovely people, so friendly and helpful. We wouldn't have gotten past the airport without them....before we knew what the Arabic numbers looked like we struggles to get onto the buses.
We saw some really cool stuff here. The pyramids of course, they were so impressive and didn't disappoint. We visited the Egyptian museum, which was chock-a-block full of ancient Egyptian treasures. Tutankhamen's galleries were a sight to see! We also saw the royal mummies collection. We visited the valley of the Kings, Queen Hatsheput's Temple, Habu Temple, a light and sound show at the Temple of Karnac etc, etc. All impressive to see. We also visited the Western desert via Dakhlar and Farafra Oasis. I felt a little out of place in Farafra, I felt like the only woman around the town...it was full of men sitting around smoking their sheesha and drinking coffee or tea all day. The women stay home all day and you rarely see them out and about. We ended up in our safari guides home one day drinking tea and eating their dates etc. They were a Bedouin family, his family was originally from Libya, while his wife must have been local to Farafra...she had studied law in Cairo, I can't imagine there is much need for lawyers in Farafra. At one point our guide went off to pray at the local mosque, we stayed with his wife and 6 month year old, plus the other members of his family were there also. His wife ended up playing us some Bedouin music and then put on their wedding video. Bizarre but interesting!
The food here in Egypt has been much more interesting than sub-Saharan Africa. So we have been making the most of that....I'm sure things will get much more interesting as we head west to Tunisia and Morocco though, bring it on.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
African Plumbing
Now we have left sub-Saharan Africa so I though I should provide a bit of list highlighting some of the more amusing moments with African plumbing. It was a constant source of amusement to us, mostly centering around showering. So here are some of them:
- My first amusing African plumbing experience was while having a shower at our campsite near Kuger NP in South Africa. This shower when turned on, would spray horizontally directly onto the wall, so the only way I could wash myself was to hold the shower head and let the water dibble down my arm.
- There was a shower at White Mountain in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa that was designed for midgets, as the shower head only came up to shoulder height. Too bad if you wanted to wash your hair. The shower head was also broken on this one so to prevent the water from flowing down the wall again, I had to prop the shower head up with my soap container.
- Orange River, on the boarder between South Africa and Namibia provided an interesting showering experience, the walls were made of straw and only came up to your armpits, so while showering you could watch people playing volleyball just outside...not that anybody was at the time.
- During my shower at Fish River Canyon in Namibia, the water stopped dead as the lady next to me ran her bath water.
- At the place we stayed at in Swakopmund, Namibia, the water prefered to drain into the living room/kitchen area than down the drain in the bathroom.
- At Seronga in the Okavango Delta, Botwanna the mens and womens showers were labelled in Setswanna so we had no idea what was what...only one shower provided hot water here so it was just pot luck if you got on.
- We stayed on a houseboat on the Delta and for some reason we could only have a shower during daylight hours??
- At one particular campsite in Namibia there were showers that gave a mild electric shock when turning the taps on or off.
- In Kasane in the Chobe NP, the hot and cold water taps were placed the other way around, so I had a freezing cold shower thinking there was no hot water at all.
- At Zambezi Breezers in Zambia there was no water all due to power cuts.
- At a placed called Kuomboka in Lusaka, Zambia, we had to use the dorm room showers (as our one was broken)...these showers were basically like a telephone booth, with nowhere to hang your stuff, so all your clothes had to placed on the outside of the shower. Unfortunately some had hot water and some didn't. I of course picked the one that didn't.
- At a place called Deans Hill camp in Zambia, I finally managed to find myself a hot shower (the first for a long time), this however was so hot that it almost burnt my skin and there were more power cuts so this was done in the dark.
- Getting to the showers in the Flat Dogs campsite in South Luangwa NP was an extreme sport of dodge the elephant...I had a frog join me on one occasion.
- On our train trip from Zambia to Tanzania, the shower was basically just a hose dribbling cold water from the roof....better than nothing though.
- Manch Lodge in Zanzibar was the absolute African plumbing highlight for us though. This was were Nick decided to shave off his beard. During this process he managed to snap the tap off and had water spurting everywhere. We had to hand over the room key and wondered Stone Town while Nick sported some very interesting amusing facial hair as they fixed this problem. Then as Nick continued he blocked the sink! The rasta, looking after the place was too busy milling around doing nothing to bother fixing this for some time, but eventually it was fixed. W found out a few days later that the lodge actually had hot water, the rasta guy had just forgot to turn it back on after fixing the blocked sink. At this place we also failed to see how the water was supposed to drain away as there was no actual drain. It just seeped through a crack behind the toilet.
- At Aberge La Caverne in Rwanda you pick between having water pressure or hot water, you couldn't have both.
- Kinigi Guest House near where we went gorilla tracking provided us with our number 2 African plumbing moment. After staff forgot to turn the water on for whatever reason, some time was needed to heat the water....so after dinner we decided it was about time for a shower as we had climbed Mt Bisoke that day and were feeling very smelly and dirty. I made Nick go first due to my bad luck with showers. After turning on the hot water tap the only thing that came out was a lot of gurgling noise, so loud it made the pipes rattle. Nick tried the cold water tap thinking this may get the water flowing, but no luck there just more gurgling noises. Nick then managed to break the tap off this shower too and while fixing it with his trusty leatherman tool the water decided to cough and spurt out. At this point it was now or never so we made the most of the just above freezing water.
- I had a shower in Jinja, Uganda that had a hole in the hot water pipe, so occasionally I would get a burning sensation on my calf as the hot water sprayed out sideways.
So with all this experince I am thinking about writing a coffee table book on the best showers in Africa.
I should mention that I have had some good showers in Africa. The best was in a place called Sipi River Lodge Near Mt Elgon in Uganda and the other was at Arusha Backpackers, Tanzania....so 2 showers in 3 1/2 months isn't bad. Hehe.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Mountain Gorilla's, Uganda and Kenya
Last blog I think I left off in Kigali Rwanda. Since then we have travelled through Uganda and Kenya and just arrived in Cairo. So I need to catch up.
After we left Kigali we travelled to Musanze for some mountain gorilla tracking and we climbed Mt Bisoke, an extinct volcano apparently on the boarder of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC (Domocratic Republic of Congo) at the top. It was right near where Diane Fossey lived and studyed the gorillas and where she is now buried with her mate digit.
Tracking the gorillas was an amasing experience. They are so big and powerful and intriguing to watch. We saw the Amahoro family group (Amahoro group were named after the genocide and means peace).
I naively thought we would turn up on the edge of the group and observe them from the side as they sat there in the grass and did their thing, but it wasn't like that at all. For a start we were in bamboo and really thick vegetation. As we came across the first big black ball of fluff and watched for a while we soon realised that we were actually surrounded by them as we could hear all the crunching sounds of vegetation around us. It really got my heart racing hearing and seeing these huge creatures come crashing though the bamboo around us. It was such a great experience though. We were supposed to keep a distance of 7 m at all times, but in practise this was difficult, not because we were approaching them, but because they kept approaching us, and walking backwards up a slippery steep slope in thick vegetation was hard. We got to see some babies in the group, one very small one with it's mother and another one a little older and more curious. This one actually approached us, a little unnerving as the dominant silverback was right near by. I really didn't want to annoy that one....it was huge!!! Unfortunatley the 2nd dominant male had lost his hand from a snare...very sad. As we watched I could see him struggle to scrtach his other arm, the rangers told us he was coping very well though. You can only stay for an hour to prevent stressing the animals. Just as we were about to leave 2 boisterous males burst right through the midle of the group and stopped to touch the ranger on the leg...it was an exciting way to end the experience.
After our time in Rwanda we got a bus to Kampala in Uganda and spent a few days at Murchison Falls for a safari, a boat cruise up that part of the Nile and a hike around the falls. Then we went and hired mountain bikes in Jinja, the source of the Nile River and camped by Bunjagali Falls. After that we spent a few days camping and hiking next to Sipi Falls near Mt Elgon on the Ugandan side. That was a beatuful spot!
We spent the last week in Sub-Saharan Africa in Kenya, travelling from Western Kenya to Nairobi through Eldoret and Nukuru. We hired an old series 3 Land Rover and camped in Lake Bogoria NP. We got the campsite all to ourselves. It was a bit scary hearing all the baboons screeching around us in the dark though...but they kept their distance, until the morning when they pooed all over the tent! Luckily it was wet season so the rain washed most of it off. At Nukuru we took the Landie through Nakuru NP to do our last African safari and got a fair bit of animal spotting in, which was nice.
We arrived in Cairo Yesterday and are so far loving Egypt....now I'm excited to experience Northern Africa.
After we left Kigali we travelled to Musanze for some mountain gorilla tracking and we climbed Mt Bisoke, an extinct volcano apparently on the boarder of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC (Domocratic Republic of Congo) at the top. It was right near where Diane Fossey lived and studyed the gorillas and where she is now buried with her mate digit.
Tracking the gorillas was an amasing experience. They are so big and powerful and intriguing to watch. We saw the Amahoro family group (Amahoro group were named after the genocide and means peace).
I naively thought we would turn up on the edge of the group and observe them from the side as they sat there in the grass and did their thing, but it wasn't like that at all. For a start we were in bamboo and really thick vegetation. As we came across the first big black ball of fluff and watched for a while we soon realised that we were actually surrounded by them as we could hear all the crunching sounds of vegetation around us. It really got my heart racing hearing and seeing these huge creatures come crashing though the bamboo around us. It was such a great experience though. We were supposed to keep a distance of 7 m at all times, but in practise this was difficult, not because we were approaching them, but because they kept approaching us, and walking backwards up a slippery steep slope in thick vegetation was hard. We got to see some babies in the group, one very small one with it's mother and another one a little older and more curious. This one actually approached us, a little unnerving as the dominant silverback was right near by. I really didn't want to annoy that one....it was huge!!! Unfortunatley the 2nd dominant male had lost his hand from a snare...very sad. As we watched I could see him struggle to scrtach his other arm, the rangers told us he was coping very well though. You can only stay for an hour to prevent stressing the animals. Just as we were about to leave 2 boisterous males burst right through the midle of the group and stopped to touch the ranger on the leg...it was an exciting way to end the experience.
After our time in Rwanda we got a bus to Kampala in Uganda and spent a few days at Murchison Falls for a safari, a boat cruise up that part of the Nile and a hike around the falls. Then we went and hired mountain bikes in Jinja, the source of the Nile River and camped by Bunjagali Falls. After that we spent a few days camping and hiking next to Sipi Falls near Mt Elgon on the Ugandan side. That was a beatuful spot!
We spent the last week in Sub-Saharan Africa in Kenya, travelling from Western Kenya to Nairobi through Eldoret and Nukuru. We hired an old series 3 Land Rover and camped in Lake Bogoria NP. We got the campsite all to ourselves. It was a bit scary hearing all the baboons screeching around us in the dark though...but they kept their distance, until the morning when they pooed all over the tent! Luckily it was wet season so the rain washed most of it off. At Nukuru we took the Landie through Nakuru NP to do our last African safari and got a fair bit of animal spotting in, which was nice.
We arrived in Cairo Yesterday and are so far loving Egypt....now I'm excited to experience Northern Africa.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Rwanda and Genocide
As I mentioned in the last blog arriving in Rwanda was a breath of fresh air compared to Tanzania and my favourite place so far.
Kigali was very different than I was expecting. It seems like quite a prosperous city with huge mansions springing up all over the place, the government is in the process of tearing down the city slums and providing houses for the locals with plumbing and electricity, where they have up to 40 years to pay off and own these homes, if they wish. There are very professional looking business men and women wondering about the city and very cosmopolitan places to eat out. There is more of a middle class here than we have seen for a while too. It was also much bigger than I expected, our lonely planet guide, being 4 years out of date, said the population was only 300, 000, but it was clearly much bigger than that! It's now closer to 1, 000, 000. My guess is an influx of Rwandan refugee's returning to Rwanda now things seem much more stable from their troubled past. There is a really good vibe in Rwanda and there is an optimistic feel as the people here look to the future and move on from bad times.
Rwanda is a really clean place, especially compared with other African countries. There is no rubbish anywhere. Every last Saturday of the month Rwandans spend their mornings cleaning up and planting trees etc. They also have no plastic bags here.
The landscape is stunning! The land of a thousand hills....and most of them cultivated with banana's and various crops.
The roads here are good, something we really appreciated after our experiences in Tanzania. Plus transport is well regulated, so everyone gets a seat and it's super cheap.
While in Kigali we did a city tour where we went to the genocide museum among other things. It was such a moving experience. There was a section of the memorial/museum that had some poster sized photo's of children and under the photo some info. Here is an example:
Name: Michael
Age: 7
Favourite drink: Tea
Favourite food: Ice-cream
Best Friend: His mum
Attached to death by machete
I couldn't read all of them it was too hard. It still brings tears to my eye just writing about it.
It's hard to comprehend how such atrocities could have happened. How even neighbours turned on one another...men, women and children were hacked to death within their own communities.
In April of 94 approx 1, 000, 000 Rwandans were killed within about 6 weeks..that's close to 1 in 20 Australians!
I think there is probably the misconception that the 2 tribes of Rwanda (the Hutu and the Tutsi) have been fighting amongst themselves for centuries, but the Hutu and Tutsi have lived in Rwanda happily living side by side and in inter tribe relationships for a long time. Tensions started between them during colonial rule when the Belgium's and their European obsession with classification introduced identity cards to separate them in a bit of a random way.
During Belgium rule they took a preference to the Tutsi and gave them more privileges and more positions of power. This obviously lead to worsening conditions for the Hutu and a feeling of inferiority. There were some uprisings and subsequent murders that followed back and forth.
By 1962 Rwanda was granted independence like most other African nations during that time. Belgium placed a Hutu Prime Minister to power. The Belgium influences meant politics split down ethnic lines....not so good for the Tutsi who were the minority. So it followed then that the conditions worsened for the Tutsi and many fled into the neighbouring countries.
In the 70's, a General, who was a Hutu extremist seized power and ruled Rwanda like a dictatorship, allowing anti-Tutsi propaganda on the radio and in the media.
Meanwhile a group of exiled Tutsi formed a group called the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) .
Tensions continued between the Rwandan army under Hutu rule and the RPF until the 90's.
In the 90's an even more extremist group formed within the Generals government called the Interhamwe militia and it was this group that planned and carried out the genocide of the Tutsi and any Hutu holding liberal views.
The Generals plane was shot down upon landing at Kigali airport after peace talks with the RPF in Tanzania, within minutes the killings started. All Hutu were encouraged to kill their Tutsi neighbours. Reading about the way the people were killed was disturbing and I won't repeat it. I just can't understand how someone can have that much hate inside them. I guess a few decades of propaganda helps!
As I walked through the streets of Rwanda it was hard to comprehend what these people have been through. Anyone over the age of 14 had lived through this. Most have lost numerous family and have mostly friends these days. I'm sure it's something Rwandans can't forget and the scares both physically and emotionally still remain.
Kigali was very different than I was expecting. It seems like quite a prosperous city with huge mansions springing up all over the place, the government is in the process of tearing down the city slums and providing houses for the locals with plumbing and electricity, where they have up to 40 years to pay off and own these homes, if they wish. There are very professional looking business men and women wondering about the city and very cosmopolitan places to eat out. There is more of a middle class here than we have seen for a while too. It was also much bigger than I expected, our lonely planet guide, being 4 years out of date, said the population was only 300, 000, but it was clearly much bigger than that! It's now closer to 1, 000, 000. My guess is an influx of Rwandan refugee's returning to Rwanda now things seem much more stable from their troubled past. There is a really good vibe in Rwanda and there is an optimistic feel as the people here look to the future and move on from bad times.
Rwanda is a really clean place, especially compared with other African countries. There is no rubbish anywhere. Every last Saturday of the month Rwandans spend their mornings cleaning up and planting trees etc. They also have no plastic bags here.
The landscape is stunning! The land of a thousand hills....and most of them cultivated with banana's and various crops.
The roads here are good, something we really appreciated after our experiences in Tanzania. Plus transport is well regulated, so everyone gets a seat and it's super cheap.
While in Kigali we did a city tour where we went to the genocide museum among other things. It was such a moving experience. There was a section of the memorial/museum that had some poster sized photo's of children and under the photo some info. Here is an example:
Name: Michael
Age: 7
Favourite drink: Tea
Favourite food: Ice-cream
Best Friend: His mum
Attached to death by machete
I couldn't read all of them it was too hard. It still brings tears to my eye just writing about it.
It's hard to comprehend how such atrocities could have happened. How even neighbours turned on one another...men, women and children were hacked to death within their own communities.
In April of 94 approx 1, 000, 000 Rwandans were killed within about 6 weeks..that's close to 1 in 20 Australians!
I think there is probably the misconception that the 2 tribes of Rwanda (the Hutu and the Tutsi) have been fighting amongst themselves for centuries, but the Hutu and Tutsi have lived in Rwanda happily living side by side and in inter tribe relationships for a long time. Tensions started between them during colonial rule when the Belgium's and their European obsession with classification introduced identity cards to separate them in a bit of a random way.
During Belgium rule they took a preference to the Tutsi and gave them more privileges and more positions of power. This obviously lead to worsening conditions for the Hutu and a feeling of inferiority. There were some uprisings and subsequent murders that followed back and forth.
By 1962 Rwanda was granted independence like most other African nations during that time. Belgium placed a Hutu Prime Minister to power. The Belgium influences meant politics split down ethnic lines....not so good for the Tutsi who were the minority. So it followed then that the conditions worsened for the Tutsi and many fled into the neighbouring countries.
In the 70's, a General, who was a Hutu extremist seized power and ruled Rwanda like a dictatorship, allowing anti-Tutsi propaganda on the radio and in the media.
Meanwhile a group of exiled Tutsi formed a group called the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) .
Tensions continued between the Rwandan army under Hutu rule and the RPF until the 90's.
In the 90's an even more extremist group formed within the Generals government called the Interhamwe militia and it was this group that planned and carried out the genocide of the Tutsi and any Hutu holding liberal views.
The Generals plane was shot down upon landing at Kigali airport after peace talks with the RPF in Tanzania, within minutes the killings started. All Hutu were encouraged to kill their Tutsi neighbours. Reading about the way the people were killed was disturbing and I won't repeat it. I just can't understand how someone can have that much hate inside them. I guess a few decades of propaganda helps!
As I walked through the streets of Rwanda it was hard to comprehend what these people have been through. Anyone over the age of 14 had lived through this. Most have lost numerous family and have mostly friends these days. I'm sure it's something Rwandans can't forget and the scares both physically and emotionally still remain.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Real African Bus Travel
We are in Rwanda at the moment, getting here by bus was a mission, here is an entry from my diary from Mwanzw to Kigali.
We got up at 3:30am, got ready and made our way downstairs to find ourselves locked in the hotel, luckily the security guard quickly let us out and our taxi driver was waiting for outside asleep in his car. We got to the bus station at 4:30am then had to wait around as usual for the bus to turn up. Eventually the bus arrived at the bus station and due to the 20 or so other buses already in the bus station it struggled to find a place to park. After following it around the bus station with our packs on and all it finally decided on a place to stop. Somehow the bus already seemed full and their were lot's of people still needing to board, us included. I don't know where all the other people boarded since the bus started in journey in Mwanza.
A guy looking a little bit more like a conductor than the rest of the people on the bus hopped off, we showed him our tickets and he gave a new seat allocation n1 and n2...bugger! That was on the back seat. We had the back seat on our journey from Arusha to Mwanza a 12 hours bus trip where we spent most of the time with our butts airborne than on the seats. Anyway I prepared myself to be rattled around again. I was a little concerned that the conductor wasn't interested in our backpacks at that point, but we soon realised we just needed to sqeeze on, packs and all...not that there was room. For some stupid reason some people decided getting off the bus at the point when other are trying to get on is a good idea so climbing up the stairs was slow and hard work.
There were already lots of bags and people crammed into the isle and I could barely get up the stairs let alone stand in the isle. I just had to hang off the ralings or seats to could manage to grab with my pack still on as there was no room to put it down.
Nick got very assertive at that point and asked everyone to move down a little, which worked and I eventually has some room to take my heavy pack off. A relief I can tell you! At that point I thought we would have to stand, but we soon realised the conductor had cleared our designated seated on the back seat. Nick picked up his bag and successfully naviagted it around the small boy crammed in the isle, but I struggled to lift it over his head and got sone help. Our packs were wedged into the isle and we took our seats.
Anyway, after a hour and a bit late, a policemen got on the bus ranted and raved about the overcrowding, all the people in the isle got off and we were on our way. We drove out of the bus station, round the corner and stopped to pick up all the people that had gotten off after the policemen had his say.
We drove for a short distance and had to get off to catch a ferry over Lake Victoria. It was already a welcome break from the bus. On the other side we hopped back into the bus literally climbing over the seat rests and piles of bags in the isle to cram ourselves into the back seat again.
We stopped in most of the small villages we drove past where more people were waiting to board the bus! It seemed very random, but sometimes they would sqeeze on and sometimes not. In one crazy town we saw another coach that had a lounge suite strapped to the top of the bus...Nick and I thought they should strap it on the rigt way up and charge 1st class rates for fully airconditioned comfortable seats. At this stop a bicycle was strapped to the under side of our bus and Nick noticed that some fish had been tied and were dangling onto the outside of the bus. We were surprised that it made it the wole way...we checked when we hopped off, we were expecting to see some fish heads and some fish bones hanging off, but they were ok...a little dusty and very tenderised from all the flapping on the side of the bus though.
So each time we stopped we managed to somehow squeeze a few more on. There had to be at least 110 or more...it was supposed to fit about 70 only! By the end of our trip there were people standing in the isle, some sitting on the luggage, some sitting on the head rests even, one of the conductors had to climb in our window and sit straddled across the head rests at the back and the other was hanging off the side.
After 8 hours of travelling 380km's (due to the many stops for pick-ups and police check points...where I'm sure they got fines or paid bribes) we reached Benako...the second last stop near the Rwandan boarder. We had no way of exiting by the stairs so our only option was to climb out the window. I went first, my climbing being very rusty I fell and bashed and bruised my arms on the way down. Nick dislodged our packs and lowered them down to me and climbed out too.
We were a little fed up with being packed in like a sardine so we forked out a little extra for a private taxi to the Tanzanian and Rwandan boarder. We got through immagration no worries and walked the 1 km between the countries at Rosumo falls. It's amasing how different places can be due to arbitary lines drawn on a map. Rwanda was instantly much calmer, everything was cleaner and neater, the were all less in your face and very well dressed. The minivan we got on in Rwanda was new and very swish and everyone had there own seats...it was another world away to Tanzania.
We have spent the last 2 weeks in Rwanda and it has been great...my favaurite spot so far. More about that later.
We got up at 3:30am, got ready and made our way downstairs to find ourselves locked in the hotel, luckily the security guard quickly let us out and our taxi driver was waiting for outside asleep in his car. We got to the bus station at 4:30am then had to wait around as usual for the bus to turn up. Eventually the bus arrived at the bus station and due to the 20 or so other buses already in the bus station it struggled to find a place to park. After following it around the bus station with our packs on and all it finally decided on a place to stop. Somehow the bus already seemed full and their were lot's of people still needing to board, us included. I don't know where all the other people boarded since the bus started in journey in Mwanza.
A guy looking a little bit more like a conductor than the rest of the people on the bus hopped off, we showed him our tickets and he gave a new seat allocation n1 and n2...bugger! That was on the back seat. We had the back seat on our journey from Arusha to Mwanza a 12 hours bus trip where we spent most of the time with our butts airborne than on the seats. Anyway I prepared myself to be rattled around again. I was a little concerned that the conductor wasn't interested in our backpacks at that point, but we soon realised we just needed to sqeeze on, packs and all...not that there was room. For some stupid reason some people decided getting off the bus at the point when other are trying to get on is a good idea so climbing up the stairs was slow and hard work.
There were already lots of bags and people crammed into the isle and I could barely get up the stairs let alone stand in the isle. I just had to hang off the ralings or seats to could manage to grab with my pack still on as there was no room to put it down.
Nick got very assertive at that point and asked everyone to move down a little, which worked and I eventually has some room to take my heavy pack off. A relief I can tell you! At that point I thought we would have to stand, but we soon realised the conductor had cleared our designated seated on the back seat. Nick picked up his bag and successfully naviagted it around the small boy crammed in the isle, but I struggled to lift it over his head and got sone help. Our packs were wedged into the isle and we took our seats.
Anyway, after a hour and a bit late, a policemen got on the bus ranted and raved about the overcrowding, all the people in the isle got off and we were on our way. We drove out of the bus station, round the corner and stopped to pick up all the people that had gotten off after the policemen had his say.
We drove for a short distance and had to get off to catch a ferry over Lake Victoria. It was already a welcome break from the bus. On the other side we hopped back into the bus literally climbing over the seat rests and piles of bags in the isle to cram ourselves into the back seat again.
We stopped in most of the small villages we drove past where more people were waiting to board the bus! It seemed very random, but sometimes they would sqeeze on and sometimes not. In one crazy town we saw another coach that had a lounge suite strapped to the top of the bus...Nick and I thought they should strap it on the rigt way up and charge 1st class rates for fully airconditioned comfortable seats. At this stop a bicycle was strapped to the under side of our bus and Nick noticed that some fish had been tied and were dangling onto the outside of the bus. We were surprised that it made it the wole way...we checked when we hopped off, we were expecting to see some fish heads and some fish bones hanging off, but they were ok...a little dusty and very tenderised from all the flapping on the side of the bus though.
So each time we stopped we managed to somehow squeeze a few more on. There had to be at least 110 or more...it was supposed to fit about 70 only! By the end of our trip there were people standing in the isle, some sitting on the luggage, some sitting on the head rests even, one of the conductors had to climb in our window and sit straddled across the head rests at the back and the other was hanging off the side.
After 8 hours of travelling 380km's (due to the many stops for pick-ups and police check points...where I'm sure they got fines or paid bribes) we reached Benako...the second last stop near the Rwandan boarder. We had no way of exiting by the stairs so our only option was to climb out the window. I went first, my climbing being very rusty I fell and bashed and bruised my arms on the way down. Nick dislodged our packs and lowered them down to me and climbed out too.
We were a little fed up with being packed in like a sardine so we forked out a little extra for a private taxi to the Tanzanian and Rwandan boarder. We got through immagration no worries and walked the 1 km between the countries at Rosumo falls. It's amasing how different places can be due to arbitary lines drawn on a map. Rwanda was instantly much calmer, everything was cleaner and neater, the were all less in your face and very well dressed. The minivan we got on in Rwanda was new and very swish and everyone had there own seats...it was another world away to Tanzania.
We have spent the last 2 weeks in Rwanda and it has been great...my favaurite spot so far. More about that later.
More on the Maasai Tribes
First up I have finally posted some photos of our trip so far, you can view them on the following link:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60248&l=f8823&id=548657385
I also mentioned Nicks blog last time, here is the link:
http://journals.worldnomads.com/nick_earl
Last blog I wrote about what we did in the crater highlands, but I also wanted to write a bit about the Maasai culture we witnessed on our trek.
The Maasai are a very proud tribe and probably the most well known of the African tribes, but they are actually only one of about 130 tribes in Tanzania alone, all with varying traditions and beliefs. Some still live in their traditional ways but lots have lost them after Europeans, Arabs and missionaries settled in their country and asserted their influences. Tanzania gained independence in the early 60's and the first President was very successful at uniting the nation by banning tribal leaders and introducing Kiswahili as the official language. It is the reason why Tanzania is such a stable country when so many others have problems with tribalism....mixing politics with tribal loyalties it not so good for democracy. Tanzanians see themselves as Tanzanian first.
Just for interest sake, at independence, the word Tanzania comes from:
tan from Tanganyika, the name given when the Germans settled there
za from Zanzibar
nia from the Swahili word for hope
Walking through the villages was like taking a step back in time, the Maasai still live as they have for centuries. All we could see was a sea of red, purple and blue blankets with white beaded headpieces, neck pieces, anklets and bracelets, they wear sandals made from old car tyres and live in simple wooden huts. There were donkey's, cattle and goats everywhere, being herded by small children mostly. I would love to have gotten my camera out to take some pics, but they tend to ask for money and we didn't have a lot of cash on us at the time (due to African ATM limits and no credit card facilities).
We wondered through Engeruka (a Maasai village) with Mr Laiser, a Maasai man who is studying English in Arusha to be a guide. He aspires to learn 10 languages! He showed us a sacred site where the Maasai in his village slaughter their cattle for eating and prepare bush medicine. We got to meet many of the Maasai leaders in the village as they made their way to the village for market day, they walk for miles to meet there! You can tell a Maasai leader by the number of sticks he carry's. Typically, a leader will have a spear and 2 sticks....just in case they need to protect themselves from other tribes of course, or the odd lion. We saw numerous Maasai women doing their daily chores. The women and children do all the work in Maasai culture! The men do bugger all! They must have gotten the idea from the lions. We saw a young girl who was about 13 years, at a guess, Mr Laiser told us that she was about the right age to be married and often to men about 40 years old. Just like the Zulu culture the men marry numerous wives....sometimes up to 30 or so. Some men have so many children that they don't know all of their names. The young girl we saw was likely to have been circumcised a few years ago, this is still practiced by the Maasai despite a lot of pressure from the Tanzanian government and WHO to stop these practices. One of the most telling moments while chatting to Mr Laiser was when he asked me how many cows I had, I replied that I had none, then in shock he asked me how many cows my parents had, I replied that they had none and that only a handful of people in Australia had some....I think he felt very sorry for me, which was refreshing as most Africans treat you like you're a cash machine with a never ending supply of money.
It was an interesting experience, I have found it interesting that of the tribes we have seen that still live in their traditional ways, the Zulu and the Maasai, both have many similarities. Both allow men to marry numerous wives, the women do most of the work, they both live in similar set ups with the huts, the men still practice their warrior ways, but don't actually need to use those skills in the modern world, interesting.
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60248&l=f8823&id=548657385
I also mentioned Nicks blog last time, here is the link:
http://journals.worldnomads.com/nick_earl
Last blog I wrote about what we did in the crater highlands, but I also wanted to write a bit about the Maasai culture we witnessed on our trek.
The Maasai are a very proud tribe and probably the most well known of the African tribes, but they are actually only one of about 130 tribes in Tanzania alone, all with varying traditions and beliefs. Some still live in their traditional ways but lots have lost them after Europeans, Arabs and missionaries settled in their country and asserted their influences. Tanzania gained independence in the early 60's and the first President was very successful at uniting the nation by banning tribal leaders and introducing Kiswahili as the official language. It is the reason why Tanzania is such a stable country when so many others have problems with tribalism....mixing politics with tribal loyalties it not so good for democracy. Tanzanians see themselves as Tanzanian first.
Just for interest sake, at independence, the word Tanzania comes from:
tan from Tanganyika, the name given when the Germans settled there
za from Zanzibar
nia from the Swahili word for hope
Walking through the villages was like taking a step back in time, the Maasai still live as they have for centuries. All we could see was a sea of red, purple and blue blankets with white beaded headpieces, neck pieces, anklets and bracelets, they wear sandals made from old car tyres and live in simple wooden huts. There were donkey's, cattle and goats everywhere, being herded by small children mostly. I would love to have gotten my camera out to take some pics, but they tend to ask for money and we didn't have a lot of cash on us at the time (due to African ATM limits and no credit card facilities).
We wondered through Engeruka (a Maasai village) with Mr Laiser, a Maasai man who is studying English in Arusha to be a guide. He aspires to learn 10 languages! He showed us a sacred site where the Maasai in his village slaughter their cattle for eating and prepare bush medicine. We got to meet many of the Maasai leaders in the village as they made their way to the village for market day, they walk for miles to meet there! You can tell a Maasai leader by the number of sticks he carry's. Typically, a leader will have a spear and 2 sticks....just in case they need to protect themselves from other tribes of course, or the odd lion. We saw numerous Maasai women doing their daily chores. The women and children do all the work in Maasai culture! The men do bugger all! They must have gotten the idea from the lions. We saw a young girl who was about 13 years, at a guess, Mr Laiser told us that she was about the right age to be married and often to men about 40 years old. Just like the Zulu culture the men marry numerous wives....sometimes up to 30 or so. Some men have so many children that they don't know all of their names. The young girl we saw was likely to have been circumcised a few years ago, this is still practiced by the Maasai despite a lot of pressure from the Tanzanian government and WHO to stop these practices. One of the most telling moments while chatting to Mr Laiser was when he asked me how many cows I had, I replied that I had none, then in shock he asked me how many cows my parents had, I replied that they had none and that only a handful of people in Australia had some....I think he felt very sorry for me, which was refreshing as most Africans treat you like you're a cash machine with a never ending supply of money.
It was an interesting experience, I have found it interesting that of the tribes we have seen that still live in their traditional ways, the Zulu and the Maasai, both have many similarities. Both allow men to marry numerous wives, the women do most of the work, they both live in similar set ups with the huts, the men still practice their warrior ways, but don't actually need to use those skills in the modern world, interesting.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Serengeti and Crater Highlands
Nick and I are in a place called Mwanza on Lake Victoria in Tanzania at the moment and making our way into Rwanda via some very bumpy, dusty local bus rides. It's nice to be here away from the tourist strip of Zanzibar, Dar and Arusha.
After Dar Es Salaam we visited Stone Town in Zanzibar for 4 days where we did a spice tour, sampled the very good food and just relaxed a bit from all the traveling. We then headed to Arusha to organise a tour of the surrounding regions of the Serengeti, Lake Manyara NP, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Natron and the crater highlands and Maasai villages.
The tours were expensive and we were wondering if we should cut out the section to the Serengeti to reduce the price since we unfortunaletly missed the wildebeeste migration (a bit of a stuff up in the planning), but how can you visit Tanzania and not see the Serengeti..so we blew the budget. When we arrived at the gate of the Serengeti we both thought we had made a big mistake as there was nothing around. After some time though the Serengeti didn't disappoint and we had some of the best game viewing of anywhere we had been, plus the plains are exactly what you expect to see, it's iconic Africa. We got to see a spectacular lightening show across the plains and finally a cheetah sighting, we saw 6 all up and all close sightings, amasing, plus all the big cats. At one point there was a leopard on one side of the road and 2 cheetah's on the other I didn't know where to look.
After visting Lake Mayara and the Serengeti we visited Ngorongoro Crater then headed for the crater highlands for our trekking through Maasai territory. We started half way between Nainokanoka village and Empakaai Crater with an armed Maasai ranger to protect us from the buffulo, not that we saw any. We headed into Empakaai crater to see the thousands of flamingo's that feed there before camping on the crater rim. The next day our guides packed our Maasai land rovers (AKA donkeys) with some supplies and we headed off on 2 days of trekking through the highlands via Nayobi and Acacia before we descended into the Great Rift Valley. Our campsite at Acacia used to be a maasai village until April of this year when Mt Lengai errupted and left a thick layer of ash on their huts and their cattles grasslands, so they moved on. The walking here was very dusty and dirty due to all the ash and black volcanic soil.
We rested up for a few days near Lake Natron and did an easy canyon to a nearby waterfall for a swim with one of the maasai villagers before an ascent of Mt Lengai, an active volcano in the Rift Valley. On the day of the climb we woke after about 3 hours sleep at 11pm to start from the base about midnight. As we left the campsite and got our first view of the volcano I thought our opportunity to climb it was over as it was glowing red. Our guides stopped and exchanged a few words of Swahili and started off again slowly and left us in the dark. Eventually they said that it was just a maasai grass fire, which we didn't believe a word of. We were quiet anxious, but they reassured us that it was normal, including the smoke rising from the top. As we got closer I realised that the fire was at the base not on top. We trusted their judgement so we headed on up and up. The climbing was really hard, walking up soft ash is like walking up a sand dune made of talcum powder, you would take a step forward only to find your foot slips back most of the way. We keep walking for quiet some time and the inlcine just kept getting steeper and steeper, the ash softer and softer and our progress slower and slower. I was wondering how I was going to make it at that rate with close to a 2 verticle km ascent and descent ahead of us. Eventually the incline got to about 45 to 50 degrees and luckily the rock got a bit harder under foot so the progress was a bit easier. My volleys were good at this point nice and grippy, but I did manage to drag half the mountain up and down in them. We reached the top just as the sun was at the horizon over the crater rim...perfect timing! The crater was making some very loud disturbing noises and steaming a lot, we couldn't see the lava, but it bubbling away below us. As the day lit up we could see for miles over the Rift Valley, the exposure was something else and I had to calm myself for the steep descent. Climbing this volcano was very dirty work, we had to scramble up with our feet, knees and hands, so we were both very grubby. The way down was faster but invloved some very exhausting downclimbing and rolling down the loose stuff, eventually we made it with jelly legs and starving hungry and stumbled back for a well earned breakfast at 11:30am.
For those that have asked about photo's I'll hopefully be uploading some more in the next week or so.
I hope you are all well.
After Dar Es Salaam we visited Stone Town in Zanzibar for 4 days where we did a spice tour, sampled the very good food and just relaxed a bit from all the traveling. We then headed to Arusha to organise a tour of the surrounding regions of the Serengeti, Lake Manyara NP, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Natron and the crater highlands and Maasai villages.
The tours were expensive and we were wondering if we should cut out the section to the Serengeti to reduce the price since we unfortunaletly missed the wildebeeste migration (a bit of a stuff up in the planning), but how can you visit Tanzania and not see the Serengeti..so we blew the budget. When we arrived at the gate of the Serengeti we both thought we had made a big mistake as there was nothing around. After some time though the Serengeti didn't disappoint and we had some of the best game viewing of anywhere we had been, plus the plains are exactly what you expect to see, it's iconic Africa. We got to see a spectacular lightening show across the plains and finally a cheetah sighting, we saw 6 all up and all close sightings, amasing, plus all the big cats. At one point there was a leopard on one side of the road and 2 cheetah's on the other I didn't know where to look.
After visting Lake Mayara and the Serengeti we visited Ngorongoro Crater then headed for the crater highlands for our trekking through Maasai territory. We started half way between Nainokanoka village and Empakaai Crater with an armed Maasai ranger to protect us from the buffulo, not that we saw any. We headed into Empakaai crater to see the thousands of flamingo's that feed there before camping on the crater rim. The next day our guides packed our Maasai land rovers (AKA donkeys) with some supplies and we headed off on 2 days of trekking through the highlands via Nayobi and Acacia before we descended into the Great Rift Valley. Our campsite at Acacia used to be a maasai village until April of this year when Mt Lengai errupted and left a thick layer of ash on their huts and their cattles grasslands, so they moved on. The walking here was very dusty and dirty due to all the ash and black volcanic soil.
We rested up for a few days near Lake Natron and did an easy canyon to a nearby waterfall for a swim with one of the maasai villagers before an ascent of Mt Lengai, an active volcano in the Rift Valley. On the day of the climb we woke after about 3 hours sleep at 11pm to start from the base about midnight. As we left the campsite and got our first view of the volcano I thought our opportunity to climb it was over as it was glowing red. Our guides stopped and exchanged a few words of Swahili and started off again slowly and left us in the dark. Eventually they said that it was just a maasai grass fire, which we didn't believe a word of. We were quiet anxious, but they reassured us that it was normal, including the smoke rising from the top. As we got closer I realised that the fire was at the base not on top. We trusted their judgement so we headed on up and up. The climbing was really hard, walking up soft ash is like walking up a sand dune made of talcum powder, you would take a step forward only to find your foot slips back most of the way. We keep walking for quiet some time and the inlcine just kept getting steeper and steeper, the ash softer and softer and our progress slower and slower. I was wondering how I was going to make it at that rate with close to a 2 verticle km ascent and descent ahead of us. Eventually the incline got to about 45 to 50 degrees and luckily the rock got a bit harder under foot so the progress was a bit easier. My volleys were good at this point nice and grippy, but I did manage to drag half the mountain up and down in them. We reached the top just as the sun was at the horizon over the crater rim...perfect timing! The crater was making some very loud disturbing noises and steaming a lot, we couldn't see the lava, but it bubbling away below us. As the day lit up we could see for miles over the Rift Valley, the exposure was something else and I had to calm myself for the steep descent. Climbing this volcano was very dirty work, we had to scramble up with our feet, knees and hands, so we were both very grubby. The way down was faster but invloved some very exhausting downclimbing and rolling down the loose stuff, eventually we made it with jelly legs and starving hungry and stumbled back for a well earned breakfast at 11:30am.
For those that have asked about photo's I'll hopefully be uploading some more in the next week or so.
I hope you are all well.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Zim and Zam
Last time I wrote I think we were in Livingstone, since then we have been travelling independently through Zambia and it has been nice to set our own pace and interact with the locals more.
We have met some really lovely people here in Zambia. I have found the people here to be so friendly, honest and always willing to lend a helping hand. Although we unfortunately didn't get to travel through Zimbabwe, we have met a lot a really nice Zimbabwean's in Zambia. Most of our guides on various tours and safaris have been from Zim, due to the high standard of training they get for guiding there. We have had a small insight into what life is like in Zim at the moment. I can't comprehend what they must be going through on a daily basis though, it's just so sad. In Zim the inflation rate is so high that their billion dollar notes are worth little, as a result people don't get paid because the money is worthless by the following day. They are living on IOU's. Their supermarket shelves are empty, apart from some toiletries and tea apparently (Nick would be fine though...I'm sure he could live off tea alone), basic commodoties like bread and sugar can't be found most of the time. All the people we have met buy 3-4 months worth of supplies in the neighbouring countries before they go home. I don't know how people who don't live near the boarder are coping.
The people of Zim are Zam are very similar, they share the same languages, landscapes, animals and culture across their boarder (the Zambezi river), but they find themselves in a very different situation due their leadership. Zim and Zam are like an example of ying and yang. Zim being lead by the very corrupt Robert Mugabe and Zambia was being lead by the good president Levy Mwanawasa, (unfortunately he died just over a week ago...it's such sad news for Zambia, as he was the complete opposite to Mugabe). He fought government corruption and when he entered parilment, at a time when Zambia was in a situation similar to Zimbabwe today, he turned the situation around and introduced true democracy. It's obvious he was really loved by the people here, everywhere we looked there were pictures of the man in restaurants and in taxi's. I can appreciate why Zambian's are so upset about his death and a bit anxious about the upcoming elections. I hope he is replaced by another Mwanawasa, not another Mugabe, as it makes a big difference for the average person here in Africa.
While in Zambia we did a 3 day canoe safari down the Lower Zambezi, which was great for spotting hippo's close up and a really nice way to see the animals. After that we headed to the capital Lusaka, then onto South Luangwa NP where we could pitch our tent in the tree tops and watch elephants and hippo's walk through the campsite while they ate. We also finally got to see a leopard too, the big five sightings are now complete.
We are now in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania after a 46 hour train journey through some beatuiful places. We stopped in some small little villages on the way and were always greeted by lot's of very excited children screaming "muzungu, muzungu" meaning white person.
We have had some very funny times on the buses here too, but I think Nick is witting about that, so I won't double up.
Next we are off to Zanzibar, we leave on our ferry trip tomorrow.
I hope are well at home.
We have met some really lovely people here in Zambia. I have found the people here to be so friendly, honest and always willing to lend a helping hand. Although we unfortunately didn't get to travel through Zimbabwe, we have met a lot a really nice Zimbabwean's in Zambia. Most of our guides on various tours and safaris have been from Zim, due to the high standard of training they get for guiding there. We have had a small insight into what life is like in Zim at the moment. I can't comprehend what they must be going through on a daily basis though, it's just so sad. In Zim the inflation rate is so high that their billion dollar notes are worth little, as a result people don't get paid because the money is worthless by the following day. They are living on IOU's. Their supermarket shelves are empty, apart from some toiletries and tea apparently (Nick would be fine though...I'm sure he could live off tea alone), basic commodoties like bread and sugar can't be found most of the time. All the people we have met buy 3-4 months worth of supplies in the neighbouring countries before they go home. I don't know how people who don't live near the boarder are coping.
The people of Zim are Zam are very similar, they share the same languages, landscapes, animals and culture across their boarder (the Zambezi river), but they find themselves in a very different situation due their leadership. Zim and Zam are like an example of ying and yang. Zim being lead by the very corrupt Robert Mugabe and Zambia was being lead by the good president Levy Mwanawasa, (unfortunately he died just over a week ago...it's such sad news for Zambia, as he was the complete opposite to Mugabe). He fought government corruption and when he entered parilment, at a time when Zambia was in a situation similar to Zimbabwe today, he turned the situation around and introduced true democracy. It's obvious he was really loved by the people here, everywhere we looked there were pictures of the man in restaurants and in taxi's. I can appreciate why Zambian's are so upset about his death and a bit anxious about the upcoming elections. I hope he is replaced by another Mwanawasa, not another Mugabe, as it makes a big difference for the average person here in Africa.
While in Zambia we did a 3 day canoe safari down the Lower Zambezi, which was great for spotting hippo's close up and a really nice way to see the animals. After that we headed to the capital Lusaka, then onto South Luangwa NP where we could pitch our tent in the tree tops and watch elephants and hippo's walk through the campsite while they ate. We also finally got to see a leopard too, the big five sightings are now complete.
We are now in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania after a 46 hour train journey through some beatuiful places. We stopped in some small little villages on the way and were always greeted by lot's of very excited children screaming "muzungu, muzungu" meaning white person.
We have had some very funny times on the buses here too, but I think Nick is witting about that, so I won't double up.
Next we are off to Zanzibar, we leave on our ferry trip tomorrow.
I hope are well at home.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Animal Encounters and Botswana
Since the last blog we have travelled from the Atlantic Coast in Namibia to Livingstone in Zambia, via Etosha NP, and the Okavango Delta and Chobe NP in Botswana.
Etosha was an easy place for animal spotting. We just parked up by the waterholes and waited for the animals to come to us. We saw huge herds of various animals here. When the elephants arrived all other animals either stood back or would skittishly sip at the water, except for one particular rhino that we sat and watched late one night by a waterhole that was lit up near our campsite. This black rhino was obviously very territorial and made a big scene when anything would come to drink. There was a confrontation with another rhino as they passed each other, then a huge herd of elephants and a pack of about 10 hyena's came to drink and got the rhino more agitated, after a while more elephants came so there were about 30 all up and the one grumpy rhino. It tried to show the ele's who's waterhole it was, but the ele's just ignored it and splashed it with their trunks. Which made the rhino very very grumpy by this stage and he shook his head, grunted, turned to the ele's to mark his territory and then farted in their direction before running off. It was a very amusing night and I had to try very hard not to laugh out loud.
The Okavango Delta was one of the highlights for me on this trip. We got to experience this place by boat, 4x4, mokoro (dug out canoe), plane, house boat and on foot. We first camped in a village called Seronga where we met a local called Pauline, a 29 year old women who had been raped one night (by her child's father) and was now pregnant with her second child. Unfortunately she has since found out the he has AIDS and so she is now waiting for her second test result, the first was negative and I hope the second one is too. It is so sad and it broke my heart, but her optimism and attitude regarding her situation was inspiring. I don't think I will ever forget her.
AIDS is a massive problem in Botswana, it has the highest infection rate in the world. 36% of young adults have it here. In Seronga, pre-AIDS epidemic the life expectancy was 77 years old, now it's 31 years! At least Botswana's Government are actively tacking this problem with awareness campaigns, increasing the health budget and providing antiretroviral medication.
We took a flight over a small section of the delta and really got a feeling for how expansive the delta is. We spent another night on a very small island in the delta at a basic bush camp where we got round with the mokoro's. Our poler's for the mokoro's navigated there way through the water Lillie's, hippo grasses and hippo's. They also took us on a bushwalk who only had their experience to protect us from the animals, but they have been living there all there lives and really knew there stuff. At one point we came across some elephants, but we quickly had to retreat as they were a breeding herd with some babies. Most animals will do a mock charge first to give you a warning, but a breeding herd of elephants may not.
We got some really great encounters with lions in Chobe NP. We witnessed some stalking some sable (large antelope), we also got up close to a lioness that had killed a sable the day before and was still busy munching away. I got to see some elephants swimming too on a sunset Chobe River cruise.
We are now relaxing in Livingstone and enjoying Victoria Falls. We did a chopper flight over the falls and through Botoka Gorge just above the raging rapids of the Zambezi. I can see why it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.
Etosha was an easy place for animal spotting. We just parked up by the waterholes and waited for the animals to come to us. We saw huge herds of various animals here. When the elephants arrived all other animals either stood back or would skittishly sip at the water, except for one particular rhino that we sat and watched late one night by a waterhole that was lit up near our campsite. This black rhino was obviously very territorial and made a big scene when anything would come to drink. There was a confrontation with another rhino as they passed each other, then a huge herd of elephants and a pack of about 10 hyena's came to drink and got the rhino more agitated, after a while more elephants came so there were about 30 all up and the one grumpy rhino. It tried to show the ele's who's waterhole it was, but the ele's just ignored it and splashed it with their trunks. Which made the rhino very very grumpy by this stage and he shook his head, grunted, turned to the ele's to mark his territory and then farted in their direction before running off. It was a very amusing night and I had to try very hard not to laugh out loud.
The Okavango Delta was one of the highlights for me on this trip. We got to experience this place by boat, 4x4, mokoro (dug out canoe), plane, house boat and on foot. We first camped in a village called Seronga where we met a local called Pauline, a 29 year old women who had been raped one night (by her child's father) and was now pregnant with her second child. Unfortunately she has since found out the he has AIDS and so she is now waiting for her second test result, the first was negative and I hope the second one is too. It is so sad and it broke my heart, but her optimism and attitude regarding her situation was inspiring. I don't think I will ever forget her.
AIDS is a massive problem in Botswana, it has the highest infection rate in the world. 36% of young adults have it here. In Seronga, pre-AIDS epidemic the life expectancy was 77 years old, now it's 31 years! At least Botswana's Government are actively tacking this problem with awareness campaigns, increasing the health budget and providing antiretroviral medication.
We took a flight over a small section of the delta and really got a feeling for how expansive the delta is. We spent another night on a very small island in the delta at a basic bush camp where we got round with the mokoro's. Our poler's for the mokoro's navigated there way through the water Lillie's, hippo grasses and hippo's. They also took us on a bushwalk who only had their experience to protect us from the animals, but they have been living there all there lives and really knew there stuff. At one point we came across some elephants, but we quickly had to retreat as they were a breeding herd with some babies. Most animals will do a mock charge first to give you a warning, but a breeding herd of elephants may not.
We got some really great encounters with lions in Chobe NP. We witnessed some stalking some sable (large antelope), we also got up close to a lioness that had killed a sable the day before and was still busy munching away. I got to see some elephants swimming too on a sunset Chobe River cruise.
We are now relaxing in Livingstone and enjoying Victoria Falls. We did a chopper flight over the falls and through Botoka Gorge just above the raging rapids of the Zambezi. I can see why it is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Namibian Deserts and South African Townships
We are in Namibia at the moment, it must be one of the least densely populated places in the world. We are in a place called Swakopmund, the adrenalin capital of Namibia. It's a happening little town plonked on the Atlantic coast in the middle of lots of sand dunes. It's obvious from the architecture and the restaurant menus that this town has a strong German influence. It was colonised by Germans in the late 19th century.
Today we are off to Cape Cross, where we will see a huge seal colony (I'm not looking forward to the smell), then we will be heading to Spitzkoppe, where I'm hoping to get some climbing in (thanks for the tip Sezza).
On our last day in Cape Town we went on a township tour, where we visited a black community that was the first black settlement that was established in the 60's during the time when apartheid was enforced. It was interesting to learn that of the 60 000 people that were forcibly removed from their homes in the area known as district six in Cape Town only appox 200 people has re-settled back there since the SA government allowed them to re-locate. These communities have such a strong bond that most people don't want to have that sort of disruption again. The houses that were built for the black communities are appalling! There were a stack of men's only hostels built, that we got a chance to visit. The idea was that the men and women were kept separate in an effort by the government to reduce the black population. These men were used in the cities for manual labour. The hostels housed 3 men to small room and each had 6 rooms to a communal living space, all with no electricity. To this day people are still living in these cramped hostels, however families are now allowed to live with the men, which means that up to 3 families share 1 tiny room! I don't even know how that is even logistically possible. The government are trying to do something about it though and are renovating these into proper family sized apartments, but it's a slow process. The one positive about I witnessed about their situation was that due to the cramped living conditions most of their time was spent talking with their neighbours and people in their community, I guess that's why there is such a strong sense of community here, compared to big westernised cities. There are so many great community projects that are run here from recycling to educational and skills programs. Bill Gates and his wife have donated a lot of computers to these areas, so they can have access to the internet. Another horrible thing that the South African government did in the 60's apartheid era was to disguise the horrible living conditions by surrounding the black settlement with much nicer houses that surrounded the main roads...in defiance to this the black community built their informal settlements between the main roads and these nicer houses.
Since our visit to Cape Town we have been on the road heading North and into Namibia. As we approached the Namibian boarder there was a dramatic change in the scenery. Namibia is very barren, but strikingly spectacular. There really is no-one here. For anyone who loves wide open spaces this is the place to be. We have visited Fish River Canyon, one of the worlds largest and least visited and Sossouvlei, which is where the really big red sand dunes are. We climbed one of the dunes early one morning to watch the sunrise, that wasn't a bad way to start the day. Nick has been sick with the flu, so we have been taking it easy and he seems to be getting better now. Yesterday we tried quad biking on the sand dunes here, what a blast! Anyway, that's it from me.
Today we are off to Cape Cross, where we will see a huge seal colony (I'm not looking forward to the smell), then we will be heading to Spitzkoppe, where I'm hoping to get some climbing in (thanks for the tip Sezza).
On our last day in Cape Town we went on a township tour, where we visited a black community that was the first black settlement that was established in the 60's during the time when apartheid was enforced. It was interesting to learn that of the 60 000 people that were forcibly removed from their homes in the area known as district six in Cape Town only appox 200 people has re-settled back there since the SA government allowed them to re-locate. These communities have such a strong bond that most people don't want to have that sort of disruption again. The houses that were built for the black communities are appalling! There were a stack of men's only hostels built, that we got a chance to visit. The idea was that the men and women were kept separate in an effort by the government to reduce the black population. These men were used in the cities for manual labour. The hostels housed 3 men to small room and each had 6 rooms to a communal living space, all with no electricity. To this day people are still living in these cramped hostels, however families are now allowed to live with the men, which means that up to 3 families share 1 tiny room! I don't even know how that is even logistically possible. The government are trying to do something about it though and are renovating these into proper family sized apartments, but it's a slow process. The one positive about I witnessed about their situation was that due to the cramped living conditions most of their time was spent talking with their neighbours and people in their community, I guess that's why there is such a strong sense of community here, compared to big westernised cities. There are so many great community projects that are run here from recycling to educational and skills programs. Bill Gates and his wife have donated a lot of computers to these areas, so they can have access to the internet. Another horrible thing that the South African government did in the 60's apartheid era was to disguise the horrible living conditions by surrounding the black settlement with much nicer houses that surrounded the main roads...in defiance to this the black community built their informal settlements between the main roads and these nicer houses.
Since our visit to Cape Town we have been on the road heading North and into Namibia. As we approached the Namibian boarder there was a dramatic change in the scenery. Namibia is very barren, but strikingly spectacular. There really is no-one here. For anyone who loves wide open spaces this is the place to be. We have visited Fish River Canyon, one of the worlds largest and least visited and Sossouvlei, which is where the really big red sand dunes are. We climbed one of the dunes early one morning to watch the sunrise, that wasn't a bad way to start the day. Nick has been sick with the flu, so we have been taking it easy and he seems to be getting better now. Yesterday we tried quad biking on the sand dunes here, what a blast! Anyway, that's it from me.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Months in the planning and we have finally started this trip. It was an eventful start to the trip, we had a traffic jam getting to the airport, then a 1 1/2 hour wait just to check in (from all the Qantas strikes I guess), by the time we got through customs and security the plane was already boarding and after over 24hours on the go we eventually arrived at our lodge near Pretoria, South Africa.
We have been very busy so far, our first stop was Blyde River Canyon, which is the worlds 3rd largest. It was really beautiful and it reminded me a lot of the Blue Mountains, we camped there before we headed to Kruger National Park for some wildlife spotting. I can't believe how much we have seen already, within a day and a half (including a night drive) we had spotted lions, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, hippos, crocs, baboons, zebras, hyenas, wilderbeast, warthogs, jackals etc, etc. We also spotted some white rhino across the Sabi River where we were camping. Amazing!
We spent a day travelling through the kingdom of Swaziland, which was interesting. The king here has numerous wives who all live in various houses around the capital city. I was surprised by how western the capital looked on the surface but the culture certainly wasn't. We stayed at a private game reserve here that had heaps of animals that wondered through the campsite...impala, warthogs, zebras, various antelopes etc. We went for a walk around the park to see the wildlife and got to see some hippos and crocs. On our way back to the camp we got to within maybe 10 meters of a croc...luckily it was on the other side of the water. My heart was pounding!!
After this we spent a few days visiting a Zulu tribe who still live their traditional lifestyle (apart from fighting at war). It was a great experience and interesting to find out about the Zulu culture. Like the King in Swazi, the men here many a number of wives and must pay 11 cows per wife, which is a fair amount by Zulu standards apparently, and most marriages are arranged.
Our next stop was the Drakensberg Mountains for a few days. It was absolutely stunning! Then we made our way towards the Wild Coast. We stopped off in some really remote villages on the way, one of them being a place called Tsitsa Falls. It was an amasing waterfall in the middle of nowhere. South Africa really has some wild, untouched places here, it's great to see. We caused a big commotion on our way to Tsitsa falls, a group of the local women were all very excited when we drove through...I guess they don't see many tourists through this part of the country. We got to camp right next to the top of the waterfall, it was amasing! We also stopped off at Mthatha (the birth place of Nelson Mandela) to see the Nelson Mandela museum. That was a moving experience. This Friday is actually Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and apparently he will be in Mthatha to celebrate, what a pity we have already been through there. All the major cities here will be celebrating his birthday, I'm in Cape Town at the moment and there will be huge celebrations here. Everywhere we go here there is evidence of the recent history of apartheid. Cape Town is probably the first place I have seen where blacks and whites integrate on an equal level. Most places we have visited, the contrast is really striking and confronting...one side of the street will have big expensive looking houses and right over the other side will be what they call informal settlements...which are basically poverty stricken shanty towns. SA has a long way to go in terms of equality here, apartheid was only abolished in 1994!! We did a tour to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point today and the guide was talking about his personal experience of apartheid here...his grandmother was forced to leave her house in the area known as district 6 which was a multi racial community back in the 1960's...now that land is worth a fortune.
After visiting the Wild Coast we visited the area called the Garden Route, which is a stretch of coastline that still has large areas of indigenous forest. We camped at a place called Tsitsikamma National Park for a few nights, it was a beautiful spot, we got to go hiking, see dolphins swim by, sit and watch otters and dassies, one night while we were eating dinner by the campfire some Southern Right Whales started jumping out of the sea right in front of us about 50-100 meters away. Amasing! Here we also took a canopy tree top tour...where we zip-lined through the tree tops and learned about the native South African trees, it was heaps of fun. On our way between there and Cape Town we managed to fit in some kayaking and caving at Wilderness NP and Cango caves.
I could go on and on about what I have seen, done and learnt since being here, but I won't bore you anymore than I already have. Namibia here we come....
We have been very busy so far, our first stop was Blyde River Canyon, which is the worlds 3rd largest. It was really beautiful and it reminded me a lot of the Blue Mountains, we camped there before we headed to Kruger National Park for some wildlife spotting. I can't believe how much we have seen already, within a day and a half (including a night drive) we had spotted lions, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, hippos, crocs, baboons, zebras, hyenas, wilderbeast, warthogs, jackals etc, etc. We also spotted some white rhino across the Sabi River where we were camping. Amazing!
We spent a day travelling through the kingdom of Swaziland, which was interesting. The king here has numerous wives who all live in various houses around the capital city. I was surprised by how western the capital looked on the surface but the culture certainly wasn't. We stayed at a private game reserve here that had heaps of animals that wondered through the campsite...impala, warthogs, zebras, various antelopes etc. We went for a walk around the park to see the wildlife and got to see some hippos and crocs. On our way back to the camp we got to within maybe 10 meters of a croc...luckily it was on the other side of the water. My heart was pounding!!
After this we spent a few days visiting a Zulu tribe who still live their traditional lifestyle (apart from fighting at war). It was a great experience and interesting to find out about the Zulu culture. Like the King in Swazi, the men here many a number of wives and must pay 11 cows per wife, which is a fair amount by Zulu standards apparently, and most marriages are arranged.
Our next stop was the Drakensberg Mountains for a few days. It was absolutely stunning! Then we made our way towards the Wild Coast. We stopped off in some really remote villages on the way, one of them being a place called Tsitsa Falls. It was an amasing waterfall in the middle of nowhere. South Africa really has some wild, untouched places here, it's great to see. We caused a big commotion on our way to Tsitsa falls, a group of the local women were all very excited when we drove through...I guess they don't see many tourists through this part of the country. We got to camp right next to the top of the waterfall, it was amasing! We also stopped off at Mthatha (the birth place of Nelson Mandela) to see the Nelson Mandela museum. That was a moving experience. This Friday is actually Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday and apparently he will be in Mthatha to celebrate, what a pity we have already been through there. All the major cities here will be celebrating his birthday, I'm in Cape Town at the moment and there will be huge celebrations here. Everywhere we go here there is evidence of the recent history of apartheid. Cape Town is probably the first place I have seen where blacks and whites integrate on an equal level. Most places we have visited, the contrast is really striking and confronting...one side of the street will have big expensive looking houses and right over the other side will be what they call informal settlements...which are basically poverty stricken shanty towns. SA has a long way to go in terms of equality here, apartheid was only abolished in 1994!! We did a tour to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point today and the guide was talking about his personal experience of apartheid here...his grandmother was forced to leave her house in the area known as district 6 which was a multi racial community back in the 1960's...now that land is worth a fortune.
After visiting the Wild Coast we visited the area called the Garden Route, which is a stretch of coastline that still has large areas of indigenous forest. We camped at a place called Tsitsikamma National Park for a few nights, it was a beautiful spot, we got to go hiking, see dolphins swim by, sit and watch otters and dassies, one night while we were eating dinner by the campfire some Southern Right Whales started jumping out of the sea right in front of us about 50-100 meters away. Amasing! Here we also took a canopy tree top tour...where we zip-lined through the tree tops and learned about the native South African trees, it was heaps of fun. On our way between there and Cape Town we managed to fit in some kayaking and caving at Wilderness NP and Cango caves.
I could go on and on about what I have seen, done and learnt since being here, but I won't bore you anymore than I already have. Namibia here we come....
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
4 Days to go..
The count down is on now, only 4 days to go before Nick and I fly to South Africa to start our year long trip of Africa and South America.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)