Travel – Page 12 – Where is Phil now?

People jelous never win

Day 305, 04 Sunday November 2012 – Stone Town, Zanzibar

Another great night’s sleep, this sleeping thing is almost getting to be habitual. I am definitely not going to complain if this keeps up.

I wandered up to the cafe to pick up a couple of pre-breakie lattes, they are not particularly good, but they are rare and it is the thought that counts! Breakfast was another leisurely affair, I ate plenty, just not as much as yesterday. I still took a post feed lie down before we had to check out of the room at ten.

Yesterday we all agreed as a group to stay here at the resort until 3:00 rather than head into a hot and humid Stone Town in the morning. We have most of a day there tomorrow to explore the streets, so a day off around a good pool in a sea breeze before the hurly burly of a busy city and then back on the truck was just perfect.

I spent most of the morning lazing by the pool taking the occasional dip as the fancy took me. It is overcast again today so not too hot to be outside, though my face did get a touch of sun burn. Lunch was another massive affair, it will be good to leave here, too much food !!
I took a quick final dip in the Indian ocean before getting ready to jump on the mini-bus back to Stone Town. Out of the water it was a quick stroll up the beach to the hotel, trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid the hawkers on the way.

The hawkers are a pain, they are hard to get rid of once they collar you and they collar quickly. I understand they need to make a buck and there is little other opportunity to do so. However, they are all over the beach rendering it almost useless. The beach is beautiful – soft white, clean coral sand, edged with a clear, warm sea. It should have sunbathers and swimmers all over it. We were all by the pool where we can relax unmolested – a real shame. There are gates and guards at all entrances to the hotel to keep the hawkers out, but not on the beach – I guess that is a good thing though.

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The bus to Stone Town took about an hour and was a pretty quiet affair, most of the people seemed to just sleep the trip away. Rather than glossy posters the hairdressers here have hand painted pictures, they are quite amusing – and I am leaving my hair till I get back to the UK.

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The bus dropped us off about one hundred metres away from the Safari Lodge Hotel which was down a series of alley ways. I am really looking forward to exploring them tomorrow ! It is very reminiscent of the old part of Barcelona, with narrow and twisty alleys through mostly crumbling old buildings. I loved that part of Barcelona.

Here there was very little grafitti, and though there are loads of bikes, none of them have been in a place where I can photograph them, so unfair!

We unpacked and then all met in reception for a walk to a recently opened hotel where we had a cocktail on the roof and watched a rather uninspired sunset. It was entirely pleasant and all rather peaceful, unlike the hectic night market where we went for dinner ! I took a few pictures from the roof.

My feet were a little itchy so I wandered off for a bit and walked around some of the streets surrounding the hotel. I found an ATM that took Mastercard but it was broken, damnit.

I finally headed back to the hotel for the sunset and a beer.

The night market is a food market, mainly aimed at tourists, but there were plenty of local people eating as well. It was also very cool. As soon as we walked in the gates of the harbour front park where the night market was located we were surrounded by the touts trying to entice us to their stalls. The entrance was hectic but once through the initial melee it was quite calm inside.

The seafood did not really appeal so I followed our tour leader’s recommendation and went for a shish kebab, a hugely popular stall. While I waited for that I had a Zanzibar pizza, which is basically a pancake.

They come with a huge variety of sweet and savory options and I elected for the popular Nutella and banana option. It was delicious, after the kebab I went back and had a chocolate, vanilla and banana one. I also tried a sugar cane and ginger drink, pressed directly from the cane, also delicious. I missed street food.

After dinner we went to Mercury’s Bar for a glass or two. The bar is named after Freddy Mercury, the late singer from Queen, who was born on Zanzibar. As we left the bar Simon came out saying he had found a couple of Flash cards and handed them in at the bar. I instantly knew they must have been mine and sure enough they were, they must have fallen out of my bag when I got my wallet out. Lucky for me they were found, whew !

A day of diving in Zanzibar

Day 304, Saturday 03 November 2012 – Nungwi, Zanzibar

A massive sleep was had last night, I didn’t fully wake up until 7:10 when I had my first real coffee in a few days. I joined a number of the others in hotel restaurant for the buffet breakfast – eggs, beans and chips on a deck overlooking clean white sand and a crystal clear Indian Ocean. Heavenly. The grease was followed by fresh mango and pawpaw, in the last 2 days I have eaten more fruit than I have in months. I will be healthy again in no time; well maybe if I skipped the chips anyway.

The others all left on their snorkelling trip an hour before my dive trip started, so I just lay down and enjoyed some more peace and quiet.

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I dived with Spanish Dancer Divers, there were seven of us on the boat along with the staff. Sadly the sea was not as icy smooth as it was yesterday which made for a bumpy ride to the first dive spot – Leven Bank. The site is an underwater hill, it does not penetrate the surface and I have no idea how the guys find it as there are no visual indicators. Must be magic!

On the way a small pod of dolphins was spotted by one of the crew so we donned masks and fins and jumped in to see if they would come and play. Unfortunately they were not in the mood and swam out of reach soon after we were in the water. I did manage a long distance snap of them near the bottom. It was the closest I have come to dolphins and it was pretty damn cool – I had a mega grin 🙂

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The first dive was a deep one, as there was quite a current and a bit of a swell we did not faff about on the surface, just straight down to 30 metres. Visibility was pretty good considering the current, it was a drift dive so we just floated along near the bottom and let the current take us where it was going. I struggled to get buoyancy for a bit and used up air more quickly than the others but I was happy with my first dive in nearly six months. Apart from one really large moray eel I didn’t see anything new or exciting, but it was great to be down below again. When my air hit fifty bar The dive master took me up to the five metre decompression stop and I stayed there hanging on to the dive buoy line for three minutes and then drifted to the surface while the rest continued the dive. I was soon picked up by the boat. It was rolling quite badly in the swell and for the first time – possibly ever, I felt quite nauseous, though I did manage to not vomit. Unlike the next person who got in the boat.

As we motored towards Mbwangawa, a reef dive site, a large storm passed over the island and just past us out to sea. We could see the pouring rain from the distance and fortunately managed to skirt the whole thing.
Mbwangawa is a shallow off shore reef dive that was slightly sheltered from the wind so was less choppy than the open ocean dive. It was a good dive, I was sorted in the water and stayed the full 62 minutes. It did get pretty cold towards the end, even with full length wet suits on. We saw quite a few moray eels and a really large ray under a shelf. The coral was quite unusual, it was long flat and plate like – not anything I have seen before. It was cool just drifting along beside it.

After the diving I took a late lunch in the bar and waited for the football to start, Manchester United v Arsenal (the team I support). It was two minutes to kick off when the power went out. Bugger!

The power did not return until after the game had finished, which was probably a good thing as we lost 2 – 1. We all met in the bar and sat around chatting until dinner at 7:00 at Baraka, a local beach restaurant. The food was cheap and the lobster curry was as delicious as the calamari curry I had last night. We even got a free drink !

Zanzibar !!

Day 303, Friday 02 November 2012 – Nungwi, Zanzibar

I had left the rest of the group soon after dinner last night to grab a few minutes peace and quiet after the long long day on the truck. I also planned on a massive sleep as I was feeling tired and the early mornings were starting to have an impact. Obviously that plan was thwarted! The security guard from the camp and some of his mates decided that 4:00 am was the perfect time to cut coconuts and talk really loudly in the middle of the campsite. This was followed at 4:30 by the first call to prayer for the day, the east of Tanzania especially around Dar is strongly Muslim. I did manage to doze again until get up time at 6:10 – this was a lie in !

After a quick breakie I packed a small bag for the three day trip to Zanzibar, a trip I have been really looking forward to. Like Mandalay in Myanmar, Zanzibar is one of those exotic locations from childhood adventure novels that I have long wanted to visit and today was to be the day. Naturally the day started with us getting on the truck, though this time it was just a short ride to the harbour side to get the very busy ferry a short distance over the harbour to down town Dar es Salaam. From the truck we had a five minute walk down to the ferry terminal, it was 7:30 am and hot and humid, a few of us were starting to leak a bit as we hit the large sprawling mass trying to squeeze through the ticket stile and into the larger congested mass of commuters waiting to board the ferry.

The ferry ride was short, it is only a couple of hundred metres across the harbour, but we had seats by the side so it was interesting viewing the going ons in the harbour – like other developing countries there were a number of people bathing in the water, a dangerous activity !

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On the other side of the harbour, Brett hired a local bus to take us the few hundred metres to the Zanzibar ferry office. It was hot, humid and crowded and easier to keep us all together if we were in a bus.

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The state of the vehicle left a lot to be desired, tape all over the place holding panels together and all the seats were damaged in one way another, mine had basically nothing underneath the vinyl seat cover.

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Getting out of the harbour side was interesting, six lanes of cars trying to squeeze into two lanes through a gate, nothing unusual there of course! Unlike Asia this was done in semi-silence, very little honking of horns and people seemed to good humouredly jostle for spots in the road. I am surprised though were no accidents while we were watching.

We had almost an hour wait at the ferry terminal so a few of us walked to the ATM to get some Tanzanian Shillings, however the machines do not accept MasterCard so I had to change some of my precious cash resources which was frustrating. TIA – This is Africa.

The ferry was one of the modern quick cat ferries, though the ride was fairly slow, there have been a few ferry sinkings on the Dar – Zanzibar route.

The sea was like glass all the way to the island and it was a magic two hour ride, lots of dhow in the water with some great clouds and a cool sun rainbow.

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As we approached Stone Town onthe island of Zanzibar I was very excited to see white sandy beaches – I knew this was a tropical island, but I must admit I was not expecting it to be like this.

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We alighted the ferry in Stone Town and once clearing Zanzibar immigration we jumped on an airconditioned mini-bus for a forty minute ride to Big Body’s Spice Farm.

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Hmm the Hajj. something else to add to the to do list…

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After the relatively hot and boring tea plantation tour the other day I was not overly excited by the prospect of a spice farm tour, but wow – what a difference a tour guide makes. Big Body was very engaging, quite funny and had great English. He stunned everybody, especially the Polish girl in our group when he broke into some rapid fire Polish.

It was a great tour, preceded by a nice curry lunch and some local fruit tasting. The pineapple was the sweetest and juiciest I have ever had !

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At the end of the tour we were all presented with palm leave hats, ties for the boys and jewellery for the girls. It was a great couple of hours. The ride to the hotel was about an hour, the mini-bus driver was not scared to put pedal to the metal and fist to horn, just like Vietnam again – though a wee bit safer, I think. We are staying at Amaan Bungalows, a beach side resort in Nungwi village. The resort is budget but surprisingly nice, large and airy rooms and a great bar area.

After unpacking we all met in the bar, surprise surprise, it was half price cocktail hour so good value.

We had dinner next door at Langi Langi restaurant – or rasta rant as they called it.

The food was great, I had a very nice calamari curry, it was beautifully flavoured. After dinner a couple of us stayed for a whisky or two in the bar before an earlyish night.

Fifteen hours on the road to Dar.

Day 302, Thursday 01 November 2012 – Dar es Salaam

I had a lousy sleep last night, and struggled out of bed at the ridiculous time of 4:30 – and there was no coffee either. It was a hurried pack up and we were on the road for 5:00, starting on a twelve or thirteen hour trip to the camp ground on the beach outside Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. It is damp and cold this morning, I had a polyprop on to start with and as we progressed on the journey I was regretting not having socks on as well.

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The road was a wee bit quieter first thing, but the trucks coming the other way barely slowed to pass us and the road was almost a single lane for a long section through constant road works – almost all the way into Dar. (this was taken later in the day !)

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The Japanese were proud of this section of road, not sure why.

Will was stopped for supposedly crossing the centre lines in some no name town and after pleading with the cop was still issued a ticket. There are a lot of cops on the roads into and out of Dar and apparently this is very common.

At 8:00 we stopped for breakfast in a roadside cafe – and coffee, times two for me.

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The road to Dar passes through baobab valley and I have been really looking forward to seeing these trees and getting some time to photograph them. We did stop for a wee break and I nipped out with camera and grabbed a few shots, I definitely wished I had more time there.

The valley is quite long and I enjoyed looking out the window at the trees, we passed another truck crash, this time a fuel tanker had rolled and it was mobbed by local people stealing the gas, while a couple of policemen looked on – I guess I would not be wanting to try and stop them myself.

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We stopped to buy charcoal at the roadside, we are not allowed to burn wood in some places in Tanzania.

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I loved the satellite dishes on the roofs of some houses, there is no power going in – I assume they have a generator. It is likely that they will charge other villagers a nominal fee to watch TV and most likely football.

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There was one village where they were selling clothes and baskets – either that or they were growing a t-shirt tree.

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I was not always fully concious, at least I wasnt dribbling – and a lesson learnt about leaving the camera out 🙂

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We passed through Mukumi National Park and saw a number of animals on the way through, nothing worth stopping for, but it was very exciting to see wildlife so close to the road again.

As we had such a long journey i bought a roaming data plan from Vodafone NZ, it was great to be able to cruise Book Face and do emails as we travelled. Over the next few days I used this to write blog posts on my cell phone and email them to myself so I could pick them up on my laptop. Of course after I had done it a few times I realised I could have just saved them as drafts and opened them on my notebook anyway and saved the data traffic.

We arrived in the outer suburbs around 3:30, amid complete chaos on the main street. The entire street was being widened so temporary dirt lanes were in use. The lanes were probably single but there were always two lanes of vehicles and at one point where the lines blurred between temporary and new road there was six lanes of cars.

It took 3 hours to get through to the far side of the city and then we hit a road that seemed even worse. It was lined with market stalls and as it was rush hour there was people everywhere, buses were pulling in and out of the traffic, seemingly without looking.

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It was chaos both on the streets and the footpaths. The air was full of noise from sound systems, car and motorcycle horns and the hubbub of human voices. The smells were overwhelming, diesel fumes, fires, food cooking and the occasional stench from the sewage filled rivers. I would like to say it was enjoyable but after 4 hours it was wearing thin, we had been on the road for 15 hours, I can only imagine how driver Will was feeling.

We arrived in the beach side camp in the dark and hurriedly put the tents up before having a meal on the beach catered by the camp ground – I assume to the relief of our cook, Ebron. The meal was pretty good and was proceeded by a rather humorous event when one of my fellow curmudgeons sat himself down in the chair and went sailing backwards as the rear legs of the chair sank into the sand. As his feet came flying up, they kicked the table and beer went sailing over the last of our curmudgeonly trio – there was a lot of merriment from us not impacted !

I didn’t stay after dinner, fifteen hours in a truck was too much and I needed to go and have some space in my tent for a while before sleeping.

Running on empty.

Day 301, Wednesday 31 October 2012 – Farmhouse camp, Tanzania

It was nice to sleep in a double bed for a change, it has been a while. I got to starfish in the middle and sprawl; it was a pretty good sleep. Even better was the fact we had breakfast in the cafe at 8:00, so no morning chores – and no tent dropping. I made the most of the space and had another hot shower, cut finger nails emptied my pack and repacked and got damp clothes dry – all while listening to music out loud. I miss those mornings!

Breakfast was a bit Faulty Towers, the people of Tanzania do not speak English like those in southern Africa (Tanzania is East Africa) so most of the staff had limited ability to communicate. I was the only person at our table of four who actually got what was expected for breakfast, two got slightly different things and one got nothing at all, and was still waiting to be served when I came back to the table twenty five minutes are leaving. I rang both my sons before we left this morning, I haven’t spoken to them in ages, no reception in Malawi when it was my youngest 19th birthday. It was great to chat to them and I will do it again soon.

We did not make the 9:00 am departure time, probably the first time we haven’t on the whole trip.

Our one and only visit today is a tea plantation tour just outside Tukuyu. The highlands of Tanzania are extremely fertile and are the breadbasket for the nation. Tea is grown all over and is the prime cash crop. We visited Kyimbila Estate, one of the larger private tea estates in the region, there are 15,000 tea growers – the majority of which are small family plots of one or a few hectares.

The visit was a tad boring, I am glad I did not do the tea plantation tour in Malaysia! The highlight was a small invasion by the tea pickers kids, there is a pre-school on the plantation as well as accomodation for the workers.

The scenery was good, but it is quite hazy in the hills – a mix of smoke and dust, so photos were not stunning.

We left the plantation after a couple of hours and drove for an hour or so before stopping for lunch on the roadside. Will and Brett changed one of the front wheels as the tyre had quite a deep gash and they did not want a repeat of the tyre blowing incident from a couple of days back. We were back on the road for 1:15 on the long drive towards our stop for the night.

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Once out of the hills the scenery change back to dry and arid flat(ish) lands, and the people look noticeably poorer than the hill folk. Like Malawi there are a lot of half built and half derelict houses all along the road side.

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Tanzania has a large muslim population so we passed many small mosques on the journey.

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There is also a road upgrade project on, well that is what I am assuming anyway. Along virtually the whole length of the road stand houses with red and green X’s painted on them. Red are closer to the road than green and some of the green have 30m on the side, which I am assuming marks a line thirty metres from the edge of the current road. I guess someday they will be flattened.

We have been advised to not take photos of people out of the truck as it can upset some of the locals, so most of my shots are empty of people, but I assure you there are a lot about. Some are friendly and wave, the kids on the way to and from school particularly so. Most of the photos are taken through the window so loads of reflections – too lazy to drop the window!

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This road is apparently littered with crashed trucks, we saw a couple today.

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As mid-afternoon came around and we were still three of four hours away from the campsite for the night we arrived in one of the bigger towns looking for a gas station, there were plenty but none seem to have diesel, apparently there is a massive shortage – we didn’t realise the guys had been looking for a while. The government forced the oil companies to lower the cost of fuel so they just stopped delivering it…. we pulled into a deserted forecourt (that had loos !) and using air from the compressor pushed the last of the fuel from the secondary into the primary tank and with fingers crossed carried on.

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Yay – tuk tuks !

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Eventually we found a gas station that had diesel, we were there for a while as we waited for the local black marketeers to fill jerry can loads of diesel they can sell to stranded trucks and cars on the way. I think we were lucky, we did get two full tanks – about $600USD worth. Hallelujah !

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Will had wanted to get to the campsite in daylight as driving on the roads are stressful as it is. However, it was dark soon after leaving the gas station and it started to get cold and rainy, luckily the rain stopped before we reached camp. The farm house campsite was really nice, great hot showers and clean non-smelly long drop loos. The added bonus was a lovely amurula hot chocolate they make in the bar, I had one for dessert. Up at 4:30 tomorrow, so an early night.

Truck crash – no, not us !

Day 300, Tuesday 30 October 2012 – Landmark Hotel, Tukuyu, Tanzania

On the road again today so it was another early start, breakfast at 6:00 and on the road by 7:00.

It was a shame we were not here for another day as the lake was stunning – I could have got my lake dive in.

The road was quite stable so I got some photo uploading and typing done – any opportunity to try and catch up. Our first stop was a road side curio market, I was traded out after yesterdays dealings so stayed on the truck – in some blessed silence.

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We had a long coffee break in Mzuzu, the administrative capital of northern Malawi. Driver Will had to get his international driving permit renewed and this was the best place to get it organised. We all waited in a local coffee shop that had reasonable wifi and good coffee – no one objected to the hour long break. I use a program called Blogdesk to compile blog posts offline and then I upload to WordPress when I have internet access. I have been doing a little bit of typing in the truck, though it is tough. I did have three posts ready to go though so got them uploaded when I had the chance.

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We wound our up through some quite steep hills overlooking Lake Malawi.

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As we were heading down the other side we found an overturned truck with its rear wheels in a ditch. Will spoke to the truck driver and he had been there over night – fortunately he was unhurt. I am guessing it will be a long wait to get the load removed and the truck on a tow truck. We stopped for lunch and gave the left overs plus some water to the driver.

We crossed into Tanzania at Kasumulu at 4:00pm, where we had to put the clocks forward an hour – we are entering East Africa now.

I love boabab trees – this was the first good one I have seen from the truck.

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Tanzania is definitely the most developed place we have visited since leaving South Africa, the towns on the road side are bigger, with more sophisticated structures – there are also a lot more cars and a lot more people – it still looks very poor, even as we move into the wealthier highlands area.

Our stop for the night was the Land Mark Hotel in Tukuyu, the town is quite big and populous and the hotel looked modernish – even if it was a bit 70’s Stalinist in style. Everyone decided to use the hotel rooms rather than sleep in tents, at 10 USD a person it was a pretty good deal. The rooms were basic, two saggy double beds, bathroom and a TV. It sounds like every had slightly different issues, at least we had lights that worked and hot water. Everyone seem to have a toilet seat problem, some missing altogether, one had a lid but no seat, ours was cracked in about twenty places and I am not sure how it held together. The shower was great though!

After dinner we ended up in the hotel bar, mis-ordered drinks were highly amusing and frequent. I was only going to stop for one, but ended up having a couple of whiskies and a good laugh – still in bed by 10:30 though.

Mobbed

Day 299, Monday 29 October 2012 – Kande Beach, Malawi

Wow, a new record – three good sleeps in a row, and I didn’t even need to get up before seven either, fantastic. After breakfast we had a tour of the local village Mbamba led by one of the villagers Samuel l. Jackson. The local people are from the Tonga tribe and are farmers and fishermen, though their income is supplemented by tours and selling local crafts. The people involved in tourism take on western names so it is easy for us to remember. Like Zambia, the local people learn some English at school and take whatever opportunity they can to learn English from westerners.

As we were cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Samuel L. And his brother arrived with the freshly slaughtered pig that was going to be spit roasted over the day for the nights dinner.

We met at the gate of the camp, as I approached I could see the feet of the local hawkers waiting outside, I snuck my camera out of my bag to get a shot before the gate opened or before any of the rest of the group saw what I was doing and changed the dynamic. I wanted to get the whole gate in, but was unable to. I was fairly happy with this though.

The visit was interesting; it was split into two parts – a one hour village walk followed by a walk up to the school and clinic for us hardier types.

As soon as we were out of the gate we were mobbed by the hawkers, we were nicely split up and had two hawkers each, mine were Sisco and Gift. They were 19 and 18 respectively and great guys, Gift especially had fantastic English and over the couple of hours we were together we discussed a number of topics, from politics, through HIV/AIDS to football and village life. I assume they have a prescribed script they start with, though I was pleasantly surprised at how well informed they were. Of course the whole thing was designed to make me spend more money !

We started the walk with a look at a couple of houses, brick making and the water pump that was funded by the Canadians. Samuel L. and the chicken house, the chickens walk up the ladder at night where it is safe from predators.

It was then time to visit the village kindergarten. The kindy is funded by the village and all pre-school children are encouraged to attend. There are about thirty children there, though impossible to count. We arrived just on morning tea and after a couple of minutes of shyness from the kids it was all on as we were flooded with children wanting their photo taken. It was hilarious as they piled in and climbed over each other, it was a lot of fun.

Just as we were leaving the kids sang a few songs and even did a form of the Kamate haka which was really funny. Apparently there was a Kiwi volunteer at the local school a few years back.

The group split into two after the kindy and I went with the group that walked another couple of kilometres to the local school. The school has about 1000 students and 10 teachers, this class has 160 pupils and they all sit on hard concrete floors.

We were given a talk by the head teachers, which was basically a plea for donations, though we had stories that the money does not necessarily go to the school so were hesitant to give cash. The meeting was in the library and there were a few books – a lot of donated paper backs that were totally unsuitable for children, the rest of the books looked dusty and unused – I was disappointed to be honest.

We visited the clinic next, a similar situation, we were shown to a room that really did look rarely used and given a plea for donations. I will say it must be tough to run a clinic here, there are a lot of people with a lot of illnesses and only a couple of nurses, the doctor comes by once a month.

After the clinic we walked back through the town and back to the campsite where we were given an opportunity to invest in the local community and buy some art works. I paid way over the top for four small paintings, but I liked them and they will go with some of the pictures I bought in Asia. I also traded two pairs of used socks for a bracelet Sisco was wearing – hopefully I wont lose this one.

The rest of the day was spent mooching, doing laundry, writing and photographing.

A few of us had a play with photos as the moon rose over the lake shore and then it was dinner time.

After dinner Leonie, Brett and I had a few wines by the chalet overlooking the lake and it was time for sleep at 10:30.

A road side day

Day 298, Sunday 28 October 2012 – Kande Beach, Malawi

I had another great sleep, that is two in a row, it cannot last. It was of course ruined by the need to be up at 5:00 to continue yesterdays attempt to make Lake Malawi. We are getting good at early mornings now and everything was cuffed and stuffed and we were all on the truck well before the 6:00 am departure.

We reached the Zambia/Malawi border at 6:45, it was a long process again as there was only one person working in immigration in each country. We got held up for an hour on the Malawi side waiting for the insurance paperwork for the truck. It was a Sunday so nothing was happening fast, TIA – this is Africa.

We were taking a new route to Kande Beach on Lake Malawi, Will had been talking to some Malawians at Wildlife Camp and they suggested a route that avoided a massive dogleg through the town of LLongwe. The new route was on a very good road and I knocked off a couple of emails on the phone in the (ultimately futile) hope of having wifi at Kande Beach. P1020059

We stopped for a roadside lunch and I mooched around and I wandered off and took a couple of photos. I need to do spend some time doing some stuff on my own I think, it has been too long since I had some decent solo time. Much as I moaned about it in the past I think I have gotten used to being able to spend time by myself. I missed myself !

We were about an hour and a half from the camp site when we stopped for lunch at mid-day, however the afternoon really did turn to custard for a couple of hours. About an hour after lunch I was dozing away in the truck when there was a massive bang from under my seat and the sound of a tyre thrashing itself to death on the underside of the truck – rear tyre blow out! Will took a very slow approach to pulling the truck over to the side of the road and we stopped safely. He is a very safe and capable driver, I have massive respect for his abilities.

The tyre blow attracted a massive amount of local attention, especially from the kids – I counted 41 of them at the end, they were very friendly and posed for loads of photos for the strange white folk standing on the road side. I snapped a couple but helped out where I could with the tyre change. The kids love pulling marshall arts poses.

We stole some bricks from this deserted building to use for chocks.

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The tyre was really shredded and did a bit of damage to the rear mud guard and a storage cage behind it, the tap from the drinking water tank was completely missing.

It took three quarters of an hour to change the tyre as well as bash the guard out and get back on the road.

We were soon back on the road and well down the sandy, bumpy road to the lake side when we had to take a long way around an ambulance parked in the middle of the road, as we were negotiating a ninety degree bend the front tyre dropped into a small ditch in the sand and we were stuck!

This of course attracted lots of local attention again and we had loads more kids and quite a few adults watching the action. The Malawians were lovely, very friendly and chatty, very keen to practice their already good English and learn about where we are from.

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The taller girl took a shine to Leonie and wanted a photo of just the two of them, the smaller child had other ideas.

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Once out of the sand we were a further ten minutes to our campsite for the next two nights at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi is the second biggest lake in Africa – after Lake Victoria, and the ninth biggest in the world. It was windy when we arrived so the lake was quite choppy, it didn’t stop me from getting straight into my swimmers and jumping in the lake, it was nice to get the dirt and dust off from changing the tyre. The lake temperature is around 27 c all year round, so it was like jumping into a warm bath.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging about – in my case drinking beer either by the lake or in my room with my computer until dinner time, we had a prepared dinner in the campground cafe for a bit of variety from the normal camp dinner. I had a vege pizza, I loved it – very similar to how I make pizza at home – maybe without the peas though ! Ebron (our cook) and I left the dinner as soon as we finished eating to go and watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the bar. It was a noisy crowd and good fun watching some decent football.

The evening and night was then spent on the lake side drinking G and T’s with Leonie, Ewa and Simon (the young couple) until we went down to the beach for a while and someone took my jandals from where I left them in the bar. Apart from that, it was a good night – the latest I have stayed up since the trip started – 12:30 am – wahoo, finally made it past midnight.

uh oh…..

Day 297, Saturday 27 October 2012 – Mama Rulas camp, Chibata, Zambia

It was another hot start to the night and even though I had a cold shower just before hitting the sack I was still soaked in sweat after half an hour. Though I did appear have slept as I woke around 1:00 and almost to schedule at 1:40 am I heard munching outside the tent, we unzipped the bottom and stuck our heads out and about ten metres away was the large black wall of a hippo side, munching on the grass in the campground. it ate for a few minutes before turning its back and wandering off into the dark. A great experience, Africa’s most dangerous killer, that close and eating grass.

There was no hippo about when we got up, but there were a few vervet monkeys.

We had all agreed to skip tonight overnight stop in LLongwe, it was only to break up a long drive and apparently had no features worth mentioning. The intent was to head through the Zambia/Malawi border and shoot for Kande Beach on Lake Malawi a day early over one really long drive day. This meant a really early start, 5:00am for breakfast and on the road for 6:00.

We left on time and made good progress through the nightmare section of road by the camp and on to the sealed section into the main village at Mfewe. We were passing through the town, when I guy on the road side started waving us down – it was too late for our driver Will and we plowed into some low hanging power lines. It was too late too stop before doing damage and possibly an issue to stop after the damage was done, so Will floored it and we passed through town, ripping down two or three power lines on the way through.

The truck was abuzz with post danger excitement until we got too the airport end of the tar-sealed road and were stopped by the police!

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Will the driver was asked out of the truck by the police, there was no drama, it was all very civilised, very British. There was a bit of hanging around waiting for the power company guys to turn up and go back to the village to look at the damage and prepare a report. Two hours later they returned, with good news. The power pole had earlier been hit by a truck belonging to a bore hole drilling company. They had damaged the pole and caused the lines to droop. Fortunately, the evidence was clear so the guys were allowed to leave without any fines, bribes or hassles. While they were gone we waited under trees or at the nearby airport cafe.

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It was almost 11:00 am before we were under way again, this left nowhere near enough time to make it up to Kande Beach in Malawi so the guys decided we would stay just up the road at Mama Rulas camp outside Chipata, still in Zambia. We had to drive back along the terrible temporary road back to Chipata, though at one stage we were lucky enough to be allowed to drive on a section of the new road, but mostly we drove on the narrow section to the left in this picture.

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The new road will of course bring more traffic and more tourists to this quite secluded national park – a shame in some ways.

We stopped in a small village outside Chipata to get some fresh fruit and vegetables. I got out to stretch and saw this cool shop name. I just love the & hardware.

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We arrived in time for lunch, the campsite is great, a lot of tree cover, a pool and a bar. I set up the tent as far away as possible from all the snorers and early morning talkers and then we went into Chipata for a quick supermarket shop. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the campsite until dinner and drinks before bed at 9:30ish.

“The lions are so dusty”

Day 296, Friday 26 October 2012, Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa, Zambia

I had a great sleep last night, probably too good as I missed the hippos that came and visited the camp at 1:30 or so. I did hear the elephants trumpeting at 4:00 which was pretty cool. It was game drive day today so I was up at 5:20 again to be ready to get on the 4WD at 6:00.

We had two vehicles between us so this time I managed to get a seat near the side of the vehicle. Sth Luangwa park is approx 7500 sq km and has no fences so the animals are free to roam the surrounding area as well. The drive to the park is 8 or so kms from the campsite and we were not 200 metres away from the camp before we spotted a small group of elephants. Our guide, Joseph, said that had been in the nearby village, as it is the end of the dry season there is not much food left in the forest so the elephants visit the village at times and raid their crops, plus the elephants get bored with eating grass all the time! Before we reached the park we had seen a number of baboons and at least a dozen elephants.

The entrance to the park itself is across a bridge over the Luangwa River, you can see the river is quite low at the moment so the hippo pods are massive. These normally territorial animals will group together at low water.

The game drive was pretty cool, we didn’t see a leopard, which was a shame, but we did see all the usual suspects.

Zebra, eating sausage tree fruit.

Giraffe

Warthogs – I still love them.

Plus some unsusual suspects, like a monitor lizard.

Elephants

The impala are called the fast food of Africa, they even have an arched M on their bums!

Yesterday afternoon lions took down a water buffalo and the body has been almost completely stripped of flesh already. We watched this group of vultures feeding for a while.

Until there was a gap in the tour vehicles near some very full lions.

Awesome – love that belly!

We took a coffee break on the side of a mostly dried up pool, I watched this puku for a while and was lucky to get it jumping over the pool made by hippo trails.

And some birds

The game drive finished at 10:30 and it was back to the campsite for a lion sized brunch and a relax by the pool, and for me in the shade with the laptop to listen to music and blog in relative peace.

At 4:00 we loaded up into two game vehicles and went back to the park – half of us for a game walk and the others to start the afternoon game drive.

Like the game walk in the Okavango Delta we were given specific safety instructions before we left, but unlike the delta this time we had a guy with a rifle escorting us as well as the guide and the back marker. The walk was an hour and a half long and we didn’t see much game on the ground – a few impala was about it. We were given a good introduction to the nature of the area including another good overview of animal dung. Including some dung beetle balls.

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We walked down to the upper river bank to see the massive hippo pod and spotted a couple of fishermen in canoes that were really upsetting the hippos. There was a fabulous chorus of bellowing and snorting from the disturbed hippos as they moved from one side of the river to the other to avoid the fishermen. I think we were all hoping for some action from the hippos, but they all seemed too lethargic and didn’t even raise their heads in a display.

After the game walk we went on a night time game drive. The only thing we wanted to see was a leopard, though the first thing we found of interest was a lone hyena. He, like all the wildlife, was completely un-phased by our presence and just carried on strolling along the side of the road, ignoring the spotlight shining on him.

We didn’t see anything for quite a long time after that until finally our spotter saw what we had all been waiting for, a small male leopard hiding in a bush, he was incredibly hard to photograph, low light, in a bush at a distance. This was as good as it got, but I have seen a leopard! I have now seen all the big five – lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard, though I still want some decent photos of the last three.

On the drive back to the main gate we caught up with a group of trucks and to our delight they had spotted another leopard, we managed to get a great spot as she walked out of the bush to cross the road. She looked like she had been injured, she was limping a bit and looked very weary. I felt sorry for her in the end as she was pursued by us and a bunch of other trucks loaded with camera toting tourists. I was glad when we left – but equally glad to have seen such a magnificent animal up close!

Dinner was a late affair over a glass or two (well a plastic beaker) of a very warm shiraz.

A fabulous day – again!