Best Beer: Toss up between Zambezi and Bohlinger - those Zim dudes certainly know their beer.
Worst Beer: Toss up between Chibuku(Malawi) and Ingewbu(Zim) - both taste not unlike regurgitated cider
Best new Meat: Kudu - the declious antelope, cool horns too.
One to avoid: Zebra - tougher than Mums steak, good only if your jaw needs excercising
Best Toilet : Kingdom Hotel, Vic Falls (just ask Miss F!)
Worst Toilet : Nakuru National Park, Kenya - I won't bore you with details, I'm sure you can guess
Best Campsite: Kande Beach, Malawi for atmosphere and Inyamthi camp Vic Falls for facilities. Special Awards of Merit to Kijereshi, Tanz for the pool and Bulawayo for the Bathtubs.
Worst Campsite: Serengeti - Q: How can you get away with charging US$20 a night for a campsite with no facilities? A: Monopolies are a wonderful thing
Coolest animal sight: Two giraffes attempting to mate in Chobe, Botswana.
Uncoolest animal sight: Baboon tucking into my puke, Serengeti.
Fondest Memories: Nightclubs in Nairobi, Kenya and Rumoruti, Kenya.
Least fond memories: Various east african toilets, inside of Victa after 12hrs on the road.
Any attempts at highlights, will undoubtedly not do justice to the beginning of the trip as its quite some time ago now. Certainly one of the most vivid memories I take with me is that of that time one of the young lion cubs in Gweru tried to trip me. She was walking behind me and twice reached around with her paw and caught my foot, apparently in the same manovre they use on prey. As for the rest, most memories can never be put into words, I remember the incredible vividness of the colours all around. Certainly my pictures do not do justice to what I saw.
Africa I miss you already.....
Episode 11: Harare, Mutare, alone at last
Well this episode seems to have gotton lost in cyberspace so for completeness I'll try to reconstruct from memory:Harare gets the award for coolest city so far I reckon. Lilongwe the capital of Malawi was in the running but I didn't really see much of it. From my few days in Harare I found there was a bit of a buzz about the place, some action and movement going on y'know. The towns and cities so far have given the impression that someone forgot to wake the place up - sleepy as hell, Bulawayo is a chief offender.
First morning in Harare and most of the truck dudes are hauled up in the Rocks campsite, some way outside the centre on the way to the airport. Being the unrepentant cosmopolitan urbanites that we are, myself and Bermuda opted to stay closer to the action in a nice little place on 9th street called the Sable Lodge. (Thanks to Maura Stewart in Nortel for the recommendation). After being outrageously hungover the day before I was starving and we began the forage for food. We wandered towards town and picked up some bananas from a street stall. We were offered the other goodies on sale...ROASTED CATERPILLARS! I was in no state for insects and even the usually brave Bermuda politely declined. Later in one of the big malls downtown we were approched by this local guy who asked us if we needed a gardener. I said I reckoned we needed a garden first, but clearly we had the look of being high class...I'm not sure who was augmenting who's image!
The next day was my last in Harare. I'd have hung around longer but seeing as everyone I knew was leaving town and having a few days to kill, I decided to head off and check out the eastern highlands on the Tuesday evening night train. Anyway it came close to being a totally perfect day. Still not able to shake my truck training I woke before sunrise but lazed till the ungodly hour of 9am. On Scott's suggestion we visited the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe on the way to breakfast. Hey, I'm a serious cultural tourist y'know I don't just spend all my time getting wasted on houseboats! Anyway it was really cool, we just sneaked in the back door and watched the proceedings. As Scott pointed out the Judges were nicely picked from each of Zim's major ethnic groups: Africans, Indians and Euro types. The head guy was of course white, and was giving the defense lawyer a right roasting. Scottie wanted to check out the High court too but I was getting hungry. Then on the way to food we saw some sort of demo outside the blue arrow offices. I'll tell you they know how to protest here. There was no endless speechifying, people were dancing and singing and hollering twas really quite entertaining.
Later we perused some curios and it looks like Scott's going to return and trade everything including the shirt off his back tomorrow. We spent a really pleasant afternoon in the Harare Gardens, a little chill out area in the middle of the town. Well it was relaxing once we managed to get rid of all the hawkers. We even found Ramambos restaurant, where we originally intended to have the end of tour dinner and booked to return that evening. I'm really glad we did, it was the nicest meal I'd had in ages, the setting and the service was excellent and they even did live music. It was here that I tried Kudu for the first time and it was lovely. Warthog was also on the menu and it tastes like beef! All in all I'd say the loveliest evenings of the trip.
So after a great day out we came to the seeing-off-at-the-train scene. Worthy of many a melodramatic 40's movie to be sure and with that I was off on the night train and alone at last. Not that I was particularly wishing to be on my own but thems the breaks. I'd splashed out on a first class cabin and it was very comfortable. It would have been perfect but for the music blaring through the speakers till all hours. I shared the cabin with a very talkative young woman from Zimbabwe, pity I wasn't in a very social mood.
The following morning I found myself wandering around Mutare at six in the morning and feeling the weight of my backpack for the first time ever. It took me about an hour to walk to where I was staying and boy was I wrecked after it. My increasing sense of isolation was worsened by the fact that I was the only person staying in my guest house, Trevor's Place. Although the eponymous Trevor was very friendly and helpful there was a kind of eerie dead vibe about the place - like I wouldn't have been surprised if there'd been bodies in the basement. I was supposed to go on a tour of the Vumba region today but the lady in charge reckoned since there was no one else doing it, I should wait till tomorrow to see if I could get company. On a side note it seems all the white natives here are remarkably happy and chirpy, like the have Prozac in the water or something. And Mutare itself seems like pleasant enough, if somewhat sleepy, little town.
After walking around the town I've taken refuge in a Net cafe so that I can feel like I'm talking to someone while writing this. It certainly has something to do with the fact that this is my first day alone, not to mention my first day with constant company in three months - I'm sure I should be relived for the space it gives me - but I'm kinda lonely. I also can't shake the feeling that this is the beginning of the long lonely road to Perth. After some news out of the blue in Harare, it seems I'm going to have more of my own company than I ever wanted in the next few months...but I won't go into that now.
Till later
Aoife
Episode 10: "Arriba Kariba!" and "Fin du Voyage"
When in Zimbabwe as they say...but quite what I was doing spending my sunday morning on the back of a horse shouting "Trot On!" in a voice that was a cross between Barbara Woodhouse and some horse crazed toff requires some explaination. But I'm getting ahead of myself, we last left off in Bulawayo....Bulawayo was very civilsed and left the lasting impression of a place that was far too big for the ammount of people in it. Promted by Aussie Scot's announcement that he was going to get one, I decided to get a haircut and happened upon a fancy joint in the fancy new mall the Bulawayo centre. In a blatently "unequal" pricing scheme a mans cut cost $35, a ladies' $40 and a Cocasian(sic) cut cost a whopping $85!! However given that I wouldn't like the chances of an african chick finding somewhere in galway that knew what to do with her hair, coupled with the fact that 85 zim dollars ammounts to just over a quid, I felt I couldn't well complain. I was a bit of an attraction in the salon, which clearly didn't often get requests for a "cocasian cut", and when they found out I liked Zairean Rhumba music they promptly put some on and insisted I shake my stuff with them right there and then. The scene must have been quite hilarious for the few passersby outside who were looking in like I'd lost a few marbles.
After Bulawayo we went to Gweru, a centre which breeds lions among other animals for captivity and for enlarging the gene pool of wild lions. We got to take the 11 month old so-called cubs (these things were HUGE) out for their daily walk. This was very cool if a tad scary at times. I also went out on a horse safari and got within spitting distance of a giraffe. My guide was Tracey a polo cross tutor who I think had been on the Zim national team at one stage, and seeing as I was the only person on the trail I got a personalised riding lesson thrown in for free. I suspect I'm turning into a horsey person.
After Gweru, we moved on to Mopani a private game ranch near the town of Kwekwe. The main attraction here was the oppertunity to play Polo Cross and pretend like we were some uppper class twats. Polo cross so I'm told is a mixture of polo and lacross and involved (for me anyway) much swearing at the big and intransient horse called Bull that I'd been given for the game. I never did get the hang of picking up the ball with the net...a most infuriating game when your horse doesn't feel like moving and a quite scary one for non-riders when the horse gets into it (they tend to break into gallops with no warning!)
After that we were on the home stretch with only a few days of the trip to go...we had an overnight stop somewhere and then reached lake Kariba. This is the largest man made lake formed by damming the Zambezi. Its a beautiful area, it was quite hot and humid there which wasn't much fun when we had to pack up and clean the truck. For the last two nights we teamed up with a Bukima truck and hired a Houseboat, complete with crew to cook and clean for us, and set off for a cruise on the lake.
In retrospect I should have known we were in for trouble when I saw the Bukima truck outside the supermarket. They were all in costume/drag and the guys for entertainment had all given themselves moheekan hairdos. I'd like to go into detail about the happenings of those to two days, but quite appart from sparing your sensibilities, I 'm sure my truck mates might object. Suffice to say the phrase "roman orgy" will aquately cover the generalities, the particulars I'll leave up to your imaginations....
And so it was with sore heads (not to mention many other body parts) and weak stomachs that the 6 of us spent our last day on 'Victa' together. We got to Harare around night fall and went a few seperate ways to set up for the night, before having a fairwell dinner at "The Manchurian" a mongolian BBQ place somewhere in Harare's northern suburbs. Miss Feather was the first to leave the next day for South Africa. The remander met up today by chance in the first street mall. Leanne leaves tomorrow and the rest of the us will be gone by the weekend.
Le Voila, fin du voyage...
Aoife, Harare, Zimbabwe, 21st sept 99, 14:02CST
Episode 9 : GoodBye to Mosi-Oa-Tunya, Botswana and Pee coloured water
So we bidded good bye to Mosi-Oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders aka Vic Falls without actually having seen it , well from the ground at least. Later on that day I did the last update we tried to go into the National park on the Zim side, just about prepared to pay the 10US entry fee to find that the price had doubled just last month and we promptly marched off. According to Shaun they's tried to do this before and people stopped coming so we were right to register our protest. Most of us had seen it from the air anyway. However I did do my best to get the first hand experience by getting up early the next day and cycling to the Zambian side and paying the 50 Zim Dollars (about a quid) entrance fee there. There isn't so much water on the Zam side but it was still cool and you could see a fair bit over the border. In other news from the Zim side we all visited the Vic Falls hotel and had High Tea it looked like a scene from an Oscar Wilde play. We looked well out of place, 6 overlanders after 7 weeks on the road didn't fit very well with the rest of the clientel. Also if you're ever in town The Blue Lizard Cafe in the Croc n Paddle has the fastest access in Vic Falls. Pity they didn't have an off-line rate. These episodes were delayed due to the line going down, the friendly folks in the Internet village had to post episodes 7 and 8 on to me.After my little expedition over the border in the morning we headed to Botswana crossing the border at Kazungula. Even the border posts are a classier affair in Botswana. The roads are excellent and there are signs of a country better off than most of it neighbours all around. The Pula is the hardest currency in africa, largly thanks to the discovery of diamonds in vast quantities after indpendence. Our first night here was in a bushcamp outside Maun. We'd driven through about an hour of solid bush fire and after dinner that night we could see the red glow still in the distance but seeming to be moving in our direction, twas a bit exsighting but we manged to not get burnt in the night. We were in the edge of the Kalahari apparently and this wasn't hard to believe given the extreme cold of the night and extreme heat of the day. Not to mention the incredible wind and insuant dust storms which always seemed to strike up during lunch insuring that we ingested a fair bit of the desert. Later in the year the temp here can get to 42C!!
We stayed in a rather flash lodge in Maun and ran into another Kumuka truck that was on some piss-arse 2 week trip. We coloured their water blue with food dye. This might have been funnier if we hadn't been 'got' in a similiar way by the 4 weekers on our truck in Arusha. They put just enough yellow colouring in to turn our water the perfect shade if human urine. So for the last 6 weeks we've been drining piss coloured water. Charming! You should have seen the face of the post woman in Dar Es Salaam when I rested my bottle on the counter!!
After this we spent two days in the Okvango Delta on the dug-out local boats called Makoros. That was nice but we all got pretty dirty, swimming in the delta was the best. On the way back I was kicking back in the Makoro with a beer, looking up at the sky and feeling the reeds brushing against my face when I look at my leg and see that I've been shat on by some flying bugger. Ah, the wonders of nature.....
So one more bush camp and a busy boder crossing later here we are in Bulawayo which seems like nearly as posh a town as Vic Falls. I'm beginning to think Zimbabwe isn't in Africa at all!!
See ye,
Aoife, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 9th Sept, 15:39CST
Episode 8: Nyami Nyami's Revenge and Ultralight, the only way to fly.
WAHOO! White Water Rafting, bloody hell, more like white knuckle rafting. Encouraged by the daredevil spirit of my cohorts whom I watched bunji 111m off a brigde last Saturday, the day after we arrived, I swallowed my enourmous fear and went rafting on the Zambezi. That was yesterday and I'm still here in case anyone is wondering with all limbs intact, I know this because I can feel every darned one of them. We spent the whole day on the river and my legs got sunburnt.But enough trivia, for the first half I was so shitless that I opted to in the wussy rafts where you're only job is to hang on and occasionally 'highside' ie stop the raft from flipping by throwing your weight around. The river guide does all the rowing and steering, ours was called Godon and I was heartened by the sight of him doing a prayer to Nyami Nyami, the god of the river, under our raft before we set off. The previous day I'd made my own sacrific of a lens cap, which fell off while I was taking pictures of the river from the bungji bridge. My co-raftees were a Zim couple, an Austrialian couple and another Ozzie called Julie.
We bounced our way to lunchtime and by the end of the morning I had gained enough confidence to try my hand at the paddle boats. These are boats which take up to 8, with four paddling each side and nothing to hang on to and the river guide does nothing but steer a little and provide instructions. The 3 others from my truck had been paddling all morning and had fared less well having been flipped twice and thrown out several times!! Two of them were thinking of quitting after the second rapid.
So it was that after lunch me and julie left the wuss boats and joined the hardcore pack. Luckily all the rest on our boat had been wussing in the morning too, our guide was Taps. It was scary as hell and I was obviously the weak link, having no strenght in my arms I could paddle for approximatly 3secs in the rapids before I was nearly puking with sheer physical effort. At one stage Taps asked me where my parents were, I'm not sure quite how to take that....
We stayed vertical the entire time due to the Trojan efforts and strenght of Alan from S.Africa and Wilson from Zim at the head of our boat. The rest of us three got thrown from the boat at rapid 12c (aka the Mother in Law) and they managed to keep the boat up alone. Thankfully that was the only time I swam all day.
When we finished with the rafts we had a 700ft climb to the top of the gorge which sapped any remaining energy from us. We all made it out to the kingdom hotel for the video. I decided not to buy a copy as it showed me in erm, a less than heroic light. I did get some choice (and highly expensive) photos of the day though.
This morning, just to make Owen jealous I went on an Ultralight flight over the Falls. This was my first view of them even though I'd been in town for 2 days largly due to the 10 US fee you need to pay to see them on the zim side. I was lucky at times not to have any brekkie to loose as you can feel the breeze swaying the little plane and you have nothing to hold on to and of course theres no cabin or doors. Anyway it was totally kewl, I got to see aerial views of the town and many of the rapids I'd sailed yesterday on the flight too.
The falls are nothing like Niagara which takes a wide horseshoe shape. Vic Falls look like someone has taken a knife to the rock and made a sheer slice. Or at least it does from the air, I'll have to update with the land view later. Anyway my pilot was Simon from NZ who'd only started working here a month ago and whose brother in law was from....Galway. He's now in NZ and his name is Ian Kelly, anybody know him??
Righto thats it for my adventures here, we head to Botswana tommorow. I must note that I felt distinct uncomfortable with the level of civilisation here after being on the road so long. To see streetlights was weird and the highstreets here are littered with Casinos, Wimpys, Subway Sandwich Bars and of course Mzungos (cf previous episodes). Vic Falls is like a slice of Las vegas in Africa with a liberal sprinkling of Queenstown NZ (by all accounts). The ammount of money round here is very obvious and the look and feel of the place is in striking contrast to the rest of the trip so far. I miss having to pee in a bush all the time...sigh!
see you in Botswana,
Aoife, Vic Falls, Zim 30th August 14:38CST
Its a long way to Lilongwe: Bilharzia, Bubonic Plague and Beer in Malawi - 30 hours on a truck on Zambia!
Well its been a long time since I've been in front of a screen and at the moment the lines are down in the cafe so I'm hoping they'll come back up before I go!! Right so whats been happening? There's a whole lot of driving going on.After returning to Dar from Zanzibar we had a killer drive to Iringa in southern Tanzania arriving at the campsite at 1:30am. We allegedly drove through a game park that day but all we saw was an elephant. the next day we stopped at Mbeya before crossing the border to Malawi at a place called Songwe. Shaun kindly informed us that there had been outbreaks of bubonic PLAGUE in Malawi of late. We were all thrilled ....
Our first morning in Malawi was characterised by something I for one was all too familiar with - rain at lots of it, helpfully coming down while we were in the middle of taking down our tents. It continued to rain all morning, it seems the weather is conspiring to make sure I'm never too homesick.
After that night in Namashi beack we headed south to the ultra cool Kande Beach, good facilites and plenty of beach to frolick about on. We ran into the Dragoman truck that we'd met in Zanzibar and had a fine time with them. Although by far the best night was had on our own, with most of our folks very drunk (except for me!). The evening started with a few dances at the bar and ended at 4am after a 2am dip in Lake Malawi. as to what state we may have been in during this swim, I'll leave that up to your imagination - enough to say that the photographic evidence will be destroyed. The moral of the story kiddies : Bars that run tabs are dangerous.
As a side note Lake Malawi has Bilharzia, little snail things which creep in through orfices and hatch. I had been avoiding swimming trying to decide if it was worth it, but somehow at 2am this didn't seem to matter. In any case, a jump in the Lake was probably enivitable seeing as there was no showers at Kande.
One dodgy bridge and a night at Salima later, we find ourselves in Nanchengwa beach in Monkey bay south malawi. This place had much better facilities but not a patch on Kande in terms of atmosphere. We all took it easy and worked on our tan. I got friendly with the villagers and now have 100 photos to send out there. A word of advice, if you ever find yourself in Malawi stick to the Carlsberg as the local brew Chibuku is very nasty. I suppose those who like Weiss beer may have a chance of likling it but its much more yeasty and has bits of something floating in it!!
And so with that we began our all too brief stay in Zambia, crossing over at Mchinji. There was a helpful sign at the border to tell you that Maximum was the local brand of prophilatics in this country. I almost got a few dates from the dudes in the customs desk - it was all most gratifying ;-) Espically given the state of me at the time. I forgot to mention that while in Kande I got my hair plaited rasta style but due to my hair being so thin the effect was to make me look like some kind of Borg reject. Still I reckoned it was better than getting my hair totally tangles everyday on the truck. Its reallt quite practical but now I'm in civilisation again I might take them out.
So we carried on to Chipata that first night and then spent two days seeing bugger all in South Luangwa National Park, twas a good campsite though. I tried the Zambian brew Mosi but was unimpressed. We then undertook a 21 hour drive to a campsite the farside of Lusaka starting at 5am and finishing at 2:30am. We all got severe cabin fever and started digging into the tuskers about 5, we were all asleep by 9pm. Next day after 9 hours on the truck again we reached here and were bloody glad of it. The campsite is great, loo roll and get this, electric showers....Nous sommes arrives....
Adopo
Aoife, Vic Falls, Zimbabwe, 28th August, 13:56 CST (Central African Time)
Episode 6: ...and then there were six - I become a Panda
Hey all, hujambo from Zanzibar. I was going to wait to get cheaper access from Dar but I relented if only to get out of the heat for a while. This is certainly my last update for a while - I swear!! Righty-ho on with the sceals...I spent too much time in that damn cafe in Dar and didn't get lots of stuff done in Dar apart from getting a little lost. I surprised how much that ferry trip to Zanzibar reminded me of going to Aran. I'm serious, simliar type vessels and even the sea looked alike. I don't remember the horizon being as clear in ireland though, it was like some one had used a ruler to divide the two brilliant shades of blue and then to have the Dhows sailing past certainly gave things a more tropical feel. We quickly got set up the hotel and went for dinner in Blues Restaurant by the pier. Everyone else enjoyed the meal but since the menu was mainly seafood I was underimpressed.
After being woken at 5am by the islamic prayer stuff blaring in the hotel we all went on the Spice Tour at 9:30am accompanyied by a shower from the Dragoman truck. Our guide was the genial Ali and he told us that Zanzibar was made up of two islands Penga and the main one which I'm on and don't know how to spell. We were taken round some of older buildings in zanzibar town before going to the spice farm. Needless to say I didn't recognise any of the common spices in their natural state. Who have thought cloves grow on trees and are green? My enjoyment was somewhat hampered by the fact that last night's dinner was making a rapid reappearance and there wasn't a toilet in sight but I managed to somehow survive the morning.
I quite liked having a look at the island in the hour and a half that it took us to get to the North Coast and Nungwi beach that afternoon. All the coconut trees spread out high across the blue sky was well exotic and postcard perfect. The beach huts were well under inmpressive for the enormouse sum of 25 dollars a night!! Again the sceanary was nice but I'm just not a beach person - too much salt and sand and it gets EVERYWHERE.
I should mention that we jettisoned the last of the people on the four week trip with us in Zanzibar town so now we're down to 3 Ozzies, a pom, me and the guy from bermuda, plus the driver and leader. Hope we don't all get cabin fever...
Thought about getting a henna tatoo, didn't, thought about getting plaits in me hair, didn't, thought about drinking cocktails, did and then went back to the town earlier today. So how did I become a panda? Well Bermuda Scott perveyor and expert on all things tropical decided to expand my tastebuds and get me some sugar cane juice from one of the stalls. Its very refreshing when chilled. Also was made to try casava root which when roasted tasted eerily like a good spud. Then he decided I needed to try sugar cane in its natural state...although I nearly choked on the bark. The idea is to chew the inside of the bark and thereby squish the juice but spit out the pulp. He then mentioned something about sugar cane being basically bamboo-hence after only 5 weeks in the wild I 've started filling up on panda grub!
Sin an sceal, ar aon nos
Adopo
Aoife, Zanzibar, 12th Aug, 16:20 TST
Episode 5: The Four Minute Update - NOT!
Land Ho!! So Instead of enjoying my first views of the indian ocean I'm sitting here in this rather pleasently air conditioned netcafe like the sad nerd that I am. And so I reach the seaside for the first time since I left the continent after 14 hours on a truck from Arusha....I'm walking down a street here in Dar Es Salaam, when what do I see but a dude with a GALWAY BAY FM sticker on his car - this continent never fails to trip me out, man! (I think I've been spending too much time with the bermud(i)an in our group). You never see Galway Bay FM stickers in galway, dang it...
This was supposed to be a four minute update but I just paid for another half an hour seeing as after Zanzibar I may not be online again till Vic Falls. Unless there's some new cafes in Malawi. Well what else to say? We got rid of most of the group I was travelling with as they were only doing a 4 week trip so there was much wine, song and tears at Arusha on Sunday morning. Now there's only 6 of us and we have more space than we'll ever need - in fact is seems kinda bare on the truck...or something.
From arusha we drove through some lovely countryside, lush green hills and cool sizel plantations to a little town with a nifty campsite called Korogwe for a one night stopover en route here. Some of the countryside here even reminded me of europe (not ireland mind you, it was too bright for that).
I forgot to mention the other trip-out sight this week: A whole bunch of tradionally garbed Maasai at the campsite in Arusha sitting at a wide screen TV watching sky sports!! That campsite was totally cool - 24 hr bar run by the Maasai, proper toilets and showers and everything
If someone's of a mind to could they send me a mail and remind me how intrapage HMTL links work - the previous locations page is getting a bit messy.
Must Dash - got a ferry to catch...
Aoife, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania 14:55TST
Episode 4: Be Careful in the Bath, be even more careful in the bar
Hello, from Tanzania people and thanks a million to who ever put up the river road episode. Righto, better start after I left Nakuru, I went to see Lake Boringo where I met two nice dudes who showed me where to sample the local poteen which was surprisingly drinkable. After that was Lake Bogoria where I learned that dead flamingo smells rotton!!Actually there were about 2.5 million flamigoes on the lake at the time and it was quite pretty and picturesque and stuff but on with the interesting sceals. After leaving the lake district we got to Kakamega rainforest where I am loathe to report that ,due to an embarrasing incident with a cold bath and a unfortunatly placed window, 2 weeks into this trip the entire truck has already seen me naked!!
This was aided by Ozzie Scott shouting "Quick, don't look Paddys Naked" at the whole campsite. With friends like these as they say....I forgot to mention thusfar that I am no longer Aoife Hegarty as I have been renamed Paddy O'Reilly for the duration of the trip. Needless to say people had difficulty with my name, or maybe they just reckoned Paddy was more appropriate - as in Paddy last!
We then passed through thr towns of Kisumu and Kisii and eventually found our way to the lowlands and out of the wet season and the bloody rain. Apparently the wet season is 8 weeks late in northern kenya this year - just my luck. After a seemless border crossing at Isabania we contined to Kijereshi and a darling campsite complete with baboons and a pool. A veritable oasis on the edge of the Western Corridor of the Serengeti National Park.
It was here that I was given a lesson in complacency when I finished off Leanne's beer. She was feeling off colour due to alledgly a touch of sunstroke. I suspected that this was an incorrect diagnosis at approximatly 1:30 that morning while I was projectile vomiting out my tent door. We'd been given the keys to a room at the lodge so our group could use the bathroom and when I went there I found Leanne sprawled in agony on the bed. I proceeded to spend the night on the bed with her, running to the bathroom and listening to the gekos tap-tapping on the floor beside me. We were both counting our blessings to have a toilet rather than a pit in the state we were in.
I was pretty feiced up the next day and we needed to move into the next campsite in the seregeti national park. The unpleasentness of the previous night was only topped by the sight of a baboon eating the mound outside my tent the next morning. Baboons are gross!!!
I was fine within 24 hours and able to enjoy the Ngorogoro Crater. If you only ever go one place in africa , go there its totally cool....Heading to Zanzibar after this for some chilling out and hosing down.
Stay Cool
Aoife, Arusha, Tanzania 14:35TST
Episode 3: Life on the Road
Hey all, my last update form Nairobi seems to have gone awol. The one about doing the Macerana in a night club with the locals. I couldn't get it to geocities cause the site was down so I email it to Joe and Fiona I hope its still around somewhere cause its the best episode yet.
Ok I'm running out of time and money here... Have seen lots of animals and had a cool time.
The folks on the truck are suprisingly tolerent of my slow ways and sometimes I feel like I'm on a miltary operation there are so many moves, and the toilets in the campsites can be less than inviting.
Places I've been, get the maps out!! : Narok, Maasai Mara,Naivasha, Nakuru, Boringo, Bogoria.
I met a Maasai dude who said I had hair like a lion and wanted to write to me - its nice to know I have muticultural appeal!!
Sorry this is such a crap update
Adopo
Aoife, Nakuru, Kenya, 14:16KST
Episode 2: The Only Mzungo on River Road (aka The Adventures of Snow White the two Kikuyu Warriors)
Well, when in Kenya as they say....but quite how I ended up in a Reggae dancehall last evening is a story in itself. Now that I'm not as fried as the time I wrote the last report I have to tell you that I could go home tommorow and be able to say I've had a fabulous holiday. They say the Irish are friendly but I'll tell you they don't a patch on the kenyans. Shortly after arriving in my hotel I stepped out to get some water and was approached by a safari salesman, Haron. When he still wanted to talk to me after I told him that I had a safari, I reckoned he might be genuine and indeed him and his mate Robert have been my constant guides, protectors and companions. Its been a riot!
I'm short on time and my bus leaves soon. So after my last update I went for a drink with the boys in a local bar in the river road area where Mzungos (=white persons) are not advised to go even in day. As such I was very noticeable in the bar but soon everyone stopped looking and continued drinking. I tried Tusker the local beer but have found my true calling in Castle Milk Stout which is proving a worthy substitute for Guiness. After a few of these its easy to froget that you are the only white person around and one of few wimmen. After we went to a Reggae dance which was remincint of an organised house party with a better DJ. Many people came up to say hello and none wanted to intrude or hassle, just simply to say karibu kenya (welcome!).
After a day walking around and talking to Haron about the various tribes in Kenya - 42 of them I went to meet my tour and it was almost akward to be in a room of mzungos again. The Maasai may be the most famous but his tribe the Kikuyu are the most numerous and make about half the population here. After I again met the lads and went for stout in a bar playing really funky afro-beat music. Again I was the star attraction and tried to keep up with the brilliant local dancing - I guess I did ok for a mzungo. Unfortunatly after about 1:30am the music changed to western disco type stuff but I had enough drink in me to enjoy it and even taught the natives to do the Macerana, god help me!
Must fly, this is the last update for a least a month. watch out for snail mails
Aoife, 9:30am Nairobi, Kenya
Episode 1 : Things to do in Nairobi when you're dead
BEJaysus I'm in Africa! And having a grand time of it too. But lets start at the start...When I last signed on I was in London and didn't do too much for a few days after that.I did however get time to visit the Bandit Leaders sisters restaurant near Edgware Road. Never having had Malaysian cuisine I had no basis for judgement but Tim was in estascy over having real Murtabek for the first time in years. It was also encouraging to see that nearly all the other patrons were asian. So if you're ever in need of a bite The Malaysian Satay House off Sussex Gardens has my seal of approval as does Sarastros of Drury Lane but I'm getting a head of myself.
After going to malayisan dinner I headed off to visit Daragh in Oxford and was suitably impressed once I manged to find the stop I was ment to meet him at...there was much confusion and sweating after running round oxford for 90mins and no doubt much boredom on Nial and Daraghs while they waited but they seemed to forgive me. The Oxford pubs certainly get mt approval and somehow the place reminded me of Urbino but I think that was just the colour of the buildings. Also I must mention that Oxford has the best dressed beggers I have ever seen.
After the pubs Daragh and Nial had fun sleeping on the floor while I got the only bed - something I might have felt more guilty about if it hadn't been for the fact that none of us got much rest thanks to the oppressive heat. The Three Musketeers then headed to London and enjoyed another day of seeing the sites and sweating after which we had dinner in Sarastros and all I can say is go there, have the chicken sarastro and make sure you pay a visit to the loos. Ab Fab Babes! After this feast we ajorned to the Tottenham to meet with some others and the less said about the latter half of that evening the better. Enough to say that things were going swimmingly till we hit Soho. Next thing I clearly remember was being in Mile End trying to catch a night bus and having a guy in a white car who clearly thought I was open for business offer me a lift!! :-)
But enough of britland what of Nairobi? Well flying with a hangover is never fun and I felt wretched all day not helped at all by the oven that was masquerading as a tube to Heathrow. After all my last minute gitters arriving in Nairobi was amazing calm and after London amazingly cool. I got my cab and got set up in the hotel and got chatting to some locals outside who've been showing me round all day. Goes to show a little friendliness goes a long way. I'd like to be a little more poetic in my descriptions as would befit my first day in Nairobi but I'm just to wrecked. I'll sleep tonight I'll tell ya.
Tommrow I'm off to the Nairobi National Park and Karen Blixens House with my newly appointed guides.
6 O'clock and all is well in Kenya.
Till who knows when!
Aoife, Nairobi, 5:35 KST
